CYFEST 17

CYFEST and Cafesjian Center for the Arts present Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape, featuring works by more than 35 international artists and bringing contemporary media art into dialogue with the legacy of the Organic School and its experiments with color, light, space, movement, and expanded perception. Across these different practices, the exhibition looks at how we perceive a world shaped by forces and processes that are both visible and beyond the reach of ordinary perception. Sunlight, magnetic fields, geological matter, biological form, cosmic radiation, and electromagnetic signals become ways of exploring how perception is shaped by technology and by the surrounding material world.
CYFEST 17 is honored to present Natura Naturans (Latin for “nature naturing”) at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, where the exhibition enters into a meaningful dialogue with the architecture and spatial rhythm of the Cascade. Its relationship between interior and exterior, vertical movement, changing viewpoints, natural light, and the surrounding city closely reflects the exhibition’s interest in light, perception, material processes, and technological systems. In this context, the Cascade becomes more than a setting: it is integral to how Natura Naturans is experienced and understood.
The public program expands on the exhibition through performance, discussion, sound, and moving image. The opening night will feature a series of performances across the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.

Curators
Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova, Silvia Burini, Giuseppe Barbieri, Armen Yesayants, Marine Karoyan, Alexandra Dementieva, Barbara London, Diego Aguirre Fernández, Sergei Komarov, Lidiia Griaznova, Victoria Ilyushkina, Jérôme Nivet-Carzon

Artists
AES+F (Germany/USA), Marina Alexeeva (Russia), Marcela Armas (Mexico), Andy Barrt (Spain), Lisa Mara Batacchi (Italy), Liudmila Belova (Russia/Montenegro), Elie Bolard (France/Belgium), CAA (CYLAND Audio Archive; International), Alexandra Dementieva (Belgium), Anna Frants (USA), Haroutiun Galentz (Lebanon/Armenia), Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov (Russia), Hagop Hagopian (Egypt/Armenia), Sung Nam Han (Japan), Zhuang Han (France), Aernoudt Jacobs (Belgium), Sergey Kishchenko (Italy), Sergei Komarov (Armenia) & Lidiia Griaznova (United Kingdom), Alexei Kostroma (Germany), Anne-Sarah Le Meur (France), William Latham (United Kingdom), Diego Liedo (Mexico), Natalia Lyakh (France), Lev Manovich (South Korea), Tuula Närhinen (Finland), Anna Otsolainen (Estonia), Jaanika Peerna (Estonia/USA/Portugal), Matvei Peshkov (USA) & Aleksandr Bochkov (Russia/Armenia), Mariateresa Sartori (Italy), Dmitriy Shishov (Russia), Suren Tadevosyan (Armenia), Koen Theys (Belgium), Reggy Timmermans & Beatrijs Albers (Belgium/France), Eric Vernhes (France), Mathieu Zurstrassen (Belgium).

CYFEST 17 is organized by CYLAND Foundation in partnership with the Cafesjian Center for the Arts. The project's general sponsor is Frants Foundation.

The project is made possible in collaboration with Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art — CSAR, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art–Costakis Collection, ARé Fest, National Gallery of Armenia, Engineering City, Art in Country of Tokyo (AICOT).

The exhibition Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape will remain on view at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts through January 17, 2027.