Internet and the Work of Art: New Curatorial Issues

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Computer Art and Curatorial Issues

Presentation Title:
  • Internet and the Work of Art: New Curatorial Issues

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Abstract:

  • With a theoretical, as well as a practical approach, this paper focuses on curatorial issues raised when dealing with artworks that employ the web as a territory for creation and as a means of artistic production, mostly when within the institutional walls. The goal is twofold. On the one hand, it means to analyze the number of shifts that unconventional time-based art has been undertaking by being assimilated into the wider contemporary art context, sometimes captured within the barriers of severe categorizations. On the other hand, it strives to finding new ways to encouraging and to promoting experimentation with mediums, such as the Internet, as well as discussing all that this implies in its delivery to the audience.

    The presentation will shape from practical examples of curatorial practice, starting from NETinSPACE, the project I am currently curating at MAXXI — the newly born National Museum of XXIst Century Arts in Rome. NETinSPACE has been evolving from the previous NetSpace since 2005 which, in the span of three years (2005-2008), invited visitors to interact with net.?art, to deepen its historical and artistic roots. The new edition has moved outside the computer screen to undertake a journey at the confines of two worlds, the virtual and the physical, exploring their mutual interaction, while creating a new territory where diverse languages interweave and merge into one.

    Emerging and established artists, working on the net but also in other fields, are invited to participate in the virtual space of the Internet and in the physical space of the museum, “infiltrating” the passageways which neighbour the exposition spaces. Milltos Manetas, Katja Loher, Bianco Valente, Stephen Vitiello are among them. The result intends to be an experimental platform that is neither outside nor inside the museum, and whose interdisciplinary nature constantly increases, together with the cross contamination between the virtual and the physical dimension.

    On the one hand, the discussion will touch theoretical issues, questioning how nowadays the Internet crosses artistic production, and confronting different ethical approaches, mostly when acting within the institution’s walls. On the other hand, practical experience of curating will be put on the table to raise conversation around new possible paths of curatorial practise, inside the museum’s walls and beyond.

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