Lahore has hosted the first edition of Pakistan’s virtual and extended reality festival, the VXR Festival Lahore, with 70 artists from Pakistan, France, Spain, Canada, the United States and other countries showing work that visitors step inside rather than simply look at.
Titled Between the Prompts // V.1, the VXR Festival opened to a full house at Alliance Française de Lahore on Sunday. It is the country’s first festival devoted to virtual, augmented and extended reality art, and it continues in Lahore this week before travelling to Islamabad.
VXR Festival Lahore opens to a full house
Sixteen artists were featured at the opening, among them Amna Tariq, Anusha Khalid, Asma Kazmi, Mansoor Ali, Sana Akram and Sandrine Deumier.
Visitors spent the afternoon trying immersive works through headsets and screens, and a meet-the-artists session brought AB Rehman, Anusha Khalid, Lola Zoido, Mansoor Ali, Marie Lienhard and Sandrine Deumier together with the audience.
Co-curator Sarah Rajper said many visitors were trying the technology for art for the first time. “For most people who walked in today, this was the first time they had put on a headset to experience art, not a game or a demo. Watching that moment happen again and again, people going quiet and then turning to whoever was next to them to talk about what they’d seen, made the months of work worth it.”
Festival founder Dr Najamul Assar said the response showed local audiences were ready for the form. “We wanted to bring this work to Pakistan on its own terms, and the response tells us audiences here have been ready for it.”
One attendee told Dawn that the experience felt personal rather than technical. “I expected technology, but what stayed with me was how personal it felt. Standing inside someone’s memory of a Karachi home, I forgot I was wearing anything at all.”
Monet, dastan and Al Buraq in virtual reality
A major highlight is the Claude Monet VR experience, shown in Pakistan for the first time through the Institut français collection. It carries visitors from the artist’s garden at Giverny into his Water Lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Pakistani artists at the festival have used the same tools to rework their own traditions. Sana Akram’s Sun turns the Urdu Tilismi Dastan tradition into an enchanted canyon that visitors can explore while listening to its narrative. AB Rehman’s Al Buraq 2.0 takes a figure rooted in cultural memory and mythology and places it in a futuristic science-fiction setting.
French artist Jérémy Griffaud’s Under the Sky animates nearly 300 watercolour paintings made in Borneo, while Faqeha Nadeem’s Every Day uses augmented reality to bring a hand-drawn sketchbook to life.
Dr Najamul Assar said the festival treats new technology as a carrier for old forms, not a replacement for them. “Immersive technology does not have to replace tradition. In the hands of these artists, it becomes a way of carrying inherited forms forward on their own terms, whether a French painting series or an Urdu tale of enchantment.”
Where to see it next
After the opening, the festival continues at R Space at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design on Monday, and at Beaconhouse National University on November 12. It then travels to Islamabad, where the programme runs from November 13 to 15.
The Lahore programme spans four venues, Alliance Française de Lahore, the National College of Arts, R Space and Beaconhouse National University, and entry is free.
The festival is presented with the support of the French and Spanish embassies, Alliance Française de Lahore, the Institut français and AECID, in collaboration with UNESCO.
Why it matters for Pakistan’s art scene
The VXR Festival is an initiative of the Lahore Digital Arts Festival team, which has supported digital art and creative technology in Pakistan since 2019. This first local edition puts Pakistani digital artists in the same programme as artists from France, Spain, Canada and the United States, and it does so on home ground.
The work is not imported wholesale. The Pakistani pieces start from local material, from Urdu storytelling and shared religious imagery, and rebuild it with headsets, projections and augmented reality.
Free entry matters too. Immersive art usually sits behind ticket prices and specialist venues, so a free festival across university and cultural spaces gives students and young audiences a first chance to try it.
Pakistan’s festival calendar is growing in the same direction. Karachi’s World Culture Festival has drawn large audiences for art, film and theatre, and it opened with 1,000 artists in October. Lahore’s heritage spaces are finding new uses too, as the reopening of the historic Chhevin Patshahi gurdwara showed this week, while Pakistani artists won 11 awards at the ASOCIO Digital and AI Awards 2026 in Jakarta.
Frequently asked questions
What is the VXR Festival?
It is Pakistan’s first festival devoted to virtual and extended reality art. Its first edition, titled Between the Prompts // V.1, brings together 70 artists from Pakistan, France, Spain, Canada, the United States and other countries.
Where and when can I visit the festival?
The Lahore programme runs until November 12, with displays at R Space on November 9 and Beaconhouse National University on November 12. The festival then moves to Islamabad, where it runs from November 13 to 15. Entry is free.
What is the Claude Monet VR experience?
It is a virtual reality experience from the Institut français collection, shown in Pakistan for the first time. It takes visitors from Monet’s garden at Giverny into his Water Lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Who curated the VXR Festival?
Dr Najamul Assar and Sarah Rajper curated the festival, with Zainab Aamir as assistant curator. It is an initiative of the Lahore Digital Arts Festival team.
Is there an entry fee for the VXR Festival?
No. The festival offers free public access across its venues in Lahore and Islamabad.
