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2026 VISUREAL · International Image Art Festival (VIIAF)

The VISUREAL · International Image Art Festival (VIIAF) is an international platform dedicated to image-based practices, integrating artistic production with research-driven curatorial inquiry. Situated within contemporary global contexts, the festival employs image-making as an open visual language to critically re-examine the cultural significance of the Silk Road across both historical processes and the present world.

Within this project, the Silk Road is no longer regarded as a static historical route, but as a dynamic cultural field that traverses time, geography, and civilizations. Networks of migration, trade, technological transmission, and the exchange of ideas have continuously shaped social structures and modes of human understanding. Against this backdrop, the art festival positions image-based practices as a critical means of connecting historical memory, lived reality, and future imagination, engaging with contemporary issues such as civilizational exchange, cultural coexistence, and plural identities.

I. Project Vision |
The art festival positions moving image as a key medium for understanding the world and reconstructing narratives, emphasizing the active role of image-making in historical writing, social memory, and cultural imagination. Diverse forms—including photography, micro-films, short videos, video works, animation, interactive media, AI-generated imagery, and AR/VR immersive installations—are not treated merely as technical tools within the project, but as manifestations of distinct cognitive structures and modes of seeing.

Through the juxtaposition of multiple visual languages, the project seeks to move beyond singular civilizational viewpoints and linear historical narratives, enabling the historical experience of the Silk Road to be re-viewed, reinterpreted, and newly articulated within a contemporary context.

II. Academic Position & Curatorial Approach |
VISUREAL · International Image Art Festival (VIIAF) situates image-based practice within epistemological and methodological discourse. Here, images are not simply records or representations of reality; they function as generative forms of knowledge that participate in the construction of history, the production of space, and the formation of cultural meaning.

Rejecting a linear conception of time, the project constructs a multi-temporal viewing structure by placing images from different historical periods, geopolitical contexts, and technological conditions in dialogue. History is thus presented as an unfinished process that continuously enters the present. Historical image archives are approached as materials capable of reactivation and re-contextualization, while contemporary image practices offer critical responses to social realities, technological transformations, and global mobility.

Spatially, the art festival examines the Silk Road as a cultural network defined by movement and circulation, exploring how images—through perspective, narrative, and media technologies—shape visual imaginaries of “center and periphery” and “self and other,” while critically reflecting on the power structures and cultural positions embedded within them.

III. Artists & International Scope |
The 2026 art festival will bring together image-based works by artists from 30 countries, encompassing historical documentary footage, contemporary moving image art, and experimental projects based on new technologies. Within the program, artists participate not only as creators of artworks but also as researchers and cultural observers, engaging in ongoing discussions around images, history, and contemporary issues.

By juxtaposing diverse cultural backgrounds, generations, and creative methodologies, the art festival foregrounds difference, rupture, and uncertainty as essential dimensions shown for understanding the complexity of the Silk Road.

IV. Platform Mechanism & Exchange |
Through a multi-layered structure—including physical exhibitions, academic forums, thematic symposia, international workshops, and digital screenings—the art festival establishes an international image art platform that integrates presentation, research, and public exchange. Emphasizing process and openness, the platform encourages interaction among artistic practice, theoretical inquiry, and public participation, positioning image art as a vital component of cross-cultural knowledge production.

V. Initiator & Origin |
The art festival is initiated by Chengdu Nongyuan International Art Village.

As a representative platform for contemporary art and cultural exchange in western China, Chengdu Nongyuan International Art Village has long been committed to contemporary artistic creation, international artist residencies, academic research, and public cultural practice. It has developed sustained and stable curatorial experience in image-based art, experimental moving images, and cross-media practices. >> Learn More About the Art Village >>

Taking this location as its point of departure, the art festival is rooted in Chengdu’s significant geographical and cultural position within the historical Silk Road and the contemporary Belt and Road cultural network, while extending toward countries along the Belt and Road and the broader global context—forming an image art exchange structure that begins locally and expands internationally.

VI. Public Value & Vision |
VISUREAL · International Image Art Festival (VIIAF) does not seek to offer a single conclusion about the Silk Road. Instead, through image-based practices, it constructs an open visual field in which multiple narratives, diverse perspectives, and critical modes of viewing can coexist. The project emphasizes mutual observation and understanding across history and the present, East and West, art and technology, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and cognitive exchange.

In this process, the public is not merely a viewer of images, but an active participant in the production of meaning. Through sustained image practices and public discourse, the art festival aspires to provide a cultural platform for reflecting on modes of civilizational exchange, understanding difference, and exploring possibilities of coexistence in contemporary society.

VII. Image-Based |
Image-based art refers to artistic practices that use images and moving images as their central medium, encompassing photography, micro-films, short videos, video works, animation, interactive media, AI-generated imagery, and AR/VR immersive installations. In image-based art, images are not merely a means of representation; they serve as expressions of cognition and thought, enabling exploration of the relationships between history, society, culture, and individual experience.

Image-based art transcends the boundaries of traditional media, integrating technology, experimental approaches, and interactivity, transforming the audience from passive viewers into active participants and critical observers. It offers new perspectives on historical narratives, social memory, and cultural imagination, while providing a platform for multidimensional perception and cross-cultural dialogue. As such, image-based art constitutes an indispensable form of contemporary artistic practice.

VIII. Artistic Theme |
Interwoven Time-Spaces: From Waystations to Nodes

The Image-based Silk Road: Memory, Reality, and Imagination

This international art festival explores how human connections are formed across time, space, and technology. Using the Silk Road as a cultural model rather than a historical route, the project examines networks of movement, exchange, and communication from pre-modern civilizations to today’s digital world.

Through image-based practices—photography, moving image, documentary, and emerging technologies—the festival investigates how historical memory, bodily migration, material circulation, and technological systems continuously reshape global culture.

The theme unfolds through four interconnected dimensions:
▼ Waystations (History & Memory)
▼ Corridors (Human Mobility)
▼ Trade Routes (Material Flow)
▼ Nodes (Technology & Networks)

The theme unfolds through four interconnected dimensions:
▼ Waystations (History & Memory)
▼ Corridors (Human Mobility)
▼ Trade Routes (Material Flow)
▼ Nodes (Technology & Networks)
>> For more information on Artistic Theme >>

Deadline for submissions: May 01, 2026. >> Application Form >>

Please send your application form and artwork submissions to: ny20plus.project@gmail.com

IX. Festival Schedule｜
May 01, 2026: Announcement of selected artists for the residency program and the exhibition.
May 06-08, 2026: Selected residency program artists arrive in Chengdu, China.
June 9-11, 2026: 3-Day Site Visit.
June 12-25, 2026: Two-Week Residency for Creative Work (4 Days Preparation + 6 Days Filming + 4 Days Post-Production).
June 26, June 26, 2026: Festival Opening Ceremony.
June 26-28, 2026: Three-Day Screening Festival.
June 26-September 26, 2026: Documenta Exhibition.