May 26–June 8, 2023, Bogota, Manizales, Colombia
Photo: Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov, Sergey Komarov, Symphony for bicycles, Performance, 2022. Photograph by the XXII International Image Festival.
CYLAND Media Art Lab will take part in the XXII International Image Festival, XENOlandscapes, Colombia. At the invitation of curator Asher Remy-Toledo, director of HyphenHub, NYC, CYLAND Media Art Lab will take part in two exhibitions at once, in Bogotá (May 26–June 8) and Manizales (May 29–June 1). The festival will feature Made in CYLAND multimedia installations and performances, as well as a thematic selection of video art.
Titled XENOlandscapes, the XXII edition of the International Image Festival will focus on what Bruno Latour called the Cry of the Earth — the power of action of people and communities that allows them to alter and transform their small environments, thus achieving a movement of regeneration of ecosystems that enable their survival. The works in the program offer a vision of design as a tool for change and reflection, that contributes to the reformulation of consumption practices, and reimagine environment as a place of creation and democratic distribution of knowledge.
The selection of works presented by the CYLAND Media Art Lab at the XXII International Image Festival reflects the theme of XENOlandscapes through dual optics of Arts & Science that incorporates and rediscovers not only divergent visual languages and technological cultures but also multiple sets of relations between art professionals and non-artistic communities.
Anna Frants’ Artist Union makes ironic references to official academic models of learning and the communities they form. Developed in collaboration with CYLAND Media Art Lab creative engineers, the project provokes debates about the formatted art education curricula and cannon-making forces and creates an immersive experience for its audiences.
The Symphony for 2 Bicycles by Alexey Grachev and Alexander Bochkov is built upon the artists’ long-standing passion for cycling both as a lifestyle and as an artistic medium. Vasilii Bakanov’s Slow Burning reveals his identity as a professional chef and via creative engineering by Andrew Strokov transforms this work environment into a techno-sensual experience. Both works connect seemingly distant worlds, competencies, and communities, introducing contemporary media art to the concept of friendship as a form of artistic collaboration and alternative creative ecosystem.
Murmuration by Sergey Komarov metaphorically explores the feeling of being-not-in-place and the artist’s experience of dislocation. Video works by Lydia Rikker, Lilia Li-Mi-Yan, and Katherina Sadovsky expand this autobiographical narrative with the themes of alienation, cyber environments, and (non)human body, casting a view on the imbalance between the industrial aesthetics and the destructive anti-ecological power of technology.
ARTISTS
Anna Frants, Vasilii Bakanov, Sergey Komarov, Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov, Lydia Rikker, Lilia Li-Mi-Yan, and Katherina Sadovsky.
CURATORS
Lydia Griaznova, Victoria Ilyushkina (video).