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Meatspace Institute

MEATSPACE

INSTITUTE

OF ART

EST

2026

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Make culture
radically
accessible

To anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Zero admission fee
Lawrence Lek, installation view

An institute
at the heart
of the digital world

Meatspace Institute of Art collects, preserves, and presents works of art that define us: not behind glass, not behind walls, but alive and open on every screen.

We believe that access is a form of justice, that curiosity requires no admission fee, and that the distance between a person and the greatest art collections on earth should be precisely zero.

Through immersive digital experiences, rigorous scholarship, and genuine care for the communities we serve, we are building the museum the world always needed, and that only this moment makes possible.

Our mission

  • 01Promote and support exhibitions and collections from museums around the world.
  • 02Curate art exhibitions native to the digital world, supported by a programme of live events, talks, screenings, and artist commissions.
  • 03An institute dedicated to research and cultural preservation in the multiverse.

A bridge
between virtual audiences
and physical culture

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Through partnerships with museums, artists, and curators, we explore new ways of presenting and experiencing art. We extend exhibitions and collections beyond their physical boundaries, placing them in digital, immersive environments.

Our goal is not to replace physical culture but to extend it, the Institute acting as a starting point for broader cultural participation. We create pathways between the virtual and the physical, so audiences discover and engage with art both online and in real life.

We also help institutions navigate the transition to the digital era, giving their exhibitions and projects a parallel life in virtual environments and connecting them with audiences who may never have the chance to see them in person.

A digital agora

MIA is a digital and immersive museum currently existing within Fortnite. By situating the museum within the game, we enter an already active global public space, and treat virtual space as both a social and an architectural medium, where people interact in real time and encounter art spatially.

Seasonal exhibitions, guided walkthroughs, live events, performances, and talks bring artistic heritage into dialogue with the avant-garde. The museum itself keeps evolving: our architectural grant funds artists, architects, and developers to reshape it with new virtual architecture, scenography, and spatial experience.

Exhibition building

Major exhibitions, historical collections, contemporary art and educational programming.

The arena

Live events, performances, talks, screenings and temporary artist commissions.

Open environment

A social space inspired by multiplayer games, public pavilions, museum gardens and experimental architecture.

Henri Matisse, The Dessert: Harmony in Red

Fortnite &
Epic Games

Fortnite is a global digital platform developed by Epic Games and launched in 2017. Originally an online video game, it grew into an extensive environment for social interaction, entertainment, live events, cultural experiences, brand collaborations, and user-generated content: a sign of how audiences now engage with culture in digital spaces.

Epic Games is also the company behind Unreal Engine, one of the world's leading real-time 3D technologies. Together they provide the tools and infrastructure for immersive digital environments and new forms of interactive experience.

Fortnite

The Louvre vs. Fortnite

The world's most visited museum caps at 9 million visitors a year. Fortnite reaches that audience in under three days.

In real life · The Louvre
9M
Visitors per yearThe gold standard of physical museum attendance.
vs
Digital · Fortnite
110M+
Players per monthEvery single month.
14M
At the same timePeak live event, the largest real-time gatherings on earth.
650M+
AccountsAlready inside the ecosystem.
The Louvre · 1 year
Fortnite · 1 month
Younger generations are native to game-engine environments, both consuming and creating within them. Fortnite, Roblox, GTA and Twitch: this is where culture is being built and consumed right now.

Sources: Louvre attendance, [source, year]. Fortnite monthly players, accounts and peak concurrency, [Epic Games / source, date]. To be confirmed.

Daft Punk in Fortnite, [Year]. Epic Games. Video: [credit]

Now and next

Today

Fortnite & Unreal Engine

Epic's ecosystem has the most mature social infrastructure, the largest concurrent audience of any game platform, and a production-ready engine for high-fidelity art experiences. It is the ideal launchpad.

  • 110M+ monthly active users [source, date]
  • Unreal Engine 5, photorealistic rendering
  • Established creator economy and monetization tools
The horizon

Platform independence by design

MIA's architecture, content library, and brand identity are not owned by Epic Games. The institute is engineered to migrate, to new metaverse platforms, next-generation engines, or its own infrastructure, as the landscape evolves.

  • Modular assets, deployable across platforms
  • IP owned by MIA, not the platform
  • A curatorial framework portable across environments

From audience
to community

Audiences increasingly discover and engage with culture online: through streams, social media, games, podcasts, short-form content and online communities. Rather than rejecting these as secondary spaces, MIA critically inhabits them, turning them into places for reflection, education, experimentation and exchange.

Online spaces allow a more direct, participatory and playful relationship between artists, institutions and audiences. People learn in different ways, so we experiment with the formats and codes that already exist online, and invent new ones.

We are committed to accessibility across language, geography, age and ability. The goal is not to simplify critical discourse, but to create points of entry into it.

LanguageGeographyAgeAbility
Cao Fei, installation view

Streaming

The Institute extends its programme through streaming: educational content that reaches people far beyond the virtual museum itself.

Live

People take part directly: they comment, ask questions and join the discussion. A more direct relationship between audiences, artists and the Institute turns an audience into a community.

Translated

Live and recorded content can be automatically subtitled and translated, so programmes reach audiences across linguistic and geographical boundaries.

Archived

Every stream joins a growing library, open long after broadcast, from anywhere. Over time it becomes an evolving educational archive around MIA's projects.

Proposed program

A proposal for the next 18 months. Loans and partnerships are in discussion, not yet confirmed.

  • Julia WachtelCurated by MIA
  • KMSKACollection · partnership
  • CopernicusGroup show, curated by MIA
  • Barbara KrugerFrom Guggenheim Bilbao
  • Pol TaburetCurated by MIA
  • Centre PompidouCollection · partnership
  • František KupkaFrom Grand Palais, Paris
  • !Mediengruppe BitnikCurated by MIA
  • Hilma af KlintFrom Moderna Museet
  • On KawaraFrom Dia Beacon
  • UffiziCollection · partnership
  • HammershøiFrom Thyssen-Bornemisza
  • Lawrence LekCurated by MIA
Barbara Kruger, installation view

The Institute

Artists, researchers, curators, institutions and the public, examining how technology is changing the way art is created, experienced, shared and preserved.

Our research follows the changes happening now: emerging artistic practices, new forms of participation, changing audience behaviour, digital creation and the evolving role of cultural institutions.

Most reporting on the future of culture is tied to the art market and its financial performance. MIA offers a different perspective, focused on creation, participation and the realities facing culture today, and a space to discuss its future with cultural and government institutions.

!Mediengruppe Bitnik, installation view

A digital archive

How do we collect, document, and archive artworks that have no physical form?

What does it mean to acquire and preserve works that depend on software, hardware, platforms, networks, or social interaction to exist?

We develop new approaches to collecting and build a lasting record of contemporary digital practice: researching how it can be documented, conserved, and kept accessible, even as the technologies it depends on change.

Tabor Robak, installation view
Brand sponsorship · Business partnership · Project support

Partners

The Institute relies on partnerships to produce ambitious cultural work and make it accessible to wider audiences.

Visibility with meaning

Advertising space inside an independent cultural institution. Partners are associated with ambitious exhibitions, artistic projects, education and public programming, across MIA's museum, events, streams and channels.

New audiences

Brands reach people through a project that is cultural and participatory. Partners are more than commercial associates: they directly support the mission and help shape MIA's future.

Flexible formats

A single exhibition or campaign, a specific creative collaboration, or an ongoing relationship. The seasonal programme keeps creating relevant links between projects, partners and campaigns.

Native to digital

For partners who want to move beyond traditional advertising: MIA is the place to experiment with new formats, original content and communication that feels native to digital environments.

A diversified funding architecture

A non-profit. Every stream feeds back into the mission: exhibitions, grants, and the platform's evolution.

MIANon-profit structure
DigitalCreator Code payouts, map engagement revenue
ContentTwitch and YouTube streams, tiered subscriptions
Private financingMemberships, donations, sponsorship
MerchandiseObjects, apparel, collectibles, artist editions
Public supportState and local funding, EU grants

Next steps

We want to bring together people who believe in the importance of culture and its future as much as we do. Supporting MIA today gives it the independence and resources to take risks, experiment, research, and build a cultural legacy.

€25,000 builds Phase 1: the first map and the main building in Fortnite, ready in Q1 2027.
01

Initial funding

The funding for the first map, communication and programme development.

02

Founding structure

A board and governance bringing together institutions, donors and corporate partners.

03

Early brand partners

Sponsorships, naming opportunities, stream partnerships and co-created programmes.

04

EU grant co-applicants

Belgian and European cultural funding, and relationships with networks across Europe.

Pablo Picasso, Harlequin with a Mirror

The team

MIA is led by a founding team that bridges contemporary art, digital technology, institutional management and cultural programming.

Damien Dakota

Damien Dakota

Founder & Director

Founder of Super Dakota (Brussels), gallerist and educator, with deep roots in art history, institutional management and the music industry. Damien brings the curatorial rigor and operational discipline a credible cultural institution requires.

Tabor Robak

Tabor Robak

Creative & Technical Director

Contemporary artist driving MIA's visual and technical edge, with extensive expertise in complex digital pipelines, Unreal Engine production and lore-driven world-building, most notably TabCorp, a precedent for immersive digital institutions.

Marlène Corbun

Marlène Corbun

Curatorial & Community

Curatorial and community lead, keeping MIA's programming intellectually coherent while accessible and engaging for diverse global audiences: the bridge between high cultural ambition and public access.

Timeline

Q1 2027

01 Build

  • Build the first map in Fortnite / Unreal Engine: environment and the main building
  • Start streaming and establish a social media presence
  • First communication campaign, starting with GTA
Spring 2027

02 Launch

  • MIA opens in Fortnite with a first exhibition in the main building
  • Develop the visual identity
  • Educational programme through live events and streams
  • Membership clubs
Late 2027

03 Grow

  • Build the tech pavilion: second space, second exhibition
  • Build the arena: third space, third exhibition or event
  • Partnerships with artists and institutions for the next shows
  • Expand the team: communication, marketing, streaming
Early 2028

04 Expand

  • Exhibitions, talks and performances keep growing
  • More institutional and artistic partners
  • Multilingual guided tours
  • Launch the architectural grants
Long term

05 Endure

  • The map changes each season, with architects, designers and grantees
  • The MIA publishing house
  • Artist editions, merchandise, physical and digital objects

Let's begin
the conversation

We welcome inquiries from funders, brands, institutions, and individuals who share our belief that digital space is the next great frontier for culture.

Email
info@meatspace.art
Location
Brussels, Belgium — Registered non-profit
Web
meatspace.art