ARTWP
Augmented Reality Tales of War and Peace
Denmark / France / Italy / Ukraine
Dear Friends,
Do you believe in the power of art to address the complex issues facing our world today?
If so, we invite you to experience the unique “AUGMENTED REALITY TALES OF WAR AND PEACE” Exhibition in Beaugency (FR), Cosenza (IT), Lviv (UA) or Roskilde (DK) from now until the summer of 2026.
Background: The ARTWP (Augmented Reality Tales of War and Peace) project was initiated in response to the illegal russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. ARTWP was developed as an 18-month collaborative endeavour that brought together 25 artists from Denmark, France, Italy and Ukraine with diverse cultural backgrounds and artistic disciplines to create digital artworks using augmented reality (AR) technology. Working with this innovative medium, the ARTWP project aimed to shed light on the complexities of war and peace, while offering new perspectives and insights.
The initial ARTWP artworks were presented in 4 cities over the 18-month development period, but are now collected into “The ARTWP Exhibition”, with 20 ARTWP artworks co-created by the artists.
“The ARTWP Exibition” opened in the following cities in the summer of 2024 and is now available for you to experience for FREE until the summer of 2026 in each city!
Roskilde, Denmark: June 15th until summer 2026!
Beaugency, France: June 15th until summer 2026!
Lviv, Ukraine: June 22nd until summer 2026!
Cosenza, Italy: July 4th until summer 2026!
Go to our BIG PICTURE page where you can read (in your own language) the ARTWP Magazine with lots more background info, as well infor about where and how to experience the exhibition in your city. On the Big Picture page you will also be able find a Youtube link for the ARTWP Documentary “ARTWP – Seeding the World” which tells the ARTWP story.
And please REMEMBER that “The ARTWP Exhibition” can be experienced in your city for free until the summer 2026!!
And if you are interested in the ARTP Exhibition coming to your city or country then please – just get in contact with us !
Note: if you would are a group or an educational institution and would be interested in a guided tour then please contact the local partner organisation in your country.
Changing the world
‘Many small streams makes a big river’
Augmented Reality Tales of War and Peace (ARTWP) is an 18-month, augmented reality (AR), multi- arts, co-creation project between partners from Roskilde/DK, Lviv/UKR, Cosenza/IT and Beaugency/FR.
The partners represent smaller cities, all of them at a distance from their capitals. Although they have often collaborated one with another on artistic projects over the last 23 years, they agreed – in reaction to the present war in Ukraine – that there was an urgent need to work, for the first time, on a shared project during which all partners would reflect, and reflect upon, not only this specific war, but the very concept of war – and our shared ambition for peace.
ARTWP is thus conceived as a digital art development project, in which stories are gathered from those who are (or have been) in the midst of war, as well as those seeing war from the “outside”. During 4 x 2- week workshops in each city the gathered stories will be developed as Augmented Reality Tales (ART), with 12 experienced artists, young volunteer artists and local citizens working together using AR, text, music, animation, visual art, video and sound.
Partners
Denmark / World Wide Words / Peter Campbell Bensted
WoWiWo has, as an organisation, 13 years of experience creating and managing both large and small-scale local and trans-national artistic cooperation projects in Denmark. WoWiWo is based in the Roskilde Municipality Citizens Democracy House (Byens Hus). Byens Hus also houses the “Ten Birds on the Roof” artists collective, of which WoWiWo is a founding member. Artistic director, Peter Campbell Bensted, has almost fifty years experience in both major and minor socio-arts projects and will lead both the project and the Danish team. https://www.facebook.com/worldwidewords
France / Les Fous de Bassan / Magali Berruet
Les Fous de Bassan is a theatre company whose work is focused in two directions: contemporary theatrical creations and cultural actions with different audiences, especially in rural areas. Both its creations and its cultural actions give pride of place to words that reveal the present time and its aspirations, while opening up to other artistic disciplines. Artistic director, Magali Berruet has great understanding of working with young people, as well as specialising in creating artistic projects that bring together both rural and urban communities. http://www.lesfousdebassan.org
Italy / Associazone Oltrezona / Renato Constabile
Associazione Oltrezona has been responsible for many innovative arts activities in the Calabria region. The “Incontri Possibili” (Possible Encounters, Possible Meetings) Festival, initiated by their highly experienced artistic director Renato Costabile, who has spent many years working with artistic endeavours based on encounters between artists with different cultural and artistic backgrounds, is a good example. Artistic director for Associazione Oltrezona Renato Costabile will lead the Italian team.
Ukraine / Nelly Klos & Vasil Kmet / Lviv Municipal Library
Lviv Municipal Library has art and culture, and in particular literature, firmly on its agenda. The Library has cooperated closely with the Lviv International Literature Festival (Eastern Europe’s largest literature festival) over many years, hosting numerous events and offering students the chance to meet a wide range of international writers and poets. The Library is particularly interested in the digital aspects of the ARTWP project which will allow citizens, especially the young, to follow the interface between digital and more traditional artistic forms. Nelly Klos (Project Leader) and Vasyl Kmet (Director, Lviv Municipal Library), will lead the Ukrainian team. https://www.facebook.com/lviv.library
Untold Garden is an art and design studio based in Malmø and London, exploring how technology can catalyse interpersonal relationships and enable alternative human experiences. By creating participatory systems, they urge the audience to question who controls our online presence and speculate on how we might interact in the future. Their experience-driven systems use cutting-edge machine learning technologies and scalable networking infrastructures to unearth new types of ecologies created in the ever-accelerating technological maelstrom. Experiential Art & Design | Untold Garden
Special thanks
To the ARTWP augmented reality (AR) technical crew, who have been responsible for guiding and supporting the whole ARTWP team during our 18-month long exploration of the potential of AR as a new artistic discipline. And to the ARTWP documentarist/photographer.
Tech Lead: Keith Lim, an interdisciplinary creative technology and performance artist who uniquely combines computer science, psychology and dance in his artistic practice, has led all the exploration, development and troubleshooting sessions. He developed and delivered a program for our team to learn these exciting new AR tools, whilst implementing his own AR investigations as an artist.
Tech Assistant: Bumbum Malou is a highly respected and experienced photographer, installation-performer and digital artist, working in close collaboration with Keith. She also implemented her unique ideas in AR as an artist.
Documentary Video / Photography: Oleksandr Avramchuk has worked extensively in Ukraine as a cameraman and documentarist, and has been following and recording the development of the project – at work and at play – with an eagle-eye for the work of the individual artists, as well as of course the whole collaborative process, with huge honesty and great care.
Funders
