We are presenting the programme of the 15th edition of Patchlab Digital Art Festival: Dream Sim.
From 15 to 18 October, Patchlab will bring together digital art exhibitions, audiovisual performances, VR and XR experiences, and projects using artificial intelligence.
_Polish premieres and audiovisual performances
At Pałac Potockich, Dark Rooms | VR experience will have its Polish premiere. This immersive VR experience for adult audiences leads participants through intimate stories of sexuality, identity, trauma, and transformation.
During AV Night 1 at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Japanese master of audiovisual abstraction Ryoichi Kurokawa will present nD, the latest iteration of an audiovisual series he has been developing since 2005, with earlier versions shown at venues including Tate Modern.
Across the next two AV Nights at Hevre+1, we will present the Polish premiere of Waluigi’s Purgatory, an interactive performance by British duo dmstfctn featuring saxophonist and artist Natan Kryszk. Using their phones, the audience will be able to influence the course of a simulated world in which an AI is sent to a purgatory for systems that have “cheated” during training.
Also receiving its Polish premiere is LES EMPIRES by Canadian duo Guillaume Coutu Dumont and Line Katcho, a retrofuturist audiovisual odyssey at the intersection of science fiction, mythology, and analogue electronics, presented in collaboration with MUTEK.
Italian studio fuse* will return to Cricoteka with Onirica (), a live dance performance selected as a finalist for the Lumen Prize 2025. More than 28,000 records of real dreams will become the starting point for a performance combining dance with imagery generated in real time using AI.
_Digital art exhibitions across three locations
At the main Dream Sim exhibition at Pałac Potockich, the programme will include Scent. Witnessing Without Power by Alan Kwan, a cinematic game exploring the loss of agency; Percipio by Gáspár Battha, an interactive installation investigating the possibility of simulating physical touch; and Speculative AI by Birk Schmithüsen, an audiovisual “dialogue” between two machines that asks where communication ends and its convincing imitation begins.
At MOCAK, Yiannis Kranidiotis will present the kinetic installation Tipping Point, showing how models and predictions can transform an invisible future into a physical experience in the here and now.
At Apteka Designu, we will present Guanaquerx installation by Paula Gaetano Adi, winner of the Grand Prix Ars Electronica 2025. The project combines contemporary robotics with Andean knowledge, materials, and symbolism, proposing an alternative scenario for a technological future.
_What else?
The programme will also include exhibition openings, a curatorial tour of the main exhibition, the closing event of the exhibition at MOCAK, screenings from the Prix Ars Electronica animation programme, and Meet the Artists, featuring conversations with participating artists, as well as a meeting with the authors of THE BOOK. Patchlab Digital Art Festival 2012–2026, published to mark the festival’s 15th anniversary.
After the main events, the programme will move to the Festival Club at Hevre+1, a space for meeting, relaxing, and additional programme highlights.
Plan your Patchlab!
Tickets and festival passes coming soon on Going.