February 18–26, 2022
Titled Embodied Structures, Vienna’s media art festival in 2022 devotes itself to the body and its multiple and ever-changing identities. At its main venues Belvedere 21, Stadtkino Wien, and Volkstheater as well as via its digital outlets, the nine-day festival offers a hybrid program of art exhibitions, talks, lectures, workshops, film screenings, and performances. The second edition of CIVA is scheduled to take place from February 18 to 26, 2022 and will be held for the first time as a physical event.
The detailed press materials are available for download here. The press conference was recorded and can be viewed here. In addition to the program presentation, a press tour through the main CIVA exhibition at Belvedere 21 will take place on February 18, 2022 at 10am. Please register at presse [at] soundframe.at.
Let’s get phygital
CIVA’s second edition zooms in on art and research that discuss how bodies can transcend their organic boundaries and shows artistic and activist approaches that can be used to both empower ourselves and reorganize structural power.
“When we talk about the body, we talk about politics. The human body is one of the most powerful symbols and at the same time a mirror of our society. From our bodies, we can clearly read how much we as persons are in the middle of society—or how much it pushes us to the edge. And one thing seems clear today: We are supposedly to blame for this position ourselves. Our bodies are supposed to be malleable and trimmable. And whoever does not manage to bring them into the norm has failed. Too fat, too old, too frail, not white enough.” —Eva Fischer, Festival director
Exhibition at Belvedere 21
The exhibition Embodied Structures deals with the concept of the body and its role in recent socio-political and cultural debates. The show will be on view in the basement of Belvedere 21 from February 18 to 26, 2022 and forms the centerpiece of a festival lined with diverse outreach programs. Through seven international positions, Embodied Structures proposes a story of glitch, non-binary and prosthetic bodies, avatars, cyborgs, and data bodies. It talks about our willingness to exhibit ourselves online and to even assign concrete values to our data alter egos and how the awareness of our body changes through the phygital—the intertwining of the physical with the digital. It rejects binary structures and instead establishes concepts of gender fluidity or the post-Anthropocene where the body can be a vehicle for new world building and collective consciousness.
Community is key
As part of the livestreamed CIVA discourse program, international players invite visitors to discuss and reflect on various key topics together. On Thursday and Friday, the Vienna media art festival devotes itself to topics such as fatphobia, empowerment, body politics, or exclusion and discrimination in art and culture in talks, workshops, and experimental interactive formats (Booster! Fitness studios! Urine samples!).
Performances at Volkstheater
For the first time, the Viennese media art festival CIVA joins forces with the Volkstheater: Two productions, an audiovisual installation, and also the CIVA closing are to be experienced at the grand finale of the festival.
Film program at Stadtkino Wien
In line with the festival theme Embodied Structures, the short film program “I KNOW GIRLS” positions the female body at the center of a global discourse. The international program, consisting of seven works, will be screened at Stadtkino Wien on Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 8pm and will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
CIVA stands for Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art and is organized by the agency sound:frame. Press materials are available for download here. Supported by the City of Vienna.
