The award dedicated to digital art in Italy is back

VDA Award 2025

The Var Digital Art Award is a biennial prize, promoted by Var Digital Art by Var Group, which aims to be the first in Italy to showcase trends in digital art.

This year's award will once again provide a new vision and narrative on the relationship between art and new technologies, thanks to the collaboration and creativity of nationally and internationally renowned artists.

VDA Award 2025 returns to offer a new vision of the relationship between art, digital and new technologies

VDA Award 2025 returns to offer a new vision of the relationship between art, digital and new technologiesThe 2nd edition of Var Digital Art Award, the award that aims to explore and narrate the multiple connections between art, digital and new technologies, is back.

An opportunity to reflect on emerging trends and the expressive potential of an evolving visual grammar, through the vision of Italian and international artists and artists selected by a scientific committee composed of professors, critics, journalists and experts in the field.

Coordinated by artistic director Davide Sarchioni, the committee will identify in the coming months twelve artists and female artists among the excellence of the national scene, chosen for the originality and value of their research. Each competing work will help define the new frontiers of digital art in 2025.

The 4 finalist works

AURIEA HARVEY
mother/child, 2022-2025, digital sculpture

In this digital version, the submitted work introduces levels of participation through interactivity and augmented reality, allowing the sculpture to extend into the intimate spaces of everyday domestic life. Through fluid forms, vibrant colors, and unconventional materials, mother/child offers a powerful reflection on motherhood as a complex, luminous, and contradictory experience—one that unites strength and fragility.

MARTINA MENEGON
untouched. 7285252 (from the series untouched, 2021–ongoing), Video Installation, 5:00 min

“untouched" is a work based on an evolving series of self-portraits created through 3D scanning and presented as online sculptures, augmented reality experiences, and video installations.

QUIET ENSEMBLE
Fragile, 2025, video installation

Fragile explores the concept of fragility as both an aesthetic and generative force, unfolding in a continuous dialogue between chance and transformation. Subtle vibrations gradually trigger digital fractures that evolve into ever-changing visual forms: luminous cracks, chromatic explosions, and unpredictable ruptures that emerge from the core of electronic matter. Technology—usually hidden—reveals its physicality, exposing its organic and vulnerable nature.

THE COOL COUPLE
Flyin' High, 2021, video

This is a one-hour virtual flight from Milan to Rome aboard a digital aircraft, perfectly simulated within the AI-generated world of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The video invites us to reflect on the interconnections between our actions and the climate crisis, and on how deeply entangled we’ve become in the paradoxes we ourselves have created.

11 visions to tell the story of digital art

The 11 artists and artists differing in training, approach, language, and research direction will be invited to participate in VDA Award with a screen-based work already edited or conceived for the occasion, offering a snapshot of digital art at 360°, both consolidating pioneering research that has already emerged long ago and shaping new practices and visual alphabets.
Only four of the participating artists will be selected for the final of the prize and will present their works in a dedicated immersive room on Oct. 23 and 24 at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Rimini, during the Var Group Z!ng Event.
The committee, along with the public vote and all people who wish to cast their votes on VDA social channels will be determined to identify the winner of the 2nd Edition of VDA Award 2025.

The Scientific Committee and Coordination

Davide Sarchioni

Italian curator and critic with a background as an art historian

Since 2008 he has been working independently as an exhibition curator and art consultant for public institutions, foundations, companies, museums and art galleries in Italy and abroad. He specializes in art projects based on the synergy between artists, institutions and companies to trigger virtuous models of cultural production. Since 2022 he has been artistic director of Var Digital Art (VDA) by Var Group, a project dedicated to experimentations between art, digital technology and business.

He is also artistic director of the Trevinano Ri-Wind public art project, curator of the art projects of the Luca and Katia Tomassini Foundation, the BBS-pro studio in Prato and the Il Frantoio Association in Capalbio. From 2010 to 2015 he curated the special projects of the Museum am Dom (MAD) in Würzburg - DE. He has lectured at various Italian and international institutions and universities.

He has published essays, catalogs and monographs for several publishing houses, including SKIRA, Gangemi Editore, Gli Ori, EMMI, Bandecchi & Vivaldi, Broecking Art Edition.

Cesare Biasini Selvaggi

Independent curator, cultural manager and publicist journalist

He has been editorial director of exibart since 2017 and author and host of the TV program “State of Art” broadcast on Cusano Media Play. He actively collaborates with several foundations, including the Selina Azzoaglio Foundation and THE BANK - Institute for Contemporary Painting Studies, of which he is secretary general.

Since 2023 he has been co-curator of Ifis art, a cultural project of Banca Ifis. Author of more than one hundred essays and critical texts published by publishing houses such as Mondadori, Electa, Skira, Silvana Editoriale and others, he has curated more than 150 exhibitions of contemporary art, in Italy and abroad.

He also consults for Third Sector entities, foundations and cultural associations, with a focus on economic sustainability, cultural design and governance.

Gemma Fantacci

Curator and scholar of visual culture

She works on contemporary art and artistic practices across digital media, video games and emerging technologies. She has a PhD in Visual and Media Studies and has curated projects between research, communication and visual experimentation, including the Milan Machinima Festival and the Digital Video Wall for Metronom Gallery.

A runner and triathlete, he also explores the intersections between gamification and sports tech, with a particular interest in the influence of video game mechanics on user experience in digital services for sports

Ivan Quaroni

Critic, curator and journalist

Born in Milan in 1970, he graduated in History of Art Criticism from the Faculty of Modern Literature at the University of Milan with a thesis on the American art movements of Lowbrow Art and Pop Surrealism.

He has written for the magazines “Flash Art,” “Arte,” ‘Exibart’ and “Arte in.” He has curated numerous exhibitions in public spaces and private galleries and published the books Laboratorio Italia. New Trends in Painting (2008, Johan & Levi), Italian Newbrow (2010, Giancarlo Politi editore), Beautiful Dreamers. The New American Dream between Lowbrow Art and Pop Surrealism (2017, Falsopiano) and Crypto Art Today (Quaderni dell'Accademia Aldo Galli, 2023).

He currently teaches History of Contemporary Art at the Aldo Galli Academy of Fine Arts in Como, where he is also coordinator of the Department of Painting and Visual Languages, and Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at the IED - European Institute of Design in Milan. In 2021, he curated the NFT exhibition, titled The Future is Unwritten, at Villa Ciani, Lugano, Switzerland.

Serena Tabacchi

Curator of contemporary and digital art with a strong interest in the integration of art and new technologies

After studying theater direction and dramaturgy at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and management at City University, she worked at TATE Modern before founding MoCDA - Museum of Contemporary Digital Art.

In Italy he curates digital art exhibitions for institutions such as the Casa Museo Palazzo Maffei Fondazione Carlon, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, MAXXI L'Aquila, Museo della Permanente, OGR Torino Fondazione CRT and Palazzo Cipolla Fondazione Terzo Pilastro.

She regularly collaborates with auction houses, galleries and luxury brands (Bulgari, Luisa Via Roma, Luxottica) as a curator. She is in charge of the artistic programming of the Rifugio Digitale exhibition space and, since 2024, has been artistic director of The Bunker Magazine, published by Forma Edizioni