The Centro de Cultura Digital opened CYFEST 2025, a global multimedia festival connecting emotions and technology.
By Adriana López | Reporter
The event took place at the cultural venue located in the Estela de Luz in Mexico City. Organised together with CYLAND MediaArtLab, the festival opened on 4 September and will run until 22 September.
Recognised as one of the longest-running new media gatherings, CYFEST brought together international artists and curators. Works involving extended realities, interactive installations, sound art, algorithmic composition and hybrid projects were presented.
The Mexican edition brought together creators of ten nationalities with works about emotional life and technology. Its theme was “Archive of Feelings. A Journey”, a concept seeking to connect emotion and digital creation.
Opening and remarks
At the opening, CCD director Marcela Flores Méndez explained the exhibition’s meaning. She said that the venue had become an archive of experiences for exploring contemporary digital life.
Flores Méndez said that the artists engaged critically with technology from a poetic and reflective perspective. She added that awareness of emotions represented an act of resistance in the digital age.
Artist and curator Alexandra Dementieva, in turn, explained the experimental spirit of CYLAND MediaArtLab at the festival. She recalled that the project drew inspiration from the historic Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
Dementieva stated that collaboration with the CCD demonstrated the power of art and technology. She explained that the resulting platforms connected people across disciplines, geographies and continents, reinforcing the gathering’s global character.
International works on display
The Russian works included Time Signals, by Sergey Komarov and Lidiia Griaznova, about universal time. Also on display were The Imaginary Center of the Circle, by Anton Khlabov, and Abrasion, by Dmitry Shishov, focusing on geological processes.
Korean artist Kira Kim presented Deaf and Blind, a work reflecting on solitude, resilience and historical memory. Colombian artist Alba Triana showed Dialogue with the Primordial Sea, an immersive installation evoking living organisms.
The exhibition included works by Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, Fabrizio Plessi, Eric Vernhes and Dementieva herself. Each work addressed relationships between memory, urban space and contemporary technological transformations.
The festival brought together established and emerging artists who shared critical perspectives on the role of technology. The programme offered a multisensory approach to new media art in Mexico.
Sound projects at the CCD
Venezuelan artist Gustavo Matamoros, who lives in Miami, presented an installation at the CCD Memorial. His work explored the venue’s acoustic identity, generating a different perception of the architectural space.
Matamoros explained that the installation allowed visitors to interact with the venue’s own sounds. He highlighted Mexico’s cultural richness and its active community engaged in sound experimentation.
Mexican artist Hugo Solís took part with a work created for a mechanised piano. The project sought to connect the instrument’s history with its role in contemporary listening.
Solís recounted that his work engaged in a dialogue with Matamoros’s installation, alternating every fifteen minutes at the Memorial. He said that the sonic interaction between the two works created a distinctive acoustic passage for visitors.
Activities for diverse audiences
The festival included a programme of parallel activities between 17 and 21 September. Among them was the workshop Hands-on Session with an Arduino Kit, announced for participants interested in creative programming.
A screening of CYLAND Video Archive: Crossings of Digital Landscapes was also scheduled. The programme showed audiovisual works focused on technological transformations and artistic experimentation across multiple geographies.
There was also a Symphony for 2 Bicycles workshop, with the artists participating directly. Through interactive projects, the activity explored the relationship between mobility, sound and public space.
Finally, the festival offered a performance accompanied by an interactive installation. The work integrated sound, projection and movement, reaffirming the diversity of artistic languages at CYFEST 2025. –sn–
English translation of the original Spanish article.