In 2024, the Art Explora Foundation launched its namesake touring cultural festival, the Art Explora Festival, which travels across seas and oceans with the world’s first floating museum, offering completely free innovative artistic and cultural experiences to a wide audience. This pioneering initiative reflects the Art Explora Foundation’s commitment to broadening and ensuring equal access to the arts and culture for as many spectators as possible. Its exciting program includes innovative visual and sound installations, virtual reality experiences, art exhibitions, as well as a rich schedule of live events: concerts, performances, contemporary dance, discussions, and workshops.

The events of the Art Explora Festival take place both on the floating museum and in specially designed spaces on the quay, as well as in a series of venues in the hearts of the cities hosting it. In each host country, the festival also collaborates with local artists, exhibition curators, cultural institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

Having welcomed more than 300,000 visitors at its previous stops in the Mediterranean — in Valletta (Malta), Venice (Italy), Marseille (France), Tangier and Rabat (Morocco), Malaga (Spain), Durrës (Albania), and Nice (France) — the Art Explora Festival will head to Greece, immediately after its stop in Rijeka (Croatia). On this first journey, from spring 2024 to autumn 2027, the festival will travel through 15 Mediterranean countries — the cradle of great civilizations and a melting pot for many cultures.

From October 3 to 12, the Art Explora Festival and its unique floating museum will dock for the first time at the port of Piraeus, at Gate E8, with a program curated by the Art Explora Foundation and the Greek curator Katerina Tselou.

“Mobility and artistic creation are powerful tools that help us challenge perceptions, share images and stories, and develop new relationships with the world around us. Boarding a ship is an experience in itself; however, it becomes even more special when on board — as well as on the quay — one discovers unique artistic and cultural activities.”
Frédéric Jousset, President of Art Explora

Art Explora Festival program in Piraeus and Athens

From 3 to 12 October

The festival is hosted on board the world’s first floating museum, as well as on the harbour pier in various exhibition and public spaces. Its programme offers proposals and activities tailored to each audience, with special guided tours and workshops for schools and local groups.

Capable of accommodating up to 2,000 visitors a day, it is a 47-metre-long, 55-metre-high catamaran-type sailing vessel and is the world’s first travelling floating museum. Designed by architects Alex de Beaufort and Guillaume Verdier and built at the Perini Navi shipyard in Italy, it meets the most demanding technological standards while offering the best conditions for welcoming the public on board.

 Immersive interactive experiences on board the floating museum

• On deck: An evocative sound experience that invites the audience to explore the richness and diversity of the Mediterranean, produced and designed by the Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics/Music Research and Coordination of the Pompidou Centre (IRCAM) and IRCAM Amplify.
• Inside the ship: A journey through space and time through the virtual reality series Mediterranean Wonders. Designed by Ubisoft, this installation allows the viewer to visit iconic Mediterranean cities such as Athens, Alexandria and Venice.

The exhibition stands at the port

• The exhibition Present, created as part of an excellent collaboration with the Louvre Museum, highlights female figures of Mediterranean cultures through the digitization of selected works from the museum’s collections. The action unfolds in two stages: it begins with an introductory film, which prepares the viewer for the experience that will follow, and continues in a 16-metre-long tunnel, the walls of which are covered by 120 square metres of LED screens.
• The contemporary art exhibition Under the Azure, in the main pavilion, presents the works of around 20 artists who draw inspiration from the emotional power of the Mediterranean: the myths that surround it, the creatures that inhabit it and the visions it conjures up.

With the participation of the artists: Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal, Edi Hila, Marguerite Humeau, Marisa Merz, Joan Miró and Anri Sala.  
Curators: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel and Blanche de Lestrange 

• The photography pavilion hosts the exhibition Undertow, featuring photography and moving image works, which focuses on the relationships between hospitality, migration and exile through the work of 15 contemporary artists from the Arab world.

With the participation of the artists: Majd Abdel Hamid, Bouchra Khalili, Randa Maroufi, Valentin Noujaïm, Sara Sadik and Akram Zaatari. 
Curators: Amanda Abi Khalil and Danielle Makhoul 

Live Programme 

Artistic curatorship by: Katerina Tselou