VIENNA.- The art world has descended on Vienna once again: Already in its 13th edition, VIENNA ART WEEK offers comprehensive insights into the Austrian capital’s art scene, with around 200 top-class events from 70 program partners to lead the way. Guided by the theme Transforming Technology, this year’s art festival focuses on the impact technical innovations and digitization processes have had on art. A press conference held this morning with artist Moon Ribas, Eva Blimlinger (Rector of Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Hans-Peter Wipplinger (Director of Leopold Museum), Rainer Stadlbauer (Art Space SUPER), Robert Punkenhofer (Artistic Director of VIENNA ART WEEK), and Martin Böhm (President of Art Cluster Vienna) at DOROTHEUM Vienna gave an overview of the VIENNA ART WEEK 2017 program.

Spanish artist Moon Ribas, a leading protagonist of the cyborg movement, explained her perspective on the rapid technological change. She has had a sensor implanted into her elbow that vibrates as soon as an earthquake can be felt somewhere in the world. Ribas’ performances make these tectonic movements visible to the audience: “Cybernetics, for me, is about the artist using technology as a tool. We don’t have to be separate from the machine. It’s more unique and personal to embed it into your self and create new perceptions.”

Moon Ribas’ performance Seismic Percussions is one of the highlights of the Art & Technology Line-Up happening tomorrow (Tuesday) at MAK Vienna. Continuing the successful performative interview marathon format launched last year, the event brings together high-ranking experts from the fields of science, art and technology whose work explores Transforming Technology with different formats and in a variety of ways.

Robert Punkenhofer, Artistic Director of VIENNA ART WEEK, said of this year’s theme: “New technologies have always had an undeniable impact on art. Artists today are not just appropriating digital innovations; they are using them to critically analyze social reality and newly-emerging spaces of experience, and not least to ask what authenticity means today.”

The VIENNA ART WEEK program incorporates not only the city’s most important museums, galleries and art academies, but a number of exhibition spaces and independent initiatives as well. The Alternative Space Open House on Wednesday casts a spotlight on the Austrian capital’s emerging art spaces for the first time, welcoming visitors to explore yet another facet of this city’s cultural landscape.

With its unique abundance of high-profile openings, actions, screenings, open studios, guided tours and discussions, Vienna Art Week has become a fixture in the annual art calendar. Its multifaceted program attracts not only art lovers from Austria and abroad, but a great number of art professionals as well. A festival organized by Art Cluster Vienna (a consortium of 24 art institutions), this year’s edition is once again expecting around 35,000 visitors.

“I am delighted to see VIENNA ART WEEK continue to develop so successfully year after year, offering its visitors a program of lasting appeal. The art festival has also succeeded in triggering new discourses in the art field – both in Vienna and beyond,” says Martin Böhm, President of Art Cluster Vienna.