The new, seventh edition of Device_art festival of art, robotics, and new technologies at Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb once again brings exciting experiences and new perspectives on devices, gadgets, and machines that surround us, ignite our thoughts, provide us with comfort as well as disturbance.

As this year's festival concept, Machine Does Not Give Change invites us to rethink our increasingly intimate relationship with technology in a time of constant unpredictability and profound changes. An artwork asks us to scream in front of a mirror to interact with it (and release some of the stress and negative energy), while a simple walk through the Novi Zagreb neighbourhood takes us on an expedition into the sea of electromagnetic sound – fascinating and frightening at the same time. Dream machines, ballerinas from the future, space whiskers and a robotic sculptor-ecologist – all to be found at Device_art festival 7.021.

This year the festival is developed in collaboration with a group of curators from ZKM | Center for Art and Media from Karlsruhe and is conceived as a dialogue between the German and Croatian “device art” scene. This is in line with the long tradition of the festival and its previous editions dedicated to the Japanese, Canadian, Californian, Czech and Slovenian scene, as well as the global tech-art tendencies presented in its last iteration. As one of the international festivals that has been focusing on technology in contemporary art since 2004, Device_art in its new edition continues to push boundaries of artistic media through witty and provocative works and concepts that question the potentials, limitations and impacts of technology on everyday life.

The festival will present three works produced within the EMAP – European Media Art Platform network, by Moritz Simon Geist, Darsha Hewitt and Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler.

Participating artists: Alex Brajković (HR), Anthea Caddy (AU/DE) & Miodrag Gladović (HR), Kerstin Ergenzinger (DE), Dominik Gadže (HR), Moritz Simon Geist (DE), Darsha Hewitt (CA/DE), Yannick Hofmann (DE) & Johannes Jensen (DE), Christina Kubisch (DE), Carolin Liebl (DE) & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler (DE), Benoît Maubrey (US/FR/DE), Kata Mijatović (HR), Pfeifer & Kreutzer (DE), Quadrature (DE), Michail Rybakov (RU/DE), Ana Sladetić (HR), Soll (HR), Branimir Štivić (HR), Troika (DE/FR/UK), Simon Weckert (DE)

Project concept and organisation: KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis
Curatorial team: Sarah Donderer, Yannick Hofmann, Daria Mille, Philipp Ziegler (ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe); Davorka Begović, Ena Hodžić, Tereza Teklić (KONTEJNER)
Partners: ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Pogon – Zagreb Centre for Youth and Independent Culture (Zagreb), European networks EMAP - European Media Art Platform and RE-Imagine Europe
Project supported by: Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Government of the Republic of Croatia Office for Cooperation with NGOs, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb - Municipal Office for Culture, National Foundation for Civil Society Development, Kultura nova Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Zagreb Tourist Board, Embassy of Canada to Croatia
Sponsors: Erste Urbanka, Beck's Hrvatska, Aquarius, Kerschoffset, Hotel International, MediaNet, PressCut
Media sponsors: Zagreb plakat, Jutarnji list