One of Theaterlab’s oldest and most valued programs, Celebrate the Artist connects international artists with New York audiences for cultural exchange. The artist has the freedom to present what is most valuable to them – through discussions, workshops, or performances – while participants are given opportunity to socially gather and engage in conversation around the artist’s work.  Please join us as we celebrate the artist SELIM HARBI.Â
Celebrate the ArtistÂ
Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 3:00pm to 5:00pmÂ
RSVP by Thursday, June 5th, 2025Â Â Â
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THE CONVERSATION
Embodied Memories, non Tangible Heritage & Story Living in VR – The Case of Afroroutes
This intervention and panel discussion explores how Virtual Reality can serve as a vessel for performative storyliving, embodied memory, and living archives. Anchored by Afroroutes—a VR odyssey tracing the spectral legacies of slavery through sacred music ceremonies and rituals—we examine how immersive technology transforms intangible heritage into visceral, lived experience. We will delve into VR’s capacity to host and activate non-linear, affective histories, where identity and history of forced displacement is felt as much as narrated. Framing Afroroutes as a portal into diasporic memory, the discussion investigates how ritual, sound, and embodiment become tools for resilience, remembrance, and the co-creation of a living archive.
THE ARTIST
SELIM HARBI
XR Storyteller | Transmedia Director |Author
Award-winning director, Selim Harbi, holds a Master’s degree in audiovisual media from the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. As a story and image hunter, a connector of worlds, and a passionate traveler, I like to redefine things, my work deals with identity, trans-humanism, contemporary mobilities, and decolonial narratives. With a particular flair for technological trends and innovation, I teach and design hybrid projects with new storytelling tools, always looking for impact and new challenges. I curate as well XR programs for festivals in the global south. Living between Tunis and Dakar..
Find out more: selimharbi.com
THE WORK
AFROROUTESÂ Â
By Selim Harbi
AFROROUTES is an immersive Virtual Reality experience retracing the three slavery legacies: the Trans-Saharian, the Trans-Atlantic, and the Trans-Pacific one. AFROROUTES transports the user on a journey from Tangier (Morocco), via Salvador, do Bahia (Brazil) to Gujarat (India), making visible a previously, invisible connection to descendants of African slavery and the cultural practice of their countries of origin. AFROROUTES is designed to be a multi-sensorial experience that engages both the mind and our emotional being through sounds, music, dance, and imagery.
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Celebrate the ArtistÂ
Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 3:00pm to 5:00pmÂ
RSVP by Thursday, June 5th, 2025Â Â Â
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.