Welcoming patrons to FORMAT is the Entry Gateway designed by a local artist! Our annual competition invites Northwest Arkansas artists to submit a design proposal for the festival’s entrance gate for a chance to be awarded the Gate Grant.‍We are excited to present the winning design by Athen Brandon, a site-specific installation that will reflect the natural flow of the Ozarks region. Brandon’s design pulls influence from nature, the human brain, and free-flowing abstract elements, with each aspect coexisting alongside one another.

Boris Acket is an Amsterdam based multidisciplinary artist who translates conceptual notions into immersive, multi-sensory experiences: technology, space, and light all form a prism in which specific themes or subjects are explored and rematerialized. For his American debut, Acket presents ‘WAAIWERK’, a 200 foot long reflective wind-sculpture that morphs from day to night.‍WAAIWERKEN is a new series of works by the artist. They are never the same - always different. Together they act as a series in which practical research, material, light and movement by wind is the subject of the works themselves.‍Get lost in this nighttime flow and glow…

An immersive 360-degree artspace created by artist and designer Darren Romanelli/DRx the DomeRx space draws upon Romanelli’s nostalgia for the classic Laserium music and laser light shows and his fascination with the architectural elements of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. Romanelli conceptualized an exclusive new series of his iconic chair designs for the space, including double-seater bean bags and ottomans sustainably created with all recycled materials. For the DomeRx premiere at FORMAT, Romanelli brought on longtime collaborator, Jessica Hundley, the creator, author, and Editor of the Taschen Book’s multi-volume encyclopedia series The Library of Esoterica. Working collaboratively, Romanelli and Hundley will create a 3-day experience celebrating our symbiotic relationship with nature, including a specially-curated 360 “mixtape” edit of the Netflix documentary Good Trip: Adventures In Psychedelics. Other programming includes full sets from festival music performances with an artistic overlay, plant poetry meditations, plant music listening parties, the release of the fourth volume of the Taschen encyclopedia series, Plant Magick, and an exclusive DOMEGROWN zine

Artist Doug Aitken is widely known for his innovative, genre-bending work, exploring every medium; from sculpture, film and installations to architectural interventions. New Horizon is a mirrored hot air balloon designed as a reflective and kinetic light sculpture that has traveled to iconic land conservation sites in Martha’s Vineyard, greater Boston, the Berkshires and now the Ozarks. The work explores themes of conservation, community and the ever-expanding aesthetic of art and creativity.

Known for his startlingly beautiful animations that seem to have been filtered through a giant kaleidoscopic, visual artist and musician Jacolby Satterwhite brings his fabulous imagination to FORMAT. In the vast space of The Hanger facing Bentonville’s runway, as though poised for take-off into the future, gather around the stage for a multi-channel video installation and a new live performance by Satterwhite and his band PAT, titled “The Threshold of Revelation,” made in collaboration with close friend and colleague, music producer Nightfeelings. Also appearing on stage with PAT will be the incomparable contemporary cellist Patrick Belaga, tantalizing vocalist Trevor Hansen, dancer Alvaro Gonzalez Dupuy, and fashion stylist David Casavant. Produced by Performa, the New York based commissioning and production house that brings live performance by the best contemporary artists from around the world to audiences everywhere.

Tapscott is a contemporary land artist and pioneer of experimental light. For Arc Zero, he uses mist, light, water and steel to create an iridescent archway. A transcendent bodily experience of space is achieved as one walks through the portal, the cooling mist engaging all senses as it erupts from the ring and then dances away into the wind…

Gerrard and Hawtin have come together to create a spatial artwork combining advanced digital simulation, original techno composition and artificial intelligence. infin.1.iridescent.stream is a minutely conceived ‘techno space’ in which audiences are immersed in a unified musical and visual artwork.

Marinella Senatore is a multidisciplinary artist trained in music, fine arts, and cinema. Her practice is characterized by a strong participatory dimension and a constant dialogue between history, popular culture, and social structures. Her work explores community engagement and breaking free from social constructs. ‍‘We Rise By Lifting Others’ is a 600 foot-long light sculpture which encompasses the main field of Sugar Creek. Inspired by Southern Italy’s traditional illuminated decorations, her light installations have been designed for public places, museums, and festivals worldwide, incorporating evocative quotes about self-empowerment and community building.

Pia Camil draws inspiration from the urban landscapes of Latin America, engaging with the history of modernism to create paintings, sculptures, performances, and installations. Often using laborious fabrication processes in collaboration with local manufacturers, the artist decelerates the frenetic pace of mass commodification with handcrafted production, as evinced in the intimate quality of her works. ‍Bara, Bara, Bara is an interactive installation comprised of t-shirts acquired from the street markets of Iztapalapa in Mexico City. It draws inspiration from urban forms, mechanisms of exchange, and Camil’s relationship to Mexico City, where she lives and works.

Shoplifter is one of Iceland's leading contemporary artists. Working with both synthetic and natural hair, her sculptures, wall murals and site-specific installations explore themes of vanity, self-image, fashion, beauty and popular myth. For Shoplifter, hair is the ultimate thread that grows from our body. Hair is an original, creative fiber, a way for people to distinguish themselves as individuals, often as an art form. Humor plays a large role in her life and work, sometimes subtly, and at other times dominantly.‍‘Xanadu’ is an idyllic and exotic oasis, a wild forest of fuzzy totem poles covered in her signature medium synthetic hair extensions. The work is a continuation of the artist’s journey into maximalist three-dimensional art, with colorful vibrancy. Welcome to this alien, hyper-natural landscape ‘painting’, standing in stark contrast to the nature surrounding Sugar Creek.

Tolaas is the world’s leading smell researcher and artist. With AN ARCHIVE of over 20,000 smells RECORDED OVER the last 25 years, she is a pioneer in her unique approach to smells. ‍For FORMAT, Tolaas has created a ‘smell AIR PLAYGROUND’ that MOVES air IN AND out of a tubing system through LARGE PIPES. AROUND THE PIPE’S OUTLETS, the seating encourages visitors to gather, BREATHE & SMELL THE AMPLIFIED SITE-SPECIFIC SMELL MOLECULES.