Vienna Digital Cultures 2025

Participants: Anthea (Partisan), Arvida Byström, Belma Bešlić-Gál, S()fia Braga, Caroline Busta, Silvia Dal Dosso, DJ Terror, Kate Crawford, Phase Fatale, Paul Feigelfeld, Mathias Gramoso, Joey Holder, Lil Internet, Vladan Joler, Andrea Khôra, Kiara Kristler, Etapp Kyle, Inès Sieulle, Most Dismal Swamp, Klimentina Li, Jonas Lund, Malounadou, Eva & Franco Mattes, Misonica, Amanda Mussi, Matteo Pasquinelli, Marcin Ratajczyk, Rent, ROTOR / Michael Fischer, Ala Roushan, Ruth Schnell, Elke Schwarz, Catherine Spet, Klaus Speidel, Charles Stankievech, Felix Stalder, Troika, Emmanuel van der Auwera, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Markus Wintersberger, Antonia XM, and more.

Curated by Nadim Samman

Vienna Digital Cultures is a new festival jointly organized by Foto Arsenal Wien and Kunsthalle Wien. It consolidates both institutions’ commitment to exploring how new technologies impact culture, via a two-week programme of art, performance and discourse.  The theme of the inaugural edition is “Model Collapse.”

In machine learning, “model collapse” is a key term that refers to problems that can arise during the training of large language models, including a loss of diversity and originality in generated outputs, excessive repetition, and amplified bias. “Model collapse” can also be seen as a metaphor for the state of our current affairs. From politics to ecology, many established systems are in disarray, and as the term “post-truth” suggests, intellectual governance appears equally shaken. The rapid pace of digital change is a key driver of this upheaval. With artificial intelligence rolling out across society, its impact upon these crises grows ever more significant. In 2025 Vienna Digital Cultures explores “model collapse” in all its senses, inviting artists and thinkers to reflect on the disorientation and instability that characterize this moment in history.

Launching with online commissions by Most Dismal Swamp and Joey Holder at viennadigitalcultures.at, the festival continues at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz with an exhibition and events hosted at Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Haus der Republik (Wiener Festwochen)—Funkhaus,  PRST.club and REAKTOR.

The exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz presents works by Arvida Byström, Mathias Gramoso, Joey Holder, Eva & Franco Mattes, and Troika. Speakers known for their contributions to the critical discourse around machine learning, including Kate Crawford, Paul Feigelfeld, Elke Schwarz, and Felix Stalder shape the intellectual programme at Karlsplatz and the Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab. At the REAKTOR, two nights of AI-focused artists’ video will offer critical viewpoints on our emerging reality. In public space, Augmented Reality (AR) installations by Belma Bešlić-Gál, Catherine Spet and Markus Wintersberger explore weird overlaps between digital and physical experience. Finally, leading electronic music producers Anthea, Amanda Mussi, Etapp Kyle, Phase Fatale and others supply catharsis and hope during two club nights at PRST.club and Haus der Republik (Wiener Festwochen)—Funkhaus.

“Model Collapse” is generously supported by Autotelic Foundation, a key partner of the 2025 Vienna Digital Cultures festival.

Foto Arsenal Wien and Kunsthalle Wien, together with KÖR—Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien and Atelierhaus Wien, are part of Stadt Wien Kunst GmbH, which is financed by the Magistratsabteilung Kultur der Stadt Wien (MA 7).

More information and programme: viennadigitalcultures.at

Press contact: Katharina Baumgartner, Head of Communications and Marketing, Kunsthalle Wien: presse@kunsthallewien.at