CIFRA builds an evolving archive for digital art beyond the limits of exhibition

CIFRA: A Digital Platform for New Media Art

CIFRA is a digital platform dedicated to the presentation, contextualization, and long-term accessibility of new media art. It connects artists, curators, and audiences through streaming, curated thematic collections, interviews, and educational programming. By providing a stable digital environment, the platform supports generative, AI-driven, interactive, glitch-based, and immersive works that often remain accessible only for the duration of temporary exhibitions or circulate briefly through social media.

The platform emphasizes sustained visibility and preservation. Digital-native artworks frequently disappear after exhibitions conclude; CIFRA addresses this condition by hosting and organizing works within a structured curatorial framework. Projects are presented without fees for artists, and programming is shaped through human curation rather than algorithmic sorting. Editorial texts, thematic groupings, interviews, and artist talks situate each work within its conceptual and technical context, enabling informed engagement and repeated viewing.

CIFRA also operates within physical art contexts through collaborations and public programming. The platform has partnered with events and institutions, including Art Dubai, Positions Art Fair in Berlin, Ars Electronica, and ISEA, participating in talks, gatherings, and exhibition formats that extend digital-native practices to broader audiences. The CIFRA Award recognizes work in video, cyberart, projection mapping, and interactive media. Presented internationally, from Venice to Shanghai and Barcelona, the award provides recipients with curatorial support, exposure, and grants, reinforcing the platform’s commitment to long-term artistic development.

a shot from Abstruse Revelries of a Repast by Ranbir Kaleka | image courtesy of the Artist

Centering Artists in the World of New Media Art

Hosting thousands of artworks by more than a thousand artists worldwide, CIFRA functions as an evolving archive and distribution infrastructure for new media art. By combining streaming technology, editorial framing, artist support, and participation in international fairs and festivals, it complements gallery and museum systems while enabling works to be revisited, studied, and experienced beyond the temporal limits of physical exhibitions.

In 2026, CIFRA expands its program with the solo exhibition Between What We See and What We Know by Ranbir Kaleka, on view from January 15th to March 2nd. The exhibition surveys more than three decades of the artist’s practice. Kaleka’s work examines video as a process, focusing on intervals between events, light, movement, and incremental perceptual shifts. Presented as a continuous digital environment, the exhibition unfolds as a single immersive field without a fixed sequence. Viewers navigate the works in a non-linear manner, allowing for pauses, returns, and changing perspectives.

Works such as How Far (2023), Not Anonymous – Waking to the Fear of a New Dawn (2017–2018), and House of Opaque Water (2012–2013) exemplify time-based and experiential approaches that align with CIFRA’s platform structure. Through this format, the exhibition demonstrates how digital environments can sustain extended engagement with moving-image practices.

a shot from Abstruse Revelries of a Repast by Ranbir Kaleka | image courtesy of the Artist

a shot from How Far by Ranbir Kaleka | image courtesy of the Artist

a shot from How Far by Ranbir Kaleka | image courtesy of the Artist

Artist Ranbir Kaleka | image courtesy of the Artist

Ivona Tau (Lithuania) – Summer Diary | image courtesy of CIFRA

Left James Bloom (UK) – Half Cheetah, Right Ivona Tau (Lithuania) – [Summer Diary] | image courtesy of CIFRA

Marine Bléhaut (France) – Clara | image courtesy of CIFRA

Jacopo Di Cera – Retreat | image courtesy of CIFRA

Jacopo Di Cera – Retreat | image courtesy of CIFRA

Jacopo Di Cera – Retreat | image courtesy of CIFRA

So Much Trash Studio × CIFRA. Blas Payri – Invocación a la paz | image courtesy of CIFRA

project info:

name: CIFRA
designer: CIFRA | @cifraworld

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edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom