International Festival
of Computer Arts

MFRU 2022

28th MFRU Expansion of the Possible and the Complexity of Consciousness

07.–14. October 2022, Maribor, Slovenia

The festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary in two years, so this year its focus will be on upgrading the historical foundations and the need to be aware of the importance of common visions of computer and intermedia future. This makes sense as the MFRU not only addresses the changes and potentials brought about by computer technologies but also reflects current societal developments related to technologies. Its central task remains to integrate new technologies with science, art, and shifts in social environments.

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In 2022, the festival under title "Expansion of the Possible and the Complexity of Consciousness" will bring domestic and foreign authors of different generations to the city and tour the country, working and researching in the field of intermedia (computer) and research arts. The participation of young people who explore and create new visions and look for possible ways to transform the world we have known so far will be highlighted. With the declared global epidemic, the crisis came to the fore - health, economic and political. We are emerging or forced to create a new world that will be based on a different attitude and, above all, on the awareness that we need different ways of working. We have yet to develop these, and we believe that young people are playing an important role here. At the same time, it will be necessary to "wake up" with awareness of our incapacities, as a society. Topics that will address the development of new products on the one hand, and the findings of quantum physics and on the other hand console games and technology, will be presented to the general public by setting up installations in shop windows around the city center, public areas and in subways and passages. We will highlight some historical achievements and present the pioneers of computer (intermedia) art. We will prepare discursive evenings, workshops, presentations, and also archival notes, as well as works by the youngest generation of creators of computer art. We will traditionally hold a competition for the best student intermedia project and award prizes.

With all this, the MFRU festival once again presents itself as one of the central institution in the field of presenting computer, electronic and new media art in the region.

Aleksandra Saška Gruden,
program manager for the 28th MFRU

The complexity of the modern world is reflected, among other things, in the impact of the rapid development of science and technology on the lives of individuals and society as a whole. This year, the 28th International Festival of Computer Arts highlights themes under the common title The Expansion of the Possible and the Complexity of Consciousness and opens the door to (also) young artists who reflect on the possible future and vision of the development of computer art and a digital society intertwined with robotics and connected through the interconnected web. How do we see it as inhabitants of the planet, where do we want to go as a society and how can art help to build a safe path?

The festival's structure maintains the guidelines it has set itself in previous years, while the structure defining the individual segments of the festival is established as a framework to which the individual units are attached.

The main exhibition, which highlights some of the key and important creators, theorists and researchers who have made a visible contribution to the development of computer art in Slovenia, and thus to the Festival, will this time be dedicated to Janez Strehovec, Slovenian philosopher, associate professor of new media theory and researcher in new media and electronic literature. We will introduce the author by reviewing his books, journal articles and lecture recordings. On the occasion of this festival edition, Narvika Bovcon, new media artist, curator, reviewer and university professor, will prepare an in-depth account of his work, while Mojca Puncer, PhD in philosophy, assistant professor at the University of Maribor, lecturer in aesthetics and theory of contemporary art, will record a conversation with the author, which will be broadcast as part of the exhibition in the upper foyer of the Vetrinjski dvor. As last year, there will be a festival centre and information point. The hall will host concerts and sound performances by local and international artists and performers. Simon Macuh and Estela Žutić, Simon Whetham and Jata C.

At the end of the week, a round table will be held at the same venue to reflect on the vision and possible future of computer art and digital society. The panellists will be women artists participating in this year's festival.

The main exhibition will also occupy the lower space of the Vetrinjski dvor, where Jasna Hribernik, Stevan Kojić and Betina Habjanič will present their works, as well as several other locations around the city. The installation works will be on display in a condensed form in the windows of the former Fashion House and the windows of the E2RD, Bags&Moore and Polzela stores. Zvonka T. Simčič, Monika Pocrnjić, Valerie Wolf Gang , Melissa Ghazale, Larisa Blazić, Martin Bricelj Baraga and Sara Bezovšek will exhibit their works. Lavoslava Benčič will present her installation on the Main Square and in the empty shop windows on Koroška Street. The Cultural Incubator will serve as an exhibition space for the presentation of visual and sound projects by younger artists Dalea Kovačec, Lazar Mihajlović and Vid Merlak. Aphra Tesla and Stefan Doepner's inter-media project will also be on show in the Synagogue, while the artist Toni Soprano Meneglejte will be presenting her work in GT22 as part of the accompanying programme. Within this strand, there will also be a theatre performance by Apophenia/1/, the opening of work at the Jewish Street Gallery and an exhibition by Miranda Moss and Daniel Brownell.

In addition to the main and accompanying exhibition programme, concerts and performances, and theoretical work, the festival is once again associated with RTV Slovenia, specifically with the Ars programme of Radio Slovenia and the Maribor Television Unit. Every year, there will be workshops for young people and children, organised by KonS, and the student prizes will be awarded, and the winners will have their work displayed in an exhibition at the Media Nox gallery.

Support

Production partners

konS ≡ Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art is a project chosen on the public call for the selection of the operations “Network of Investigative Art and Culture Centres”. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.

Partners

  • Sinagoga

  • Botega

  • BAGS&MORE

Media partners