Light Year 92: If all bodies attract each other, how is it possible the Universe is expanding? {December 1, 2022}

Participating Artists: Janet Biggs, Meredith Drum, Dakota Gearhart, and Faith Holland

Curated by Eva Davidova

Somewhere in Jean Baudrillar’s book Cool Memories (1990), about the “disillusioned side of America”, I read the phrase “crossing spaces is erotic”. In an instant (and at least for an instant) my own disillusionment and melancholy were shattered. I think the crossing spaces that Baudrillard referred to is the joy of inhabiting with action. The joy of creating a relationship with an inert space and turning it into a living organism, to inhabit together, rather than in it. The drive behind this program is that kind of joy.

In Dakota Gearhart’s Life Touching Life a half toxic-algae-bloom, half woman is the joyful presenter of a new life. Our neurons and skin cells have rebelled and remixed and woven a tangible dream of something akin to justice. Like an octopus tethered to the internet, in Wire Bath, Faith Holland bathes in a tangle of ethernet cables and bubbles—a scene full of pleasure and a vague aftertaste of danger. Is it the combination of water and cables? Or the knots that touch and caress, but also slightly suffocate? Nothing is alive in Meredith Drum’s Séance for Dead Horse Bay—except everything is, in another dimension, where the agency of bodies and photons is inverted, and the wasted lives of horses in Dead Horse Bay have re-emerged as rays of light. The most difficult to grasp inversion, perhaps because it appears so familiar, is that in Janet Biggs’ Airs Above The Ground. Her young synchronized swimmer, separated from any sense of gravity, seems not to need air to breathe, but requires incessant movement to survive.

The four artists in this program propose tensions bursting with pleasure, effort, and abandonment. They create a sticky physicality that touches invisible realities and rejects “normal” behaviors, both of matter and of relationships. Would that mean that matter and relationships are malleable, and only ingrained perceptions and inertia prevent our dissolution into one joyful, fluid, ever-changing
collectiveness?

Light Year 91: Inhabiting Zenobia {November 3, 2022}

Participating Artists: Jamila Campagna & Alektron, Raffaella Valsecchi, Francesca Manca di Villahermosa, Miltos Manetas, Alessio Liberati, Dimitri Porcu & Lionel Martin

Curated by Costanza Ferrini

Zenobia is the name Italo Calvino had given to the vertical city in his book Invisible Cities. Composed of stilts on dry land and bamboo and zinc houses, with many galleries and balconies, placed at different heights, on stilts that climb over each other, connected by ladders and hanging sidewalks ... Different ways of inhabiting it. This exhibition of video art shows some of the forms of "vertical world-cities”: scattered, suspended, nameless like the people who live in them, hidden in megalopolises and cities everywhere, seen through the outlook of Italian Mediterranean culture.

The condition of being on the step of a staircase, waiting, with eyes fixed on a horizon from which nothing comes, means that a temporariness can become permanent, as happens to the inhabitants of the fortress of Dino Buzzati’s Tartar Steppe: he keeps repeating the same story: I am here provisionally, from one day to the next I'm waiting ... It is the condition of nameless inhabitants, invisible like their Zenobias. Attempting dialogue with closed windows and balconies from below, from the streets, walking in a Zenobia that carries a stigma stamped in the shape of the city. The music gives rhythm to the fragmented orthogonality of the original map, while the visual narration changes the vertical face of the city as it rises through cuts and glimpses, windows now left ajar.

Algorithms allow us to pick up the maps of intimate Zenobias generated by desire, pulsating with systolic and diastolic rhythms, revealing in the ebb and flow of the slow breathing of the city the existence of the invisible inhabitants, behind window panes or simple pocket frames, as part of electronic wanderings. Which galaxy does the white star appearing in a square of sky belong to? The square, a geometric figure, symbol of the earth, delimited space in opposition to the unlimited sky. The circle in it symbolize time. From which place, in the vertical city, does the electronic eye, seize the day of the internal contractions and dilations of light? The invisible city can be seen here from above. As in a Zen tale, a motorcyclist riding on a stretch of road suddenly becomes the top step of a staircase winding into the abyss. The motorcyclist tries to cross a space that is now empty: Zenobia opens up below him, shaking the belief in horizontal continuity to its core.Where is the place of utopia? Does it belong to the same lands of the Invisible Cities?It is set between hidden cores, invisible metamorphosis, times of seeds and stars. Are poems inhabiting the sky above Zenobia? The day that rises vertically on everybody, even for the nameless inhabitants of Zenobias. You reproach me because each of my stories transports you to the downtown of a city without telling you about the space that is extended between one city and another: seas cover it ... Italo Calvino Invisible Cities. A sea that is the bearer of desires and lives. People who have left their hometowns to populate future Zenobias. Not all of them succeed to it, but the sun continues to rise on lovers and on bodies in the sand.

Light Year 90: Ultra Shorts and NFTs {October 6, 2022}

Participating Artists: Sean Redbeard, Chihiro Ito, Anastasia Macmanous, Lisa Mackie, Ernesto Gonzalez and Page Rockwell, Fornax Void, Haydiroket, JNK, marcelopinel.tez, Blanche the Vidiot, Anthony Johns, Sara C. Sun, Thomas Rotenberg, Jordan Eagles, Karl Heinz Jeron, and Spøgelsesmaskinen

Supported by Leo Kuelbs Collection

As the world continues to go digital, we see changes in all aspects of life: attention spans shorten, viewing habits, global markets, banking, even the art market--are all reacting to these seismic shifts. LIGHT YEAR 90: Ultra-Shorts and NFTs explores these uncharted areas between video art, new types of digital works, short films, and commerce.

What is an ULTRA SHORT? We define an Ultra Short as any type of video content up to 90 seconds in length.

What about the NFT part of this show? NFTs are objects that have been tokenized. In this instance LIGHT YEAR presents visual objects as described above, that have also been tokenized and offered for sale. Artist and Collector, Adrian Pocobelli, presents a selection of works from his ongoing collection of NFTs, which are included in the program.

Light Year 89: Perspective/Reflective {September 1, 2022}

Participating Artists: Eszter Szabo, Jesse Fleming, Philipp Geist, Richard Jochum, Robert Seidel, Yuki Ideguchi & Suguru Ikeda

Curated by Leo Kuelbs

Perspective/Reflective is the natural response to Reflective/Perspective, a multi-artist event which took place at the German Film Museum in 2015, presented by Leo Kuelbs Collection. Reflective/Perspective dealt with how changes in perspective can alter meaning. Perspective/Reflective illuminates the same issues by considering several similar works, but from a different vantage point in time. Indeed, questions of how time, life events, as well as space/site (museum vs. public art setting), and changes in format impact meaning and experience are all valid.

Light Year 88: Summer reRuns: Transcendent Light {August 4, 2022}

Participating Artists: Light Show Sphinx (Sjaco Karmelk / Piet Koster), Sofy Yuditskaya, Sarah Zucker, George Stadnik, Valeria Divinorum, Bobby Mesaros, and Steve Pavlovsky.

Curated by Steve Pavlovsky

Transcendent Light brings together a diverse group of 8 artists from around the world, with a shared passion for light, time, experimentation, and the creation of transcendent experiences. A variety of technical interpretations are employed in the collection, spanning the spectrum of analog and digital light art. Slide projection, liquid projection, Lumia, lasers, the use of prisms, analog video synthesis, photography, digital machines, digital display, and the writing of code are all used to express the artists’ visions. This showcase includes both established and emerging artists. Several artists in this group also perform live, creating visuals and light shows in real time, in addition to producing video art in the studio.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 87: Summer reRuns: Digital Fairy Tales: Obvious Surprise {July 7, 2022}

Participating Artists: Dorothée Billard & Kinga Tóth, Juliane Pieper & Sea of Daisies, Maria Naidyonova, Kamilia Kard, Daniela Kostova, Mai’T Segura and Harald V. Uccello, Eszter Szabó

Curated by Eszter Szabó and Leo Kuelbs, with Kinga Tóth

“Digital Fairy Tales: Obvious Surprise” aims to contribute to the process of  unlearning the narrow concepts of “the female character.” The videos use a selection of old folk tales, then subvert the canonized gender roles that for generations have been instilled and are still strongly present in children’s literature. Fairy tales have always been effective tools for shaping social norms. The most popular tales have consistently been adjusted and adapted to fit the needs of the era. But today a patriarchal point of view is still the default in most cultures. This notion of “the woman’s role” seems to be hardening and even regressing further on some fronts. Meanwhile, the digital age and its inhabitants feel free to evolve and broaden the meaning of “feminine” in new and surprising ways.

The videos of “Digital Fairy Tales: Obvious Surprise” are artistic reflections on these issues. They attempt to challenge the mainstream visuality of the tame, obedient, caring woman figure by revealing characters of the wide majority who often remain invisible. Through digital reimaginings of ancient material, contemporary artists add their visions and voices into the mix; pushing the conversation forward. For this project we collected seven tales, that are relevant to
the concept. Most of them are old folk tales that depict female characters in an unusual way.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 86 {June 2, 2022}

Participating Artists: Chris Herbeck, Ernesto Gonzales, Gigi Spratley, Jack Waltrip & Steve Holloway, Marton Daniel Gabor, Simonetta Moro, Paranoid Larry

Curated by John Ensor Parker

“Village Lore” is an exhibition of video art works created by folks who lived and worked in the little village of Dumbo in years past, prior to the current real-estate and cultural developments. Dumbo was once a little village inhabited by only artists, musicians and other creative types all working and living in our studios. We gathered at each other’s studios as well as the local watering hole to discuss and challenge our creative pursuits on an ongoing basis. The result was a plethora of works and relationships of great value.

This exhibition includes works that were created in or celebrate love and appreciation of those early days of the little village of Dumbo.

Watch the Live Stream here.

Light Year 85: Urban Algorithms {May 5, 2022}

Participating artists: Dennis Rudolph, Daniel Molnar, Jung Soo Cho, Vasilena Gankovska and Anne Glassner

Curated by Boris Kostadinov

Urban Algorithms is a program presenting brand new short films from near and far. What they have in common is that they interpret meanings, influences and attitudes towards the urban environment. Some of these works explore the very specific events to find the everyday poetics of the city, while others build utopian constructions and turn this environment into an object of mythologizing, visual and intellectual manipulation.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 84: Digital Fairy Tales: Transformation! {April 7, 2022}

Participating artists: Juliane Ebner, Julia Obst and Eric Dunlap, Alexis Karl and Adam Torkel, Juliane Pieper and Sea of Daisies, Thomas Rotenberg, Sandra Ratkovic

Presented by Leo Kuelbs Collection
Translated by Sanj Nair
Thanks to the von Schönwerth archive and Erika Eichenseer; Regensburg, Germany

“Digital Fairy Tales: Transformation!” delves back into the Franz Xaver von Schönwerth archive of old German folk tales for a selection featuring wise animals making magic transformations. A group of filmmakers, illustrators, musicians, photographers, performers, and video artists have re-imagined these once often told tales in and for our digital era. In doing so, surprising connections through time, geographies, realities even, are articulated, and enlivened.

This is the eighth installment of the Digital Fairy Tales series which began in 2016, though it really began in the 1700s (or earlier) in the Oberfalz area of Germany, near what is today the Czech Republic.

Watch the Live Stream here.

Light Year 83: Deeper People {March 3, 2022}

Participating artists: Dagmar Schuerrer, Franziska Harnisch, Alisi Telengut, Christina Schulz, Yannet Vilela

Curated by Leo Kuelbs

“Deeper People” goes inside the minds of several artists, as they consider the meaning of “self” from multiple angles.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 82: Moving Silence {February 3, 2022}

Participating artists: SHOXXX, Giovanni De Roia, & Maren-Kea Freese

Curated by Marco Brosolo

The selection consists of 4 very different films, however one element unites them: a very strong poetic charge. Regardless of the style used, the "technical simpleness“ of these works enhances the essence. The musical accompaniment this time is performed by New York City itself (where the films are projected), with its sounds, noises, voices.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 81: Love Cycles {January 6, 2022}

Participating artists: Xaver Xylophon, Miriam Frank, Georg Utz, Harald Hund, Paul Horn, and Ryoya Usuha

Curated by Moving Silence

The program Love Cycles tells the same story over and over again: the basic need for intimacy and completion through a partner of one's own choice. Just like for the robot in Kurzschluss (Short Circuit), this desire seems to be deeply programmed into the system of the protagonists. Even if the starting point is similar in all three stories, neither of the protagonists seems to enjoy everyday life, the outcome develops from film to film until the happy ending.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 80: Natural Rhythm {December 2, 2021}

Participating artists: Jovi Schnell, Phoebe Tooke, Wayne Grim, Michelle Brand, Ed Rousseau, Kathleen Quillian, Dylan Hicks, Michelle Brand and Vincenzo Di Francesco

Curated by Michael Lehman

Natural Rhythm is an exhibition of four animation videos, four works seemingly unrelated, yet informed by the inherent harmony and dissonance of universal patterns, of natural rhythms, and the ways in which they interconnect, construct, interrupt, and disperse the stories we tell.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 79: Momentary {November 4, 2021}

Participating artists: Kelsey Baker, Jeremy Biggers, Melanie Clemmons, Hector Ramirez, Tramaine Townsend, and Jennifer Wester

Curated by: Leslie Moody Castro

Presented by: AURORA

Momentary is a brief and temporary rest, a time to be within the details of each video vignette. These are the slow and gradual details of intimacy and identity, of beauty in the banality of movement, of the delicate details of our pores and porousness. It is an invitation to slowness, to near stillness in movement, into a shift that invites a pause, an intermission, a breath.

Each video in this grouping asks the world to slow down, to see through a different lens, and at times, to separate vision and think beyond the body, beyond time and space, and into a world of slowness, a world of transition, a world within nuance.

This video exhibition is composed of six artists that live and work in Dallas, Texas.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 78: Dream On...Dream Of {October 7, 2021)

Participating artists: Richard Humann, Colette Lumiere, David Maroto. Zinaida, Hans Breder, Christine Davis and Jonas Mekas

Curated by Kyoko Sato and Juan Puntes and presented by WhiteBox

Dreams have been the subject of human analysis since antiquity. The ancient Greeks and Romans explored dreams through theatrical dramas; previously, ancient Egyptians theorized another life within The Book of the Dead. In 1899, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1956-1939) wrote in The Interpretation of Dreams "The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter." Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) understood dreams as messages from the unconscious, writing in The Red Book, "Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?" From ancient philosophers to pioneering psychiatrists of the 19th century, the realm of sleep is a limitless source of imagination and creation, if only we tap into it. In the screening exhibition DREAM ON…DREAM OF, we have the privilege to witness artists Richard Humann, Colette Lumiere, David Maroto, Zinaida, Hans Breder, Christine Davis, and Jonas Mekas tap into their variegated, diacritic dreamscapes.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 77: Earnestness {September 2, 2021}

Participating artists: Gigi Spratley + Jack Waltrip + Steve Holloway, Kenji Kojima, Methas Chantawongs + Mayzena, Sandrine Deumier, Sonke C. Weiss and Valerie Schaller

Curated by John Ensor Parker

“Earnestness” is an exhibition of video art works created as a result from sincere and intense human conviction.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 76: Summer reRuns: “Beyond Fear and Tyranny: The River is Here” + “Solace” {August 5, 2021}

We continue our LIGHT YEAR: Summer reRun Series with “Solace” (originally presented in September of 2020) and “Beyond Fear and Tyranny: The River is Here” (originally presented in October of 2020).
______
The audiovisual compilation "Solace" was released May 1st, 2020 by the global community of musicians and visual artists based in NYC, which was the epicenter of Covid-19 in the United States.
Featured Artists: Maria Takeuchi, Sarah Pak, Mike Romeo, Morena Sarzo, Paloma Kop, Toru Izumida, Kiyonori Sudo, Alec Fellman + xuzi, Gabriel Mester, Fernando Molina, Serena Stucke + Dan Tesene.
Curated by Testu Collective.
______
"Beyond Fear and Tyranny: The River is Here" champions artists who may have the sly wit, the new and ancient imaginaries, the hard methods to push the mass that proclaims itself to be the world through the cloaca and into the live-able.
Featured artists: Jessica Segall, Jen Liu, Gretta Louw, Tabita Rezaire and Kaya Joan.
Curated by Eva Davidova and Meredith Drum.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 75: The Spirituality of Movement {July 1, 2021}

Participating artists: Eric Dunlap, Alexis Karl & Adam Torkel, Patrice D. Bowman, Camille Schaeffer, Mária Roskó & Zsófia Ádám, and Timmi Davis

Curated by Leo Kuelbs with Julia Obst.

“The Spirituality of Movement” looks at dance and movement as means from which to reach deeper into the meaning of personhood.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 74: Thresholds and Beyond {June 3, 2021}

Participating Artists: Nina Sobell, Dagmar Schuerrer, Jesse Fleming, David Graves & Sara Sun, and Tasman Richardson. Concept by Leo Kuelbs.

LIGHT YEAR 74: Thresholds and Beyond” showcases a set of videos that explore the place where disparate realities meet, overlap and create hybrid realities.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 73: “All Natural” + “New Beginnings”

This summer, the LIGHT YEAR ReRun Series presents shows that were originally presented in 2020, in an online-only format due to the pandemic. The “ReRun” series gives these and other works the opportunity to finally be seen, as intended, on the iconic Manhattan Bridge!

ALL NATURAL

Curated by Mark Amerika

Featuring work by Sabrina Ratté, Rick Silva, Erin Espelie, Melanie Clemmons and Zak Loyd, Chris Coleman, Brenna Murphy, Will Luers and Roger Dean, Mark Amerika, and The Artist 2.0.

ALL NATURAL is a curated selection of video artworks that question the status of human nature, natural phenomena, and ontological distortions of what we might mean by the term "natural" while also poking fun at how artists, especially those who manipulate data and imagery, present the seemingly natural by other means. ALL NATURAL is, of course, also used in the food industry as part of its labeling and advertising agenda though its true meaning is more fluid across various countries than we sometimes like to think. The videos in this exhibition ask us to question what it means to have access to nature, to capture nature, to consume nature, to manipulate nature, and to feel connected to nature as if we ourselves were naturally inclined.

NEW BEGINNINGS

Videos organized by Jihyun Kim

Featuring works by Ziyu Eleanor Liu, Yuki Qu, Sarah Schechter, Sungah Jun, Nathaniel Garcia, Lingjun Zhou, Nakaweesi Kantongole, Stephanie Jenn Boggs, Sharon Peretz, Mason, and Jihyun Kim

Students of Teachers College, Columbia University, present short videos for NEW BEGINNINGS as part of the LIGHT YEAR series. The program includes videos created by both novice students and experienced video artists using video as a means of storytelling, artistic expression, and meaning-making. The novice video makers were asked to create videos by examining their daily space, mundane moments, and themselves. Their videos show them finding a visual voice and learning to communicate through video as a medium, which is a steppingstone toward artistic explorations. Additionally, videos from experienced artists have been selected through an open call. They show the spectrum that meaning making through storytelling can take. The videos prompt us to search for new beginnings, finding and telling our own stories, meanings, and moments.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 72: Virusological {April 1, 2021}

Curated by Boris Kostadinov

Works by: Olivier Hölzl, Michail Michailov, Raphaele Shirley and Miae Son  

Light Year 72: Virusological is a collection of short films created in 2020 - the year that will undoubtedly be written in a noticeable font in world history. 2020 was a year that introduced the terms ‘Pandemic Society’ and ‘New Normality’. It confronted us with the kind of fundamental changes in societies, politics and the global economy that we had forgotten since WWII. The videos in "Virusological" directly or indirectly correspond to the Covid-19 era.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 71: Digital Fairy Tales - Wasser Märchen (Water Stories) {March 4, 2021}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs

Artists: Jonathan Phelps, Mighty Kongbot + LAMA, Juliane Pieper + Sea of Daisies, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Josh Graham, Jim Ellis, Vadim Schaeffler + Alex Hamadey, Julia Obst + Mark Fernyhough

Digital Fairy Tales: Wasser Märchen (Water Stories) is a continuation of the Digital Fairy Tales series which takes inspiration and direction from German folk tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schoenwerth, a civil servant and archivist in the mid 19th century. Giants and water people cavort with peasants, royalty and crafty creatures in underwater worlds, castles and forests.

These stories were created once upon a time, long before our digital reality and were collected and held by von Schoenwerth in his archive in Regensburg, Germany. Contemporary creatives have brought the stories into a New World and offer us an opportunity to look back in time through their unique and varied lenses.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 70: Spatial Empathy {February 4, 2021}

Curated by Dirk Lehr Collection with Leo Kuelbs

Artists: Ellena Scheufler, Tracey Snelling, Andreas Gefeller, Travis Manning, and Eva-Marie Horstic

“Spatial Empathy” is a continuation of last year’s “The Interiors,” a silent slide show of photography featuring un-peopled interiors of living spaces. The idea is to evoke “spatial empathy,” a feeling that happens when the viewer imagines themselves in the spaces of another, inhabiting a different life.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 69: Evoke {January 7, 2021}

Curated by Karl Erickson with Leo Kuelbs.

Artists: Philip Vanderhyden, Colleen Keough, Rebecca Shapass, and Eric Souther.

“Thresholds and Beyond” is the place where disparate realities meet, overlap and create hybrid realities.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 68: Thresholds Beyond I {December 3, 2020}

Curated by Karl Erickson with Leo Kuelbs.

Artists: Philip Vanderhyden, Colleen Keough, Rebecca Shapass, and Eric Souther.

“Thresholds and Beyond” is the place where disparate realities meet, overlap and create hybrid realities.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 67: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil {November 5, 2020}

Curated by: John Ensor Parker

Participating Artists: Ernesto Gonzalez / USA - Mexico, Agni Zotis / USA - Greece, Gigi Spratley / USA, Jean-Michel Rolland / France, Keegan Luttrell / Germany, Malado Baldwin / USA, Valerie Schaller / Austria, dNASAb, USA and Marton Daniel Gabor, Juice / Hungary

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” serves as a celebration and reminder to all of the beauty of life as a human being on this rock spinning around the sun. In a recent talk at TEDx San Francisco, Mel Robbins mentioned that scientists estimate the probability of your being born at about one in 400 trillion, so each and every one of us are special.

These are dark times for us all, some more than others, and to stop and reflect on the beauty of our world is needed more than ever. The LIGHT YEAR program is presented on the Manhattan Bridge in the streets of Dumbo, Brooklyn. Let’s put some love and beauty in the streets!

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 66: Beyond Fear and Tyranny: the River is Here {October 1, 2020-Streaming Only}

Curated by Eva Davidova and Meredith Drum

Artists: Jessica Segall Jen Liu, Gretta Louw, Tabita Rezaire and Kaya Joan

“Is there a place we can be, exist, thrive without fear, without pain?” a character asks in Tabita Rezaire’s SENEB. Capitalism is killing too many of us, human and nonhuman. Histories and knowl- edges are erased, and the tyrants cover their greed with toxic lies. Another world is not only needed, it is possible but just barely. This screening champions artists who may have the sly wit, the new and ancient imaginaries, the hard methods to push the mass that proclaims itself to be the world through the cloaca and into the live-able. A canoe, a sorceress, recycled gold, a knife, an alligator smile, a knitted cloud of jellyfish, and secret messages hidden in chunks of DNA: tools to collaboratively unmake the darkness of global capitalism, and brave new practices to tell big-enough stories into the unknown. Another world is not only needed, it is possible.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 65: Solace {September 3, 2020-Streaming Only}

Curated by Testu Collective

Artists: Ému, Impakt, Nightshining, Morena Sarzo x ONLAND, Paloma Kop, Toru Izumida,  circler, insomniac hotel x xuzi, Gabor, Fernando Molina, Testu Collective

The audiovisual compilation 'Solace' was released May 1st by the global community of musicians and visual artists based in NYC, which was the epicenter of Covid-19 in the United States. This compilation features unreleased audiovisual art works, live recordings, and compositions of 11 projects contributed by 14 artists who are from all over the world that came together to support The International Rescue Committee in its fight against Covid-19. 100% of the proceeds were donated to The IRC. This project is entitled 'Solace ' meaning consolation in a time of deep distress. 'Solace' is the reflection of what music and visual art has meant to these artists while being in isolation and social distancing during the pandemic. 'Solace' symbolizes the hope for a renewed creativity and inventiveness in all of us during this time of crisis.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 64: New Beginnings (August 6, 2020-Streaming Only}

Artists: Works by Eleanor Ziyu Eleanor Liu, Yuki Qu, Sarah Schechter, Sungah Jun, Nathaniel Garcia, Lingjun Zhou, Nakaweesi Kantongole, Stephanie Jenn Boggs, Sharon Peretz, Mason, and Jihyun Kim

Students of Teachers College, Columbia University, present short videos on New Beginnings as part of the LIGHT YEAR series. The program includes videos created by both novice students and experienced video artists using video as a means of story-telling, artistic expression, and meaning-making.

The novice video makers were asked to create videos by examining their daily space, mundane moments, and themselves. Their videos show them finding a visual voice and learning to communicate through video as a medium, which is a steppingstone toward artistic explorations. Additionally, videos from experienced artists have been selected through an open call. They show the spectrum that meaning making through story-telling can take. The videos prompt us to search for new beginnings, finding and telling our own stories, meanings, and moments.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 63: Animation Bender {July 2, 2020-Streaming Only}

Participating Artists: Sam Marlow, Jonathan Phelps with Shir Lieberman and Alon Cohen, Nicole Antebi, Juliane Pieper with Chantelle Fuocco, Vadim Schaeffler, Josh Graham

LIGHT YEAR 63: “Animation Bender” is a set of six videos highlighting different aspects and types of animation in contemporary video art. Hand-drawn and digitally generated works intermingle and address various notions of narrative structure. A celebrated selection of artists from the USA and Europe are included in this show geared towards animation geeks and art lovers alike.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 62: Sound x Sight Playlist {June 4, 2020-Streaming Only}

Participating Artists: Sea of Daisies with Tom Rotenberg, and Normal Gergely, Kari Anna Tweiten with Mighty Kongbot and Karl Erickson, Unguided with Maria Naidyonova and Sean Smuda, Plain Brown Wrapper with Domenico Barra, N’conduit with Joan Grossman and Rani Messias

Sound and Sight Playlist is an overview of the “Sound x Sight” project which pairs musical artists with visual artists from around the world. A sort of artistic pen-pal project creating connectionand fostering the greater creative community.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 61: All Natural {May 7, 2020-Streaming Only}

Curated by Mark Amerika.

Participating Artists: Sabrina Ratté, Rick Silva, Erin Espelie, Melanie Clemmons and Zak Loyd, Chris Coleman, Brenna Murphy, Will Luers and Roger Dean, Mark Amerika and The Artist 2.0.

ALL NATURAL is a curated selection of video artworks that question the status of human nature, natural phenomena, and ontological distortions of what we might mean by the term "natural" while also poking fun at how artists, especially those who manipulate data and imagery, present the seemingly natural by other means. ALL NATURAL is, of course, also used in the food industry as part of its labeling and advertising agenda though its true meaning is more fluid across various countries than we sometimes like to think.

The videos in this exhibition ask us to question what it means to have access to nature, to capture nature, to consume nature, to manipulate nature, and to feel connected to nature as if we ourselves were naturally inclined.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 60: Obvious Surprise {April 2, 2020-Streaming Only}

Curated by Eszter Szabó, Leo Kuelbs with Kinga Tóth

Participating Artists" Doro Billiard & Kinga Tóth, Juliane Pieper, Maria Naidyonova, Kaminila Kard, Daniela Kostova, Harald Vogel & Maï T Chi, Eszter Szabó

The video + sound objects included in DIGITAL FAIRY TALES: “Obvious Surprise” aim to contribute to the process of unlearning the narrow concepts of “the female character.” The videos use a selection of old folk tales, then subvert the canonized gender roles that for generations have been instilled and are still strongly present in children’s literature.

Fairy tales have always been effective tools for shaping social norms. The most popular tales have consistently been adjusted and adapted to fit the needs of the era. But today a patriarchal point of view is still the default in most cultures. This notion of “the woman’s role” seems to be hardening and even regressing further on some fronts.  Meanwhile, the digital age and its inhabitants feel free to evolve and broaden the meaning of “feminine” in new and 
surprising ways.

The videos of DIGITAL FAIRY TALES: “Obvious Surprise” are artistic reflections on these issues. They attempt to challenge the mainstream visuality of the tame, obedient, caring woman figure by revealing characters of the wide majority who often remain invisible.

Through digital reimaginations of ancient material, contemporary artists add their visions and voices into the mix; pushing the conversation forward. For this project we collected seven tales, that are relevant to the concept. Most of them are old folk tales that depict female characters in an unusual way.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 59: Fading into the New World {March 5, 2020}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs

Participating Artists: Eike Berg + Jarboe, Bordos, Mighty KongBot (Domenico Barra + Luigi Console), Jeremy Couillard + Dennis Vos, Kitzinger Gabor, Sarah Oh-Mock

“Fading into the New World” is an exploration of the spaces between our world and the digital.  We live in a transitional mode, as real as the seasons, as epic as an epoch.  Somewhere between “here and there,” transition seems to be the new standard.  The place is between places.

This six-piece selection features work from the Leo Kuelbs Collection of video art and is culled from multiple projects spanning a several year period.  Kitzinger Gabor and Bordos are both award-winning digital mapping artists based in Budapest, Eike Berg is Director of the Schafhof European Artists Residency in Germany, Jeremy Couillard instructs on AI at an NYC University, while Sarah Oh-Mock is another award winner from Berlin.  Musicians include Jarboe (Swans), Dutch DJ, Dennis Vos and Academy Award Winner, Johann Johannsson.  The Mighty Kongbot team includes Domenico Barra, a new force in online digital arts and culture.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 58: Digital Fairy Tales: Dark Nights and Black Cats {February 6, 2020}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs with Sandra Ratkovic

Participating Artists: Maria Naidyonova, Rani Messias, Kitzinger Gabor with Alex Hamadey, Radka Salcmannova, Juliane Pieper with Sea of Daisies, Ana Bilankov, Lea Brugnoli with Carsten Schneider, Sarah Oh-Mock with Kriss Roebling and Theory

Digital Fairy Tales: “Dark Nights and Black Cats” Is a new selection of dark tales taken from the Franz Xaver von Schoenwerth archive in Regensburg, Germany. Black cats dance as the doctors’ guts are exposed, frozen stockings thaw and death gets a new jacket of shadow, courtesy of the sun. Digital Fairy Tales: “Dark Nights and Black Cats” connects those who created the stories all those many years ago with a diverse selection of artists in our digital present. Collected in the early 19th century, these dark and twisted tales are perfect for a chilly winter’s eve.

The Digital Fairy Tales series uses old tales and themes as an initial context from which to consider our common humanity from our current digital realities and perspectives, through time, backwards and forwards. As we move further towards a “singularity” between AI and the terrestrial, the Digital Fairy Tales series seeks to remind us to not forget our shared histories and what it means to be a quality human being as we evolve towards the unknown.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 57: The Interiors {January 2, 2020}

Curated by: Leo Kuelbs

Participating Artists: Stu Spence, Travis Manning, Andreas Gefeller, Sandra Ratkovic, Dani Imhoff

Silently projected in early winter on the Manhattan Bridge, “The Interiors” seeks to transport passers-by into the lives of others. LIGHT YEAR 57: “The Interiors,” is a photo-based show presenting a variety of evocative interiors sans inhabitants. The Manhattan Bridge anchorage becomes a window into other places where viewers peer into and imagine themselves elsewhere. It’s an offering of spatial empathy, another chance to better understand “the other” through experiencing their personal sanctuaries.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 56: Limb from Limb {December 5, 2019}

Curated by: Kate Gavriel

Participating Artists: Laura Bernstein, Lizzy DeVita, Kyoung eun Kang, Maggie Hazen, Lawrence Mesich, Mariana Peragallo

The works in Limb from Limb focus on our extremities and appendages – arms, legs, hands, feet, heads, and hair. While the human experience of embodiment may bring these parts together into a unified whole, these videos highlight our physical existence as assemblages of these various pieces – exploring the humor, humility, and horror of depersonalization.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 55: That’ll Learn You {November 7, 2019}

Curated by: John Ensor Parker

Participating Artists: Gene Kogan, Sophia Crespo, Sarah Meyohas and Lin Jing Jing

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in recent times and is enlisted in numerous fields including finance, healthcare, education, transportation, meteorology and military to name a few. Today a hand full of artists utilizes AI, or Machine Learning as medium of their creative process to create paintings, film, music and video art.

This exhibition is the first publicly presented video exhibition of it’s kind presenting three video works generated by artists utilizing AI and one who, while utilizing conventional video art making processes, questions our readiness and acceptance of the developing role of Artificial Intelligence.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 54: Digital Fairy Tales: Slightly Scary Stories for Children {October 3. 2019}

Curated by: Leo Kuelbs Collection

Participating Artists: Richard Jochum, Shir Lieberman and Jonathan Phelps with Alon Cohen, Jake Zhange and Theory, Nicole Antebi, Sarah Oh Mock

DIGITAL FAIRY TALES: “Slightly Scary Stories for Children” continues the DFT series with selections inspired by works from the von Schoenwerth archive in Germany, as well as more contemporary tales. The stories are visual, fun, heartfelt and timeless. A selection meant to fit with spirit of the season.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 53: From the People to the Land

Curated by: Luchia Meihua Lee, from The Taiwanese American Arts Council (TAAC)

Participating Artists: Jen-Pei Cheng, Pey-Chwen Lin, Yu-Chuan Tseng, Miya Ando, Pei-Shih Tu and Ching-Yao Chen

In From the People to the Land we pay special attention to cultural diversity and are naturally respectful to various human beings representing those varying backgrounds who collectively make America what it is.

The subject of From the People to the Land is a portion of the urgent topic of immigration in this era of globalization. A concern faced on many continents, it portends political, economic, and cultural crises. From this wider subject, we focus in on cultural issues in the new community that has been created typically in the big city where inevitable impacts are compounded, and the profound and ever-present opposition between remaining faithful to tradition and adapting to the enveloping milieu is most acutely felt.

From the People to the Land starts with an emphasis on human nature and how it adapts to movement of peoples, and then proceeds to discuss the land and environment.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 52: Digital Fairy Tales: Sun and Moon {August 1, 2019}

Curated by: Leo Kuelbs Collection

Participating Artists: Integrated Visions, Dani Imhoff, Maria Naidyonova, Radka Salcmannova, Harald Vogel and Mai T.

DIGITAL FAIRY TALES: “Sun and Moon” presents a selection of videos inspired by the collected stories of Franz Xaver von Schoenwerth compiled in the early nineteenth century. The Sun and the Moon were typically related to traditional notions of gender. But the dual nature of their relationship crosses into many other types of understanding of balance, celestial life and time-related topics. Included in this collection is a new work by Maria Naidyonova previewing DIGITAL FAIRY TALES: “Dark Night and Black Cats” to be released in Winter 2020.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 51: We the People {July 4, 2019}

Curated by: John Ensor Parker

Participating Artists: New American Voices, Ernest Gonzalez, Kelly Tsai, Pei-Ling Ho, Felipe Galindo Feggo, Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman, and Chen Ching-Yao

The United States is home to people of many different ethnic and cultural origins, who together compose this nation. This exhibition presents work from artists representing those varying ethnic and  \ cultural backgrounds that collectively make America what it is.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 50: Short Stories for Eternity {June 6, 2019}

Curated by: Steve West 

Participating Artists: Ernesto Gonzalez,  Annie Nicholson, Kara Rooney, Jessica Segal, and Steve West.

Steve West is an artist who has been a resident of DUMBO, Brooklyn since 1991, with his first studio in DUMBO, 1989. For the past 15 years, owner of the 68 Jay Street Bar. Very excited to have the opportunity to present an international line up of artist to present a public viewing of their video work on the Manhattan Bridge, in collaboration with Light Year projects.

One afternoon in December 2014, Steve West documented to theft of a graffiti sculpture by the artist REVS in the DUMBO neighborhood. The metal sculpture had been torn and smashed from it metal and cement moorings. This act of desecration signified many things to West-the forces of gentrification, the implied violence and movement incorporated in the removal of the object, and even the idea of erasing a word or text statement by physical action: REVS is a text- based graffiti artist. West has embarked on capturing the ephemeral, domestic and environmental moments he encounters. The artist presenting the works were created with the notion of the individual and universal ideas of time, grief, love and loss and thought on what it is to be a human being in our complex world.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 49: 8 Attempts to exhaust [the poetics of] a place {May 2, 2019}

Curated by: Simonetta Moro

Participating Artists: Javier Barrer, Nicole Cohen, Rebecca Hackemann, Brian Miller, Simonetta Moro, Aga Ousseinov, Cibele Vieira and Jeannie Weissglass

The videos presented in 8 Attempts to exhaust [the poetics of] a place do not necessarily adhere to a strict theme, but rather deal with the concept of place in a variety of ways. Taking as the starting point the Manhattan Bridge as the place of engagement, the bridge as material space is also the metaphor for the act of crossing over multiple spaces: we see images of other places (Venice, the moon, a garden in Vermont, protest sites, etc.), places that live in the imagination only, or places that translate the bridge into other media (the bridge as canvas). Multiple signs of signification overlap and intersect, where the one constant is the intention to use the video medium not as a work in itself, but as a language that exists fully only when considered in its interaction with the environment.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 48: Digital Fairy Tales, Vengeance is Mine {April 4, 2019}

Curated by: Leo Kuelbs and Richard Jochum

Participating Artists: Zoe Duchesne, Richard Jochum, Nina Schönefeld, Dahye Kim, Josh Graham, Sarah Mock, Radka Salcmannova, Nicole Antebi, Thomas D. Rotenberg, Matthias Fritsch

When one encounters the term “Vengeance,” it is with excitement, suspicion and dread. For vengeance to exist, there must be a prior perception of victimhood, a grievance. The scale of which is determined by the protagonist, but the roles can quickly be flipped. And flipped and flipped again. The chain of vengeance can go on and on and, unless broken, lead to ever escalating levels of calamity. This uniquely human behavior has been with us from the beginning. Ancient religious texts carry its double-edged readings of impending wrath and the fruitlessness of extravagant retaliation. Vengeance has been at the absolute heart of drama throughout the ages and still carries its edge and gravitas. But as ubiquitous as vengeance may be, one must ask, “What is the price of vengeance? If vengeance is mine, then what do I owe for its execution?”

In contemporary times, cultural fault lines have become more apparent. Though differences have always been a source of easily fanned suspicions. In our current and ever evolving digital environments, “the other” as a villain is a ready tool used to divide those with otherwise common interests. It has become almost fashionable to adopt the role of “victim” in response to a perceived slight. Then to feign delicious outrage and level an escalated counter attack. And the game goes on and on. Since the beginning of humankind. But what of Nelson Mandela and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in post-Apartheid South Africa? Reconciliation is the opposite of Vengeance and must be considered in any examination of the idea.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 47: Tales of Diverted Reality {March 7, 2019}

Curated by: Peter Fulop & Brigitta Veradi

Participating Artists (all artists are former artists in residence of ChaNorth): Chen Wang, James Hopkins & Tori Carr, Meredith Drum, Jonathan Sims, and Marisa Adesman & Christian Berman

Tales of Diverted Reality is a collection of short stories exploring perceptions of reality from ancient to contemporary, from the individual point of view. Tales can estrange the reader, in this case the viewer from the real world & allows him or her to deal with deep-rooted psychological problems and anxiety provoking incidents to achieve anatomy. Tales of Diverted Reality jumps between circling endlessly around a candy colored amusement park, the vastness of Las Vegas and the authenticity within its deception, consumer driven visual culture that dominates many commercial worlds created with 3D computer software, visual invocation of a spell formula from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and a feminist re-adaptation of the Bluebeard fairytale.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 46: Avalanche! {February 7,2019}

Curated by: Eszter Szabó, Matthias Fritsch, and Leo Kuelbs

For LIGHT YEAR 46: Avalanche!, Moving Silence, the Berlin-based network for contemporary silent film, joins forces with the usual LIGHT YEAR team, along with Hungarian media artist Eszter Szabó. The original concept for “Avalanche!” revolved around the fear of retaliation for using one’s voice. But through the call and submission process, a more nuanced message revealed itself: that is the fear of being voiceless in an out of control environment. An inspired group of international artists adds depth and dimension to the quiet anxieties encapsulated in animated, camera-based and digitally originated works. Surprising, bittersweet, sometimes funny and intense, the approximately 30 minute program loops as the sounds of the trains passing overhead provide the soundtrack; adding another level of disconnection and happenstance to the proceedings.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 45: Post Vision {January 3, 2019}

Curated by Nicole Ruggiero and Emma Stern.

Featured artists: Aitana Basquiat, Cavecanems, Jason Ebeyer, Jabbathekid, Jon Monaghan. Kim Laughton, Michael Green, Nicole Ruggiero, Olga Fedorova, Opalslutuniverse, Pastelae and Saulonzo.

The internet gives individuals more power than before to form their own identity and culture by allowing them to connect with other like-minded people around the world. For this event, we asked international 3D artists to contribute their work which is either primarily distributed online or focused on internet-based themes.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 44: Home {December 6, 2018}

Curated by Dahye Kim and initiated by Leo Kuelbs in collaboration with Richard Jochum.

Addressing Home II presents 11 video responses to the question of what home means by students of the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. As part of a course assignment for their video art class, the novice video makers were asked to envision places we call home. As time changes, so does the meaning of “home”.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 43: Other Voices {November 1, 2018}

Curated by Danielle Epstein, Marble House Project

Featured Artists: Jesse Epstein, Maya Erdelyi, Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman, Gina Kamentsky, Yuliya Lanina, Heather M. O’Brien and Emma Piper-Burket.

The eight female-identifying artists in “Other Voices” invite the audience to learn through liminal space whereby poetic gestures become essential elements in communicating history. The films in this exhibition are constructed through experiential, sensory, tactile and painterly approaches. This uniquely felt approach expands the potential of documentary - here sensory perception is held in in equal esteem to scientific fact.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 42: Hyperreal {October 4, 2018}

Curated by Kim Doan Quoc.

Featured artists: Dario Alva, Zoé Brunet-Jailly, Kira DeCoudres, Fornax Void, Katia Grokhovsky, Paul Kusnierek-Numérobé, Malo Lacroix, Raphaël Moreira Gonçalves, Wild Torus, and Adam Zaretsky.

Hyperreality is a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together. «Hyperreal» is an international art video program that presents artist videos showing slippery realities and sliding virtualities.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 41: Ephemeral Movements {September 6, 2018}

Curated by Aaron Reidel, Ma Yongfeng, and Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Alex Kuznetsov, Ma Yongfeng, Rex Detiger, Maria Naidyonova, and Fabrizio Del Rincon.

“Ephemeral Movements” is a curated video art program exploring how new media and its distribution intersect with temporal, visual, and performance art. Events that had to be seen or experienced in person and in real time, can now be captured, broadcasted, consumed, and shared worldwide. Single acts, statements, and gestures can captivate and spark international attention, debates, opportunities. What was relevant and novel to a finite community can now have the same (or even higher) impact on those who never experienced it in person.

Light Year 40: Sine Gallery {August 2, 2018}

Curated by Katie Hector and Patricia Brace.

Featured artists: Jesus Benavente, Patricia Brace, Damien Davis, Dominique Duroseau, Joiri Minaya, and Yali Romagoza.

This collection of videos illuminates a cross section of contemporary American identity through the blending of personal narratives with constructed mythologies. This screening mediates the aesthetics of graphic imagery, performance, and artistic intervention in order to extract new perspectives on the human and environmental condition. The medium of projected light amplifies these variant conceptions of identity and transposes them to a colossal scale, embedding their imagery within the architecture of the Manhattan Bridge. DUMBO, New York City becomes the substrate and the stage on which these metaphysical conversations take place as individual experience shifts into the public forum.

Light Year 39: Waves {July 5, 2018}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Johanna Keimeyer, Mattias Fritsch, Harald V. Uccello + Mai T. Segura, Nicola Rubinstein, and Thomas D. Rotenberg.

“Waves” uses water and flow as the basis for its content selection. The Manhattan Bridge is an important object spanning the East River as it opens into the Atlantic Ocean. The East River is actually a tidal Basin, meaning its current flows up and down river, depending on the Ocean’s current. These basic facts are often forgotten as the millions move through the area. “Waves” places water and flow in the center stage and reminds us of water’s absolutely crucial place in our very existence.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 38: Straight Through the Wall {June 7, 2018}

Curated by Nic Koller and Jenn Ruff.

Featured artists: Tracy Abbott Szatan, Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Jenn Ruff, Alba Soto + Óscar Vías, Raven Jackson, and Alexandra Neuman.

As people, we constantly project our understanding of the world outward. Individual understandings intermix to create a greater shared reality as we come together to form the cities we live in. Still, human knowledge cannot be separated from the human experience. Different realities exist within the scope of our cumulative understanding. With this in mind, STRAIGHT THROUGH THE WALL asked various artists what they want to say about the experience of being human. Here we present their views, intermixed, connected yet separate.

Light Year 37: Constellations {May 3, 2018}

Curated by Albert Chau.

Featured Artists: Ben Voldman, Cindy Suen, Drew Shields, Irene Feleo, Jean Jullien + Nicolas Jullien, John Balestrieri, Josh Cochran, Matt Huynh, Michael C. Hsiung, Min Liu, Rose Wong, Taezoo Park, Taili Wu + Robin Ellis, Will Herring, and Xaviera Lopez.

Beyond light and space, these stars tell stories of a time and place. No matter how far apart we are, we're all connected, like this constellation of artists.

Light Year 36: Motion by A.I.R. Gallery {April 5, 2018}

Curated by Negin Sharifzadeh.

Featured artists: Setare Arashloo, Melissa Brown, TaniaFerie + Negin Sharifzadeh, Oscar-Nominated Ru Kuwahata + Max Porter, and Jay Moorthy.

A.I.R. Gallery chose its member Negin Sharifzadeh as the curator for this exhibition. The artists were selected from A.I.R. Gallery members, as well as artists from the animation industry.

The concept of the short films vary: inspecting the non-linear essence of time; re-examining marginalized and non-hegemonic accounts of history; a surreal and playful trip to a casino; a beautifully delineated father-son relationship; a comedic portrayal of women from past decades.

Light Year 35: Digital Fairy Tales - Chinese Stories {March 1, 2018}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs Collection and Wing Lu with Able Sun.

Featured artists: Rani Messias + ANNA LEEVIA, Suguru Ikeda + Isis Salam, Nicole Antebi + Xiren Wang, Lian Mengzhuo + Kinga Toth, Nina Sobell + Laura Ortman, Laszlo Zsolt Bordos, Junjie Zhang + Theory, and Vivian Qin.

"Digital Fairy Tales: Chinese Stories" is the third installment of the Digital Fairy Tales series, which has appeared in multiple cities since 2016. The purpose of the series is to present archetypal material from different cultures and ask artists to respond in search of cultural commonalities. Also, as the times the tales were created in (represented on all levels) is so far removed from this new, digital era, we seek to create bridges through time: between people and epochs.

“Digital Fairy Tales: Chinese Stories,” which considers Chinese folk tales from four different perspectives: origins of the universe, persistence, love, and eternity

Light Year 34: Transcendent Light {February 1, 2018}

Curated by Steve Pavlovsky.

Featured artists: Light Show Sphinx (Sjaco Karmelk / Piet Koster), Sofy Yuditskaya, Sarah Zucker, George Stadnik, Valeria Divinorum, Bobby Mesaros, and Steve Pavlovsky.

Light Year 33: Textural Psychedelia {January 4, 2018}

Curated by Thomas D. Rotenberg.

Featured artists: David Hall, Cait Carvahlo, and Ronan Devlin.

Light Year 32: Addressing Home {December 7, 2017}

Concept by Leo Kuelbs.

Organized by Jesse Jagtiani.

Featured artists: Evy Yiran Li, Hiroshi Haga, Wentian Ma, Wang Xi, Anamaria Amador, Junying Lu, Ziyun Tao, Daniel Ahn, Kasey Clark, Yang Yang, Xijuan Zhang, and Jesse Jagtiani.

Watch the live stream here.

Light Year 31: Identity 0.0 {November 2, 2017}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs and Aaron Riedel.

Featured artists: Radka Salcmannova + Alex Hamadey, Sarah Mock + Daniela Imhoff, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Theologian, Sarah Trouche, Naormi Meijia Wang, Mai T. Segura + Harald V. Uccello + Alex Hamadey, Kinga Toth + Normal Gergely, Vadim Schäffler, and Richard Jochum + Xiren Wang.

Light Year 30: Open to Interpretation {October 5, 2017}

Curated by Glowing Bulbs.

Featured artists: Cyriac Harris, Yannick Jacquet (Legoman), CHiKA, Dev Harlan, Viktor Vicsek, Andrea Sztojánovits, Martin Daniel Gabor, and Albin Bousquet.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 29: We the Hell Am I {September 7, 2017}

Curated by Erin Joyce.

Featured artists: Dylan McLaughlin, Nicholas Galanin, Liss LaFleur, and Andrew Erdos.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 28: Brooklyn-Based {August 3, 2017}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Shir Lieberman, Jonathan Phelps, and Alon Cohen, Visakh Menon + Heavy Birds, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Jarboe, Nicole Antebi + Laura Ortman, Integrated Visions + Miss Natasha Enquist, Daniela Kostova + Anna Leevia, and Naormi Meijia Wang + John Terhorst.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 27: Motion {July 6, 2017}

Curated by Azzah Sultan and Chloé Angiolini.

Featured artists: John Bjerklie, Aya Momose, Rachel Monosov, Azzah Sultan, and Lior Tamim.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 26: (IM)PERSONAL {June 1, 2017}

Curated by Boris Kostadinov.

Featured artists: Bernd Oppl + Bogomir Doringer, Ibro Hasanovic, Christoph Srb + Yodas Dolphins (Karl Kilian), Kamen Stoyanov, and Katharina Swoboda.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 25: coGalleries Presents {May 4, 2017}

Curated by coGalleries.

Featured artists: Annique Delphine, Berna Reale, and Nina Schönefeld.

Light Year 24: Passenger Moment {April 6, 2017}

Curated by Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director, Taiwanese American Arts Council.

Featured artists: Meng Chih Chiang, Jeremiah Teipen, Poyen Wang, Chinchih Yang, and Rosalie Yu + Alon Chitayat.

Light Year 23: Digital Fairy Tales - Album Two {March 2, 2017}

Curated by Sandra Ratkovic and Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Keegan Luttrell + Justin King, Daniela Kostova + Anna Leevia, Daniela Imhoff, Kristian Pedersen + Elke Brauweiler, Anton Marini + Danielle Ezzo, Boris Kralj + Matresanch, and Michael McGuirk + Alex Hamadey.

Light Year 22: Neo-Past-Forward v.1.0 {February 2, 2017}

Curated by Lee Wells.

Featured artists: Bibbe Hansen, dNASAb, Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos, Lee Wells, Patrick Lichty, Raymond Salvatore Harmon, and Sean Capone.

Light Year 21: Peering Behind Appearances {January 5, 2017}

Curated by Erin Dziedzic.

Featured artists: Janaye Brown, Craig Drennen, Kevin Jerome Everson, Victoria Fu, and Lilly McElroy.

Light Year 20: Attachments {December 1, 2016}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Matl Findel, Miklos Buk, and Danielle de Picciotto.

Light Year 19: Advances and Retreats {November 3, 2016}

Curated by John Ensor Parker and Sarah Walko.

Featured artists: Jaanika Peerna, Monika Bravo, Heather M. O'Brien, Hamra Abbas, and Andrew Thomas Huang.

Light Year 18: Digital Fairy Tales - Album One {October 6, 2016}

Curated by Sandra Ratkovic and Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Rani Messias + Kinga Toth , Sarah Mock + Daniela Imhoff, Richard Jochum + Kriss Roebling, Integrated Visions + Miss Natasha Enquist, Radka Salcmannova, Thomas Rotenberg, and Josh Graham.

Light Year 17: Earth Revisited {September 1, 2016}

Concept/Curated by Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Nina Sobell + Laura Ortman, Danielle de Picciotto + Lary 7, Sarah Walko + Justin King, Laszlo Zsolt Bordos, Vadim Schaeffler + Pablo Paolo Kilian, Eike Berg + Jarboe, Shir Lieberman, and Jonathan Phelps + Alon Cohen.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 16: This Land Is Your Land {August 4, 2016}

Curated by Erin Joyce Projects.

Featured artists: Sama Alshaibi, Basma Alsharif, Raven Chacon, Nicholas Galanin, and Steven J. Yazzie.

Light Year 15: Electrique {July 7, 2016}

Curated by The Hollows Artspace.

Featured artist: Sofia Theofilaktidis.

Light Year 14: Japan Parade {June 2, 2016}

Curated by Kyoko Sato.

Featured artists: Kenji Kojima, Momoyo Torimitsu, Kenji Toma, Mami Kosemura, Motoko Wada, ON megumi Akiyoshi, Who-Fu, and Yuki Ideguchi + Suguru Ikeda + Masatora Goya.

Light Year 13: The Body Prevails {May 5, 2016}

Curated by Tamas Veszi and Daniela Kostova.

Featured artists: Andrea Wolf, Jennifer Dalton, Cliff Evans, Eva Davidova, George Peck, Adam Frelin, and Andras Borocz.

Light Year 12: One If By Land, Two If By Sea {April 7, 2016}

Curated by Albert Chau.

Featured artists: Adrian K, Alex Kwan, Cindy Suen, Aya Kakeda + Deodato Pangandoyon, Marka27, Michael C. Hsiung, Rose Wong, Stickymonger, Taezoo Park, and Scott Albrecht.

Light Year 11: Decomposition and Transcendence {March 3, 2016}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs with Aaron Riedel.

Featured artists: Radka Salcmannova, MarieVic + Theo Croker, Sarah Trouche, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Jarboe, Ryan Uzilevsky + Adam Harding, Zoe Duchesne + Alex Hamadey, and Naormi Meijia Wang + John Terhorst.

Watch a clip here.

Light Year 10: Subjectivity Inc. {February 4, 2016}

Curated by Szilvi Német.

Featured artists: Ádám Ulbert (H/NL), Natalija Vujošević (ME), Iván Rohonyi Demkó (H), Gergő Kovács (H), Tamás Komoróczky (H), and Rui Hu (USA).

Light Year 9: Silence! {January 7, 2016}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs.

Featured artists: Noah Klersfeld, Tomas Eller, Kim Joon, Yi Zhou, Eelco Brand, and Christine Schulz.

Light Year 8: New Video Art from Berlin {December 3, 2015}

Curated by Daniela Imhoff.

Featured artists: Kristian Paustian, Laszlo Antal, Daniela Imhof, Sarah Mock, Anna Maysuk, Franz Reimer, Henrike Naumann, and Franziska Kabisch.

Light Year 7: Decomposing Hierarchies {November 5, 2015}

Curated by Curated by Sarah Walko.

Works by Marble House Project 2015 Residents: Anne Katrine-Senstad, Catherine Page Harris, Orit Ben-Shitrit, Margeaux Walter, and Jeannette Ehlers.

Light Year 6: Open to Interpretation {October 1, 2015}

Curated by Glowing Bulbs/Kiégő Izzók.

Featured artists: Cyriak, Yannick Jacquet, CHi KA, Dev Harlan, Viktor Vicsek, Attaray Visual, Martin Daniel Gabor, Dawn Of Man, Albin Bousquet, Nick Cobby, and VJ DrMojo.

Light Year 5: Chimera Presents {September 3, 2015}

Curated by Patrick Urwyler.

Featured artists: Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó (Hungary), Tsuyoshi Anzai (Japan), Ádám Szabó (Hungary), and Peter Aerschmann (Switzerland).

Light Year 4: Transflexion - The Net of Mirrors {August 6, 2015}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs and Eike Berg.

Soundtrack created by Alexander Hacke (New York/Berlin).

Featured artists: Bordos.ArtWorks (Budapest), Danielle de Picciotto (New York/Berlin), Helga Griffiths (Darmstadt), Thomas Lüer (Frankfurt), Robert Seidel (Berlin), and Caspar Stracke (Helsinki).

Light Year 3: Depth of Field {July 2, 2015}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs with Farkas Fulop.

Featured artists: Thomas Draschan, Glowing Bulbs, John Ensor Parker, Vadim Schaeffler, and Ryan Uzilevsky.

Light Year 2: Crest and Trough {June 4, 2015}

Curated by John Ensor Parker and Sarah Walko.

Featured artists: Ella Condon (Australia), Joao Penoni (Brazil, South America), Klaus Pamminger (Austria, Europe), Marina Zurkow (North America, USA), Paul Miller (Antarctica), Shahram Entekhabi (Iran, Asia), and Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria, Africa).

Light Year 1: Submerged! {May 7, 2015}

Curated by Leo Kuelbs and Karl Erickson.

Featured artists: United VJs, Danielle de Picciotto + Alexander Hacke, Jim Ellis, Sam Marlow and Alon Cohen, Nicole Antebi + Laura Ortman, Kitzinger Gabor + Alex Hamadey, Shir Lieberman, Jonathan Phelps, and Fabio Fonda.