IMAF 2026 selects 17 video artists after record 144 submissions

The Italia Media Art Festival has chosen 13 video works and four invited artists for its 2026 program after a record 144 submissions. The festival will preview the selected works at Maker Faire Rome in October, then launch its first major international media art exhibition in November.

Why it matters: - The Italia Media Art Festival is expanding its reach as many cultural festivals face tighter public funding. - The 144 submissions mark the largest pool the festival has received, signaling stronger international interest in media art. - The selected works will debut in front of a broad public audience at Maker Faire Rome, one of Europe’s major innovation events.

What happened: - IMAF 2026 selected 13 video art works through its international Open Call and added four invited artists to the program. - The festival is the third edition of Italia Media Art Festival, promoted by the Piccola Venezia APS Association in collaboration with Rome Art Week. - Enel supports the Open Call for Video Art & Performance, and Snam supports the Open Call for Video Installations. - The festival received 144 submissions this year: 113 for Video Art & Performance and 31 for Video Installations. - The selected works for the Video Art section are already listed on the festival’s official website. - The selected performers and video installations will be announced on August 25.

The details: - Artistic Director Marinellys Tremamunno set the curatorial theme as “The Energy That Transforms: Human and Spiritual Strength Turned into Action for the Future.” - Tremamunno curated the selection with Jimmy Yánez, IMAF Artistic Director for Latin America. - The festival describes the 2026 selection as spanning pixel art, video poetry, generative artificial intelligence, audiovisual experimentation and dreamlike narratives. - The Italian selection includes Laura D’Agate, Giorgio Gerardi, Filippo Prestinari, Ylenia Raviola and Michela Sbrana. - D’Agate’s “Time and Space” uses collage and an original soundtrack by Tazio Iacobacci. - Gerardi’s “Tree” examines perception, technology and everyday objects. - Prestinari’s “Vis Viva” draws on Leibniz’s concept of living force. - Raviola’s “Veemente” turns a spontaneously written phrase into a reflection on energy. - Sbrana’s “Sacrificio” blends real images and generative AI with a piano soundtrack composed and performed by the artist. - The international selection includes Joseph Ayerle, Johan Barbosa, Andre Figueroa, Anastasia Pavlova, Kenneth Russo, Negar Samadikia, Angelina Voskopoulou and Nan Zhang. - Ayerle’s “1058 MHz. Basel Club Edit” is a high-frequency work conceived for Swiss EDM clubs. - Barbosa’s “Jungle Souls” treats the jungle as a living spiritual body. - Figueroa’s “El Salar” uses pixel-art animation inspired by Andean folklore. - Pavlova’s “From One Point” traces art from a prehistoric figure to Gothic architecture, painting, music and dance. - Russo’s “Doubt” focuses on the fragility of critical thinking in a screen-saturated world. - Samadikia’s “Time” explores migration through sensory editing. - Voskopoulou’s “I Soli che Bruciano” centers on memory, transition and loss. - Zhang’s “Hyperdimensional Symbiote” evolves from a moving cell into a physical installation of luminous spheres and tentacles. - The invited artists are Marco Caridad, Bruno Cerboni, Victoria Thomen and the duo GlitchA/V Project. - Caridad’s “Noche de San Juan” uses a ritual sea walk as a symbolic act of liberation from injustice. - Cerboni’s “Lux Humana” is a three-part visual poem made entirely with artificial intelligence in the METAMORPHOSIS DÉCO language. - Thomen’s “Mons Movens” compares the mountain to the human being as a form of continuous transformation. - GlitchA/V Project’s “Emergent Thoughts” combines mutating female faces, branching forms, acoustic ensemble and electronic sound generated in Pure Data.

Between the lines: - The curatorial theme links energy to both technology and ethics, not just power or infrastructure. - The mix of AI-based works, pixel art, sound-driven pieces and spiritual imagery suggests the festival is positioning media art as both experimental and reflective. - The record submission volume gives IMAF more international visibility and likely helped justify extending the evaluation timeline and staggering announcements.

What’s next: - IMAF will announce the selected Video Installation and Performance artists on August 25. - The selected works will screen October 23-25 at Gazometro Ostiense in Rome during Maker Faire Rome – The European Edition and Rome Art Week. - The festival plans a premiere of the selected works at a venue and date to be announced. - IMAF also plans its first major international media art exhibition in November 2026, with the venue, participating artists and full program to follow. - More information is available on the festival’s official website. - The festival also shares updates on Instagram and YouTube.

The bottom line: - IMAF 2026 is growing fast, drawing a record number of entries and using Maker Faire Rome to push media art into a larger public spotlight.