Photo and text: Leah Stuhltrager
CYBERFEST is Russia’s annual exposition of technology art by top international artists.
CYBERFEST enters its 5th year this November with over 80 artists from 20 countries participating. A citywide event, CYBERFEST’s programming is housed across iconic institutions and emerging art venues throughout St Petersburg. From visual arts to music performances to interactive installations to films to lectures to children’s workshops – all programming is entirely free (no charge) to the public.
CYBERFEST 2011’s theme is “Show Us Your Tongue!”, a curatorial title embodying this years’ participants who all address the philosophical question: “Are new technologies capable of creating a new tongue of art?”
Among over 80 notable participants, CYBERFEST 2011 includes local St. Petersburg artists Marina Alekseyeva and Boris Kazakov (winners of the Kuryokhin Prize 2010), Anna Frants, Marina Koldobskaya, Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, Masha Sha and Anton Chumak. From Moscow come artists Iraida Yusupova and Alexander Dolgin, Group “Blue Noses” and “Art Business Consulting”. Kazan artists for the legendary center “Prometheus”, Dmitry Bulatov from Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg) and Yekaterinburg group “Where Dogs Run” are featured. International talents include Theremin Queen Dorit Chrysler (Austria-USA), the patriarch of conceptual music Philipp Niblock (USA), Fred Forest cofounder of the Aesthetics of Communication movement (France), and musical sculptor Peter Vogel (Germany).
CYLAND is one of Russia’s most active New Media Art nonprofit organizations. It houses the largest archive of Eastern European video art online, runs a residency program, organizes exhibits around the world, and organizes CYBERFEST. CYLAND is dedicated to building opportunities, support and relationships between the global art world and Eastern Europe. They support collaborations between international artists, theoreticians and pioneers working in social media, new technologies and experimental media.