net art projects
MNAC initiates a
program of net art projects presentations on both on-line and off-line
platforms of www.mnac.ro and Kalinderu Medialab's
spaces.
| [R][R][F] 2004 ' XP /5 March-30 April/
Kalinderu
MediaLab [Remembering-Repressing-Forgetting] experimental global networking project by Agricola de Cologne www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004
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[R][R][F] 2004
This
represents the starting point for the development of a global networking
project which will be operating until the end of 2004.
Numerous places
around the globe will be participating and presenting [R][R][F] 2004
simultaneously during the year: The first ones which joint the project
were Kalinderu MediaLab/Museum of Contemporary Art Bucuresti (Romania),
Istanbul Museum (Turkey), Bethlehem International Center (Bethlehem
Palestine), Basics Festival (Salzburg/Austria), Bergen Center of
Electronic Arts Bergen/Norway(Norway), PEAM - Pescara Electronic Art
Meeting 2004 (Italy), invited are also Hong Kong, New York, Stockholm,
Haifa, Madrid, Sevilla, Cologne, Athens, Alexandria and many other
places.
From its structures, [R][R][F] 2004 is an extraordinary
experimental New Media art project programmed and realised by Agricola de
Cologne.
Its central subject, abbreviated in the capital letters of the
title, is
"Remembering, Repressing, Forgetting".
A new way of art
working is practised: networking as artworking.
Experimental fields of
memory are developed by inviting curators from different countries around
the globe, eg directors of media festivals or curators specialised in New
Media, who have to select a number of artists of their choice according
the terms of the project.
The dynamic of this ongoing and continuously
changing project, as it is set up for being presented in festivals and
media exhibitions, manifests itself not only in the artistic online
environment, especially created for [R] - [R] - [F] 2004, but also
progressing when for each new presentation a new project version is
created, including new subject related aspects, new curators and new
artists and new visualisations of the connected memory
fields.
Continuously expanding, these memory fields containing curators
and artists of the previous project versions will be always present in the
background while slowly a networking universe of collective memory comes
up. The project uses the Internet not only as an artistic environment, but
primarily also as a communicating medium and a data base which is closely
connected to memory and loss of memory, thus the subject of the festival
project. The Internet represents not only the ideal medium in many ways,
but allows above that direct intercultural networking like no other
medium.
[R][R][F] 2004
is organised completely online. It includes a
variety of online and offline components, an exchange between virtual and
physical levels.
The basic subject is "Memory and Identity", the basic
operating aspect is "networking as artworking". Although anything
connected to the project is transmitted online, the basic installation
aspect is the exchange/combination of virtual and physical space in a
physical installation.
These are the components of [R][R][F]
2004
1.
[R][R][F] online
Presentations:
National Museum of Contemporary Art
/ Kalinderu MediaLab Bucharest - opening 5 March 2004
Bergen Electronic
Arts Centre Bergen / Norway http://www.bek.no/ - opening 5 March 2004
New Media
Art Festival Bangkok / Thailand http://thailand.culturebase.org/ - 20 - 28 March
2004
Version<'04 Festival - Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 16
April -1 May 2004
The curatorial project RRF v. 2.0 is the basis of RRF 2004 / participating curators and artists:
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feature<--- . [R][R][F] 2004 --->XP consists of several "Memory Channels" including subject related modules in form of media projects. . The basis of [R][R][F] 2004 --->XP forms [R][R][F] Version 2.0 as "Memory Channel 1" including contributions from invited curators. These curators selected following artists: . 1. curator: Gita Hashemi (Iran/Canada) curatorial theme: "RealPlay" selected artists: Jaromil, Mireille Astore, Haleh Niazmand Hardpressed Collective, Threadbare Coalition . 2. curator: curator: Raul Ferrera-Balanquet (Cuba/USA) curatorial theme: "In[ter]vención" selected artists: Giselle Beiguelman (Brazil), Ricardo Baez (Venezuela) Santiago Perez Alfaro (Mexico), Eduardo Nava (El Salvador/USA) Juan Devis and OnRamp Arts (Colombia/USA), Alex Riviera (Peru/USA) . 3. curator as interface: Calin Man (Romania) curator as curator: Stefan Tiron (Romania) curatorial subject: Romanian Young Guns selected artists: all Romanian Sergiu Negulici, Milos Jovanovic, Catalin Rulea Daniel Gontz, Valentin Chincisan . 4. curator: Bjoern Norberg (Sweden) curatorial subject: "Inflict" artists: all Swedish " Beeoff" --> Olle Huge, Tomas Linell, Mikael Scherdin . 5. curator: Eva Sjuve (Norway) curatorial title: BEK_dns selected artists: Gijs Gieskes, Antti Sakari Saario, ARM with John Hegre Fruit, Cosmic Jinxm, Christian Bĝen Thorsen, Lossius, Bastiansen and BEK_dns_combat selected artists: Torgeir Nes, Tom Moland, Stefan Mitterer, Terje Urnes, Peki Sinikoski, Rune Storetved, Marieke Verbiesen, Gijs Geiskes. . 6. curator: Agricola de Cologne (Germany) curatorial theme: {nodes of identity} selected artists: Conor McGarrigle (Ireland), Maite Camacho (Spain) Erkki Kirjalainen (/Santtu Rantanen) (Finland David Clark (Canada), Melinda Rackham (Australia) Nathaniel Stern (South Africa), Oliver Dyens (Canada) Shilpa Gupta (India), Michael Sellam (France)/Garrett Lynch (Ireland) JODY ZELLEN (USA) . 7. Melody Parker Carter (Germany) curatorial theme: : >preconstructed transformations selected artists: Werner Cee (Germany), Sachiko Hayashi (Sweden) Liz Miller (USA), Lisa Gye (Australia) Mustafa Maluka (South Africa), Avi Rosen (Israel) Irena Paskali (Macedonia), GAST BOUSCHET/Nadine Hilbert (Belgium) Stephane Barron (France), Lisa Cianci (Australia) . 8. Special Feature: title "Women :Memory of Repression in Argentina" curatorial environment by Raquel Partnoy (USA/Argentina) and Agricola de Cologne (Germany) including testimonials of "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo" Bueno Aires/Argentina and net based art works of following Argentine artists---> Marina Zerbarini , Andamio Contiguo Irene Coremberg, Anahi Caceres |
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2.
Memory Channels
[R][R][F] and each other included basic component, eg
XP (experimental) versions of Violence, Rainforest Memorial,
Globalization, AIDS Memorial, News Channel, Streaming Channel, Video
Channel and others, but not more than 16 channels in total, will form the
"Memory Channels", which are screened in physical space on "MemoryScreens"
and "MemoryProjections" and form the basis of the physical installation of
[R][R][F] 2004.
Globalization modul curated by Humberto Ramirez
http://www.wiggedproductions.com/globalization.html
Critical Art
Ensemble http://www.critical-art.net/, subRosa http://www.cyberfeminism.net/, Violence Online Festival
http://www.newmediafest.org/violence/, "Stop Motion
Studies" http://www.stopmotionstudies.net/, RTMark http://rtmark.com/,%20denniscucumberhttp://www.denniscucumber.com/, "Over My Dead Body" http://www.overmydeadbody.org/accueil.php
3.
Networks
The networking project does not include only these mentioned
virtual and physical components from different sources of
[NewMediaArtProjectWork]:cologne, strategic points (places, institutions,
individuals) will be installed, which are connected in the network also
during the year 2004. Each of these strategic points will form a local
network consisting of local institutions, artists, organisations dealing
with New Media and art, "memory and identity" and/or humanitarian matter
in social, cultural or political concern.
Each strategic point/local
network will present [R][R][F] 2004 in physical space simultaneously with
other strategic points of the global network, as well as it will optional
complement this presentation through works of local artists connected to
"memory and identity", and a program of Internet related actions of
different kind, via "online streaming" in real time or temporarily
displaced. Further are optional, workshops or other events to be organised
in this framework.
The audience, the project is addressed to is not
only reduced to online users, but includes the visitors of the physical
installation as well, who all cannot only participate what is going on in
the global network (program), but it is intended to include also some
direct involvement of the visitor.
Please find additional info about
Version 1.0 of [R][R][F] festival on : www.newmediafest.org/rrf/
News:
1. Gita
Hashemi curates "RealPlay"
"RealPlay"
is the title of Gita
Hashemi's curatorial contribution to [R][R][F] 2004 --->XP
www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/
or direct access also via www.newmediafest.org/rrf2004/rrfv2.htm
Participating
artists:
1. Jaromil
2. Hard Pressed Collective
3. Mireille
Astore
4. Project Threadbare Coalition
5. Haleh
Niazmand
RealPlay
Essay by Gita Hashemi. RealPlay has little to
do with play, really. It is about playing for real. Topically positioned
in specific times and/or places, the works in RealPlay contest, counter
and/or subvert dominant geopolitical and/or cultural notions with
reference to the colonial constructs of the "Middle East" and the "West."
This selection works as a broad political commentary as well as responses
to certain trends in "new media" discourse that explicitly or implicitly
(sometimes inadvertently) postulate and promote fundamental distinctions
and discontinuities between the "virtual" and the "real." Such
distinctions inevitably idealize the illusionary (utopic or distopic)
space where code is entirely capable of masterminding experience, or where
code becomes experience. The projects in RealPlay reject such
Western-oriented techno-centric and techno-determinist tendencies by
privileging urgent socio-political issues over media formalism and by
insisting on the priority of social interaction over, as well as through,
cyberspace interactivity. Using diverse practices of documenting and
archiving, these projects capitalize on the function of the internet as a
repository of retrievable data and, more importantly, as a communication
channel that can be advantageously put to use towards inciting
counter-hegemonic thought and action.
Subverting stereotypical
representations of Palestinians as fanatic terrorists or people solely
occupied and pre-occupied by war, in "http://farah.dyne.org/", an account from a trip to
Palestine following the brutal Israeli re-occupation campaign of the West
Bank in 2002, software pioneer and artist Jaromil (Italy) gives an account
of the everlasting human search and capacity for joy in towns and refugee
camps under siege (again). Farah: In Search for Joy is a brief and
unpretentious traveler's search for and documentation of those aspects of
the Palestinian popular culture that continue to create, offer and
celebrate joy in spite of the prolonged conditions of colonial occupation
and war. As an archive (in progress), the website is incubated in and
reflective of the artist's interactions with his environment as it is a
virtual space for our encounter with a dimension of Palestinian reality
categorically forgotten or ignored in dominant representations in the
West.
An initiative of Hard Pressed Collective (Canada), a group of
media artists with a penchant for politically-engaged art-making, "http://www.charlesstreetvideo.com/project.php?id=1" The
Olive Project is, on the surface, a programmed compilation of short videos
by diverse international artists. Thematically grounded in the
historically rich and culturally diverse symbolism of the olive, the
videos exhibit a range of artist responses to the ruthless practice of
uprooting olive trees in Palestine by Israeli forces- a favourite
occupation strategy aiming to force Palestinians off their land by
effectively undermining the economic survival of the growers and their
local production. Collectively, the videos construct a time-based memorial
to "peace and justice" made of 2-minute blocks. Before, through and beyond
the remediated compilation and its dissemination in cyberspace, however,
this project functions as a tool for consciousness-raising, mobilizing and
networking around an issue of real world significance.
"http://www.crixa.com/mireille/Migrant/Tampa.htm" is the
web component of Mireille Astore's (Australia) larger sculpture and
performance project that takes as its starting point the infamous Tampa
ship incident in August 2001. The incident brought local and international
public attention to the plight of the "boat people"- refugees primarily
from the "Middle East"-who, upon arrival in Australian waters, were first
refused landing and then recast as prisoners by a xenophobic "Western"
state. Astore's obsessive photographic documentation (from the inside
looking out) of her 18-day self-inflicted virtual imprisonment-in a scaled
recreation of Tampa on a public beach in Sydney-functions as a looking
glass in which to observe the uneasy and disturbing reactions to the
arrival of new migrants by a society that has repressed its own memory and
burried its own racist and colonial settler history under the grounds on
which Woomera and Nauru detention centres currently stand for
real.
"http://www.threadbare.tyo.ca/" Project Threadbare is
animated by a coalition of activists in response to the detention in
August 2003 of 21 South Asian (primarily Pakistani) students in Toronto,
Canada under the guise of anti-terrorist and national security operations.
Since its inception, Project Threadbare has been an immensely successful
local expository and legal campaign against racial targeting, detention
and deportation of immigrants and refugees by Canadian police,
intelligence and immigration forces, who are hotly in the race for the
third place prize of dishonour, after USA and Australia, for breaking
their own nation's civil liberties codes as well as international human
rights conventions. This website, an ongoing forum, newsboard and archive
for Toronto activists, is
one wiki that doesn't pretend to be the
virtual world's better-than-original replica of "democracy." Although some
of the active members of the coalition are artists and their website is
pretty slick, Project Threadbare was not conceived as and does not make a
claim to being new media art; rather, it is a real world experiment in
social and creative participation and collaboration, with tangible impact
in the lives of the original 21 detainees and now in the lives of many
others in similar predicaments.
"http://surveyofcommonsense.net/" Survey of Common Sense
is a recreation of an earlier participatory painting installation project
by the same title by Haleh Niazmand (USA). A parody of the polling
industry that for the past 5 or 6 decades has been the engine of
"democracy" in the United States, Niazmand's image-text intervention, in
the form of survey questions with forced yes/no "choices," is not only an
authorial comment on the practices of polling as determinant of
"democratic outcome," but a strong challenge to notions of "pragmatism"
and "common sense" preached from political pulpits in the present-day
United States. Beyond this, Survey of Common Sense is an invitation,
courtesy of an artist from the "Middle East" and a citizen of the "West,"
to the participants/viewers to recongnize, acknowledge and reflect upon
the ways in which each and every one of us are intricately and deeply
implicated, really and virtually, in the bloody absurdity of this
political moment. As such and in the very impossibility of responding with
any degree of ease and resolution to Niazmand's questions, this work is an
incessant challenge issued so we will not slip into forgetting.
The
projects in this selection have taken shape independently of this
curatorial effort. My thanks to all the participants for allowing me to
include their work in RealPlay.
About the curator:
Gita
Hashemi
engages in cultural practice as artist, writer, curator,
organizer, worker and educator. Her most recent curatorial projects
include RealPlay (2004, netart exhibit) Negotiations: From a Piece of Land
to a Land of Peace (2003, art-driven multidisciplinary event, http://negotiations2003.net/), WILL (2003,
multidisciplinary transnational exhibition, http://negotiations2003.net/will), Afghanistan, 2002: No
Refuge and Locating Afghanistan (2002-3, image-text exhibition and
publication with photography by Babak Salari), and Trans/Planting:
Contemporary Art by Women from/in Iran (2001, with Taraneh Hemami, http://strictlypersonal.net/transplanting).
Her
recent titles include Post-Coitus (2003, http://post-coitus.net), Olive
Fair (2003, http://olivefair.net/), Many Stones for Palestine (2002,
http://strictlypersonal.net/stones), The Word Room
(2001, with Post-Exile Collective, http://wordroom.net/), A War Primer (2001, sound
installation), and Of Shifting Shadows (2000, CD-R). Hashemi's work has
been exhibited, reviewed and collected nationally and internationally. She
is the founder of Iranian Artists in Dialogue, a co-founder of Post-Exile
Collective and a founder of Creative Response. She resides in Toronto,
Canada.
Hashemi's labour as an intellectual has crystallized in
simultaneous processes of de/re/construction; not in any specific class of
objects or within any particular representational genres, but in the
envisioning of the spaces and formulation of the critical practices that
can be constitutive in transformative social and political movements.
Informed by her direct engagement in liberatory political struggles
before, during and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution as well as her
experience of exile in North America, Hashemi's work takes shape in a
continuous process of countering masculinist discourses of fundamentalism,
fascism, colonialism, corporatism and militarism. Notions of community,
co-labouring, public space and active participation are integral to her
creative engagement. So is the understanding that artistic practice, as a
fundamentally social process, is inherently political and must, therefore,
be subject to conscious (re-visionary) feminist re-articulation: The
political is personal, the personal is poetic, the poetic is political,
the political must become ethical.
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Kalinderu Medialab / MNAC Bucharest presents the >wartime< project + open_digi LATINO two projects initiated by atty with groups open_digi (S. London) and OFFLINE opening 29 september 6 pm in the presence of atty the show will last until 26 october 2003 curator Florin Tudor |
Partner British Council
Bucharest 30 september 6 pm 'net art spaces' / Atty at British Council in the frame of the program Intre.Vederi http://www.britishcouncil.ro/ Be creative, Be successful. Make a difference 
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