Welcome to The New Art Fest ’17

The New Art Fest is an annual international festival of ‘new media’, and an important platform for artistic creativity and theoretical reflection associated with technology, science, and society. In this second edition, The New Art Fest presents more than 50 authors, including artists, speakers, and collectives, and focuses its attention on a major subject: Lisboa Cidade Aberta (Lisbon, an Open City).

The exhibition Lisboa Cidade Aberta reflects the deep technological transformation of today’s cities, stimulated by the extreme expansion of information, representation and computing technologies. Smart telephones and cameras, locative media, artificial intelligence, robotics and post-internet art (that is, what happens to art and culture in general when virtual worlds invade the historical material reality) are some of the strong references of The New Art Fest program.

In addition to the works on display, this edition of The New Art Fest will give special attention to collectives and collaborative platforms of art and technology, as well as to recent social trends with significant impacts on the city life. New trens in tourism, powered by social networks and new information technologies, as well as the great influx of new creative minds in cities like Lisbon will feed two important panel discussions. The New Art fest ‘17 will also welcome the first prototype of an interdisciplinary project called Segunda Cidade (Second City). According to their authors, Second City will be the future electronic map of Lisbon.

Last but not least, shorts videos will be screened on an interactive digital platform called TOMI, spread around streets and subway stations.

The New Art Fest will once again join the cultural program of the Web Summit. This year presenting robot-painters and discussing the implications of new technologies on the arts.

And, two very special tours will be part of this edition of the festival:

– a tour to the art community Oficinas do Convento in the nearby town of Montemor-o-Novo;

– and a ‘psychogeographic’ walk through Lisbon, followed by lunch and guided tour of the exhibition.

Under the direction of António Cerveira Pinto, The New Art Fest is a production of  Ocupart | Arte em espaços improváveis.

Venue: National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC) at Rua da Escola Politécnica, Lisbon.