Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition

Welcome to Pluriversal Futures
Emiko Ogawa (JP/AT) / Co-Curator & Head of Prix Ars Electronica

Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s longest-running media art competition, and since its inception in 1987, it has consistently served as a sensitive barometer of the spirit of the times. The Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition, where the award-winning works are presented, offers an excellent opportunity to learn about concepts of the futures that have yet to be articulated. In 2025, there were 3,987 entries from 98 countries around the world. The award-winning works in the categories of New Animation Art, Digital Musics & Sound Art, and Artificial Life & Intelligence are on show at the Lentos Kunstmuseum.
 
A notable trend among this year’s award-winning works is the reinterpretation of humanity from a planetary and long-term perspective and the expression of “multiple” and even “pluriversal” visions of the futures that are appropriate to specific cultures and contexts. In this era of uncertainty and rapid technological advancement, artists invite us to participate in future visions in a provocative way through their works.  
 
The Golden Nica for New Animation Art was awarded to Requiem for an Exit, an expanded cinema experience featuring a 4-meter-tall robot created through sophisticated projection mapping that speaks to all of humanity about the essence of being human. This work, a long-term collaboration between Norwegian composer and sound designer Frode Oldereid and artist and author Thomas Kvam, takes the simple form of a robot’s monologue, challenging us to consider the world from the perspective of “humanity” as a whole, in which nationality and race are transcended. 
 
The Golden Nica for Artificial Life & Intelligence was awarded to Guanaquerx. This project retraces the route of the “Andes Crossing,” a historical event that served as one of the catalysts for Latin America’s decolonization in the 19th century, reinterpreted in a contemporary context. Paula Gaetano Adi, born in Argentina and currently a professor of Computation, Technology, and Culture in the United States, redefines the relationship between humans, machines, and the Earth by reimagining robots not as tools for environmental exploitation but as allies in repairing the planet. 
 
The Golden Nica for Digital Musics & Sound Art was awarded to Organism, an installation and performance that reconstructs a historic pipe organ and combines it with three pendulums to create a new instrument that evokes chaos and sonic turbulence. This project, realized through the collaboration of Iranian-Canadian artist and composer Navid Navab and Canadian artist and audio engineer Garnet Willis, invites people to experience poetic sounds that embrace uncertainty and entanglement, rather than controlled composition. 
 
We, who live in a world where we have some degree of freedom to engage with technology like AI and robotics, as well as scientific knowledge and data, are challenged by the artists, who pose such astute questions as: Are you still content to be a bystander? What vision do you resonate with, and how will you take on a part of the responsibility for the futures?