ISTANBUL : The Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF) is set to host its fourth edition this year. It gathers artists and digital artworks from around the world annually to celebrate the transformation of art.
The festival, which will run from May 2 to 5 at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM), will explore how digital arts and virtual worlds interact with the concept of reality and how this interaction transforms the human experience.
Gaming space
The festival’s gaming segment, titled “Regarding the Impossibility of the Norm and the Solemn Verdict of a Paradox,” will redefine the boundaries of the avatar experience through video games and virtual reality technologies with the curator Rahim Ünlü.
Exploring the historical evolution of the “avatar” concept, the exhibition will challenge visitors’ perceptions of reality through an interactive art experience. Art enthusiasts will delve into the various dimensions of existence, examining the relationships between reality and virtual reality, identity and gaming, and humanity and avatars through award-winning interactive artworks.
Unfocus Studio will present its collaboration with the globally renowned metaverse platform, The Sandbox, unveiling the “Goddexx: The Cyber Myth” experience for the first time at the IDAF. Bridging the gap between the metaverse and the physical world, this experience will immerse visitors in a gamified art experience exploring themes of quantum computers and cloning.
Winner of the 2023 VR Art Prize, Mohsen Hazrati will introduce his latest work, “QQQ,” to art enthusiasts for the first time at the festival. Inspired by the artist’s own life, “QQQ” is an interactive digital art installation depicting the demolition of a car controlled by visitors’ voices.
An international production set to hit theaters in the coming months, “Taisu Project,” in collaboration with Japan-based studio UneMeta, will offer an interactive experience at the IDAF. Featuring directors from Japan, China and the U.S., this science fiction and fantasy-themed film interweaves four interconnected stories, promising audiences unforgettable moments.
Music space
The music space of the festival introduces an exhibition titled “Stanza.” In musical terminology, a stanza refers to a poem set to music, characterized by a recurring pattern of rhyme and subject matter. This title encompasses both literary and formal musical considerations. It explores the concept of reality in music, transcending various boundaries of musical styles and performing arts. These artworks are crafted by an international collective of pioneering figures at the intersection of Digital Art and Music. Featured artists include Portrait XO (LA), Matthew D. Gantt (New York), Juan Cortes/Atractor and Semantica Studios.
Farhad Farzali, born in 1989 in Baku, infuses traditional Azerbaijani culture with contemporary music and aesthetics, offering poignant commentary on his homeland’s geopolitical landscape. His art is showcased globally, from the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival to the Venice Biennale and he delves into Azerbaijan’s cultural depths, documenting its neo-folklore with anthropological insight.
Based in Berlin, Farzali pushes artistic boundaries, as seen in his groundbreaking “Leyli va Macnun artificial intelligence AI Opera.” This project reimagines Azerbaijani Mugham opera as the world’s first AI-created Mugham Hip-Hopera, marrying cutting-edge technology with cultural heritage. “Layla and Majnu” is a classic narrative poem in Persian literature, often attributed to the 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi. It tells the tragic love story of Leyli, a noblewoman and Qays (Majnu), an Arab poet driven to madness by his unrequited love for Leyla.
Juan Cortes, a Colombian artist based in Bogota, merges various art forms, from installations to recordings, exploring interdisciplinary connections between art, science and pedagogy. Recognized with awards such as the VII Art Awards at the Alternate Space Gallery and the PRAC grant from the Colombian Ministry of Culture, Cortes has exhibited his works globally, including at prestigious venues like New York’s MoMA and Madrid’s Art Center CMA.
One of Cortes’ notable works, “A Tale of Two Seeds,” delves into the impact of agricultural-industrial colonization in Latin America, particularly in Colombia. Through sonic expressions of the changing Andean landscape after the introduction of GM soy monocultures, Cortes utilizes recordings of soil and plant electrical conductivity. The installation highlights the conflict between soy monocultures and indigenous plants like amaranth, once sacred but now classified as a parasite by multinational corporations.
