Athens Digital Arts Festival

ADAF logo

Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF) (Greek: Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Ψηφιακών Τεχνών της Ελλάδας) is an international festival, that takes place every May in Athens, Greece.

The festival was established in 2005, under the title Athens Video Art Festival, as an initiation of the non-profit organization Multitrab Productions to create a platform for video art, installations and live performances. Since then, it has added interactive installations, web art, workshops, animation and digital images. In January 2015, the festival changed its name into Athens Digital Arts Festival.

Through its multidisciplinary program, ADAF offers a wide range of exhibitions, screenings, live performances and workshops.

History

Over the years, the Festival gradually evolved and grew as the most important event for digital arts in Greece. ADAF has been proudly devoted to the support of innovative and artistic expression, establishing strong bonds with local and international artists, audiences and institutions.

Within the last 14 years, ADAF developed including various art forms such as web art, interactive installations, animation, digital image, performances, talks and workshops, exploring creative aspects of technology and digital culture.

Until now, it has welcomed more than 140.000 visitors from all over the world. In addition, through the Open Calls, it has received approximately 25.000 submissions, having created one of the largest databases of international artworks, worldwide.

Moreover, in the framework of its strategic partnerships, it has presented more than 50 international festivals interchanging knowledge and experience.

From 2007 to 2011, the main venue of the festival was the cultural space Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens, with 1,544 artworks hosted from 8,200 submitted. Through these years the festival presented artworks in the main categories of video art, installations and live performances, and in new ones such as web art, animation and digital image, introduced since 2009. It has also collaborated with other festivals, such as Transmediale (DE), Cologne OFF (DE), LPM (IT), videoholica (BG), IN-EDIT (ES), onedotzero (UK), and art:screen (SE).

In 2012 and 2013 the festival moved its activities to the center of Athens, with the titles “Visualize Athens” (2012) and “Living Athens” (2013). This initiative was supported by a number of volunteers, Greek Municipalities and international festivals and artists.[1]

In 2014, celebrating its 10-year anniversary, it decided to return to the cultural space “Technopolis” of Municipality of Athens. Some of the highlights were the live performances "Abandoned cities" by Hauschka[2] and "Late Speculation" by Nonotak,[3] as well as the installation “80 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes” by Zimoun.

In 2015, the festival changed its name to Athens Digital Arts Festival, with eight official categories: installations, web art, video art, animation, performances, digital image, workshops and music and introduced for the first time a specific theme,“Public Space_s”.,[1] ADAF 2015 took place in the center of Athens with its main venue at Diplarios School and two main squares of Athens for parallel activities. The festival hosted the works of 150 artists from Greece and abroad, on the theme of public space[4] both in the digital and urban environments. Some of the artists and international festivals participated in this year’s festival were Karl Heinz Heron (DE), Julian Oliver (NZ), missdata & Israeli Pirates (IL), Martin Bricelj Baraga (SI),[5] Martin Reiche (DE), MADATAC (ES), IMPAKT (NL), VIDEONALE (DE), Cologne OFF (DE), videoholica (BG), and artvideoKOELN] (DE).

ADAF has maintained active partnerships with local and international artists and audience, institutions, art foundations, schools, universities, galleries and museums and a number of 46 collaborating festivals. Athens Digital Arts Festival is also partner of AVnode, an international network of artists and professionals organizing festivals and/or working in the fields of audiovisual live performances.[6]

EFFE

Athens Digital Arts Festival is selected as one of the 26 EFFE Laureates by the EFFE International Jury. The Laureates are chosen from amongst the 715 Label recipients by EFFE – Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europefor their exemplary work and commitment to festivals' role in the arts and societies. The EFFE Award Ceremony will take place on 18 September during the Arts Festivals Salon in Brussels, hosted by the Centre of Fine Arts – BOZAR.

Athens Digital Arts Festival is the first Greek Laureate to represent the local cultural scene to the European Festivals Association (EFA).

References

  1. 1 2 "Cities and the art of cultural planning", John Montgomery, Planning Practice & Research, Vol. 5, Iss. 3, 1990
  2. ↑ City Slang, Berlin, Germany. "Hauschka: Abandoned City". City Slang.
  3. ↑ "_LATE SPECULATION - NONOTAK studio". nonotak.com.
  4. ↑ "Arts and Culture in Urban/Regional Planning: A Review and Research Agenda", Ann Markusen, Project on Regional and Industrial Economics Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 2009
  5. ↑ "NEUNUNDNEUNZIG (99)". Shape.
  6. ↑ "AVnode".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.