Digital Moon Exhibition Showcases Emerging Artists in Virtual Space

The Moon Exhibition is a virtual platform that displays artworks from emerging creatives across various disciplines. Founded by Othmar Handl of Forward Festival, the online exhibition currently features over 50 recent works selected from more than 1,000 submissions received in recent years. The exhibition accepts ongoing submissions through its website moonexhibition.com, where artists can easily upload their work. Curated by the Forward Festivals team, the website was designed using Readymag, a browser-based design tool. The platform welcomes artists from fields including graphic design, photography, painting, architecture, and UX design, and also includes augmented reality pieces that can be animated via the Forward App. Launched in 2015, the exhibition has consistently provided a space for aspiring artists to reach a broad audience, typically featuring a new creative each Monday. Selected works are also presented at physical Forward Festivals held in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin. During the COVID-19 lockdown, a special edition called the Lockdown Special was introduced, allowing artists to showcase full projects in Forward's online magazine with financial support from the festival's advertising budget. Forward Festivals, which began in Vienna and expanded to Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin by 2020, serve as a conference and platform for the creative industries, offering insights into success stories, failures, and the use of tools and technology across creative fields. The event includes workshops, live art sessions, and networking opportunities. Readymag, the tool used for the website, enables the creation of interactive websites and online publications without coding, supporting various formats from landing pages to portfolios.