On the initiative put forward by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the World Forum of Spiritual Culture was held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in the winter of 2010. 500 participants from 62 countries attended the forum whose goals, listed in the invitation, were ambitious: to find solutions for the crises affecting the modern civilization system by putting spirituality first; to curb overblown materiality and cure our civilization of greed that is undermining it.

It is 8:55 a.m. Outside the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a glass pyramid designed by English architect Norman Foster, a small crowd has gathered. Inside the Palace, actor Adrian Brody is giving a speech on a mystical experience he had while eating pizza. A little further on, in the Parliament, Department 5 is preparing a concept on the Noosphere.

Artists Alain Della Negra (b. 1975) and Kaori Kinoshita (b. 1970 in Tokyo) live and work in Paris; they have been working together since 2005. In their work they explore how people relate to their virtual reality doubles or avatars. Most of their works focus on the question of voice and utopic communities. In addition to participating in numerous international festivals, they have also shown their work at the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Jeu de Paume, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.