Digital Arts Zurich - the big festival of digital arts

The Digital Arts Zurich DA Z festival is known beyond national borders as the hotspot of digital culture. The aim of the festival is a diverse discourse on socially relevant topics relating to digitalisation. DA Z kicks off with the grand opening vernissage on Thursday, 31 October at the Museum für Gestaltung. This year it will be combined with the presentation of the DA Z Award. There will also be live acts on stage.

The exhibitions take place during the day (except Monday) at the Schule für Gestaltung and the Museum für Gestaltung in a new, immersive and audiovisual room design. They showcase the works of internationally renowned artists and the finalists of the DA Z Award. Around 70 per cent of the works are world premieres that are being shown for the first time at DA Z.

In the School of Design, hybrid formats of physical works will be shown that interact with the digital sphere. A multimedia installation about the manipulation of information, news and images refers to the current US elections, among other things.

A mixed reality show by Simon Husslein and Arne Magold entitled "Is God an AI?" will take place in the Wasserkirche. In a virtual prayer tour, visitors embark on a search for God and their own spirituality in a digital universe. The boundaries between reality and digital simulation are fluid and encourage visitors to question their perception of reality.

From Wednesday evening, the popular audiovisual concerts and performances with various artists in different combos will be held in the Wasserkirche. The international star of audiovisual art, MAOTIK - Mathieu Le Sourd, will present his new live performance MATERIA together with guest star Filip Gabriel Pudło - a top-class audiovisual performance at the interface of art, science and technology.

The final concert on Sunday, 10 November, will feature the Ukrainian star pianist Alexey Botvinov, who will add a new dimension to classical music through modern stagings with visual artists, making it accessible to a younger audience.

On Saturday, 9 November, DAZZED Night will transform the Kunsthaus into an audiovisual event venue with three stages: in the ballroom and foyer of the Chipperfield building and in the large hall of the old building. Top international acts such as Atotal and Tatsuro Arai as well as Swiss stars of the independent scene such as musicians Angelo Repetto and David Langhard will perform on the stages. In addition to the performance spaces, there will be room for relaxation and drinks at various bars.

The festival programme will be extended from Thursday to Saturday with the D.A.S.C. - Digital Arts and Sciences conference at the Kunsthaus. The conference aims to promote dialogue and networking between digital culture, business, science and society. Top speakers such as Martin Andree ("Big Tech must go") and the American journalist Elle Reeve ("Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics") have been invited.