Meet the artist: Collective Total Refusal

World at Stake / Total Refusal - Photo: Total Refusal

For Art Lovers / Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2025 / Deep Space 8K

Screening

Meet the artist: Collective Total Refusal

Total Refusal (AT)

Winners of an Honorary Mention at this year’s Prix Ars Electronica in the New Animation Art category, the pseudo-Marxist media guerrilla Total Refusal will present their latest work World at Stake. Known for their artistic interventions in digital gaming spaces, Total Refusal reappropriate the aesthetics of commercial video games to critique systems of power and control. In World at Stake, sports video games become the stage for a surreal collapse of competition, with powerless, confused players and passive spectators. The work challenges the binaries of victory and failure, offering a sharp reflection on collective inertia in the face of global crisis.

The MEET THE ARTIST event series will also feature:
• Wendi Yan (CN/US)
• Honorary Mention winner Alona Rodeh (IL/RO)
• Golden Nica winner in 2011 Alessandro Bavari (IT)

Ars Electronica Center, Level 0, Deep Space 8K
Wed 3. Sep 2025 13:30 – 14:00

Registration

Language //

EN, DE

Ticket //

ONE DAY PASS, FESTIVALPASS, FESTIVALPASS+, Ars Electronica Center Ticket

Info //

Registration required / Registrierung notwendig

  • Photo: Total Refusal

    Total Refusal

    The media guerilla Total Refusal is a collective of artists, researchers, and filmmakers who upcycle the resources of mainstream video games to create political narratives in the form of videos, interventions, performances, and lectures. Their work has been screened at over 250 film and art festivals and exhibited at various spaces. The films premiered at Berlinale '20, Locarno '22 und '23. Since their foundation in 2018, Total Refusal have been awarded with more than 50 prizes and honorary mentions, amongst them Locarnos Best Short Direction Award 2022 and Best Shortfilm at the European Film Awards 2023.