Credit: Agoria/The Sandbox
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Exclusive: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Agoria & The Sandbox Collaboration

BY Arthur Parkhouse

August 23, 2023

Sébastien Devaud, better known to the Web3 space as Agoria, is a multi-disciplinary artist who wears many hats. He is a DJ, composer, record producer, and digital artist known for his science-based generative works, referred to as BioGenArt, that feel like living organisms.

Agoria is now expanding even further into the digital realm through a partnership with The Sandbox that combines a variety of his worlds into one, including digital art, physical experiences, and his love for music.

Agoria x The Sandbox

On its official HeyMint page, The Sandbox describes the AGORIANS Avatar Collection as “the first-ever Web3 avatar collection that brings the deeper meaning of duality to life through dynamic appearances,” as every six hours, the avatar transforms, aligning itself to the day or night.

The collection is set to be brought to life through a variety of accompanying quests and prizes, including a pool of over 100,000 SAND tokens up for grabs. Characters in the Agorian collection feature a diverse set of traits and notably support LGBTQ+ and minority communities, as part of Agoria’s vision to create a “safe space for the transcendence of our virtual selves.” 

In a conversation with nft now, Agoria explained how the collaboration came together in the first place, stating that “Sebastien Borget, the co-founder, started to collect my pieces on SuperRare and Foundation in 2021. With his partner Arthur they invited me to play for the Sandbox shows at NFC Lisbon and Cannes Film Festival – we had so much fun!”

Agoria further iterated that Bertrand Levy, the CEO of The Sandbox, loved his vision of merging art, science, music, and fun in the metaverse and gave it the green light.

Inspirations: “How many lives will you live?” – Agoria 

Speaking on the dynamic nature of the avatars featured in the collaboration and the inspiration behind it, Agoria expressed “I’m a night bird – I used to sleep during the day and party at night.”

“What I realized is that we have many personalities but the night one is the closest to your true self,” he explained, adding “People are more sincere by night than by days. During the day your boss is watching you, you have things to honor, you’re on a duty, you are shaped by an algorithm.”

The artist went on to state that as night comes around, there is seemingly less of a barrier to the true self and that people can better present who they are at their core. It is for this reason that Agoria decided that his avatars with The Sandbox “will be double,” reflecting his views and experience of human nature.



“When I came up with my idea of {One Life Two Bodies} questioning what is reel, what is virtual, The Sandbox introduced me to Julien Carbon, a fantastic scenarist. I wanted to design a game that couldn’t exist in the physical world but most of all a place to reconcile body and mind, physical and digital,” Agoria said, expressing his hopes for the collaboration.

He added “We came up with the mandala idea to build the whole experience. A place to unify, to connect us on a deeper level. One sure thing I love is our daily collaboration, being creative is being surrounded and inspired by brilliant minds.”

Agoria admitted that navigating the links between the physical and digital is a relatively new field for him but that it’s one he’s excited about. Aspects he said he’s particularly looking forward to include quests and prizes that will activate physical rewards for users, including lifetime VIP access to his shows, exclusive access to upcoming BioGenArt exhibitions, and more.
Those looking to score an avatar from the AGORIANS Avatar Collection will have to wait until the public mint on August 30 or meet any of the criteria listed in the X post by Agoria below for inclusion in early access on August 29

While you wait

With patience not being something overly present in the Web3 space, we figured we’d give you something from Agoria that you can check out now. A dynamic artwork and collaboration with HOFA that follows in the footsteps of Refik Anadol.

Speaking on the piece, Agoria shared “I’ve been playing for a few years in Scorpios Mykonos, my sanctuary, my haven. It’s like a living, breathing entity—a philosophy, a family, a connection to something deeper,” adding “I was very grateful to combine both my disciplines for art and music! Most of all following the path of ser Refik Anadaol there. What an honor!”

Agoria further explained that the piece is meant to raise awareness of “the dangers surrounding our oceans and ecosystems.”

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