ARTECH 2008 | Nas Fronteiras do Imaginário
4th International Conference on Digital Arts
7, 8 | November
Portuguese Catholic University | Porto

Artech 2008 is the fourth international workshop held in Portugal and Galicia on the topic of Digital Arts. It aims to promote contacts between Iberian and International contributors concerned with the conception, production and dissemination of Digital and Electronic Art. Artech 2008 brings the scientific, technological and artistic community together, promoting the interest in the digital culture and its intersection with art and technology as an important research field, a common space for discussion, an exchange of experiences, a forum for emerging digital artists and a way of understanding and appreciating new forms of cultural expression.

I am taking part in the peer review process of this conference along with other friends. It looks like it is going to be an interesting event, and Porto is certainly worth the trip!

http://artes.ucp.pt/artech2008/index.html

After its presentation at the Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation, the group exhibition Metalandscapes moves to Hamburg thanks to the sponsorship of JAM Art Fairs. The works of Mauro Ceolin, Adam Chapman, Joan Fontcuberta, Thorsten Knaub and Carlo Zanni will be exhibited at the DeichtorCenter on the occasion of the 4th Triennial of Photography in Hamburg.

More information:
http://www.metapaisatges.com
http://www.phototriennale.de/content_info.php?info=p176_Deichtorcenter-Hamburg.html

Deichtorcenter Hamburg
Oberbaumbrücke 1
20457 Hamburg
T ++49 172 411 66 74
Open Monday to Friday, 11- 18h.
Exhibition: April 12th - May 16th, 2008

The group exhibition “FLOW”, that I curate for the CCA in Andratx, opens in March 15th. Artists Paz Alcoverro (ES), Clara Boj+Diego Díaz (ES), Mauro Ceolin (IT), Gregory Chatonsky (FR/CA), Enric Font (ES), Maria Glyka (GR), Haïdée Henry (FR), Nic Hess (CH), Katie Paterson (UK), Andrea Renzini (IT), Peter Ruehle (DE) and Bill Thompson (US) present artworks that reflect on the concept of flow by using drawing, painting, photography, video, installation, net art, generative art or augmented reality.

Several artists are staying in the studios of the CCA to create specific works for this exhibition. Mauro Ceolin is currently working on two large works and displaying his daily experience in this photoblog: http://ccaexperience.blogspot.com

The exhibition “Metalandscapes” revisits the concept of landscape from the perspective of digital art. Mauro Ceolin, Adam Chapman, Joan Fontcuberta, Thorsten Knaub, Scott Snibbe and Carlo Zanni present a contemporary interpretation of landscape by means of digital print, GPS intervention, net art, interactive installation, generative video and even oil painting. My first curatorial project, this exhibition is hosted by the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, which has produced some of the works that have been created specifically for this presentation. October 5th, 2007 to January 6th, 2008. In this video I combined some views of the exhibition rooms with excerpts of interviews I did with four of the participating artists.

Watch this video on Vernissage TV

On the occasion of the exhibition Metalandscapes, which I curated for the Miró Foundation in Mallorca, I have been interviewed by Brigitte Kramer for the German language newspaper Mallorca Zeitung. Kramer asked me about the series of conferences on Digital Culture, that I coordinated also at the Miró Foundation, and also about my experience with art and new media. Her questions were sharp and interesting, one of them made me think: “If I want to work in the field of new media art, is Mallorca the right place to live?”. Well, I think nowadays there is no particular place in which success is guaranteed, so maybe instead of moving to a bigger city I may try to do my best in this small but cozy island. Kramer describes me as a “man with two passions”, an “art lover and technical freak”… yup, kind of.

Read the article in Mallorca Zeitung 394/38 (pdf)

The cultural program “Itaca” on the local TV station TV Mallorca did a short documentary about “Metalandscapes”. Carla González and Pep Toni Ferrer filmed this video which presents the works in the exhibition and interviews Pau Alsina, Lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and myself. Notice the post-production work done to present the names of the artists in relation to their work, I really liked that.

Watch the video in Google Videos (in Catalan)

During the month of November, I coordinate a series of conferences for the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca. Related to the exhibition Metapaisatges (metalandscapes), which I curated for the Foundation, the series aims to present an overview of the different aspects of the encounter between art, science and technology. I am glad to count on some of the most outstanding researchers and professionals in this field in Spain (and abroad) for this program. The talks will be in Catalan, Spanish and Italian: [+]

The Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation in Mallorca hosts until September 23rd four installations by Portuguese artist Baltazar Torres, known for his work with miniatures that create vast scenes which reflect on issues of ecology and confront the human being with the planet itself. By establishing a playful relation of scales, Torres takes the viewer to experience a panoramic view of the subject he is representing. This exhibition focuses on the city as “a world of structural conflicts that we must inevitably live with”. Ridiculously monstrous cities in which humans dwell suffocated by their own rubbish, surrounded by roads and construction sites, paint a grim picture of our environment and remind us of a situation that is all but natural.

Watch this video on Vernissage TV

On the occasion of the international contemporary art fair JAM ART 07 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), I curated a site-specific project by Mallorcan artist Pedro Vidal, who created an installation with his latest series of photographs, “You Know Who You Are”. Below is the text I wrote to present the project and some photographs of the installation. [+]

Gaz of the Desert is a machinima piece created entirely in Second Life by the avatar artist Gazira Babeli. Loosely based upon Luis Buñuel’s Simon of the Desert (1965), this 23-minute film presents the artist herself as an ascetic who has decided to live on top of a column, in the middle of the desert. Created between February and March 2007, this movie belongs, both in concept and form, to the creative universe of this artist who is an inhabitant of the 3D online digital world Second Life . The avatar was born on March 31st, 2006 and has since developed an artistic practice that combines the fields of performance and software art: in fact, she considers herself a “code performer”. As a character with a physical appearance within this virtual world, Babeli enacts performances that subvert the usual behavior of Second Life avatars. But also, as a coder, she is able to transform the rules that govern the simulation and thus intervene in the environment in ways that are unimaginable in the real world.

I wrote this article for issue nº28 of CIAC’s Electronic Magazine, which is dedicated to web cinema. This issue includes reviews of the following net-based art works: David Lynch’s Dumbland (by Paule Makrous), David Clark’s Meanwhile (by Anne-Marie Boisvert), Jerome Olivier’s Missing Pages (also by Anne-Marie Boisvert) plus an article I wrote about Carlo Zanni’s The Possible Ties Between Illness and Success (previously published in Furtherfield), along with a text by Xavier Malbreil and a feature text by Alejandro Adams.

Read the article at CIAC’s Electronic Magazine #28