The 17th edition of the CYFEST International Media Art Festival opened on October 15, 2026, at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan, with the exhibition Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape presented at the Center’s Sasuntsi Davit Gallery. Bringing together works by more than 35 international artists, the exhibition explores the relationship between human perception, natural phenomena, and technological systems.
Who is behind it
CYFEST 17 is organised by the Cafesjian Center for the Arts and CYLAND Media Art Lab (the official announcement for this edition names the CYLAND Foundation as organiser), with the Frants Foundation as general sponsor. According to the official presentation, the exhibition brings together works by more than 35 international artists and engages with the legacy of the Organic School and its experiments with colour, light, space and movement. Part of the show extends into the architecture and surroundings of Yerevan’s Cascade.
Beyond Perception: exploring the unseen world
The exhibition draws connections between contemporary media art and the legacy of the Organic School, particularly its experiments with color, light, space, movement, and expanded perception. Through diverse artistic practices, Natura Naturans examines how visible and imperceptible forces shape our understanding of the world. Sunlight, magnetic fields, geological matter, biological forms, cosmic radiation, and electromagnetic signals become points of departure for investigating the interplay between technology, the material environment, and the limits of human perception.
The exhibition’s setting at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts establishes a dialogue between the artworks and the architecture of the Cascade. The complex’s interplay of interior and exterior spaces, vertical movement, shifting viewpoints, and natural light resonates with the exhibition’s central concerns. In this context, the Cascade functions not merely as an architectural backdrop but as an integral element of the exhibition experience.
Live in the Moment: when movement becomes art
The festival’s public programme brings together live performances, experimental sound and moving images, featuring encounters between dancers, musicians and a humanoid robot that explore the evolving relationship between the human body, technology and space.
Alongside the exhibition, a public program of performances, discussions, sound, and moving-image presentations extends these inquiries into different artistic formats. The opening evening featured a series of performances throughout the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, marking the launch of CYFEST 17 and its exploration of the intersections between art, nature, and technology.
According to CYLAND’s published programme, the opening night on 15 October included performances by Jaanika Peerna, φø, and Andrey Smirnov and Dafin Antoniadou. Alexandra Dementieva and Andy Barrt presented a work with a Unitree G1 EDU humanoid robot, developed with Engineering City, and Francesco Cavaliere and Nicola Ratti gave sound performances. Marina Alexeeva’s mapping work Looking at You is shown on the Cascade façade.
The learning programme includes a talk by Lev Manovich on AI as a visual artistic medium and a curator’s talk by Barbara London, What Works?. A sound art and performance programme runs throughout the three months of the exhibition.
Practical information
Dates: 15 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. Venue: Cafesjian Center for the Arts, 10 Tamanyan Street, Yerevan 0009, Armenia.
Sources: CYLAND Foundation’s official programme (cyland.org); Cafesjian Center for the Arts website (cmf.am); notes by Michel Allahverdian. Report and photographs: Michel Allahverdian, for Honargardi, October 2026.