CIVA is: Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art // FEB 19-27 // VIENNA (Virtual)
CIVA, Vienna’s new media art festival, aims to show the potential of artistic approaches in interaction with science, technology, and global society. At the core of the festival is the desire to build a strong network, to be a well-functioning platform for a growing international community, and to create joyful, low-threshold access for visitors of all backgrounds.
The central platform of the virtual and online CIVA is its festival website. Depending on the format and mode of the individual program points, visitors can participate in the nine-day festival free of charge via services such as Discord – the festival’s communication center – Mozilla Hubs, Twitch, Instagram, or Zoom.
Bonding, positivity, empowerment
Titled »Social Distancing – Virtual Bonding«, CIVA in 2021 explores the question of whether and how current technologies enable us to remain connected on a virtual level in times of physical distance or even to build new international networks and communities. For this purpose, CIVA – in view of the current worldwide pandemic – claims space in the virtual in particular.
The program of the first edition includes a virtual exhibition open around the clock, a three-day discourse program with international talks, workshops, and performances, four live concert evenings (details below), two film screenings, a digital wellness day, as well as a comprehensive mediation offer including theme-oriented CIVA Ambassador Groups, numerous tours, and special youth’s workshops.
Live MUSIC: virtual festival stages and other new formats
A virtual concert offers no substitute for a physical experience, but it does provide different perspectives and new experiences. CIVA brings music into its visitors’ living rooms and explores different formats over four evenings:
On the opening day, the festival audience is invited to experience audiovisual and musical performances by Jahson the Scientist and friends, Matteo Haitzmann, MONOCOLOR, Arno Deutschbauer, and Sippin’ T in virtual space, on the festival stages of Mozilla Hubs. The first Saturday of the festival will then feature an audiovisual special edition of the FM4 radio show Davidecks with the musical live acts Lou Asril and Maraskino, and live visuals by Bildwerk via live stream and radio.
The second weekend starts on February 26 with a live broadcast jam session of the musicians Mira Lu Kovacs, Beate Wiesinger, Farce, and Sixtus Preiss at the Hotel am Brillantengrund. A highlight awaits visitors on the last day of the festival: CIVA presents an audiovisual live production by PICKS with the artists Keke, Crack Ignaz, and Eli Preiss in the Virtual Production Studio. The impressive live visuals are created by Maximilian Prag.
On both festival Saturdays as well as on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, hangout sessions with DJ sets will also take place at the virtual festival area (Mozilla Hubs).
Details:
»CIVA Music Night #1«
Live sessions in Mozilla Hubs with Jahson the Scientist and friends, Matteo Haitzmann, MONOCOLOR, Arno Deutschbauer, and Sippin’ T
Friday, February 19, 8 p.m.–12 a.m. (CET)
Live stream
»CIVA Music Night #2«
Radio show in VR – FM4 x CIVA: Davidecks with live performances by Lou Asril and Maraskino, live visuals and studio mapping by Bildwerk
Saturday, February 20, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. (CET)
Live stream > Radio: FM4
»CIVA Music Night #3«
Live session at Hotel am Brillantengrund with Mira Lu Kovacs, Beate Wiesinger, Farce, and Sixtus Preiss
Friday, February 26, 7 p.m.–9 p.m. (CET)
Live stream
»CIVA Music Night #4«
Live session in the Virtual Production Studio (mediaapparat) with Keke, Crack Ignaz, and Eli Preiss
Saturday, February 27, 8 p.m.–8.30 p.m. (CET)
Live stream
New Formats: Art, Music, and Performance in the Digital Age
»Together with the performing artists, we deliberately move away from classic live streaming and invite visitors to let themselves be inspired and entertained by audiovisual formats specially designed for the festival. The CIVA music program includes a live performance from the Virtual Production Studio, the reconstruction of a music album on the virtual festival site, a jam session live from the Hotel am Brillantengrund, and the 666th edition of the FM4 program Davidecks as a radio show in VR.« – Angie Shahira Pohl and Dalia Ahmed, music curators
»CIVA was born of a strong desire to show how current media art is and always has been: Media artists deal with issues that come from the heart of society. They critically question how we deal with the media that we ourselves have created. Media that shapes people and social contexts. Media that sometimes throws us off balance. CIVA is in equal parts a festival for these artists and a festival for a society that is interested in thinking and shaping. Because in the last year especially, the digital and the virtual have helped us to stay connected on many levels. Around CIVA, for example, a wonderful collective has formed that has managed to realize a festival in just four months, even though some people on the team have never seen each other in the physical world.« – Eva Fischer, festival director