MISSION

CYLAND is a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by independent artists and curators. We are promoting the emergence of new forms of art and high technology interactions, developing professional connections between artists, curators, engineers and programmers around the world and exposing wide audiences to the works in the field of robotics, video art, sound art and net art. Emerging or established, local or international — selected artists are provided with resources from technicians to equipment and professional development.

ANTONIO GEUSA

CURATOR, ART CRITIC

Probably, the simplest way to explain CYLAND is picturing it as the space where the science laboratory and the art studio merge together. It is here that the two sides (scientists, engineers, technicians — artists, art historians, curators) meet to share knowledge, carry out experiments, exhibit, teach, and talk to and with the public. At the end of the day, the two parts of this combination have a lot in common. After all, art and science are two difference approaches to the same end, understanding the way that the world we live in functions.

NATALIA KURCHANOVA

ART HISTORIAN, ART CRITIC, CURATOR

Most recently, Anna Frants and a group of artists and technological specialists whom she gathered around CYLAND Media Art Lab and CYFEST have made it their mission to “develop dialogue between artists and engineers; educate people on how to use creative technology; attract artists, audiences, and attention to New Media.” New Media — meaning computers and other digital technology — is used in various practical contexts for communication, distribution, manipulation of digital data, improvement of calculation speed, and in art. There, it reflects a reality that is human but is also indelibly fused with and transformed by technology. Performances and multimedia installations initiated by artists specializing in new media investigate a new reality and new identities that emerge as a result of transformation of our understanding of the world brought about by modern technology.

DMITRY PILIKIN

ARTIST, CURATOR, ART CRITIC, ART HISTORIAN

The very first festival CYFEST that was held in 2007 was, in effect, an accumulative exhibition of friends. One of the most important events was the arrival of Julie Martin, widow of Billy Klüver, the ingenious engineer who worked on technologically complex objects with several generations of famous artists from Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol to Jean Tinguely. The lab Experiments in Art and Technology, founded by Klüver and his confederates in fact became a prototype of CYLAND Media Art Lab because the curators encountered the same problems: artists had ideas in spades, but traditional art education separated art and scientific and technological skills in different directions […] At this point, one should probably recall the message of media pioneers: “great” media art grows out of the sum of private initiatives, and it is by them that it is supported. This is why the floating island CYLAND, launched 15 years ago, is assuredly moving along its chosen route.