From September 3 to 7, 2025, Linz once again became the international stage for media art, hosting a new edition of the Ars Electronica Festival. The city turned into a living laboratory where the dialogue between art, science, and technology reached one of its most advanced expressions.
In this context, Haltadefinizione renewed and expanded its participation in the festival with two new projects, developed in partnership with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and DESY – Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron – and presented in the immersive Deep Space 8K environment.
The Triumph of Bacchus by Michaelina Wautier, 1655/59, Kunsthistorisches Museum (©) Haltadefinizione
Both projects represent cutting-edge collaborations between art and technology. The project with the Kunsthistorisches Museum highlighted a seventeenth-century masterpiece by the Flemish painter Michaelina Wautier: The Triumph of Bacchus. The monumental canvas was digitized by Haltadefinizione using gigapixel technology through a photographic campaign of about 200 individual shots, resulting in a 15-gigabyte image file.
During the event The Triumph of Bacchus by Michaelina Wautier. Gigapixel Image from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Charlotte Roosen—art historian and assistant curator for Flemish Baroque painting at the Viennese museum—guided the audience through the digital work, revealing its extraordinary detail and the expressive power of the artist.
Quantum Transformation I, Photo Deep Space: Magdalena Sick-Leitner / Ars Electronica
The second project, Quantum Computers & Art, developed in collaboration with DESY – Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, one of Germany’s leading research centers, explored the potential of quantum computers as tools for artistic creation. At the center of the presentation was Quantum Transformation I, an oil painting inspired by Caravaggio’s famous Narcissus, which entered into dialogue with the gigapixel digital twin of the Baroque masterpiece, created in partnership with the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome.
Haltadefinizione’s participation in Ars Electronica Festival 2025 confirms that digital innovation and artificial intelligence are not merely technological tools, but true catalysts for a new aesthetic experience—a path that makes artistic heritage more accessible, engaging, and closer to an ever wider audience.
