Unframed Collection partners with NUMIX Lab, an itinerant European event that brings together immersive creation professionals in dialogue with cultural institutions across the continent. The 6th edition in 2025 brought together 459 participants from around the world across 16 venues in Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna, and Linz, fostering exchanges between Europe and North America around immersive cultural practices.

Within this context, we met Alessia Bimonte, Events and Exhibitions Production Manager at MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan. As the first international digital art and culture center in the city, MEET has established itself as a key institution at the intersection of art, technology, and innovation, combining immersive exhibitions, XR contents and educational programs. In this interview, Alessia Bimonte reflects on MEET’s mission, its approach to immersive and new media storytelling, and the challenges cultural venues face when integrating digital practices. 

I believe that the most important direction for digital art lies in co-creation and collaboration across different fields. Intersections between art, science, and technology are particularly powerful, as they generate new forms of movement, and storytelling.

Alessia Bimonte

Could you introduce MEET Digital Center and your role within the organisation? What are the main objectives you pursue in the field of digital culture and immersive media?

Alessia Bimonte – MEET is the first international digital art and culture center in Milan, located in the city center. We officially opened to the public in 2020. From the very beginning, MEET was conceived as a space dedicated to digital culture in all its forms, welcoming audiences into a place where innovation, art, and experimentation come together.

MEET acts as a center, a hub, and an activator. Our activities range from immersive exhibitions developed with digital artists to VR and XR content, as well as educational initiatives. We organize workshops and creative laboratories for children, and we also work closely with university students. In addition, part of our activity is dedicated to private events, which complements our public programming.

MEET is also officially recognized as a museum: in 2023, we received this status from the Lombardy Region. This recognition is closely linked to our archive, The Roots of the New, which is a key asset for MEET, as it preserves and documents the history of media art. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have this archive, because it allows us to connect the past with the present of digital and media art, which are central themes for MEET. The archive is open to the public, so visitors can come to research, explore, and study these materials freely.

The archive also serves as a collective memory. Digital art has come to us through decades of experimentation, and its history deserves to be shared and transmitted. Engagement is very important for MEET: we have built a strong community that actively follows and participates in our activities. We regularly open our spaces through dedicated events, allowing people to explore, observe, and discover digital art more freely. Digital art is not always immediately accessible or easy to understand, so these moments are essential to help audiences approach it and feel comfortable engaging with it.

MEET is known for its work at the crossroads of art, technology, and innovation. Could you share one or two recent projects or exhibitions that illustrate how MEET explores immersive formats or new media storytelling?

A. B. – One of our most recent projects is a collective immersive exhibition developed in collaboration with HEK Basel. The exhibition focuses on the concept of other intelligences and brings together nine artists from across the world. Their works explore different forms of intelligence, including natural intelligence, non-human intelligence, and artificial intelligence. This collaboration was particularly meaningful because each artist approached the topic from a distinct perspective. It represents a strong example of how MEET engages with immersive formats and contemporary questions.

A past project that was particularly important for me was Renaissance Dreams by Refik Anadol, which I experienced when I first arrived at MEET. It was our first immersive artwork and marked the opening of the immersive room within the center. The collaboration around this project was remarkable. The piece offers a form of storytelling dedicated to the Italian Renaissance, built from extensive datasets related to that period. Refik Anadol developed a 40-minute immersive artwork structured into four chapters, focusing respectively on literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture.

From your perspective, what are the main challenges cultural venues face when integrating digital and immersive practices?

A. B. – The challenges vary depending on the project, as each one presents its own specific difficulties. Funding can be a major issue, as it is not always easy to secure the necessary resources to develop ambitious projects.

Another challenge arises when the artistic vision and the technological possibilities do not immediately align. In these cases, it is essential to work on the underlying philosophy of the project, finding a meaningful connection between artistic intent and technological implementation.

Communication is also a challenge. For a digital art and culture center like MEET, it can sometimes be difficult to clearly convey our mission and message to the public. This is why we place great importance on openness and accessibility. Through open days and special events, we invite people to enter MEET, experience the artworks, and engage directly with the content. These moments help create stronger connections and allow audiences to better understand what digital art is and why it represents not only a cultural or technological phenomenon, but also a deeply social one.

Looking ahead, what directions or emerging formats do you see shaping the future of digital and immersive culture at MEET? Are there specific collaborations, technologies, or experiences you hope to develop further?

A. B. – I believe that the most important direction for digital art lies in co-creation and collaboration across different fields. Intersections between art, science, and technology are particularly powerful, as they generate new forms of movement, and storytelling. The future of immersive culture depends on increased collaboration between artists, scientists, and technologists. By working together, they can develop new projects and new forms of content that expand the possibilities of digital art. I believe this collaborative approach will be central moving forward.