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Civa – Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art
|indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus|
The Civa media art festival highlights the interplay between contemporary technologies, realities, and experiences across digital, physical, and hybrid spaces. This year’s festival and exhibition will focus on the realm of quanta.
More than a century of research in quantum physics has shown that the universe is neither deterministic nor entirely comprehensible or rational. At the microscopic level, matter behaves according to principles that defy classical logic: particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, their properties emerge through interaction, and through entanglement, they can remain connected even across light years.
Quantum research has unsettled the long-standing distinctions between subject and object, perception and matter, and Self and Other. In a world shaped by ecological crises, technological disruptions, and epistemic ruptures, these insights also find resonance in contemporary art.
The Civa media arts festival is co-organized and continually developed by Belvedere 21 and sound:frame.
Further information can be found below or at
Belvedere 21
Opening Hours
Address
Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna
Getting thereIn cooperation with
Festival and Exhibition
|indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus| brings together artistic approaches that view the indeterminate as an aesthetic, political, and speculative realm. The artists engage with quantum concepts through poetic gestures, multi-layered embodied experiences, and playful abstraction. They explore the infrastructures of emerging quantum technologies and experiment with their creative potential. In doing so, they shed light on the frequently overlooked ecological and social implications that these technologies present while also negotiating their possibilities and inherent ambivalences.
The exhibition title, |indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus| draws on the bra-ket notation, a formalism used in quantum mechanics to describe states and their transformations. “Indeterminate” refers to an unmeasured quantum system—a state of potentiality where nothing has been established yet. “Apparatus” refers not only to the measuring instrument but also to the complex constellation of the observer, the observed, and the conditions of their encounter. This apparatus extends beyond the laboratory to encompass the structures that define what qualifies as knowable and visible—institutions, bodies, discourses, and power relations.
|indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus| asks how a quantum worldview could take shape that embraces a grammar of non-binarity, allows for indeterminacy, and reconfigures the apparatuses through which reality is created. Here, indeterminacy is not viewed as a limitation of knowledge but rather as a fundamental prerequisite of reality. Instead of an either/or choice, it opens up the possibility of both/and.
Festival:
October 2 – 4, 2025
Exhibition:
October 2, 2025 – February 1, 2026
Artists in the exhibition:
Black Quantum Futurism, Alice Bucknell, Libby Heaney, Natalie Paneng, Mike Rijnierse
Festival director and curator:
Eva Fischer
Assistant curator:
Anna Ewa Dyrko
Co-curator and advisor:
Ana Prendes (Arts at CERN)
Co-curators:
Leon Lapa Pereira & Yannik Güldner (iii – instrument inventors initiative)
Glossary
From Agential Realism to Wave Function—this glossary provides short definitions of key concepts in quantum physics.
Videos
Festival Program
With an extensive interdisciplinary program of talks, film screenings, workshops, and audiovisual live performances, the Civa media art festival offers three days of exchange, inspiration, and networking opportunities. |indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus| explores what form a worldview might take that speaks the language of non-binarity, embraces uncertainty, and reimagines the apparatus through which we construct reality. In this context, indeterminacy is not viewed as the limit of understanding but as a fundamental condition of reality.
Program
2. October
10 am - 12 am (midnight)
On the opening day of the festival, Civa 2025 welcomes visitors to Belvedere 21 and invites them to immerse themselves in this year’s theme: |indeterminate⟩⟨apparatus|. The day begins with a curator’s tour, offering initial insights into the exhibition and festival program. Throughout the day, the Blickle Kino presents an internationally curated short film loop, exploring speculative perspectives on quantum phenomena. An Ambassador’s Tour offers personal approaches to the exhibition, which is open all day. In the evening, the festival is officially launched with opening remarks and a DJ line-up. A multifaceted opening – where theory meets moving image, discourse meets sound.
10 am
Screening: Short Film Loop
Featuring films by Jordan Belson, S()fia Braga, Tania Candiani, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Chino Moya, Blanca Pujals, Riar Rizaldi, Marina Otero Verzier & Manuel Correa, Günseli Yalcinkaya, Luis Enrique Zela-Koort
Curated by Ana Prendes and Eva Fischer
All day until midnight
Location: Blickle Kino
12:00 am
Ambassador’s Tour
With Carla Richter and Laura Welzenbach
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Exhibition (Lower Ground Floor)
Language: English
2 pm
Podcast-Studio
Hosted by The Black Cube
With Giulia Yoko Galbarini and Carlo Rizzo
Duration: 150 minutes
Location: Event Space
7 pm
Opening
With Stella Rollig, Eva Fischer, Ana Prendes and artists of the exhibition
Location: Event Space
OPENING PARTY TIME-TABLE
Presented by Radio Superfly
7:30 pm
Ayo Aloba (Sounds of Blackness)
9 pm
PETRIK (Crazy Superdrive, Radio Superfly)
10:30 pm
Caillou (Civa)
More information at civa.at
3 October
12 am - 10:45 pm
The second day of the Civa Media Art Festival is dedicated to exchange and dialogue: interactive talks, panels, and performances open up new perspectives on quantum ecologies, emerging technologies, and future narratives. At Blickle Kino, vision meets reality as artists such as Chino Moya and Marina Otero Verzier & Manuel Correa present their works and engage in conversation with Ana Prendes (Arts at CERN), co-curator of this year’s thematic focus, discussing the philosophical, physical, and speculative dimensions of quantum architectural theory and practice – and a future shaped by human, non-human, and machine intelligence.
In the panel (Afro)Futurities and the Manipulation of Space-Time, Rasheedah Phillips (Black Quantum Futurism), Nelly Y. Pinkrah, and Djamila Grandits explore politics of time, technology, and Afrofuturism, weaving together political theory and speculative visions of the future.
The evening concludes with a series of live performances that make quantum physics both audible and visible.
12 am
Ambassador’s Tour
With Carla Richter and Laura Welzenbach
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Exhibition (Lower Ground Floor)
2 pm
Interactive Discussion: QUANTUM. Resonances of an Ecosystem
With Claudia Reinprecht, Matthias Kettemann, Gláucia Murta, Margarete Jahrmann and Somya Rathee
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: Event Space
In cooperation with Austria’s Federal Ministry European and International Affairs, the University of Innsbruck (Department of Legal Theory and the Future of Law), and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Experimental Game Cultures)
In cooperation with Austria’s Federal Ministry European and International Affairs, University of Innsbruck (Department of Legal Theory and the Future of Law) and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Experimental Game Cultures)
4 pm
Discursive Screening: Four Fluctuations
By Chino Moya
Followed by a conversation between Ana Prendes and Chino Moya
Duration: 45 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
5 pm
Panel: Building for Quantum: On Quantum Computing, Technological Infrastructures, and Speculative Artistic Approaches
With Ivona Brandic, Marina Otero Verzier and Manuel Correa
Moderated by Ana Prendes
Duration: 75 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
In cooperation with Vienna Design Week and VISTA Science Experience Center – Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
6:45 pm
Panel: (Afro)Futurities and the Manipulation of Space-Time
With Rasheedah Phillips and Nelly Yaa Pinkrah
Moderated by Djamila Grandits
Duration: 75 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
8:30 pm
LIVE AV Performance: THE SOUND OF ENTANGLEMENT
By Clemens Wenger, Manu Mayr, Judith Schwarz, Enar de Dios Rodriguez, Philipp Haslinger and Benjamin Orthner
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
In cooperation with USTEM —The electron microscopy facility of TU Vienna
The project is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), specifically its department of Art and Culture/Music and Performing Arts.
10 pm
LIVE AV Performance: Always Neverywhere
By Zanshin
Duration: 45 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
The discourse program is presented by the Vienna Business Agency.
More information at civa.at
4 October
6:30 pm - 9 pm
On the third day of the Civa media art festival, workshop, exhibition, panel, and performance merge into a multisensory journey through the indeterminate. Key parts of the day’s program were co-curated by iii (instrument inventors initiative).
The day begins with a workshop by Seba Kayan on the decolonization of electronic music. In the panel Sensing the Unseen, artists, scientists, and theorists discuss perception and the limits of experience. This is followed by a conversation on the catalog essay Quantum Witchcraft, in which author Tanja Traxler and media historian Martin Reinhart explore feminist theory and the ghosts of the quantum realm.
With the installation Komorebi, the festival expands for the first time into the sculpture garden of Belvedere 21, where sunlight, wind, and technology form a poetic choreography. The evening is completed by three live performances from the iii (instrument inventors initiative) network at Blickle Kino, before Seba Kayan closes the festival with a DJ set in the foyer as part of the Long Night of Museums.
11 am
Workshop: Decolonize Electronic Music: The Search of Repressed Possibilities
Led by Seba Kayan
In cooperation with Sonic Territories – Festival for Sound, Audiovisual and Transdisciplinary Art 2025 and Civa
Duration: 180 minutes
Location: Office Tower
12 am
Curator’s Tour
With Eva Fischer and Ana Prendes
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Exhibition (Lower Ground Floor)
Installation: Komorebi
By Matteo Marangoni and Dieter Vandoren
Until 7:00 PM
Location: Sculpture Garden
3:30 pm
Panel: Sensing the Unseen: Art, Science & the Perception of Invisible Realms
With Patrick Emonts, Mike Rijnierse, Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand and Natalie Paneng
Moderated by Leon Lapa Pereira
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: Event Space
Supported by Studio Quantum, a project by Goethe-Institut Irland
5:30 pm
Performance: Komorebi
By Matteo Marangoni and Dieter Vandoren
Duration: 30 minutes
Location: Sculpture Garden
7 pm
Panel: Quantum Witchcraft: Feminist Theory and the Ghosts of the Quantum Realm
With Tanja Traxler and Martin Reinhart in conversation with Julia Grillmayr
Duration: 75 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
8:30 pm
Live-AV-Performance: Force Field
By Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand
Duration: 30 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
9:30 pm
Live-AV-Performance: ALL EYES ON
By Sophia Bulgakova and Mark IJzerman
Duration: 30 minutes
Location: Blickle Kino
10 pm
DJ-Set von Seba Kayan
Duration: 120 minutes
Location: Foyer
In cooperation with Sonic Territories – Festival for Sound, Audiovisual and Transdisciplinary Art 2025
Closing Party of the Civa Media Art Festival
With Unsafe+Sounds and A party called JACK
Until 4:00 AM
Location: Celeste, Hamburgerstraße 18, 1050 Vienna
The discourse program is presented by the Vienna Business Agency.
Das Diskursprogramm wird präsentiert von der Wirtschaftsagentur Wien.
The installation, performance, interactive talk, and live AV performances on October 4 take place in cooperation with iii (instrument inventors initiative), supported by the Creative Industry Fund NL.
More information at civa.at
Please note that photographs, audio and film recordings are made on behalf of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere on the premises and grounds of the museum and may be published in (social) media, in publications and on websites of the Belvedere on the basis of our legitimate interest in reporting, public relations and documentation, and may be passed on to our cooperation partners* for the same purpose. If you do not wish to be photographed or filmed, please speak to the photographers or staff on site. Information on data protection and your rights may be obtained from our staff or at www.belvedere.at/en/privacy-policy
*Civa – Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art • 100 collectors • A party called JACK • A.T.C – Austrian Truss Constructions • Atominstitut, TU Wien • BMEIA – Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten • Creative Industries Fund NL • D—Arts • Digital Assets Association Austria (DAAA) • EIT Culture & Creativity • iii (instrument inventors initiative) • Österreichische Bundesforste • Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF • Radio Superfly • Sonic Territories – Festival for Sound, Audiovisual and Transdisciplinary Art 2025 • Studio Quantum (Goethe-Institut Irland) • The Black Cube • Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien • Universität Innsbruck (Institut für Theorie und Zukunft des Rechts) • Universität Wien, Fakultät für Physik • Unsafe+Sounds • USTEM – die Elektronenmikroskopie der TU Wien • Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) – Quantum Outside the Box • Vienna Club Commission • Vienna Design Week • VISTA Science Experience Center – Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) • Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs- und Technologiefonds • Wirtschaftsagentur Wien • YOUKI – International Youth Media Festival
