We have selected six highlights for you, focused on international artists that you should know and definitely not miss at the SIGNAL festival in Prague!
The first stop is the Riding Hall of Prague Castle, where Korean artist Seohyo has created a colorful projection composed of elements from Prague’s architecture. Seohyo is a Korean artist and professor at the Samsung Art and Design Institute in Seoul, where she teaches creative coding. She creates installations and performative events combining ordinary objects with digital technology, visually transforming the everyday world and offering new perspectives on familiar things. Recently, she expanded her coding practice into generative art, drawing on geometry, mathematics, and inspiration from nature. Her works are often displayed on urban digital billboards, but she has also exhibited in major institutions and festivals worldwide, such as the National Museum of Korean History in Seoul, the D:Art Festival in Singapore, and the Demo Festival in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Visitors will also have free access to the Southern Gardens of Prague Castle, where they can see a reflective object from the Spanish studio SpY. SpY is a Spanish artist and his studio includes a broad team of technical specialists and craftsmen. He often involves viewers in his artistic process, working with powerful concepts and strong formal approaches that raise fundamental questions about the reality of human relationships. His projects create a dialogue with the urban environment, disrupting its daily routine and exploring it as a playground full of untapped possibilities.
The route ends at Kunsthalle Praha gallery, where you can see an exhibition by the British collective UVA. United Visual Artists (UVA) is a London studio founded in 2003 by British artist Matt Clark. Their diverse work blends new technologies with traditional media, such as sculpture, performance, and site-specific installations. Drawing on sources ranging from ancient philosophy to theoretical science, UVA explores the cultural frameworks and natural phenomena that shape our understanding, creating tools that manipulate our perception and reveal the relativity of our experiences. Rather than material objects, their works are best understood as events in time, where light, sound, and movement unfold.
This year’s festival will feature videomapping on two historic buildings in Prague. In addition to the Archbishop’s Palace (on Hradčanské Square, accessible for free to those who want to see the videomapping *Eternal Recurrence* by digital artist Filip Hodas), the audience can also look forward to a projection on the facade of the Municipal Library on Mariánské Square. This facade inspired a videomapping show by the Spanish-Danish visual duo Desilence. Based in Barcelona, Desilence consists of Tatiana Halbach (Spain) and Søren Christensen (Denmark). Since 2005, they have been creating audiovisual performances, art installations, and projection scenography for musicals and dance performances. Desilence is passionate about painting and movement, finding beauty in the birth of an idea and striving for balance. Their projection *The Rhythm of the Ocean* takes viewers into the depths of the mighty ocean, accompanied by music from five-time Grammy nominee Suzanne Ciani.
The dynamics of Old Town Square will be enlivened by an audiovisual installation from Chinese artist Cao Yuxi. His work is inspired by the motif of a totem, symbolizing belonging to the contemporary digital society. The installation, influenced by the design of QR codes and the geometric shape of a monolith, represents the interface between parallel lived worlds. It combines spatial sounds from the digital and real world.
The Baroque refectory of the Dominican Monastery will host a sound installation by world-renowned artist Bill Fontana. His project serves as a powerful reminder of the fragility of both climate and cultural balance. In 2019, the Gothic Notre-Dame Cathedral, the “soul of Paris” and a symbol of European culture, burned. The bells were spared from destruction but fell silent for many years, quietly listening to the city’s hustle and the noise of construction work. Sound artist Bill Fontana used sensors to capture the bells’ vibrations, converting these harmonic resonances into audible form. He also transported the tones of these silent Parisian bells to the icy caves of the Dachstein Massif in Austria. Here, in combination with the sound of the melting glacier, an extraordinary duet began to emerge. The Parsifal Dome in Dachstein’s ice caves is said to conceal an invaluable secret. In Anton Bruckner’s motet *Locus iste* (a form of polyphonic music), it is described as a mystery that asks how we wish to live with nature in the future. This site-specific sound duet forms the basis for *Sound Bridge*, which moves between new contexts and is part of numerous European and global galleries. Fontana’s installation marks the first collaboration between the Signal Festival and Ars Electronica in Linz, one of the most renowned new media art festivals in the world.
Bill Fontana is considered one of the founders of sound art. Since the 1970s, his sound projects have evolved into monumental spatial installations that reflect the sonic environments of specific locations. He has created projects for some of the most significant artistic events and public spaces worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, Tate Modern in London, Brooklyn Bridge in New York, and SF MOMA in San Francisco.