Also at Art Futura were several exhibitions to be seen in a fairly large inflatable structure (as pictured above). NextFun, Xperimental Arcade and Vida 9.0 were on view, the last of which was video documentation of the winners of last year's Vida 9.0 competition.

(The Vida Art & Artificial Life International Competition, conceived by artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Susie Ramsay, and supported by the Fundación Telefónica in Madrid, is in its 10.0 edition this year. Jury member Monica Bello presented quite a nice overview of previous winners of the competition at Art Futura in the Saturday morning conference - Galeria Futura).

I was particularly struck by the 1st place winner of Vida 9.0 - "Alexitimia" by Argentinian artist Paula Gaetano Adi. Not only a gorgeous sounding name for this piece, it is also a term for a disorder in which the affected person is unable to express emotions. Alexitimia is a sculpture made out of latex that resembles a large blob, as others have noted. When touched by the visitor, it begins to sweat.

"It is creative intuition that permits both the artist and the viewer to leap over logic, whether scientific or artistic, and emotionally experience the problem laid out here of reconciling the "wet" domain of nature with the "dry" domain of electronics." - Vida 9.0 Jury

I wish the piece itself had been in the exhibition, as I would have loved to have experienced it...