After welcoming 30,000 visitors in Nice, Art Explora sets sail for Rijeka, Piraeus-Athens, Limassol
by Art Explora Festival 19 Jun 22:50 NZST
12-21 September 2025
After ten days in Nice as part of the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3), the Art Explora Festival concludes with a unique and mobilizing stopover, at the crossroads of art, innovation, and environmental awareness.
The adventure continues with new stopovers planned in Rijeka (Croatia), Piraeus-Athens (Greece), and Limassol (Cyprus) starting in September 2025.
A dual artistic experience acclaimed in Nice
From 2 to 13 June 2025, the festival offered the people of Nice and the delegations attending UNOC a dual artistic experience, which brought together nearly 30,000 visitors:
- At La Baleine/The Whale (Palais des Expositions), within its Immersion pavilion: visitors discovered Psychosphere, the monumental work by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, presented in a 16-metre-long tunnel covered with 120 m" of LED screens. This immersive installation offers a sensorial dive into the volcanic depths of the Azores and Stromboli, blending accordion sounds, marine landscapes, and scientific recordings.
- On board the museum-boat, moored in the Port of Nice among the "Ocean Wonders": visitors - including heads of state, ministers, ambassadors, UN and international NGO representatives - experienced a spatialized sound journey around the Mediterranean designed with IRCAM, and discovered the virtual reality work The Starry Sand Beach by Nina Barbier & Hsin-Chien Huang.
Thanks to the involvement of 60 volunteers, the commitment of the teams, and the support of the partners, this stopover in Nice established itself as a major moment for the Art Explora Festival. It reflects the growing interest in committed artistic initiatives that raise awareness of ocean and climate-related issues.
Heading for the next 2025 stopovers:
- Rijeka (Croatia): from 12 to 21 September
- Athens (Greece): from 3 to 12 October
- Limassol (Cyprus): from 25 October to 2 November
At each stopover, the festival will deploy all or part of its artistic programme in a co-constructed approach with local stakeholders and a local curator, thus continuing its commitment to making art and culture accessible to all.