CYFEST 16: Archive of Feelings. A Journey, San Luis Potosí

September 12 — October 1, 2025, Aether Contemporary Art Gallery, San Luis Potosi

CYLAND MediaArtLab presents

International Media Art Festival CYFEST 16 at Aether Contemporary Art Gallery

CYLAND MediaArtLab, in collaboration with Aether Contemporary Art Gallery, is pleased to announce the 16th edition of the International Media Art Festival CYFEST: Archive of Feelings. A Journey in San Luis Potosí. As one of the longest-running international media art festivals, CYFEST brings together artists, curators, engineers, and media thinkers from around the world acting as a platform for both emerging and established creators working in interactive installations, sound, video art, XR/VR environments, algorithmic composition, and hybrid forms. CYFEST is a nomadic exhibition series—its 16th edition began in Yerevan, Armenia, continued in Mexico City, and is next opening at Aether Gallery in San Luis Potosí from September 12 to October 1.

This year’s theme, ‘Archive of Feelings. A Journey,’ explores the complex relationship between emotional life and technological environments. It considers both the personal and collective dimensions of memory, perception, and inner experience—foregrounding the contradictions between human sensitivity and the impersonal nature of digital systems. The project proposes a return to emotional awareness as a form of resistance against depersonalization, while also acknowledging that new technologies are built from and upon archives of human knowledge and feeling.

The exhibition presents a range of works—from sound installations and algorithmic video to XR environments and robotic forms—that investigate how emotions are preserved, glitched, or lost in translation through technological systems. Rather than offering a nostalgic view of the past or a utopian vision of the future, CYFEST 16 becomes a site to examine how memory is formed, recorded, and manipulated—inviting the audience to engage with technology not only as a tool, but as a mediator of the human condition.

The exhibition opens with a live audiovisual performance that activates the space through sound, image, and presence.

Opening Night: Friday, September 12, 2025, 7:30 PM

Curators

Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova, Alexandra Dementieva, Lidiia Griaznova, Sergei Komarov, Manuel Cocho Ursini

Artists

Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Alexey Grachev, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Sergei Komarov & Lidiia Griaznova, Anna Martynenko, Alexander Terebenin

CYFEST is a nomadic international media art festival founded by a group of independent artists and curators in 2007. Since its inception in 2007, CYFEST’s main concerns have been to examine the dialogue between various visual languages and technology cultures, and thus to explore a way of commoning with both art professionals and scientific communities.  As a decentralized global network CYFEST unites artists, curators, educators, engineers, programmers, and media activists all over the world, and creates a platform for mapping, mediation, and documentation of new media art on different regional and international levels. Each year, the festival program includes several exhibition projects, sound art, video and educational programs.

AETHER is a contemporary art and design gallery network located in the arid highlands of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Rooted in the belief that there is no boundary between art and applied arts—everything is art—it serves as a platform for avant-garde proposals that emerge from the region’s unique cultural and natural landscape. Inspired by the identity of the desert, AETHER reflects a deep connection between nature and society, where nature defines the parameters that shape civilization. Embracing the contemporary as what is created today, AETHER fosters bold, experimental expressions across disciplines. More than just exhibition spaces, the galleries act as bridges linking creativity, environment, and community.

CYFEST 16 is organized by CYLAND MediaArtLab. The project's general sponsor is Frants Foundation.

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