History of the Tehos art lab

Birth and Evolution of the Tehos Art Lab

In 2008, artist Frédéric Camilleri, known as Tehos, was looking for a place to exhibit his work in Nice. He discovered Museaav, a private museum located on Place Garibaldi, dedicated to new technologies applied to art.This hybrid cultural space hosted artists working with digital tools, video, contemporary painting, and street art.It was in this context that Tehos first encountered emerging artistic practices linked to digital media and virtual worlds.

That same year, he attended a presentation by artist Patrick Moya, who had created an entire artistic island within the Second Life metaverse.This demonstration marked the beginning of Tehos’s own research into virtual environments as new spaces for artistic creation and dissemination.

Early Experiments in Second Life

Tehos began learning 3D modelling and digital design tools, notably using Cinema 4D, and met the founders of the association Pirats Art Network, Newbab Zigmond and Merlina Rocoko, both active in Second Life.He acquired his first virtual plot of land, located near the Museaav’s digital counterpart within the metaverse, where he presented his first exhibitions.

From these early experiments emerged the project known as the Tehos Art Lab — a virtual exhibition space structured in the shape of a T with a central patio. This configuration would later become the architectural signature of the project in its subsequent versions.

Between 2008 and 2013, Tehos took part in numerous international virtual exhibitions, including Through the Virtual Looking Glass (organised by the Pirats association in partnership with several universities in Boston, the Netherlands, and Australia), and Arkaos, a collaborative project bringing together multiple artists around a dreamlike, interactive architectural structure.He also collaborated with the Museo del Metaverso in Italy, which gathered artists such as Rose Borchowsky and Saulkide Auer.

The Tehos Art Lab soon became a digital laboratory for experimentation, where he developed immersive projects such as Suspensions Immersives and Arbres Cinétiques (Kinetic Trees), combining algorithmic art and three-dimensional structures.These works were recognised in 2009 with the Professional Jury Prize from IAP UNESCO.

The Art Monaco Virtual Project

In 2013, the organisers of Art Monaco commissioned Tehos to produce a virtual version of the fair.For this purpose, he digitally recreated the Grimaldi Forum within Second Life, while coordinating a simultaneous event in Barranquilla (Colombia), in collaboration with the Barranquillarte Art Fair.The project involved nearly 80 international galleries and the presentation of several thousand digital artworks.

Following this major undertaking, the artist temporarily suspended his activity in virtual worlds due to the technical and economic constraints associated with Second Life.

Renewal and Transition to New Platforms

From the late 2010s onwards, the evolution of immersive technologies and the emergence of platforms accessible directly through web browsers facilitated Tehos’s return to virtual environments.He relaunched the Tehos Art Lab on the Spatial platform, where 3D modelling is created externally before being imported into the virtual space.

The new version of the Tehos Art Lab retained its original T-shaped configuration and hosted both solo exhibitions and collective projects.The space once again became a meeting point for artists and a place for experimentation, now adapted to contemporary technological contexts.

Several exhibitions have since been presented:

• A Momentary Collapse of Reason (2022)

• The Ocean Room, a deconstructed structure addressing the theme of ocean pollution (2022)

• Tehos Art Lab Retrospective, Centre Culturel Prince Jacques, Monaco–Beausoleil (2023)

• Space Dedicated to Artists from Nice (2023)

• Mediterranéo Exhibition, in partnership with ISCOM Nice and IED Rome, for a project initiated by ISCOM (2023)

• In 2024, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of UNESCO’s arrival in Monaco, creation of a space dedicated to exhibiting artists from the AIAP–UNESCO.