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From April 23 to 26, Nizhny Novgorod hosted the 9th edition of INTERVALS — Russia’s largest multimedia art festival.
This year, the program reached 530,000 viewers.
For four days, Nizhny Novgorod became a global nexus for media art enthusiasts, bringing together local residents, travelers from across Russia, and international audiences.
The theme for INTERVALS 2026, "Sign / Symbol," unified the exhibition, performance, music, and educational programs, inviting artists and spectators to perceive the city as a landscape of imagery, meaning, and artistic interpretation.
The media exhibition featured artists from Russia, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany, and beyond, including Quayola, Josep Poblet, Saeed Gebaan, mammasONica, SKGPLUS, Dominic Kießling, Filip Roca, PANTERRA, Sasha Kojjio, OUROBOROS, dreamlaser, KBDUKE, re4ee, Anton Morokov, Denis Astakhov, and others.
The festival spanned over 20 locations, ranging from historic buildings and cultural institutions to riverbanks, slopes, and industrial sites. Alongside iconic venues well-known to the community (Tseh.Space, Mayak Academy, Nizhny Novgorod Fair, The Pakgauzy Exhibition Hall, and Strelka), the festival debuted new territories. For the first time, works were showcased at the Zelensky Descent, the Ice Arena, the Chkalov Staircase, Garantiya Bank, the MediaHall space, Sverdlov Square, the Sergievsky Ravine, the Protected Districts, and amidst the industrial structures of the former Sormovo Oil Refinery.
T-Bank served as the title partner, presenting the Strata installation in collaboration with dreamlaser and metanoeia studio. T2 acted as the telecommunications partner, presenting the work Transmission, created alongside dreamlaser.
The musical program featured an opening concert directed by Vladimir Varnava, featuring the Attaque de panique choir and Gruppa Varnava, as well as a nocturnal program with Husky, Yang Bing (China), GLOOM, Symbol, Metro Gorkovskaya, and Kirill Shapovalov. Media artists 404.zero, digital moss, Shihua Ma (China), and arthew0 presented immersive audiovisual performances.
The INTERVALS 2026 educational program comprised 36 events and featured over 60 speakers.
The lecture series was curated by the Kafedra platform and Tatiana Tenkova. Program partners included Central University, Moscow Music School / Universal University, Presidential Academy, HSE University Design School Nizhny Novgorod, and the MIK Foundation.
With the support of Samokat, a dedicated gaming zone was organized for festival guests.
"INTERVALS continues to evolve alongside its audience, discovering new locations and uniting a powerful international community of media artists. It is vital for us to see Nizhny Novgorod become a global destination for the media art scene. We are already inviting you to the landmark 10th anniversary of INTERVALS in 2027. This date marks a milestone for the festival, the city, and the entire media art industry in Russia", noted Denis Chuchko, Executive Producer of the festival, co-founder, and Commercial Director of dreamlaser.
"This year, we curated an exceptionally multifaceted exhibition with the widest variety of formats in INTERVALS history, including analog tools. We strive to surprise not only the audience but ourselves every year; it was incredible to witness how spectators experienced and interacted with the art", said Anna Gagarina, Curator of INTERVALS 2026 and exhibition projects at dreamlaser.
See you at INTERVALS 2027!