The second stage of AlmostReal started to materialise in April 2006 with a series of workshops ‘Video Works’ for the production of new video works by 11 young Lebanon-based artists. The Video Works workshops were held in the premises of Ashkal Alwan, coordinated by filmmaker and video artist Ghassan Salhab. But in summer 2006, when the workshop programme was already underway, war broke out. Subsequently some of the participants changed their proposals entirely and conveyed their experiences of their war-afflicted environments into video. The results of the workshops were presented in Beirut in April 2007 during the video festival ‘VidéoAvril’ put together by Ashkal Alwan to promote public appreciation of video work in contemporary Lebanon. After VidéoAvril, stage 2 is being continued through a project by the young composer and independent curator Tarek Atoui. In May 2007, Tarek organised a workshop (in partnership with SHAMS arts centre and Ana Lindt Foundation) which introduced interdisciplinary approaches between art and digital technology to a group of 20 young artists from Beirut. 5 art projects were chosen for further development under the mentorship of prominent Lebanese visual artist Lamia Joreige and curator Sandra Dagher. The resulting 5 media/acoustic/digital installation works will be presented on site specific locations around Beirut, in late 2008 in collaboration with the newly established Beirut Art Center. This event will conclude ALMOSTREAL stage 2.

In parallel to the 5 new works, a series of new workshops called ‘Bytes & Pieces’ was given by Tarek in Amsterdam and Beirut in May 2008. Together with Takuro Mizuta Lippit from STEIM studios in Amsterdam, Tarek organised 3 workshops as a chance for young artists and electronic engineers to develop work and learn from one another. These workshops are about getting to know and create multidisciplinary projects that combine art-making with new technologies. The focus of these workshops was for participants to expand their aesthetic practice through developing new technological tools such as hardware, programming, building and fabricating.