Unframed Collection partners with NUMIX Lab, an itinerant European event that brings together immersive creation professionals in dialogue with cultural institutions across the continent. The 6th edition in 2025 brought together 459 participants from around the world across 16 venues in Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna, and Linz, fostering exchanges between Europe and North America around immersive cultural practices.
On this occasion, we met Eva Fischer, media art curator and director of the CIVA Festival, the Belvedere’s festival dedicated to media art and digital creativity. Initially launched as a fully online initiative during the first lockdowns, CIVA has since evolved into a hybrid platform bringing together artists, scientists, technologists and audiences around critical reflections on emerging technologies. Developed in collaboration with the Belvedere Museum and Belvedere 21 in Vienna, the festival explores how technological innovation – from XR to artificial intelligence and quantum science – transforms artistic practices and societal narratives. Through exhibitions, performances, games and speculative artistic projects, CIVA investigates the complex relationship between technology and society.
In this interview, Eva Fischer reflects on the festival’s hybrid origins, the curatorial challenges of presenting immersive technologies in this specific context, and the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue between art, science and technology in shaping future cultural discourse.
One of the things I love about art is its freedom. Artists can approach complex topics critically without necessarily needing to produce immediate solutions. They can speculate, imagine alternative futures and sometimes even propose utopian visions. In a broader societal debate about technological development, this speculative dimension is incredibly valuable. It opens up new ways of thinking about the future.
– Eva Fischer
CIVA, as the Belvedere’s media-art and digital creativity festival, regularly presents experimental audiovisual and interactive works. How would you describe CIVA’s DNA and artistic direction?
Eva Fischer – CIVA began fully virtual and online five years ago, during one of the first lockdowns. That moment was actually quite interesting, because it allowed us to experiment with virtual spaces and rethink how we curate environments and bring people together digitally.
Today we have returned to physical spaces, which is wonderful. But we remain deeply interested in hybrid formats, because they allow us to keep an international audience involved. For example, we integrate online games and other digital interactions into the festival. Interaction is really at the heart of what we do.
CIVA also embraces a wide range of media. The festival includes audiovisual works, immersive performances, gaming experiences and even sculptural practices — sometimes emerging from technologies such as 3D printing. We are interested in exploring different artistic forms and how they intersect with technological developments.
Each year we also focus on specific themes. Last year we explored artificial intelligence, examining not only the technology itself but the broader concept of intelligence and how we understand it. This year we are focusing on quantum science and quantum technology, which is particularly relevant as we celebrate the hundred-year anniversary of quantum science.
More broadly, our program includes many speculative perspectives. We invite artists and scientists to engage in dialogue and explore possible futures. For me, the interdisciplinary conversations that emerge from these encounters are one of the most exciting aspects of the festival.
When introducing digital or immersive formats, what are the main challenges you face in terms of curatorial coherence, technology, or audience expectations?
E.F. – When dealing with immersive technologies or new technological formats in general, many of the challenges are actually very practical.
For example, maintenance and technical management are major considerations when presenting XR or VR works. These technologies require specific infrastructures and careful planning depending on the format and the exhibition space.
At the Belvedere, we also have to consider the context of a major museum that welcomes more than two million visitors each year. Ensuring that everyone can experience these works safely and comfortably is an important challenge.
But there are also conceptual challenges. Technologies are evolving extremely quickly — we have XR, AI, quantum technologies — and all of them are developing simultaneously. The pace of innovation can be overwhelming.
Sometimes, when speaking with artists or colleagues, I feel that there is a kind of fatigue in constantly needing to stay ahead of technological developments. As a curator and festival director, navigating this rapidly evolving landscape can be both fascinating and demanding.
Another important challenge is accessibility. When bringing together audiences of different generations and different levels of technological literacy, we need to create spaces for discussion that remain open and understandable for many people.
Looking ahead, what directions or emerging practices in digital and immersive culture do you see shaping the future of the Belvedere and the CIVA Festival? Are there particular collaborations or formats you hope to explore in the coming years?
E.F. – For the future of CIVA, I believe it will remain essential to think interdisciplinarily.
Our goal is to build bridges not only between art and technology, but also with science and ecology, which are increasingly important topics today. Bringing together people from different disciplines is one of the key ambitions of the festival.
One of the things I love about art is its freedom. Artists can approach complex topics critically without necessarily needing to produce immediate solutions. They can speculate, imagine alternative futures and sometimes even propose utopian visions.
In a broader societal debate about technological development, this speculative dimension is incredibly valuable. It opens up new ways of thinking about the future.
And that is ultimately the direction in which I hope CIVA will continue to evolve.