In its eighth year, the collaboration between Ars Electronica and Chile’s Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage and Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to evolve, creating new opportunities for Chilean artists to engage with the international media art community. What began as a joint effort to strengthen the visibility of Chilean media art has grown into a long-standing partnership marked by artistic exchange, critical dialogue, and an ongoing commitment to experimentation.
This year’s open call drew a wide range of submissions from artists across Chile—as well as from Chilean practitioners living abroad—highlighting the diversity of voices, regions, and approaches that define the country’s media art scene. From large-scale installations and sound-based works to performances rooted in ritual and technology, the proposals reflected an impressive range of formats and ideas.
Two projects have been selected for this year’s festival: one will be presented in the Theme Exhibition, and the other as part of the Nightline performance program. Both offer powerful and timely responses to the festival’s 2025 theme, Panic – yes/no.
Winners 2025
Kika Echeverría (CL)
The Echoes of Prometheus
One of the most striking responses to this year’s theme Panic – yes/no came in the form of a work that approaches panic not as a singular emotional state, but as a layered historical and material condition. The Echoes of Prometheus resonates with the theme through its exploration of extraction, ignition, and aftermath—tracing the charged relationship between technology, destruction, and ritual. Set against the backdrop of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the work engages the viewer not only through sound and fire, but through a critical reflection on how the tools of progress often carry with them the seeds of panic. It is this thoughtful interplay of symbolism, atmosphere, and lived geography that led to its selection for the Theme Exhibition.
The Echoes of Prometheus takes shape around a long copper sheet suspended in space—an elemental surface charged with symbolism. Each day, a live performance traces a line of gunpowder across the copper, ignited in a fleeting act that produces fire, sound, and transformation. Microphones capture every subtle vibration, translating the ephemeral gesture into an evolving soundscape. Over five days, the metal darkens, the echoes accumulate, and the installation becomes a site of memory and ritual. Rooted in the charged landscapes of northern Chile, the work explores the destructive and generative powers of fire, questioning the legacies of extraction while invoking the myth of Prometheus as a metaphor for both technological promise and its fallout.
Produced in collaboration with Carlos Sfeir Vottero (CL).
Photo: Iron56 Studio Prototype / Carlos Sfeir Vottero
Paula OS (CL)
Image
Paula OS offers a work that addresses inner turbulence with striking emotional and sonic precision. Her live performance Image stood out for its immersive quality, nuanced composition, and the way it channels personal and collective experiences of disorientation, isolation, and transformation. Through voice, rhythm, and texture, Paula crafts an introspective yet expansive sound journey that moves beyond genre into a space of raw affect and vulnerability. Her ability to translate psychological states into embodied performance makes Image a powerful contribution to the festival’s Nightline program, offering a contemplative counterpoint to the intensity of the surrounding chaos.
Image is a live adaptation of Paula OS’s debut solo album, released in early 2025. Conceived during the isolation of the pandemic, the project reflects a deep exploration of emotional states such as fear, disorientation, and resilience. Through a carefully layered mix of ambient textures, ethereal vocals, and shifting rhythms, Paula creates an immersive sonic landscape that invites introspection. The performance is not a static reproduction of the album, but a living composition—open to improvisation and shaped in real time by the energy of the moment. Image positions sound as a language beyond words, offering a powerful space for collective reflection on the psychological impact of global upheaval.
Photo: Nayla Delponte
The presentation of the projects is a collaboration by Ars Electronica Linz GmbH & Co KG with Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio and Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile.