To mark its 20th anniversary, which will take place from April 30 to May 3 in Gijón, the festival deepens its dialogue with the local territory and reinforces its commitment to the city as a venue, hosting new media installations and performances that represent LEV’s experimental approach. All events are free to attend and open to all audiences.
As every year, the festival transforms Gijón into a leading venue for contemporary sound, audiovisual and digital experimentation, with a four-day programme that positions it asone of the main driving forces behind the urban cultural fabric. In this context, the City Circuit is organised as a series of free activities spread across municipal spaces and urban locations, designed to bring contemporary digital art closer to the publicand take the cultural experience beyond the usual venues.
Through initiatives based on emerging digital narratives, the festival acts as a mediator between the public and artistic creation, generating experiences that explore new ways of perceiving the present and the future in close relation to the local context.Spread across urban and heritage sites, these activities bring contemporary digital art to the public, engaging with both specialist audiences and new viewers, and organically integrating the programme into the life of Gijón.
IGLESIA DE LA LABORAL
ENRIQUE DEL CASTILLO
The Church of La Laboral, which reopened to the public following six years of restoration works, joins the festival as a new venue. Beneath the largest elliptical dome in Europe, Enrique del Castillo will present Umbráfono, a project that transforms celluloid into a sonic experience.
The performance uses optical readers designed and built by the artist himself, which convert into sound the light projected through 35 mm film, based on the optical-analogue reading system used since the early days of sound cinema. The films, also created by the artist, generate harmonic sounds, textures and atmospheres in a unique, unrepeatable experience.
The intervention will take place in two sessions:
Saturday, May 2 at 19:00 h.
Sunday, May 3 at 18:00 h.
TEATRO JOVELLANOS (stage box)
COD.ACT – πTon
An intriguing sound installation: a large rubber tube, closed on itself, that twists and undulates like an inverterate organism. Ther result explores the relationship between the distortion of an elastic structure and the synthesis of the human voice in real time. The piece will be presented in several performances.
The performance will be staged at various times*:
Thursday, April 30: 20.00 and 22.30h
Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2: 17.00 and 19.30h
*free admission upon collection of a ticket from the box office at the Teatro Jovellanos
COLEGIATA DEL PALACIO DE REVILLAGIGEDO
STUDIO SVEN SAUER – Deviation
Installation based on texts by historian Rutger Bregman. Following a train that moves across the room over a surface of light-catching fragments, the work reflects on how the remnants of destruction can be transformed into signs of hope.
CAPILLA DE SAN ESTEBAN DEL MAR
ANNE HOREL – La señal está abierta
Video installation exploring contemporary mythologies through digital collage, moving images, experimental narratives and artificial intelligence. The artist has developed this project specifically for the chapel, using the sacred space as a catalyst for a collective experience of reflection.
CENTRO DE CULTURA ANTIGUO INSTITUTO
ERIC VERNHES – Meeting Philip
A sort of Frankenstein robot built from scraps of audiovisual devices, the installation revolves around the lecture in which writer Philip K. Dick revealed the existence of a plurality of parallel universes and a computer programmer god.
The installation will be on display until May 24
LABORAL CENTRO DE ARTE
FÉLIX LUQUE
During L.E.V. the audience can visit La Sociedad Automática at LABoral Centro de Arte, an exhibition by Asturian artist Félix Luque, based in Brussels, which examines the relationship between automation, algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence. The art show presents a universe of automata that perpetuate their cycles within a closed system devoid of human purpose, reflecting a dystopian present and prompting us to question whether it is still possible to critically reclaim the technologies that govern us.
ESCUELA DE COMERCIO: extended realities
CARLES CASTAÑO | BORIS LABBÉ
In collaboration with Arenas Movedizas, an initiative led by the Youth Office of Gijón City Council, L.E.V. presents an extended realities programme at the Escuela de Comercio.
Carles Castaño presents *****2025/…*, a mixed reality experience that challenges audiences with a critical perspective on contemporary society. Set within an interactive dystopian environment where decisions shape the journey, the piece transforms space into a speculative fiction that reflects, with irony and a strong narrative and political charge, the contradictions of today’s society.
Meanwhile, Ito Meikyu, by Boris Labbé, is a virtual reality work awarded at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. Drawing on references from Japanese art history and literature, the project proposes virtual reality as a bridge between artistic heritage and the new possibilities of contemporary creation, articulating a sensory environment of free exploration that transforms the audience into inhabitants of the piece.
The programme is completed with SI-4202. Laboratorio abierto: imaginar, crear, habitar las Realidades Extendidas, a workshop led by Carles Castaño that offers an accessible introduction to XR technologies, guiding participants through the different stages of creating an immersive experience, from initial concept to final experimentation.
L.E.V. Festival 2026
30 April – 3 May | Gijón
www.levfestival.com
@levfestival #LEVFestival
An initiative by L.E.V. (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual)
With the support of Ayuntamiento de Gijón y Principado de Asturias
In collaboration with: Divertia, Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura, Concejalía de Cultura, Museos e Industrias Creativas del Ayuntamiento de Gijón, Concejalía de Relaciones Institucionales y Juventud del Ayuntamiento de Gijón, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Escuela Revillagigedo, Fundación Japón Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura de Taiwán, Oficina Económica y Cultural de Taipéi en España, Centro Cultural Coreano en España, Instituto Polaco de Cultura, Goethe Institut Madrid, Flanders State of the Art, Fundación Suiza para la Cultura Pro Helvetia, Arenas Movedizas, Conseyu de Mocedá de Xixón, Radio 3, OCIMAG, CLOT Magazine, Metal Magazine.
Venues: Teatro de la Laboral, LABoral Centro de Arte, Muséu del Pueblu d’Asturies, Jardín Botánico Atlántico, Iglesia de la Laboral, Teatro Jovellanos, Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto, Capilla del Palacio de Revillagigedo, Capilla de San Esteban del Mar.
Graphic Design: Pasajero37
Motion Design: Lateralideas
