Today the International Photography and Media Art Festival IPMA, organised for the first time, officially opens.

The organising team invites the entire Kauno kolegija Higher Education Institution (HEI) community to actively participate in the festival events, which will delve into the topic of interaction between artificial intelligence and art. Can art be political and timeless at the same time? How to monetize creativity? How will the perception of art and who will be its author change with the development of artificial intelligence? More than 20 professionals from the field of culture will be invited to discuss new and relevant opportunities in photography, media and artificial intelligence and will present their work during the festival.

The start of the festival is the presentation of the experimental installation “Trauma porn” by the scandalous artist Boris Eldagsen (Germany), which will take place on 3 October, at 5 p.m. in the Temporary M. K. Čiurlionis Art Gallery (A. Mackevičius str. 27, Kaunas). Using the photographs of Nazi Germany and the Second World War as a source of images, with the help of AI, the artist tries to recreate the traumatic memories of his father, who was sixteen years old at the time.

At 7 p.m. in the amphitheatre of the “Žalgiris” arena (Karaliaus Mindaugos pr. 50, Kaunas), B. Eldagsen will present the idea and context of the “Trauma porn” project, and will invite a discussion about societal traumas and their long-term consequences.

Attendance at the festival events is free for the Kauno kolegija HEI community.

Festival organisers: Kauno kolegija Higher Education Institution

Director of the festival: Svetlana Batura, coordinator of the Photography study programme (Academy of Arts of Faculty of Arts and Education).