For each CYFEST, the video archive’s curator Victoria Ilyushkina selects works for the international competition video program whose concept corresponds to a current slogan of the festival. This program is a philosophical statement of sorts; it aims to reflect the changes that take place in our mind and perception of the reality around us and the virtual reality as affected by digital technologies. The artist’s outlook is a sensitive barometer of those changes.
The CYFEST video program is curated by Victoria Ilyushkina.
Co-curated special screenings and video programs: “A Short Term Effect”, 2010, curator Olga Jürgenson (Great Britain); “Not So Distant Memory”, 2011, curator Boshko Boscovic (USA); “Action Planning: Reaction”, 2011, curators Natalia Prikhodko (Russia) and Yulia Garbuzova (France); “Cross-Over”, 2012, curator Miguel Petchkovsky Morais (Brazil-Netherlands), “Digital Revolution”, 2017, curator Leah Stuhltrager (USA-Germany).
Marina Blinova — Who is the Player?, 2018
Alexandra Lerman (USA), The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed, 4 min. 47 sec., 2018. Digital Fermentation of the Moving Image, CYFEST-14 Video Program, NPAK, Yerevan, Armenia, 2022. Photograph by Anton Khlabov.
«Since the very beginning, video art has played an important role in the festival. Year after year, the festival video program, a living organism like all the other sections of the festival, has offered its viewers a wide range of artists’ videos from all over the word. Bringing video art into the cultural arena of a festival is always a challenge, not only because, as in all time-based works, viewers are asked to invest their time according to the length of the works shown, that is to say, they are less free to move around as they like, but also because video is based upon a “psychological model”. By its nature it is a “portal” to the inner self. Art, contemporary art in particular, is never a passive experience. Contrary to the cinema which absorbs the spectators into the picture, video art keeps them at a distance, a condition necessary to think actively, to engage ourselves in a dialogue with the work before our eyes. As a matter of fact, watching video art always implies a double perception: perceiving oneself (the viewer’s mind at work) when perceiving the other (the images shown on the screen).
Pertinently, the video art programs (and consequently the archive) are a strong and powerful visualization of the prefix “cyber-” from the festival name. Usually, “cyber-” is commonly associated with the word “computer” and, by extension, with digital technology. However, notwithstanding the digital character of the great majority of works showed and discussed, here “cyber-” is more like a short form for “Cybernetics”, the science of communication and control theory that, through a transdisciplinary approach, explores structures, limitations, and possibilities of systems that use technology. Ultimately, they accomplish the educational mission of exploring and analyzing the world of today without surrendering to the laws of the entertainment industry.
The video programs and archive condense the founding principles of CYLAND, which, undoubtedly, are very similar to those of the pioneers of video art of about half a century ago: the non-commercial nature of all the events; the bold challenge of old-fashioned preconceptions of the artist’s function in society and what his or her art should be about; the ability to open the viewers’ eyes and let them see reality with all its beauty and constraints; and above all, the tangible explanation that the true spirit of art lives on as a perpetual experiment... flirting with the present.»
— Antonio Geusa, curator, art critic
From CYFEST, the video challenge and the first flight of the butterfly
2022
This program examines several aspects of analog and digital fermentation of the moving image. By fermentation, we mean the introduction of a certain reactive element to an artwork, which changes the very “fabric” of the moving image, its structure, and accordingly the message too. The program includes artistic experiments to shift the boundaries of perception of physical and virtual reality, studying the inhuman and human using new digital technologies.
Sonia Balassanian (Armenia)
Andrius Venclova (Russia)
Boris Kazakov (Russia)
Polina Komyagina (Croatia)
Konstantin MiTenev (Switzerland)
Lidiya Rikker (Russia)
Anya Tsyrlina (Switzerland)
Alek Borisov (Russia)
Ksenia Galkina (Russia)
Elena Demi-dova &
Maxim Kalmykov (Russia)
Victoria Ilyushkina (Russia)
Alexandra Lerman (USA)
Lilia Li-Mi-Yan &
Katherina Sadovsky (Russia)
Alena Tereshko (Russia) &
Antti Kukkonen (Finland)
Silvana Chobanyan &
Aram Zurabyan (Armenia)
Aizek (Georgia)
Pole-Fromage (France)
Rinatto L'bank (Kazakhstan)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
CYFEST-12
PERSONAL MYTHOLOGY
2019
At the turning-point of eras, new philosophical and aesthetic narratives are born. Their adepts and heralds are artists and scholars who are sensitive to the fabric of time and create myths. There is a rich tradition of myth-making in Russian art in the post-Soviet space: Moscow conceptualism, pirate television, neoacademism, necrorealism, medical hermeneutics. Today, Russian and American artists appeal to the study and mythologization of global layers of civilization: to the classical heritage, the ancient epic, the avant-garde, ideas of Russian cosmism and urbanism, ideology, gender and mass-media.
Anton Vidokle (USA)
Anton Ginzburg (USA)
Olga Tobreluts (Russia)
Polina Kanis (Russia)
Sid Iandovka &
Anya Tsyrlina (Russia–Switzerland–USA)
Almagul Menlibayeva (Germany-Kazakhstan)
Alexandra Lerman (USA)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
2014
“Universe in Your Pocket” explores the commonalities and differentiations among physical, emotional and cultural manifestations attached to the concept of «home». Following the tradition of legendary apartment shows of Soviet time — this exposition explores correlations between public and private, inner and outward, practical and idle.
Anna Jermolaeva (Austria)
Francesca Fini (Italy)
Marcantonio Lunardi (Italy)
Mark Salvatus (Philippines)
AUJIK (Sweden)
Rasmus Albertsen (Denmark)
Yuri Vassiliev (Russia)
Alena Tereshko (Russia)
Mauricio Sanhueza (Peru)
Sandrine Deumier, Alx P.op (France)
Yannis Kranidiotis (Greece)
Arya Sukapura Putra (Indonesia)
Jean-Michel Rolland (France)
Éléonore Joulin (Belgium)
Maria Korporal (Germany)
Liuda Kartoshkina (Russia)
Emilija Skarnulyte (Lithuania)
Ryo Ikeshiro (UK)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
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2021
Today, fundamental changes are taking place on our planet, and our entire lifestyle is being re-examined. We see other forms of life existing in what feels like a parallel universe — which we used not to pay such close attention to. Perhaps this crucible of changes will transform society and our everyday reality drastically, help us to shed the unnecessary and superficial things in life, and gain a better understanding of ourselves and the people around us.
Francesca Fini (Italy)
Aristarkh Chernyshev (Russia)
Ellen K. Levy (USA)
Arina Slobodianik (Russia)
Yuki Hayashi (Japan)
Mikhail Zheleznikov (Russia)
Guilherme Bergamini (Brazil)
Jonathan Phanhsay-Chamson (France)
Andréa Stanislav (USA)
Fay Heady (Ireland–Japan)
Phyllis Baldino (USA)
Prantik Narayan Basu (India)
Tonoptik (Russia)
Boris Shershenkov (Russia)
Anton Vidokle (USA)
(Special Screening)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
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2018
Flights of fancy of humanity, dreams of fame, instantaneous movement, high above the clouds and to other planets — all these things are practically a reality today. Our thoughts and feelings have moved to digital clouds, to computers and gadgets. Our bodies exist in impossibly tall towers, in deserts, in conditions that were previously impossible for life, in space; and consciousness moves across the world without hindrances. Two worlds: the real and the virtual are irrevocably intertwined and can no longer be separated. What used to be unimaginable becomes reality!
Tanya Akhmetgalieva (Russia)
Alexander Borisov (Russia)
Ksenia Galkina (Russia)
Ivan Govorkov (Russia)
Karina Golubenko (Russia)
Ben Grosser (USA)
Elena Gubanova (Russia)
Dagnini (Russia)
Alexander Dupuis (USA)
Andrey Kasay (Russia)
Alina Kvirkveliya (Russia)
Egor Kraft (Russia)
Ariane Loze (Belgium)
Greg Marshall (Canada)
Eden Mitsenmacher (Netherlands)
Jean-Michel Rolland (France)
Mark Cypher (Australia)
Alexander Senko (Russia)
Andréa Stanislav (USA)
Rebecca Tritschler (Netherlands)
Pekka Tynkkynen (Finland)
Kuesti Fraun (Germany)
Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai (Russia)
AUJIK (Sweden)
YOmoYO (Russia)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
Catalogue
CYFEST-7
CHANGING LANDSCAPES 2
2013
In “Changing Landscapes 2”, 12 film/video works selected from CYLAND’s Video Archive create together a genuine, introspective look at contemporary New Media. These videos/film by active Eastern European artists offer personal perspectives into the continuum of their country’s past, present and future.
Boris Kazakov (Russia)
Anton Khlabov (Russia)
Masha Sha (Russia)
Maxim Svischev (Russia)
“Upward!” Community (Russia)
Yuriy Vassiliev (Russia)
Laboratory of Poetry Actionism (Russia) Soap Group (Russia)
Ludmila Belova (Russia)
Dimitri Lurie (Norway)
Daria Pisareva (Russia)
Таnya Akhmetgalieva (Russia)
Victoria Begalskaya (Russia)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
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2020
The technological progress of recent years has strengthened the ties between humanity and technology, machines and artificial intellect, and made the interaction between organic and synthetic life more intimate. Personalities surrounded by a mirror cube of social networks hide behind their avatars and continue to exist in their accounts even after death. Who are we? What is our future going to be like?
Emma Bayer (Russia)
Masha Godovannaya (Russia)
Mascha Danzis (Germany)
Gioula Papadopoulou (Greece)
Summer McCorkle (USA)
Mahta Hosseini (Iran)
Citron | Lunardi (Italy)
Necko (Spain)
Di Hu (China)
Marisa Benito (Spain)
Virginia Lee Montgomery (USA)
Joe Hambleton (Canada)
Bram Lattré (Belgium)
Yanina Chernykh (Russia)
Vladimir Abikh (Russia)
Elena Artemenko (Russia)
DVENEODNA (Russia)
Reza Masoud (Iran)
Marina Blinova (Russia)
Nataliya Lyakh (Russia–France)
Sid Iandovka &
Anya Tsyrlina (Russia–Switzerland–USA)
Almagul Menlibayeva (Germany-Kazakhstan)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
2015
The media — it's the machines of abstraction that create information flows. These flows are subjected to various forms of transcoding: the physical reality into the virtual one, analog into digital, verbal into nonverbal, image into sound, 2D images into 3D models, various failures and glitches in the process of file-coding, up to the complete deconstruction of an image. MODUS OPERANDI include the works whose parameters are neither digital nor physical-instead, they exist in a new virtual / material hybrid trajectory that, one of these days will, will not need a human being in order to function.
Eden Mitsenmacher (Israel)
Jeroen van Loon (Netherlands) Nelmarie du Preez (South Africa)
Egor Kraft (Russia)
Blanca Rego (Spain)
Michael Wirthig (Austria)
Veronika Reichl (USA-Germany)
Luigia Cardarelli (Italy)
Felice Hapetzeder (Sweden)
Silvia Winkler (Austria)
Stefan Koeperl (Germany)
Martina Menegon (Italy)
Nicholas Steindorf (USA)
Francesc Martí (Spain)
claRa apaRicio yoldi (Spain)
Anthony Stephenson (USA)
Oleg Elagin (Russia)
Myriam Thyes (Switzerland-Germany) Lei Lei (China)
Sebastián Mira (Colombia)
Jeroen Cluckers (Belgium)
Michael Beitz (USA)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
CYBERFEST-6
WAY UP
2012
Struggle for survival, rites and rituals, timeless values and power of the word’s impact, uncharted abandoned territories, fantastic and abstract transformations of the familiar landscape and architecture, optical illusions and the geometry of space-time relations.
Mariateresa Sartori (Italy)
Francesca Fini (Italy)
Anna Jermolaewa (Austria)
Tina Willgren (Sweden)
Joaquin Palencia (Philippines)
Rimas Sakalauskas (Lithuania)
Heini Aho (Finland)
Pink Twins Group (Finland)
Hakeem b (France)
Loudwig van Ludens (Germany)
AUJIK, Stefan Larsson (Sweden)
Anssi Kasitonni (Finland)
Natalia Abalakova (Russia)
Leyla Rodriguez (Germany)
Cristian Straub (Germany)
Anatoliy Zhigalov (Russia)
Curated by Victoria Ilyushkina
CYFEST CO-CURATED SPECIAL PROGRAMS
2016–2017
The division of Art :: Tech has been broken through, and artists’ visions of what is technologically possible in the present is shaping our perspective future. Vive la Digital REvolution!
Egor Kraft, Alexander Letsius (Russia) Yuliya Lanina (USA-Russia)
Katerina Pits (Russia)
Susan MacWilliam (Northern Ireland) Boris Kazakov (Russia)
Emily McFarland (Northern Ireland) AES+F Group (Russia)
Joseph Michael (New Zealand)
Faith Holland (USA)
Cameron Askin (New Zealand)
Carla Gannis (USA)
Julia Zastava (Russia)
Polina Kanis (Russia)
Tatyana Zambrano (Colombia)
Paola Michaels (Colombia)
Andres Castaño (Colombia)
Veronika Rudyeva-Ryazantseva (Russia) Zlye Group (Russia)
Michael Hanna (Northern Ireland)
Curated by Leah Stuhltrager
CYBERFEST-5
NOT SO DISTANT MEMORY
2011
The exhibition comprises of an hour- long presentation of video works from the territory of what used to be Yugoslavia. One is fully aware that returning to the past is an irrecoverable process and the aim of this presentation is to showcase recent artworks that happen to be framed upon a country that once existed.
Borjana Mrdja (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Marija Djordevic (Serbia)
Alban Muja (Kosovo)
Danilo Prnjat (Montenegro)
Mladen Miljanovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Sandra Dukic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Boris Glamocanin (Slovenia)
Leban-Kleindienst (Slovenia)
Zoran Poposki (Macedonia)
Renata Poljak (Croatia)
Curated by Boshko Boskovic
2012
Cross-Over is a contribution to the CYBERFEST 2012, that refers the curatorial framework At Heaven’s Door. This concept contribution is articulated within the idea of crossing over the meta narratives of globalization, spirituality and established social constructs in which the creative exercise and practice contributes significantly to bridge world’s cultural understanding, as an essential building block to share creative inner sensibilities within the significance of the Other, and how its own tangible vision of the world, similarity within difference, the paradigms of the self and the social renewal.
Alex Villar (Brazil–USA)
Fernanda d'Agostino (USA)
Fernando Velazquez (Brazil)
Carolina Redondo (Chile)
Angie Bonino (Peru)
Rachel Rosalen (Brasil)
Sergio Ulhoa (Brasil)
Cesar Meneghetti (Brasil)
Mat Rappaport (USA)
Curated by Miguel Petchkovsky Morais
CYBERFEST-4
A SHORT TERM EFFECT
2010
Contemporary video art from the UK
Nicola Naismith
Olga Jurgenson
Laure Prouvost
Cinzia Cremona
M4SK 22 (Simon Woolham and David Moss)
Tessa Garland
Simon Woolham
Dominique Rey
Curated by Olga Jurgenson
2011
Urban environment and public space are a part of our everyday life, where local culture and topography form а certain standard of human behavior. Order or chaos of streets and parks become a kind of test of our sensitivity. In these public places artists propose actions in which the dynamics of everyday life is understood as a new plastic experience and the forms of people’s spontaneous reaction to a proposed situation become an autonomous language independent from the pragmatism of the urban system.
Ivan Argote (USA)
Jerome Gras (France)
Andrea Acosta (Germany)
Lienor Dauchez (Germany)
Florent Mattei (France)
Francis Alys (Mexico)
Tieri Riviere (France)
Blue Noses (Vyacheslav Mizin Alexander Shaburov) (Russia)
Curated By Julia Garbuzova, Natalia Prikhodko
CYBERFEST-1
OPEN SCORE
2007
A documentary produced by Experiments in Art and Technology of Robert Rauschenberg’s “Open Score” (1966) performed in 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, held in October 1966, at the 69th Regiment Armory, New York, NY, United States, footage edited circa 1997.
Open Score by Robert Rauschenberg, 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. Produced by Billy Klüver and Julie Martin; directed by Barbro Schultz Lundestam. New York: Experiments in Art and Technology and ARTPIX, 2007.
Curated by Julie Martin