Festival

Formats
Exhibition
Amidst VR worlds, interactive interfaces, and experimental games, a vibrant panorama of contemporary digital art unfolds at Künstler*innenhaus Dortmund. The media exhibition, the centerpiece of the NEXT LEVEL Festival 2025, invites visitors to immerse themselves, explore, and co-create. Here, the boundaries between play and art, between observing and participating, blur.
To the Exhibition
Games Parcours
PCs, glowing screens, and controllers create an open gaming landscape here, inviting both curious newcomers and experienced gamers. Between 8-bit aesthetics and cinematic indie highlights, a space emerges that showcases the artistic breadth of digital (indie) games. Here, unreleased gameplays and prototypes can be tested, artistically legendary worlds explored, independent studios discovered, and experiences shared.
To the GamesEnjoy Community
Enjoy Community is NEXT LEVEL's central networking and discourse format. Here, professionals, artists, curators, and partner institutions from art, games, theater, and research come together. Keynotes, panels, and open discussion formats address current developments and challenges in digital arts – from artistic practice and technological innovation to questions of collaborative production. Participants who are themselves featured in the festival program discuss working methods, cooperation strategies, and forms of digital collaboration. Enjoy Community sees itself less as a classic conference and more as an open resonance field that equally values exchange, listening, and spontaneous encounters.
To the Format