The new media art exhibition runs until 22 September 2025, accompanied by workshops, screenings and interactive performances
Under the theme “Archive of Feelings. A Journey”, it brings together artists of ten nationalities reflecting on the relationship between emotional life and technology
The Centro de Cultura Digital (CCD), an institution of the Mexican Government’s Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with CYLAND MediaArtLab, brings the International Multimedia Art Festival (CYFEST) to Mexico for the first time. Its sixteenth edition runs until 22 September 2025 under the theme “Archive of Feelings. A Journey”.
Recognised as one of the world’s most important and longest-running new media art gatherings, CYFEST brings together international artists, curators, engineers and activists as a platform for emerging and established creators working with interactive installations, sound art, video art, extended and virtual realities, algorithmic composition and hybrid formats.
The Mexican edition brings together artists of ten nationalities who reflect on the relationship between emotional life and technology.
During the opening on the evening of 4 September, CCD director Marcela Flores Méndez said: “We are pleased to open our doors to this archive of experiences, where artists, engineers, curators and activists converge to challenge the limits of creation and engage critically and poetically with technology. Under the theme ‘Archive of Feelings. A Journey’, this edition invites us to reflect on our emotional lives in the digital age, exploring its contradictions and proposing awareness of emotions as an act of resistance.”
Artist and curator Alexandra Dementieva, creator of Memory Shredder, stressed that CYLAND MediaArtLab has established itself as an experimental and interdisciplinary space inspired by the historic Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.): “CYFEST embodies CYLAND’s nomadic and collaborative spirit, creating platforms to map, mediate and document new media art globally. The collaboration with the Centro de Cultura Digital demonstrates the power of art and technology to connect people not only across disciplines but also across continents,” she said.
The works by Russian artists in the exhibition include Time Signals, a sound installation by Sergey Komarov and Lidiia Griaznova questioning the rigidity of universal time; The Imaginary Center of the Circle, by Anton Khlabov, a work exploring folds in the urban fabric as a metaphor for changing ideals; and Abrasion, by Dmitry Shishov, a metaphor for geological time in action.
Also included are Deaf and Blind, by Korean artist Kira Kim, a reflection on solitude, resilience and historical memory; Dialogue with the Primordial Sea, by Colombian artist Alba Triana, an immersive installation evoking a living organism; and works by Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, Fabrizio Plessi and Eric Vernhes, among others.
Sound artist Gustavo Matamoros, originally from Caracas, Venezuela, and based in Miami, United States, is exhibiting in Mexico for the first time. His installation at the CCD Memorial reveals the space’s acoustic identity: “This work extracts the acoustic identity of the space where it is exhibited. In this way, visitors perceive the breadth of the space differently and engage with it through sound. I am amazed by Mexico’s cultural richness and by finding a community of artists here who also work with sound. It is incredible.”
The Mexican artist in the exhibition, Hugo Solís, presents a work for a mechanised piano that interprets the instrument’s history and its place in contemporary listening. “I have worked with piano parts for years, and this piece seeks to connect the instrument’s past with our sonic present. The curatorial team proposed a dialogue between my work and Gustavo Matamoros’s at the Memorial, a space with very distinctive reverberation. We joked that our pieces passed the baton to each other, because they alternate gently every fifteen minutes, generating a very beautiful sonic passage,” the artist explained.
Activities for diverse audiences
From 17 to 21 September, a programme of activities will include the workshop “Hands-on Session with an Arduino Kit”, a screening of CYLAND Video Archive: Crossings of Digital Landscapes, a practical workshop led by the artists of Symphony for 2 Bicycles, and a performance with an interactive installation.
Admission is free, and the Centro de Cultura Digital will be open to the public until 22 September 2025.
For more information about the festival, visit centrocultura-digital.mx and consult the CCD’s social media: @ccdmx.
Follow the Ministry of Culture on X (@cultura_mx), Facebook (/SecretariaCulturaMX) and Instagram (@culturamx).
AS
Documents
Download the press kit
English translation of the original Spanish press release.