Mexican Artist Wins Award in Linz

VIENNA—Colombian Natalia Rivera and Mexican Jerónimo Reyes-Retana were named winners of the fourth edition of the CIFO-Ars Electrónica 2025 awards, which for the past three years have recognized artists who explore the intersection of digital art, science, and new media.

Rivera will receive $30,000 (600,000 Mexican pesos) for her project “Bacteria Cloud of Clouds,” an installation that combines mist from collected rainwater with a digital visualization of the genetic information of the cloud microbiome, according to Ars Electrónica, cited by the EFE news agency.

Reyes-Retana's award comes with $15,000 (300,000 pesos) for “Vacío en Sonora,” a mixed-media film installation project.

The award-winning works will be presented for the first time at the Ars Electronica Festival, from September 3 to 7 in Linz, Austria.

They will then become part of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) collection, which brings together outstanding works of contemporary Latin American art.

The two award-winning projects were chosen from more than 120 proposals representing 15 Latin American countries.

"With Natalia Rivera and Jerónimo Reyes-Retana, the jury has selected two artists who impressively address ecological and social issues in Colombia and Mexico, while also addressing global phenomena," said Christl Baur, director of Ars Electronica.

Their projects "offer two unique perspectives on the singular beauty and fragility of ecosystems and communities in danger in the face of power and geopolitical constraints," Sergio Fontanella, director of Operations and Collections at CIFO, emphasizes in the same article.

“Bacteria Cloud of Clouds” investigates microbial diversity in clouds in three of the rainiest places on Earth (Lloró, Quibdó, and Tadó), located in the Chocó department of Colombia and also known for their rich microbiological life.

“Unlike seed banks that preserve plants for the future, ‘Bacteria Cloud of Clouds’ designs a digital seed of life from the clouds, inviting us to rethink our relationship with nature by imagining alternative forms of interaction,” reports Ars Electronica.

“Void in Resonance” uses the example of the fishing village of Playa Bagdad, Mexico, to show how industrial progress, and especially the SpaceX spaceport, located on US soil just four kilometers away, threatens marginalized communities.

Based on three years of research, Reyes-Retana documents in her project the serious impact that the powerful sound waves generated by rocket launches from the US side are having on the region's people, ecosystems, and traditional architecture.

The international jury also recognized three other concepts that made it to the final selection: a project by the Peruvian group FIBRA Colectivo, made up of Gianine Tabja, Lucia Monge, and Gabriela Flores del Pozo; another presented by Argentina's Claudia Valente in collaboration with Hernán Borisonik and Gonzalo Silva; and a third by Chilean Fernanda López Quilodran.
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