Event Date:
June 6 - 29th, 2025

Location:
WSA
161 Water Street
New York, NY

This summer, the Tribeca Festival takes a bold leap into the future of storytelling with its newly reimagined Immersive Program, co-curated by Onassis ONX and Jazia Hammoudi. Running from June 6 to June 29, 2025, the program is hosted at WSA, presenting 11 immersive installations; six of them world premieres, that explore memory, identity, and collective belonging through emerging technologies.

This year’s immersive program is thematically anchored in a powerful concept: “In Search of Us.” More than just a title, it is a question and an invitation — prompting visitors to journey through multilayered stories that awaken wonder, provoke thought, and foster a sense of shared humanity. The show features artists who use emerging technologies to confront real-world issues from climate change to systemic injustice.

In Search of Us invites audiences to experience immersive storytelling as a deeply social act — one that can reveal what connects us across difference, time, and place. The selected works span VR, AR, mixed reality, and spatial installations, all housed in individual museum-style settings designed to foster reflection and dialogue.

Highlights include:

Boreal Dreams by Jakob Kudsk Steensen (North American Premiere): A poetic simulation of a boreal forest impacted by climate change, blending ecology and dream logic.
The Founders Pillars by Lesiba Mabitsela, Meghna Singh, et al. (International Premiere): A haunting AR projection reclaiming the facade of the NYSE to honor enslaved Africans.
In the Current of Being by Cameron Kostopoulos: A haptic VR experience sharing the story of a survivor of electroshock conversion therapy.
There Goes Nikki by Idris Brewster, Joe Brewster & Michele Stephenson (World Premiere): An AR tribute to Nikki Giovanni’s cosmic vision of Black liberation.
New Maqam City by MIPSTERZ: A participatory sound installation remixing Sufi rhythms and electronic beats to explore Muslim sonic identities.
AI & Me by mots (U.S. Premiere): A two-part installation examining bias and perception through interactive AI-generated experiences.
A Father’s Lullaby by Rashin Fahandej: A multichannel sound and video work reflecting on incarceration through lullabies and family voices.
Fragile Home by Ondřej Moravec & Victoria Lopukhina: A virtual reconstruction of a Ukrainian home shaped by war and displacement.
The Innocence of Unknowing by Ryat Yezbick & Milo Talwani (World Premiere): An AI-powered film-performance hybrid unpacking the media’s role in shaping mass shooting narratives.
Scent by Alan Kwan (World Premiere): A minimalist game where players guide souls to reincarnation through the eyes of a silent dog.
Uncharted by Kidus Hailesilassie (World Premiere): A motion-capture installation connecting ancestral African scripts to bodily movement.

All installations will be presented as standalone works inside WSA’s adaptable venue, reinforcing the long-term potential of immersive art beyond the festival format.

ABOUT ONASSIS ONX

“Onassis ONX is a global platform by Onassis Culture dedicated to the development of new media art and digital experiences. It empowers creators to craft digital worlds and immersive experiences of exceptional artistic quality, utilizing cutting-edge technologies while ensuring financial sustainability. With flagship locations in both New York and Athens, Onassis ONX offers artists capacity-building activities, incubation and acceleration services, seed funding, and more. As a field-building platform in the global new media art landscape, Onassis ONX collaborates with industry leaders, institutions, and international networks to foster the growth of XR/VR, AI, Spatial Computing, and Digital Art.”

ABOUT TRIBECA FESTIVAL

“The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and immersive. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is synonymous with creative expression and entertainment. Tribeca champions emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning talent, curates innovative experiences, and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances. The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The annual Tribeca Festival will celebrate its 24th year from June 4–15, 2025 in New York City. In 2019, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise.”

ABOUT WATER STREET PROJECTS & WSA

“Water Street Projects is a roving interdisciplinary nonprofit platform amplifying creative voices. Our projects include performance art, fairs, festivals, music shows, culinary experiences, and visual arts which champion diversity and global points of view. WSA is a cultural ecosystem and hub of artists, producers, and creative businesses. Housed in an iconic Fox and Fowle 1980s skyscraper, WSA interweaves working, production, wellness, and social spaces. WSA takes an artist-first approach, and provides a new anchor and catalyst for cultural life within Lower Manhattan. The WSA ethos is indebted to entrepreneur Mark Wadhwa, whose cultural venue 180 Strand in London serves as a model.”