CYFEST 17: Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape

May 8 — August 31, 2026, Venice, Italy

CYLAND MediaArtLab, in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art, presents the International Media Art Festival CYFEST 17: Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape at CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo in Venice, from May 8 to August 31, 2026.  

A nomadic exhibition series, CYFEST 17 began in Thessaloniki and continues in Venice on the occasion of the Venice Biennale, opening to the public on May 8, 2026 at 6 pm. The exhibition’s title invokes the philosophical concept of Natura Naturans—nature understood as generative force, as process rather than product. Within this framework, art is conceived as an active principle: a field in which light, time, and matter emerge. The exhibition places works from the Frants Family Collection in dialogue with contemporary media art, tracing a continuous trajectory of artistic becoming from the 20th century to the present. The early 20th century marked a decisive shift from representation toward construction—from depicting the visible world to articulating its underlying forces. Color became autonomous, light structural, form dynamic. The avant-garde sought not to imitate nature but to participate in its generative logic. This impulse persisted in the unofficial art of postwar Leningrad, where artists working outside Socialist Realism sustained experimental approaches to structure and perception, affirming art as an independent and evolving system grounded in process.

If early modernism explored movement and temporality through pigment and composition, today’s artists engage these forces through automation, kinetics, atmospheric systems, and digital code. Within this expanded field, art reveals its most delicate states—its intervals, hesitations, and vulnerabilities—making visible the subtle thresholds where form emerges, shifts, and recedes. Media becomes not a layer added to the work, but a sensitive field in which it exists: exposed, contingent, and quietly in flux. 

On May 9, at Auditorium S. Margherita – Emanuele Severino, the video program What’s in a Story?, conceived by internationally renowned curator Barbara London, will be presented. Featuring works by Wendi Yan, Shi Zheng, Maitha Abdalla, Tamar Zohara Ettun, Tadasu Takamine, Carla Gannis, Eva Papamargariti, Jane Bustin, Andro Eradze, Sky Hopinka, and Dana Kavelina, the screening brings together media artworks by artists across generations and geographies, made with contemporary tools—from camera to computer software. Preceding the screening, a sculptural performance by Andy Bartt  will serve as a counterpoint to the program. The evening will continue with the presentation of the book Afterwards. Art in the Time of Change, produced by CYLAND Foundation and published by CURA. The discussion, moderated by Prof. Silvia Burini, will feature contributors Valentino Catricalà, Barbara London, and Li Zhenhua. 

CYFEST 17 is organized by CYLAND Foundation. The project's general sponsor is Frants Foundation. The project is made possible in partnership with 

the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art — CSAR, CURA., and Weave. 

Curators

Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova, Silvia Burini, Giuseppe Barbieri, Barbara London, Sergei Komarov, Lidiia Griaznova, Alexandra Dementieva

Artists 

AES+F, Andy Barrt, CAA (CYLAND Audio Archive), Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Alexey Grachev, Sergey Kishchenko, Sergei Komarov & Lidiia Griaznova, Valery Koshlyakov, Alexei Kostroma, Linda Loh, Natalia Lyakh, Tuula Närhinen, Jaanika Peerna, Matvei Peshkov &  Aleksandr Bochkov, Mariateresa Sartori, Dmitriy Shishov, Hugo Solis, Eric Vernhes, Mathieu Zurstrassen

From the Frants Family Collection 

Alexander Baturin, Victoria Belakovskaya, Liudmila Belova, Leon Bogdanov, Konstantin Dydyshko, Tatyana Glebova, Maria Gorokhova, Vladimir Grinberg, Valentin Gromov, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Anatoly Kaplan, Pavel Kondratiev, Alexander Kozhin, Ivan Kudryashov, Nikolai Kulbin, Anna Leporskaya, Valentin Levitin, Ksenia Livchak, Vera Matyukh, Evygeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, Valentina Povarova, Richard Vasmi, Vladimir Volkov

From the CYLAND Audio Archive

Hans Tammen, Yoshio Machida, Sashash Ulz, Zimoun, ZOV, Elena Filatova, Alexey Grachev and Sergei Komarov, Nao Nishihara, Sam Conran, Makiko Yamamoto, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Alessandro Marchesan, Marina Alekseeva & Vladimir Rannev, Michele Spanghero, Alex Pleninger, Sergei Dmitriev, Esther & Nikolaj Søndergaard, Tuula Närhinen, ceph, Purpurniy Dyadya, Sergei Komarov and Lidiia Griaznova, Nikita Bugaev, the concept horse, Gustavo Matamoros

Video Program

Wendi Yan, Shi Zheng, Maitha Abdalla, Tamar Zohara Ettun, Tadasu Takamine, Carla Gannis, Eva Papamargariti, Jane Bustin, Andro Eradze, Sky Hopinka, Dana Kavelina