24.6.08
essay borderlines
“Borderlines: Digital art to produce social statements.”
How can an artwork influence the exhange between the artist and society through the use of digital technologies?
Adriano Casanova. 2008
In the beginning of the century, digital technologies in the art production weren’t something called ‘new’. In fact, it was in the 1990s that the so-called “digital revolution” appeared in the art market as a consequence of the radical development of the technological industry.
The terminology for artworks that use a technological platform, changed since the 70s and developed in accordance to technological productions. The terms ‘computer art’ and ‘multimedia art’ (1970) were used to represent the type of art production at the time, but evolved to the current terms ‘digital art’ and ‘new media art’.
“The qualifier of choice here – ‘new’ – points to the fleeting nature of the terminology. But the claim of novelty also begs the question, what exactly is supposed to be considered ‘new’ about the digital medium?” (PAUL, Christiane. “Digital Art”)
What we have to analyze in this context of ‘new’, is how these different terms assist to develop the political and artistic spectrum in the contemporary art content and consequently the influence on today’s society.
In the work “borderlines: immigrant’s environments”, a collaboration between the artists/immigrants: Adriano Casanova (Brazil), Lana Lasagna (South Africa), Francesco Beneamato (Italy) and Aline Von Der Assen (Germany), the digital environment is used in various ways to represent an art research concerning the immigrant aspect in the city of London.
The work translates the immigrant’s representations of the concepts: ‘belonging’, ‘language’, ‘identity’ and ‘environment’, utilizing digital technology as a tool and helpful technique to exemplify and analyze this specific group dealing with their social perspectives.
This work production is related to the concept of “social sculpture” created by the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921- 1986), where the process of the art piece is seen as the actual artwork. Beuys also applied society as a theme in his productions at the university and other art environments.
“I see social sculpture as the ultimate participatory live artwork, where there is not one artist/expert creating, and the passive audience watching, but all of us creating together. Social sculpture appeals to me politically for its leaderless-ness and its challenge of equality and co-operation. It appeals to me as art for its’ contextuality, and that it reinstates art as an inclusive arena of creativity”. (LOGAN, David. ““Piece of Many Voices”)
Similarly, the work ‘borderlines’ uses technology in society for co-operative creation.
In the contexts of this medium we can distinguish between two main types of digital artworks: technology on display (virtual reality, games, robots) and technology as a tool (video projections and digital photographys).
Through the use of the digital technology tool as a weapon, the collaboration creates networks and develops a laboratorial process to research and explore contemporary social development.
There is speculation that the digital production will eventually absorb all other forms of artistic media; i.e. through digitalization of a painting, or when using digital technologies in a specific moment of the production. In some cases these works will show distinctive characteristics of the digital medium in their own language and aesthetics.
Taking on the role of catalyst, the artist today digitally documents the vanguard statements of the social group voice. Similarly, in the work “The last 9 minutes” (1977, created for the Documenta VI from Kassel, German), the artists Douglas Davies, Nan Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman and Joseph Beuys, used the same medium to document current political statements. They produced the first teleconference performance in front of a video camera connected to more than twenty-five countries, and through a series of events collapsed virtual geographic boundaries.
“Paik and Moorman perform a series of collaborative works, while Davis considers the nature of the telecast as a medium. Beuys, who often used his exhibitions as platforms for social and political agitation, discusses his utopian theories of ‘social sculpture’ and his efforts to transform society through artistic activity” (Harvard Film Archive. “Fluxus on Film”)
In addition to being the catalyst, the artist in the work ‘borderlines’ acts as the mediator (curator), connecting the network and the technology through his own perspective in the social statement art piece. But, how can we affirm this production in the art history?
“(...) The link between works in artist-curated group shows may have a little to do with their content; for those in the know, they are much more to do with certain social sets (...)” (STALLABRAS, Julian. “Curating: the contemporary art museum and beyond”)
Likewise, in England (1980 - 90’s), the artists Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and others took on several roles in the production of their own works. This included setting up exhibitions, acting as curators and working exclusively without the support of commercial galleries and other established systems. Unknowingly and as a result, they created what we today call “Young British Art” movement.
The nature of the rich work of collaboration and digital technology, allow for flexibility within different platforms. The artist‘ social statements are realized within the process of creation and exposed through selected documentation exhibitions.
This social statement in the work borderlines has a continuality applied in the work ‘connecting urban spaces’ first produced in Brazil in 2007 and now produced in collaboration with the artists-run organization based in Berlin, Germany, WOOLOO.
The work connecting urban spaces_2008 use the same methodology of the borderlines applied in different context.
In the both works we can identify the research about collaborative art production related to the idea of social art using the digital technology as a tool.
In the work connecting urban spaces_2008 the artist also act as the mediator of this network, but instead of using the technology in a process production this medium is being used online - in a virtual environment – where a show for gallery spaces is created allowing the visitors to view this online work production in the process.
The work connecting urban spaces will be exhibit in Berlin – November 2008 at the wooloo gallery; in Manila – January 2009 at the Green Papaya Art Space and also in São Paulo – March 2009 at the Emma Thomas gallery.
1- PAUL, Christiane. “Digital Art”. Thames & Hudson world of art. 2003. London. UK. 224p
2- SCHATA, Peter. “Social Sculpture: Every Human Being is an Artist”. “Social Sculpture Colloquium”. c/o Shelley Sacks. The school of Art, Publishing and Music, Oxford Brookes University. Glasgow 1995. Pages 12-13.
3- LOGAN, David. JONES, Timothy Emlyn. “Piece of Many Voices”. “Social Sculpture Colloquium”. c/o Shelley Sacks. The school of Art, Publishing and Music, Oxford Brookes University. Glasgow 1995. Pages 43.
4-Harvard Film Archive. “Fluxus on Film”. Last access at 19th February 2008. http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2007spring/fluxus.html
5- STALLABRAS, Julian. Editor HARDING, Anna. “Curating: The Contemporary Art Museum and Beyond Art and Design”. John Wiley & Sons 1997.
How can an artwork influence the exhange between the artist and society through the use of digital technologies?
Adriano Casanova. 2008
In the beginning of the century, digital technologies in the art production weren’t something called ‘new’. In fact, it was in the 1990s that the so-called “digital revolution” appeared in the art market as a consequence of the radical development of the technological industry.
The terminology for artworks that use a technological platform, changed since the 70s and developed in accordance to technological productions. The terms ‘computer art’ and ‘multimedia art’ (1970) were used to represent the type of art production at the time, but evolved to the current terms ‘digital art’ and ‘new media art’.
“The qualifier of choice here – ‘new’ – points to the fleeting nature of the terminology. But the claim of novelty also begs the question, what exactly is supposed to be considered ‘new’ about the digital medium?” (PAUL, Christiane. “Digital Art”)
What we have to analyze in this context of ‘new’, is how these different terms assist to develop the political and artistic spectrum in the contemporary art content and consequently the influence on today’s society.
In the work “borderlines: immigrant’s environments”, a collaboration between the artists/immigrants: Adriano Casanova (Brazil), Lana Lasagna (South Africa), Francesco Beneamato (Italy) and Aline Von Der Assen (Germany), the digital environment is used in various ways to represent an art research concerning the immigrant aspect in the city of London.
The work translates the immigrant’s representations of the concepts: ‘belonging’, ‘language’, ‘identity’ and ‘environment’, utilizing digital technology as a tool and helpful technique to exemplify and analyze this specific group dealing with their social perspectives.
This work production is related to the concept of “social sculpture” created by the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921- 1986), where the process of the art piece is seen as the actual artwork. Beuys also applied society as a theme in his productions at the university and other art environments.
“I see social sculpture as the ultimate participatory live artwork, where there is not one artist/expert creating, and the passive audience watching, but all of us creating together. Social sculpture appeals to me politically for its leaderless-ness and its challenge of equality and co-operation. It appeals to me as art for its’ contextuality, and that it reinstates art as an inclusive arena of creativity”. (LOGAN, David. ““Piece of Many Voices”)
Similarly, the work ‘borderlines’ uses technology in society for co-operative creation.
In the contexts of this medium we can distinguish between two main types of digital artworks: technology on display (virtual reality, games, robots) and technology as a tool (video projections and digital photographys).
Through the use of the digital technology tool as a weapon, the collaboration creates networks and develops a laboratorial process to research and explore contemporary social development.
There is speculation that the digital production will eventually absorb all other forms of artistic media; i.e. through digitalization of a painting, or when using digital technologies in a specific moment of the production. In some cases these works will show distinctive characteristics of the digital medium in their own language and aesthetics.
Taking on the role of catalyst, the artist today digitally documents the vanguard statements of the social group voice. Similarly, in the work “The last 9 minutes” (1977, created for the Documenta VI from Kassel, German), the artists Douglas Davies, Nan Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman and Joseph Beuys, used the same medium to document current political statements. They produced the first teleconference performance in front of a video camera connected to more than twenty-five countries, and through a series of events collapsed virtual geographic boundaries.
“Paik and Moorman perform a series of collaborative works, while Davis considers the nature of the telecast as a medium. Beuys, who often used his exhibitions as platforms for social and political agitation, discusses his utopian theories of ‘social sculpture’ and his efforts to transform society through artistic activity” (Harvard Film Archive. “Fluxus on Film”)
In addition to being the catalyst, the artist in the work ‘borderlines’ acts as the mediator (curator), connecting the network and the technology through his own perspective in the social statement art piece. But, how can we affirm this production in the art history?
“(...) The link between works in artist-curated group shows may have a little to do with their content; for those in the know, they are much more to do with certain social sets (...)” (STALLABRAS, Julian. “Curating: the contemporary art museum and beyond”)
Likewise, in England (1980 - 90’s), the artists Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and others took on several roles in the production of their own works. This included setting up exhibitions, acting as curators and working exclusively without the support of commercial galleries and other established systems. Unknowingly and as a result, they created what we today call “Young British Art” movement.
The nature of the rich work of collaboration and digital technology, allow for flexibility within different platforms. The artist‘ social statements are realized within the process of creation and exposed through selected documentation exhibitions.
This social statement in the work borderlines has a continuality applied in the work ‘connecting urban spaces’ first produced in Brazil in 2007 and now produced in collaboration with the artists-run organization based in Berlin, Germany, WOOLOO.
The work connecting urban spaces_2008 use the same methodology of the borderlines applied in different context.
In the both works we can identify the research about collaborative art production related to the idea of social art using the digital technology as a tool.
In the work connecting urban spaces_2008 the artist also act as the mediator of this network, but instead of using the technology in a process production this medium is being used online - in a virtual environment – where a show for gallery spaces is created allowing the visitors to view this online work production in the process.
The work connecting urban spaces will be exhibit in Berlin – November 2008 at the wooloo gallery; in Manila – January 2009 at the Green Papaya Art Space and also in São Paulo – March 2009 at the Emma Thomas gallery.
1- PAUL, Christiane. “Digital Art”. Thames & Hudson world of art. 2003. London. UK. 224p
2- SCHATA, Peter. “Social Sculpture: Every Human Being is an Artist”. “Social Sculpture Colloquium”. c/o Shelley Sacks. The school of Art, Publishing and Music, Oxford Brookes University. Glasgow 1995. Pages 12-13.
3- LOGAN, David. JONES, Timothy Emlyn. “Piece of Many Voices”. “Social Sculpture Colloquium”. c/o Shelley Sacks. The school of Art, Publishing and Music, Oxford Brookes University. Glasgow 1995. Pages 43.
4-Harvard Film Archive. “Fluxus on Film”. Last access at 19th February 2008. http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2007spring/fluxus.html
5- STALLABRAS, Julian. Editor HARDING, Anna. “Curating: The Contemporary Art Museum and Beyond Art and Design”. John Wiley & Sons 1997.
curatorial reflection
Curatorial reflection:
The progress of the work borderlines was developed through the collaboration between the artist’s participants. The curatorial process was produced using the concept of the ‘artist mediator (curator)’, which was suggested in the project proposal in the beginning of the course.
With the initial objective of represent and work within illegal immigrants in the city of London the work was first suggested in a political and subversive perspective. I tried to infiltrate and work within this ‘fragile’ group but at the same time I realized that: ‘if I want to be part of the work I had to be one of the characters in the process’
I decided to start the production by myself to understand my roll before work within the social group that I would collaborate.
During the first months my art investigation was to ‘looking for the non-spaces’, and what I mean for a ‘non-space’ is the idea of ‘borderlines’ where I was investigating this immigrant aspect.
I created this ‘non-space’ and allowed myself the time to explore and familiarize to this environment before work with other people.
This first impression was very important for the development of the work because was necessary to understanding my artistic roll in using the human being as the resource and the material.
By the end of this project these aspects was clarified when my roll changed from the artist who was trying to find his ‘own non-space’ to a curator who actually was working in mediating and organizing people personal ideas, fears, relations, etc.
In the work this is very clear because the pieces produced are all related to the human being and how this person deal with their own personal questions.
The collaboration started with advertisements published in online magazines in September 2007, with the intent to select the artists. After the artist’s selection the production of the works were created using the individuality from each participant, considering their art background, life style and applying digital technology to represent their own ‘borderlines’ in the artworks.
After this guideline was generated ‘keywords’ to support the collaboration production and also the curatorial statement. The concepts of ‘identity’, ‘language’, ‘environment’ and ‘belonging’ were used in each collaboration as an input for the work investigation, guiding the process to the context of immigration in the city of London.
This specific moment of the process was represented by the video installation: ‘from the series: keywords’ exhibited at the show ‘TEXT&IMAGE’ at the Wilson Rd gallery, in London, February 2008.
The collaborations was being created in a natural way, connecting the art production to a day-by-day life, using the partner’ techniques into a digital technology environment; giving to them the free opportunity to come with ideas or goals to be achieved in the project.
The documents were constantly part of different art shows, also supporting the concept of ‘social sculpture’, from the German artists Joseph Beuys, very important in this project.
‘Borderlines’ exhibitions list:
2007 “Living Room: Quarto Vivo” - Emma Thomas Gallery– São Paulo- Brazil
2007 “Catálogo Parallel Exhibition” - 2ptos Pernambuco– Pernambuco – Brazil
2008 ‘Polaroides Invisiveis’ – Sesc gallery – Curitiba – Brazil
2008 “Altered landscapes” – Newspace Center of Photography – Portland- USA.
2008 “Text & Image” - Wilson Rd gallery – London – UK
2008 “Muestra Monográfica de Media Arte” - Festival de La Imagem– Manzinales – Colombia
2008 “Fluid Identity”-Summer Show Camberwell College of Arts University of Arts London-UK
With the conceptual references and also with the project more clear in my mind I learned that my roll was in constant flux, working not just as an artist but mainly as a curator and a manager of the project, getting in the contact with galleries and cultural spaces do provide the work documentations for exhibitions.
This project also allowed me to act professionally in different art fields, improving my capacity as an art director researching and arranging events to present and to let out the process to different audience just possible with the intensive academic research.
Within the work productions for the borderlines and also for other personal projects I learned that my professional expertise in this market is to be a curator, to mediate artwork with the audience and to understand how the market works and how this type of art production is incorporate to the contemporary art market.
With this I was able to apply into the final show a curatorial statement, creating contexts and organizing professionally the exhibitions. Applying the idea of ‘networks in collaborative productions’ the work is present as an exhibition displaying a selection of documents from the project process.
The show ‘borderlines’ is part of the exhibition ‘Fluid Identity’, with 27 artists from the MA Digital Arts, which is part of the ‘Summer Show’, with artists from all the MA courses.
The goal here is to communicate the idea of 3 shows in 1: an exhibition inside another exhibition inside another exhibition.
For the ‘Summer Show’ a catalogue, with 300 copies, were produced to reinforce the idea of ‘an art exhibition’ of the work borderlines.
It is important to reaffirm here that what we see at the Summer Show is just a selection of the project process, a digital representation about the life of 4 immigrants.
The actual artwork is immaterial, situated in the ‘spaces’ between the networks produced in the collaboration and in the every-day-life from each participant.
Now, the next level from this artist statement is to keep developing a curatorial process. I am interested to explore the overlapping of digital artwork and collaborative production.
Using a different medium, working specifically in web-based works, I intend to experiment new platforms to connect the contemporary art to a greater audience.
The progress of the work borderlines was developed through the collaboration between the artist’s participants. The curatorial process was produced using the concept of the ‘artist mediator (curator)’, which was suggested in the project proposal in the beginning of the course.
With the initial objective of represent and work within illegal immigrants in the city of London the work was first suggested in a political and subversive perspective. I tried to infiltrate and work within this ‘fragile’ group but at the same time I realized that: ‘if I want to be part of the work I had to be one of the characters in the process’
I decided to start the production by myself to understand my roll before work within the social group that I would collaborate.
During the first months my art investigation was to ‘looking for the non-spaces’, and what I mean for a ‘non-space’ is the idea of ‘borderlines’ where I was investigating this immigrant aspect.
I created this ‘non-space’ and allowed myself the time to explore and familiarize to this environment before work with other people.
This first impression was very important for the development of the work because was necessary to understanding my artistic roll in using the human being as the resource and the material.
By the end of this project these aspects was clarified when my roll changed from the artist who was trying to find his ‘own non-space’ to a curator who actually was working in mediating and organizing people personal ideas, fears, relations, etc.
In the work this is very clear because the pieces produced are all related to the human being and how this person deal with their own personal questions.
The collaboration started with advertisements published in online magazines in September 2007, with the intent to select the artists. After the artist’s selection the production of the works were created using the individuality from each participant, considering their art background, life style and applying digital technology to represent their own ‘borderlines’ in the artworks.
After this guideline was generated ‘keywords’ to support the collaboration production and also the curatorial statement. The concepts of ‘identity’, ‘language’, ‘environment’ and ‘belonging’ were used in each collaboration as an input for the work investigation, guiding the process to the context of immigration in the city of London.
This specific moment of the process was represented by the video installation: ‘from the series: keywords’ exhibited at the show ‘TEXT&IMAGE’ at the Wilson Rd gallery, in London, February 2008.
The collaborations was being created in a natural way, connecting the art production to a day-by-day life, using the partner’ techniques into a digital technology environment; giving to them the free opportunity to come with ideas or goals to be achieved in the project.
The documents were constantly part of different art shows, also supporting the concept of ‘social sculpture’, from the German artists Joseph Beuys, very important in this project.
‘Borderlines’ exhibitions list:
2007 “Living Room: Quarto Vivo” - Emma Thomas Gallery– São Paulo- Brazil
2007 “Catálogo Parallel Exhibition” - 2ptos Pernambuco– Pernambuco – Brazil
2008 ‘Polaroides Invisiveis’ – Sesc gallery – Curitiba – Brazil
2008 “Altered landscapes” – Newspace Center of Photography – Portland- USA.
2008 “Text & Image” - Wilson Rd gallery – London – UK
2008 “Muestra Monográfica de Media Arte” - Festival de La Imagem– Manzinales – Colombia
2008 “Fluid Identity”-Summer Show Camberwell College of Arts University of Arts London-UK
With the conceptual references and also with the project more clear in my mind I learned that my roll was in constant flux, working not just as an artist but mainly as a curator and a manager of the project, getting in the contact with galleries and cultural spaces do provide the work documentations for exhibitions.
This project also allowed me to act professionally in different art fields, improving my capacity as an art director researching and arranging events to present and to let out the process to different audience just possible with the intensive academic research.
Within the work productions for the borderlines and also for other personal projects I learned that my professional expertise in this market is to be a curator, to mediate artwork with the audience and to understand how the market works and how this type of art production is incorporate to the contemporary art market.
With this I was able to apply into the final show a curatorial statement, creating contexts and organizing professionally the exhibitions. Applying the idea of ‘networks in collaborative productions’ the work is present as an exhibition displaying a selection of documents from the project process.
The show ‘borderlines’ is part of the exhibition ‘Fluid Identity’, with 27 artists from the MA Digital Arts, which is part of the ‘Summer Show’, with artists from all the MA courses.
The goal here is to communicate the idea of 3 shows in 1: an exhibition inside another exhibition inside another exhibition.
For the ‘Summer Show’ a catalogue, with 300 copies, were produced to reinforce the idea of ‘an art exhibition’ of the work borderlines.
It is important to reaffirm here that what we see at the Summer Show is just a selection of the project process, a digital representation about the life of 4 immigrants.
The actual artwork is immaterial, situated in the ‘spaces’ between the networks produced in the collaboration and in the every-day-life from each participant.
Now, the next level from this artist statement is to keep developing a curatorial process. I am interested to explore the overlapping of digital artwork and collaborative production.
Using a different medium, working specifically in web-based works, I intend to experiment new platforms to connect the contemporary art to a greater audience.
from the series keywords'
'video installation: from the series 'keywords', february 2008. wilson rd gallery
4.6.08
the project continuos..
After some days without posting anything in this blog I decide to write a testimonial why I was away..
First because the final show is very close and I am really busy with the curatorial job for the show (27 artists!) and second because I already start the other project related to the issues that I was researching in the borderlines.
The project
‘Connecting urban spaces’ is already happing, as a virtual office (web based art production) for a show that I’m going to do in Berlin by November 2008.
I hope everybody could also checking the gns08 virtual office and I’ll come back soon with more info about borderlines and gns08.
www.gns2008.multiply.com
First because the final show is very close and I am really busy with the curatorial job for the show (27 artists!) and second because I already start the other project related to the issues that I was researching in the borderlines.
The project
‘Connecting urban spaces’ is already happing, as a virtual office (web based art production) for a show that I’m going to do in Berlin by November 2008.
I hope everybody could also checking the gns08 virtual office and I’ll come back soon with more info about borderlines and gns08.
www.gns2008.multiply.com
15.4.08
connecting urban spaces_2008
Connecting Urban Spaces_1 Media art exhibition / collaborative production.
Presentation:
The project ‘connecting urban spaces’ was first exhibited in Brazil in 2007 as an online-based art production. The project generates a show created collaboratively between five artists from different cities in different countries.
The artists created a ‘virtual office’ where in they investigated, discuss and develop multimedia art pieces about cityscapes and urban environments to produce a physical show.
With the idea to connect and research these urban spaces in a nomadic perspective the artists was working - virtually - during four months, using digital technologies such as photography/video/sound, to
document their environments and to produce the artworks (Sao Paulo - Brazil, Paris - France, Copenhagen - Denmark and Cologne – German).
Virtual office_2007: www.tateandocidades.multiply.com
After this time, with the support of Emma Thomas gallery (Sao Paulo-Brazil), I produced an exhibition in the gallery space where these documents was part of the art pieces displayed in the show.
At the same time, other artists with other works related to the city environment were invited for the show, adding to the project complementary mediums such as painting, postal art, stickers and installation. Parallel to the exhibition a virtual gallery was created to serve as a democratic environment for artists to submit their work about the project theme.
Virtual gallery_2007: www.connectingurbanspaces.blogspot.com
Pictures from the exhibition at Emma Thomas gallery, Brazil, July 28 until October 06, 2007
Connecting Urban Spaces_2008 Presentation:
This year, in collaboration with the artists-run organization based in Berlin, Germany, WOOLOO (www.wooloo.org) the project connecting urban spaces will continue.
Using the same methodology, other artists will be invited to produce - in a virtual environment - a show for the physical space, presenting their own projects and allowing all visitors to view this online work production in the process.
The artworks produced - during four months - in the virtual office will generate an investigation about nomadism, urban geography, citizens and community related to the artists’ cities.
Each artist will create a single project to be part of the physical exhibition, displaying in the gallery the documents from the projects’ process and allowing other artist to integrate or appropriate their pieces in the informal ‘virtual collaboration’
How the collaboration happens?
- Each artist will receive a login and password from a ‘multiply website’ where every week they will publish their projects process (as a multimedia document using video, photography, text, sound or web links).
- The website will also contain the section ‘blog’, where every week a theme will be given. The theme will be discussed together to develop a critical review about the project.
-The artists in the virtual office will be allowed to appropriate or incorporate other artists projects’ documents into their own, connecting their themes throw this medium.
- In the end of the virtual office the artist-mediator2 will select - with each artist - a series of documents to be part of the exhibition in the physical gallery.
The project is a constant collaboration between artists/curators/galleries and institutions. During the production we will also be looking for other collaborators to join the project with the intent to integrate other exhibitions/projects in other cities, connecting – literally – these urban spaces.
Virtual gallery:
During the virtual office a small group of artists will present in a virtual exhibition works related to the project’ issue. At the same time a ‘parallel virtual gallery’ (blog) will be create for artists from the wooloo.org database submit their work.
2
‘Artist-mediator’ (curator), the artist that assist social relations to create a networks where the environment is base by the production of art. "Rather than being the sole 'creator' of a work of art, the artist often plays the role of a mediator or facilitator for audiences' interaction with and contribution to the artwork" (PAUL, Christiane. "Digital Art". 2003. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London. p21/22)
Presentation:
The project ‘connecting urban spaces’ was first exhibited in Brazil in 2007 as an online-based art production. The project generates a show created collaboratively between five artists from different cities in different countries.
The artists created a ‘virtual office’ where in they investigated, discuss and develop multimedia art pieces about cityscapes and urban environments to produce a physical show.
With the idea to connect and research these urban spaces in a nomadic perspective the artists was working - virtually - during four months, using digital technologies such as photography/video/sound, to
document their environments and to produce the artworks (Sao Paulo - Brazil, Paris - France, Copenhagen - Denmark and Cologne – German).
Virtual office_2007: www.tateandocidades.multiply.com
After this time, with the support of Emma Thomas gallery (Sao Paulo-Brazil), I produced an exhibition in the gallery space where these documents was part of the art pieces displayed in the show.
At the same time, other artists with other works related to the city environment were invited for the show, adding to the project complementary mediums such as painting, postal art, stickers and installation. Parallel to the exhibition a virtual gallery was created to serve as a democratic environment for artists to submit their work about the project theme.
Virtual gallery_2007: www.connectingurbanspaces.blogspot.com
Pictures from the exhibition at Emma Thomas gallery, Brazil, July 28 until October 06, 2007
Connecting Urban Spaces_2008 Presentation:
This year, in collaboration with the artists-run organization based in Berlin, Germany, WOOLOO (www.wooloo.org) the project connecting urban spaces will continue.
Using the same methodology, other artists will be invited to produce - in a virtual environment - a show for the physical space, presenting their own projects and allowing all visitors to view this online work production in the process.
The artworks produced - during four months - in the virtual office will generate an investigation about nomadism, urban geography, citizens and community related to the artists’ cities.
Each artist will create a single project to be part of the physical exhibition, displaying in the gallery the documents from the projects’ process and allowing other artist to integrate or appropriate their pieces in the informal ‘virtual collaboration’
How the collaboration happens?
- Each artist will receive a login and password from a ‘multiply website’ where every week they will publish their projects process (as a multimedia document using video, photography, text, sound or web links).
- The website will also contain the section ‘blog’, where every week a theme will be given. The theme will be discussed together to develop a critical review about the project.
-The artists in the virtual office will be allowed to appropriate or incorporate other artists projects’ documents into their own, connecting their themes throw this medium.
- In the end of the virtual office the artist-mediator2 will select - with each artist - a series of documents to be part of the exhibition in the physical gallery.
The project is a constant collaboration between artists/curators/galleries and institutions. During the production we will also be looking for other collaborators to join the project with the intent to integrate other exhibitions/projects in other cities, connecting – literally – these urban spaces.
Virtual gallery:
During the virtual office a small group of artists will present in a virtual exhibition works related to the project’ issue. At the same time a ‘parallel virtual gallery’ (blog) will be create for artists from the wooloo.org database submit their work.
2
‘Artist-mediator’ (curator), the artist that assist social relations to create a networks where the environment is base by the production of art. "Rather than being the sole 'creator' of a work of art, the artist often plays the role of a mediator or facilitator for audiences' interaction with and contribution to the artwork" (PAUL, Christiane. "Digital Art". 2003. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London. p21/22)
14.3.08
REPORT
_____________________________REPORT_______________________________
Introduction:
This text is a report about the project “borderlines: immigrants environments in a social and technological art context”. This paper intends to describe the project process and how the collaborations between the artists were made. The text is written from the perspective of one of the artist in the collaboration, the ‘artist mediator’, the one that create the social relations during the project production and the collaborations.
The beginning:
When the art start to be totally connected to the life is when we identify how powerful is the intense production of a real art piece.
With the aim to rescue the art and the life is that the work “borderlines” was created. Using my own life experiences, perspectives and social relations I insert and represent into the artwork the ideas and statements related to these social issues.
With the initial objective of represent and work within illegal immigrants in the city of London the work started to create a political and subversive identity, when I try to infiltrate into this ‘fragile’ group and to produce the art piece. But, at the same time it was realized that: ‘if I want to be part of the all project I have to be one of the characters in the process; but my situation in London wasn’t the same’.
After that I decided to start the production alone, before decide which social group will be part of the collaboration.
During the first months my art investigation was to ‘looking for the non-spaces’, and what I mean for a ‘non-space’ is actually what I was looking for, this ‘borderlines’ where I’ll find latter in the collaboration with the immigrants.
The idea is to start the art investigation where I didn’t know what to represent or neither present in my art work, so the ‘non-space’ came as first input to my main goal in the project: denied the elements that I was trying to find in the collaboration.
With this idea in mind I did two video works “looking for the non-space I” and “looking for the non-space II”, where images of melancholic landscapes were used to present the question: When and where this images happen? And what are the characters or the elements in the narrative produced in the video? These questions were totally useful to help in the search for the social group that I was looking for.
Still from the video ”looking for the non-space II”,5’29”
Still from the video “looking for the 'non-space'”, 1’29”
In the other hand I was trying to translate - in my art process - the idea of ‘borders’ and to identify the ‘non-space’ that was necessary for create relevant elements in the translation of the ‘belonging of this non-space’.
The next step that appears in my process was the series of digital photography “immigrants objects”.
When I came from Brazil to England I notice that in my country it’s not normal to find trolleys in the middle of the street, parks, etc; but in London are. And then I decided to document these trolleys in a decontextualized environment and insert the immigrant context into the pictures - when the environment where you are from is not the one that you’re belonging anymore.
After the trolleys I did a documentations of containers also to translate the idea of nomadism and environment movement, using my single point of view about these immigrant issue.
At this time I was invited to partipate in an exhibition at Pernambuco Brazil, from the online magazine 2ptos where I display this series of photography’s.
'Immigrants objects', digital photography
With the process of the project already started by these two art pieces documents I decided to initiate the search for the collaboration partners, where I realize that to be a fare and truly work production I had to find people in the same situation as me: artist who are not from England living in London, which means: artists immigrants.
Before that I also decided that the best conceptual reference for this work it was to use the concept of ‘social sculpture’ (create by the German artist Joseph Beuys to translate the idea of the process as the art piece). To argue with this concept I try to display - in many shows as possible - the project process and to look for the process investigation in a different way, when I was trying to identify the ‘art document pieces’.
And then, to start the collaboration (and also to dialogue with my personal work) I create the work “Portuguese and Magyarország”: a digital drawing produced in a brainstorm with a friend from Hungary when we were discussing how the Brazilian language, the Portuguese, has a lot of similarities with the Hungary language, the Magyarország. This art piece is a paper with notes from when we were talking about it. This work was displayed in the exhibition “Living Room”, at the Emma Thomas gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil.
“Portuguese and Magyarország”, digital drawing
Exhibition view
I felt the necessity to research relevant contemporary references of artist that was also producing artworks related to the idea of immigration.
In my research I use Joseph Beuys to translate the work-in-process and the social implication about the project with some of his concepts and works in the essays and papers that I wrote in the process. I also relate his production to the technological and digital environment where my work came from.
Joseph Beuys in the action ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’, 1974
Another important example is the work ‘on translation’ made by the Spanish artist Antoni Muntatas where he create series of digital photography and video about the immigrants in the border of the USA and the México.
Antoni Muntadas, video installation ‘On Translation’
I still have to appoint the outstanding video documentary “Them” 2007, create by the Polish artist Artur Zmijewski. The video documents a social experiment about different social groups with different political views (conservatives, patriotic Catholics, nationalist Polish youth, leftist socialists, democrats and freedom fighters). The artist invited them to create in a workshop symbolism and ideas about their ideologies, the result is footage with conflict and interaction to negotiate and fight.
Still from the video “Them”, 2007, Artur Zmijewski
Another rich reference is the work “Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them". A video documentary where the Chinese artist Jun Yang reflects the conditions in the everyday life of migrants - legal and illegal - in the West of USA in a climate of paranoia filmed in the wake of 9/11.
Jun Yang, “camouflage”, video, 16:33 min
This references research is still in develop published in the project virtual diary.
The collaboration chase:
With the propose to work within a small group of artist from different countries I start my search for the partners with an online ad published in magazines where I wrote, “ need artist for a collaborative project”.
With this ad a group of people with interest in the project reply and my work was to choose which one I’ll invite for the collaboration.
After a couple of weeks I send an email to three of them inviting for an informal meeting in my house.
In the meeting was the perfect moment to know better each of them and also for the group to understand what the project is about. And the partners for the collaboration were: Lana Lasagna, South Africa, Francesco Beneamato, Italy and Aline Der Assem, German.
During the time that I had do deal with four different artists and also with my personal work I realize that my function in the project was the ‘artist-mediator’, the artist that assist social relations creating networks where the environment is base by art and technology.
The collaborations was being created at the most natural way, connecting the art production to a day-by-day life, using the partner’ techniques into a digital technology environment, but at the same time giving to them the free opportunity to come with ideas or goals that they want to achieve in the project.
After the first group meeting I start to make individual meetings to talk personally what we were going to investigate in the collaboration and how is the best way for it.
I encourage them to create a virtual diary but this was something that didn’t work, in the other hand was necessary to prove that I’ll really be the filter and the catalyst for the project documentations.
During the meeting with each artist we talk and discuss what we will investigate into the immigrant theme. With this first chats I was able to understand each personality for then propose a ‘keyword’ for each artist to use in the collaboration’ work.
After a few meetings its was clear for me which issue I will be using in the work, choose from their personal dealing with the city of London and how are they’re opinions and visions about their own city and their own life affected by the multicultural space of London.
Lana Lasagna: identity; Francesco Beneamato, environment and Aline Der Assem, belonging.
With the words and issues decided I keep doing my personal work using these ‘keywords’ in a ‘non-way’, i. e, creating art pieces about the word ‘language’ and denying their work environments. This word’s artwork will be more specified in the text below when I’ll describe how each immigrant used each ‘keyword’.
With this I start to produce the series “invisiveis,07”. The objective of this series is to represent the ‘non-identity’ about the immigrants in London, where in a cosmopolitan city; we are always surrounded by different information’s, couture’s and belief. Using the Internet as the resource for the images and applying a digital manipulation (what I call as digital painting) the images ‘hide’ and ‘denied’ the characters identity.
Using online community for social networking I research portrays where people register their life in various situation, such as vacation, in places that they don’t normally go or old images (the memory). With the digital manipulation the characters was erased and replaced by the landscape scenario.
With this series I was invited to participate of two group shows, the first ‘Invisible Polaroid’ at the SESC gallery, Curitiba, Brazil, and the other one ‘Altered Landscapes’ at the Newspace Centre for Photography, Portland, USA.
Another piece create from the words used in the collaboration with each artist is the video installation “from the series: keywords”. Using the projects keywords: "language, environment, identity and belonging" in a simple animation the video is a composite with all the words together resulting in a big sentence, when the meaning from each word is not important anymore because the main focus is each letter, representing the idea of each immigrant as an individual. This work was present at the show “TEXT & IMAGE”, at the Wilson Rd gallery, London.
Still from the video “keywords”
Exhibition view
All this shows was important to contextualize the project concept - ‘the process as the art piece’- where the documents are displayed in different places showing the project process as a piece in different contexts.
‘Invisiveis,07’, digital photography
Identity, Lana Lasagna, South Africa.
The collaboration with Lana was the most natural work. Talking about the issues and her life in informal chats she came with the idea about a short video that tell her situation in London.
In the city for 8 year Lana was applying for her citizenship and during the work she was also filling forms and dealing with burocracy to became a British, so, we decided to incorporate this period of her life in our collaboration.
Before she post the document we decided to shoot a video where she was filling the form with a ‘character fake hand’ in the section that she had to write which day and country she was out of England in the past eight year.
In the video ‘writing’, a fake hand write the British form, the timing and intensive repetition in the video is a truly representation about how difficult is to get a citizenship and how many steps you have to do in this hall process.
Still from the video ‘writing’, 6’02”
Before she post the forms we also did another video, ‘offering’, where the same character run eighty time a tracking field and in the end offers to a mail box eight blue balls that represent the eight year that she was in the country.
Still from the video ‘offering’, 3’05”
After a month Lana receive the result about the citizenship and we shoot the ceremony for the queen of England, where she finally will get the British passport. The material of this ceremony is a documentary still in editing process.
During the period that we were working together we went to different exhibitions and lectures to find references for what we were doing in the collaboration. One lecture that is important to mention is the ‘Intimacy: Across Visceral and Digital Performance” (7,8,9 of December at Goldsmiths University of London) where we watch interesting female artist talking about their performance work in the digital environment.
Belonging, Aline Der Assem, German
Aline had already work in collaboration with children that she did when she was in German. She is a very conceptual artist and the process with her was very important to contextualize the project process. She was always putting me in the spotlight and making questions to test, and maybe check where she was getting into. This ‘conceptual confront‘ was very important because she help me to questioned myself and to make me understand, actually, what I was doing.
Aline Der Assem, Collective Drawings # 3 (detail), 50 cm x 200 cm
Our meetings were always with a lot of coffee and talk and massive discussions about artists, works, institutions, art market, etc.
Aline and I was going to investigate the idea of belonging and I think this issue was very important to her because she was always travelling between German and London, belonging to the booth countries.
At one time that she arrived London she came with the idea of using the ‘kitchen’ as an input to start our collaboration; and also with the title “My house is my castle”. With this input I suggest that we could make a first experiment building castles installations with frames in our own kitchens.
With 30 frames we start to build the installation. First we did in my room and than we move to my kitchen. Starting with a very straight form (like card castles) and then incorporating the installation with the object that was around the castle, like the bed, floor, chair, table, ashtrays, etc.
“My house is my castle”, series of digital photography
The images generated from these installations will serve as a second input for the collaboration, helping us to find what belong represent to us.
In the meeting in her home – to build the frame installations in her kitchen - we realize that we wasn’t happy with the result; the images that we had it wasn’t the correct way to communicate what we were trying to say. After a hall day talking and discussing about our work we notice that the object that we were trying to use it wasn’t the frames neither the kitchen and actually the furniture around the ‘castles’. The furniture represents the private space of our houses and belongs to our houses, and than we decide to use this concept in a public context.
After this meeting Aline went back to German for a couple of weeks. During this time we were making online meeting to talk about this idea of furniture and researching artist that already start this discussion, like the Brazilian artist José Bechara, which has installations with beds, chair, etc and the artist Carl Palm, that create inside the gallery space an accumulations of house objects.
Carl Palm, “Two day Trojan art house show”
Jose Bechara, “paisagem domestica”
After that Aline start to document the furniture nomadism in German, where the citizen put the old furniture that they don’t want anymore on the street creating real ‘natural urban installations’.
“My house is my castle”, series of digital photography
We still in the process to find the better platform to display this series of pictures and also the name of the work change because we found the differences between the meaning of the words ‘house’ and ‘home’. House describes a particular type of building. Home is the place where you live and feel that you belong to.
So what we were doing is “My Home is my castle”.
Environment, Francesco Beneamato, Italy
Francesco reply for the project’ ad because he wanted to live in a more arty environment. He starts painting when he moves to London 4 years ago.
His paintings have a lot of information, strong colours and an intensive message. In the group meeting he show me a painting where he try to translate the London environment, ‘a city where we receive a lot of information every day’ and definitely he could tell us that with that image. Francesco is a city guy, during the meetings we were always in different’s cafés or pub and meeting new artist, people, etc. I didn’t have other choice than give him the environment issue to investigate in our collaboration.
Francesco Beneamato, “the dead of two cactus”, painting
At the same time that Francesco is an immigrant that belong to the city, he is like the city, quickly, fast and with a lot of information and things happen around him. This was one of the personality that we wanted to translate in the work.
We produce two videos about London and Italy: one with narrative (park-city) e other with a poetic aesthetics (city-park).
The idea is to represent the booth countries in Francesco’s mind. In the video ‘park-city’ he is walking around the city and writing in a notebook about the environment that he is in. And in the video ‘city-park’ are two screens at the same time, in the first you can see his robe (the one that he use to paint) flying with the wind and in the other steps of an escalator with a slowly and poetic movement.
Still from the video park-city, looping, 2’09”
Still from the video city-park, looping, 0’37”
Francesco keep writing in his notebook about his life and his perspectives about the city and the notebook is another piece that we want to incorporate to the project.
The shooting of this video was a real art piece, where in a long day he decided where we’re going to make the shoots and he was leaving me to places and spaces that he like in London.
The real art piece in the collaboration with Francesco was the day that we were walking through the city without destination to shoot the video. This day was like the happenings in the 60’ 70’ in New York and certainly was a ‘dérive’ work, like the Situationist Guy Debord where in a philosophy concept means “(...) an aimless walk, probably through city streets, that follows the whim of the moment. It is sometimes translated as a drift. This idea is to try and convince readers to revisit the way they looked at urban spaces.” (Wikipedia. Last access at 6th March 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive)
Conclusion
Having as a start a schedule and aims produced in the beginning of the project I realize that the process was very intensive and productful. The work is not finish yet because I still have some other few questions to investigate and experiment related to this idea of immigration, not just about persons but objects and concepts.
The Website is another very important tool to display the project process and to show how the work is being create with the idea of the ‘art piece documentations’
All the papers and essays (and also this report) are very important to contextualize the conceptual of the project, creating this network though the digital technologies and art.
I know that a project to be good is a project without an end, a project that is possible to be applied in different context and spaces.
This work is in your process and is totally relevant to keep with this methodology in different social groups and also to produce new statements about the society nowadays.
Introduction:
This text is a report about the project “borderlines: immigrants environments in a social and technological art context”. This paper intends to describe the project process and how the collaborations between the artists were made. The text is written from the perspective of one of the artist in the collaboration, the ‘artist mediator’, the one that create the social relations during the project production and the collaborations.
The beginning:
When the art start to be totally connected to the life is when we identify how powerful is the intense production of a real art piece.
With the aim to rescue the art and the life is that the work “borderlines” was created. Using my own life experiences, perspectives and social relations I insert and represent into the artwork the ideas and statements related to these social issues.
With the initial objective of represent and work within illegal immigrants in the city of London the work started to create a political and subversive identity, when I try to infiltrate into this ‘fragile’ group and to produce the art piece. But, at the same time it was realized that: ‘if I want to be part of the all project I have to be one of the characters in the process; but my situation in London wasn’t the same’.
After that I decided to start the production alone, before decide which social group will be part of the collaboration.
During the first months my art investigation was to ‘looking for the non-spaces’, and what I mean for a ‘non-space’ is actually what I was looking for, this ‘borderlines’ where I’ll find latter in the collaboration with the immigrants.
The idea is to start the art investigation where I didn’t know what to represent or neither present in my art work, so the ‘non-space’ came as first input to my main goal in the project: denied the elements that I was trying to find in the collaboration.
With this idea in mind I did two video works “looking for the non-space I” and “looking for the non-space II”, where images of melancholic landscapes were used to present the question: When and where this images happen? And what are the characters or the elements in the narrative produced in the video? These questions were totally useful to help in the search for the social group that I was looking for.
Still from the video ”looking for the non-space II”,5’29”
Still from the video “looking for the 'non-space'”, 1’29”
In the other hand I was trying to translate - in my art process - the idea of ‘borders’ and to identify the ‘non-space’ that was necessary for create relevant elements in the translation of the ‘belonging of this non-space’.
The next step that appears in my process was the series of digital photography “immigrants objects”.
When I came from Brazil to England I notice that in my country it’s not normal to find trolleys in the middle of the street, parks, etc; but in London are. And then I decided to document these trolleys in a decontextualized environment and insert the immigrant context into the pictures - when the environment where you are from is not the one that you’re belonging anymore.
After the trolleys I did a documentations of containers also to translate the idea of nomadism and environment movement, using my single point of view about these immigrant issue.
At this time I was invited to partipate in an exhibition at Pernambuco Brazil, from the online magazine 2ptos where I display this series of photography’s.
'Immigrants objects', digital photography
With the process of the project already started by these two art pieces documents I decided to initiate the search for the collaboration partners, where I realize that to be a fare and truly work production I had to find people in the same situation as me: artist who are not from England living in London, which means: artists immigrants.
Before that I also decided that the best conceptual reference for this work it was to use the concept of ‘social sculpture’ (create by the German artist Joseph Beuys to translate the idea of the process as the art piece). To argue with this concept I try to display - in many shows as possible - the project process and to look for the process investigation in a different way, when I was trying to identify the ‘art document pieces’.
And then, to start the collaboration (and also to dialogue with my personal work) I create the work “Portuguese and Magyarország”: a digital drawing produced in a brainstorm with a friend from Hungary when we were discussing how the Brazilian language, the Portuguese, has a lot of similarities with the Hungary language, the Magyarország. This art piece is a paper with notes from when we were talking about it. This work was displayed in the exhibition “Living Room”, at the Emma Thomas gallery, in São Paulo, Brazil.
“Portuguese and Magyarország”, digital drawing
Exhibition view
I felt the necessity to research relevant contemporary references of artist that was also producing artworks related to the idea of immigration.
In my research I use Joseph Beuys to translate the work-in-process and the social implication about the project with some of his concepts and works in the essays and papers that I wrote in the process. I also relate his production to the technological and digital environment where my work came from.
Joseph Beuys in the action ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’, 1974
Another important example is the work ‘on translation’ made by the Spanish artist Antoni Muntatas where he create series of digital photography and video about the immigrants in the border of the USA and the México.
Antoni Muntadas, video installation ‘On Translation’
I still have to appoint the outstanding video documentary “Them” 2007, create by the Polish artist Artur Zmijewski. The video documents a social experiment about different social groups with different political views (conservatives, patriotic Catholics, nationalist Polish youth, leftist socialists, democrats and freedom fighters). The artist invited them to create in a workshop symbolism and ideas about their ideologies, the result is footage with conflict and interaction to negotiate and fight.
Still from the video “Them”, 2007, Artur Zmijewski
Another rich reference is the work “Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them". A video documentary where the Chinese artist Jun Yang reflects the conditions in the everyday life of migrants - legal and illegal - in the West of USA in a climate of paranoia filmed in the wake of 9/11.
Jun Yang, “camouflage”, video, 16:33 min
This references research is still in develop published in the project virtual diary.
The collaboration chase:
With the propose to work within a small group of artist from different countries I start my search for the partners with an online ad published in magazines where I wrote, “ need artist for a collaborative project”.
With this ad a group of people with interest in the project reply and my work was to choose which one I’ll invite for the collaboration.
After a couple of weeks I send an email to three of them inviting for an informal meeting in my house.
In the meeting was the perfect moment to know better each of them and also for the group to understand what the project is about. And the partners for the collaboration were: Lana Lasagna, South Africa, Francesco Beneamato, Italy and Aline Der Assem, German.
During the time that I had do deal with four different artists and also with my personal work I realize that my function in the project was the ‘artist-mediator’, the artist that assist social relations creating networks where the environment is base by art and technology.
The collaborations was being created at the most natural way, connecting the art production to a day-by-day life, using the partner’ techniques into a digital technology environment, but at the same time giving to them the free opportunity to come with ideas or goals that they want to achieve in the project.
After the first group meeting I start to make individual meetings to talk personally what we were going to investigate in the collaboration and how is the best way for it.
I encourage them to create a virtual diary but this was something that didn’t work, in the other hand was necessary to prove that I’ll really be the filter and the catalyst for the project documentations.
During the meeting with each artist we talk and discuss what we will investigate into the immigrant theme. With this first chats I was able to understand each personality for then propose a ‘keyword’ for each artist to use in the collaboration’ work.
After a few meetings its was clear for me which issue I will be using in the work, choose from their personal dealing with the city of London and how are they’re opinions and visions about their own city and their own life affected by the multicultural space of London.
Lana Lasagna: identity; Francesco Beneamato, environment and Aline Der Assem, belonging.
With the words and issues decided I keep doing my personal work using these ‘keywords’ in a ‘non-way’, i. e, creating art pieces about the word ‘language’ and denying their work environments. This word’s artwork will be more specified in the text below when I’ll describe how each immigrant used each ‘keyword’.
With this I start to produce the series “invisiveis,07”. The objective of this series is to represent the ‘non-identity’ about the immigrants in London, where in a cosmopolitan city; we are always surrounded by different information’s, couture’s and belief. Using the Internet as the resource for the images and applying a digital manipulation (what I call as digital painting) the images ‘hide’ and ‘denied’ the characters identity.
Using online community for social networking I research portrays where people register their life in various situation, such as vacation, in places that they don’t normally go or old images (the memory). With the digital manipulation the characters was erased and replaced by the landscape scenario.
With this series I was invited to participate of two group shows, the first ‘Invisible Polaroid’ at the SESC gallery, Curitiba, Brazil, and the other one ‘Altered Landscapes’ at the Newspace Centre for Photography, Portland, USA.
Another piece create from the words used in the collaboration with each artist is the video installation “from the series: keywords”. Using the projects keywords: "language, environment, identity and belonging" in a simple animation the video is a composite with all the words together resulting in a big sentence, when the meaning from each word is not important anymore because the main focus is each letter, representing the idea of each immigrant as an individual. This work was present at the show “TEXT & IMAGE”, at the Wilson Rd gallery, London.
Still from the video “keywords”
Exhibition view
All this shows was important to contextualize the project concept - ‘the process as the art piece’- where the documents are displayed in different places showing the project process as a piece in different contexts.
‘Invisiveis,07’, digital photography
Identity, Lana Lasagna, South Africa.
The collaboration with Lana was the most natural work. Talking about the issues and her life in informal chats she came with the idea about a short video that tell her situation in London.
In the city for 8 year Lana was applying for her citizenship and during the work she was also filling forms and dealing with burocracy to became a British, so, we decided to incorporate this period of her life in our collaboration.
Before she post the document we decided to shoot a video where she was filling the form with a ‘character fake hand’ in the section that she had to write which day and country she was out of England in the past eight year.
In the video ‘writing’, a fake hand write the British form, the timing and intensive repetition in the video is a truly representation about how difficult is to get a citizenship and how many steps you have to do in this hall process.
Still from the video ‘writing’, 6’02”
Before she post the forms we also did another video, ‘offering’, where the same character run eighty time a tracking field and in the end offers to a mail box eight blue balls that represent the eight year that she was in the country.
Still from the video ‘offering’, 3’05”
After a month Lana receive the result about the citizenship and we shoot the ceremony for the queen of England, where she finally will get the British passport. The material of this ceremony is a documentary still in editing process.
During the period that we were working together we went to different exhibitions and lectures to find references for what we were doing in the collaboration. One lecture that is important to mention is the ‘Intimacy: Across Visceral and Digital Performance” (7,8,9 of December at Goldsmiths University of London) where we watch interesting female artist talking about their performance work in the digital environment.
Belonging, Aline Der Assem, German
Aline had already work in collaboration with children that she did when she was in German. She is a very conceptual artist and the process with her was very important to contextualize the project process. She was always putting me in the spotlight and making questions to test, and maybe check where she was getting into. This ‘conceptual confront‘ was very important because she help me to questioned myself and to make me understand, actually, what I was doing.
Aline Der Assem, Collective Drawings # 3 (detail), 50 cm x 200 cm
Our meetings were always with a lot of coffee and talk and massive discussions about artists, works, institutions, art market, etc.
Aline and I was going to investigate the idea of belonging and I think this issue was very important to her because she was always travelling between German and London, belonging to the booth countries.
At one time that she arrived London she came with the idea of using the ‘kitchen’ as an input to start our collaboration; and also with the title “My house is my castle”. With this input I suggest that we could make a first experiment building castles installations with frames in our own kitchens.
With 30 frames we start to build the installation. First we did in my room and than we move to my kitchen. Starting with a very straight form (like card castles) and then incorporating the installation with the object that was around the castle, like the bed, floor, chair, table, ashtrays, etc.
“My house is my castle”, series of digital photography
The images generated from these installations will serve as a second input for the collaboration, helping us to find what belong represent to us.
In the meeting in her home – to build the frame installations in her kitchen - we realize that we wasn’t happy with the result; the images that we had it wasn’t the correct way to communicate what we were trying to say. After a hall day talking and discussing about our work we notice that the object that we were trying to use it wasn’t the frames neither the kitchen and actually the furniture around the ‘castles’. The furniture represents the private space of our houses and belongs to our houses, and than we decide to use this concept in a public context.
After this meeting Aline went back to German for a couple of weeks. During this time we were making online meeting to talk about this idea of furniture and researching artist that already start this discussion, like the Brazilian artist José Bechara, which has installations with beds, chair, etc and the artist Carl Palm, that create inside the gallery space an accumulations of house objects.
Carl Palm, “Two day Trojan art house show”
Jose Bechara, “paisagem domestica”
After that Aline start to document the furniture nomadism in German, where the citizen put the old furniture that they don’t want anymore on the street creating real ‘natural urban installations’.
“My house is my castle”, series of digital photography
We still in the process to find the better platform to display this series of pictures and also the name of the work change because we found the differences between the meaning of the words ‘house’ and ‘home’. House describes a particular type of building. Home is the place where you live and feel that you belong to.
So what we were doing is “My Home is my castle”.
Environment, Francesco Beneamato, Italy
Francesco reply for the project’ ad because he wanted to live in a more arty environment. He starts painting when he moves to London 4 years ago.
His paintings have a lot of information, strong colours and an intensive message. In the group meeting he show me a painting where he try to translate the London environment, ‘a city where we receive a lot of information every day’ and definitely he could tell us that with that image. Francesco is a city guy, during the meetings we were always in different’s cafés or pub and meeting new artist, people, etc. I didn’t have other choice than give him the environment issue to investigate in our collaboration.
Francesco Beneamato, “the dead of two cactus”, painting
At the same time that Francesco is an immigrant that belong to the city, he is like the city, quickly, fast and with a lot of information and things happen around him. This was one of the personality that we wanted to translate in the work.
We produce two videos about London and Italy: one with narrative (park-city) e other with a poetic aesthetics (city-park).
The idea is to represent the booth countries in Francesco’s mind. In the video ‘park-city’ he is walking around the city and writing in a notebook about the environment that he is in. And in the video ‘city-park’ are two screens at the same time, in the first you can see his robe (the one that he use to paint) flying with the wind and in the other steps of an escalator with a slowly and poetic movement.
Still from the video park-city, looping, 2’09”
Still from the video city-park, looping, 0’37”
Francesco keep writing in his notebook about his life and his perspectives about the city and the notebook is another piece that we want to incorporate to the project.
The shooting of this video was a real art piece, where in a long day he decided where we’re going to make the shoots and he was leaving me to places and spaces that he like in London.
The real art piece in the collaboration with Francesco was the day that we were walking through the city without destination to shoot the video. This day was like the happenings in the 60’ 70’ in New York and certainly was a ‘dérive’ work, like the Situationist Guy Debord where in a philosophy concept means “(...) an aimless walk, probably through city streets, that follows the whim of the moment. It is sometimes translated as a drift. This idea is to try and convince readers to revisit the way they looked at urban spaces.” (Wikipedia. Last access at 6th March 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive)
Conclusion
Having as a start a schedule and aims produced in the beginning of the project I realize that the process was very intensive and productful. The work is not finish yet because I still have some other few questions to investigate and experiment related to this idea of immigration, not just about persons but objects and concepts.
The Website is another very important tool to display the project process and to show how the work is being create with the idea of the ‘art piece documentations’
All the papers and essays (and also this report) are very important to contextualize the conceptual of the project, creating this network though the digital technologies and art.
I know that a project to be good is a project without an end, a project that is possible to be applied in different context and spaces.
This work is in your process and is totally relevant to keep with this methodology in different social groups and also to produce new statements about the society nowadays.
exhibition plan floor
The project is going fast.
I'm publishing now the plan floor for the exhibition and a prototype for one of the works, the video installation "city-park".
I'm publishing now the plan floor for the exhibition and a prototype for one of the works, the video installation "city-park".
13.3.08
"my home is my castle"
House describes a particular type of building.
Home is the place where you live and feel that you belong to28.2.08
Jun Yang; China. "Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them" and the series "X-Guide"
Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like themJun Yang. /04, 16:33 min
Jun yang, who was four years old when his family emigrated from China to Vienna, makes videos and installations focusing on cultural and personal identity and the effects of migration and relocation. Filmed in the wake of 9/11, "Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them" reflects the conditions of everyday life in the West for migrants - legal and illegal. - in a climate of paranoia. Migrant X was smuggled from China into Austria, where he is designated a person of 'suspicious appearance and behaviour'. The story of X's failed attempts to blend in with the crowd - and his eventual imprisonment as an illegal immigrant - is told against a background of newspaper headlines reporting extraordinary police measures, false alarms and wrongful arrests. As advice to others in the same predicament, Yang describes the camouflage tactics necessary in order to survive. Though the tales is not remotely funny, its reducio ad adsurdissimum points to the ridiculous situation where we will all have to look and behave exactly alike in order to be above suspicion.
The "X-Guide" pictograms reinforce the messages of the 'Camouflage' video in simple visual language, illustrating appropriate codes of Western behaviour for foreigners. But at the same time there are deeper ironies at play: while designed to enable us to communicate regardless of nationality, race and age, pictograms used as public information symbols are highly culture-specific and can often be misunderstood. Here, in order to make everything absolutely clear, the pictograms are accompanied by captions in English, though English-speakers presumably should not need these pictograms instructions.
*KATAOKA, Mami. "Laughing in a Foreign Language", The Hayward, London, UK, 25 January - 14 April 2008. Southbank Centre.
X-Guide: get a formal hair-cut Alucubon, vinyl, three-part approx. 116 x 160 cm .2004
"X-Guide: learn the local language." Alucubon, vinyl, three-part approx. 116 x 160 cm 2004
Artur Zmijewski, Them @ Documenta 12, Kassel, German. 2007
(Artur Zmijewski Them, 2007. Courtesy of Foksall Gallery Foundation)
Them documents a social experiment devised by Zmijewski in which representatives from conflicting social groups (conservatives, patriotic Catholics, nationalist Polish youth, leftist socialists, democrats and freedom fighters) are brought together through a series of workshops. Each group is asked to construct a symbolic centre and then to comment and react to the others. Forcing participants to interact: to negotiate, to fight, or to withdraw.
***
“Though we often ostensibly apply actual labels to fictive things, wecan hardly apply fictive labels; for a label used exists.”
-Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art
‘I’m starting’ says an old lady in her modest but excited voice. Nobody anticipates the beginning of a battle. She draws a black line, then another, and more.
Four different teams illustrate their four diverse views in simple drawings. A catholic church, a word ‘’ in Hebrew framed in the contour of , Chrobry’s Sword, and the word ‘Freedom’ (in Polish) again framed in the contour of .
Each team’s members come from a different ideological background. As groups supposed to appear representative of the ideology they become stereotypical in themselves. Moreover – they use stereotypes to express their beliefs.
Their illustrations serve as emblems, also in a literal meaning, as they are printed on t-shirts that each group will wear. During the second meeting, dressed in their new outfits they become easily identifiable. Simple rules are set – there are no rules.
Teams begin to correct each other’s expressions, removing or adding elements until the message is in compliance with their own views. They each represent some type of an extreme, not one being a so-called typical Pole. However, it is the very use of stereotypes in which lays the strength of Them.
Their actions are a battle of representations, a war of images, symbols and gestures, which gain their intensity from being simple, direct and most importantly – not always adequate. The extremity escalates as the exchange of fire takes place.
None of the participants are artists; it is only for the sake of the video that they agreed to use visuals. The conflict is spectacular, almost thrilling as the actions develop.
If one ever asks the question whether art can be harmful, this video provides a particularly interesting answer. Only the elderly catholic ladies notice that the tumult is not leading the discussion anywhere. They decide to leave the room. The remaining three groups consisting of much younger people seem too excited to notice that their actions are destructive. The reason for that is as simple as it is peculiar. They have to invent ways of expression that are new to them and that will prove what they consider to be the strength of their argument.
There is no single attempt to explain any belief or the reason behind it. Nobody tries to reach an agreement. Nonetheless, members of each group seem to be satisfied with their doings. Perhaps it is because they are stubborn. But it may also be due to the fact, that they are engaged in a creative process, the most fulfilling act any human can undertake. The godly act of creating easily becomes opium for the
26.2.08
“Borderlines: Digital art to produce social statements.”
Is it possible to produce an artwork that engages the society? Which are the tools, the techniques and the correct terms to represent the society today trough the well-know technological speed development?
Abstract:
This paper intents to analyze the work “borderlines”(a collaboration between artist using digital technology to represent immigrants aspects and conditions in London). The current essay use different concepts - related to the digital technology in the art field - to translate and illustrate the context about the work and also to create questions about the terminology ‘digital art’. What is produced today that we could call digital art? How we can identify this term in our contemporary production and how this technological evolution in the art field help to develop the society? Looking in the process of this art production the technology is inserted “as a tool” to engage social statements in different contexts, and at the same time, to represent and analyse the today’s society searching for further paradigms and aesthetics.
Keywords: digital art; social art; contemporary art; ‘work-in-process’; New British Art, Joseph Beuys.
*click here for download the paper.
Abstract:
This paper intents to analyze the work “borderlines”(a collaboration between artist using digital technology to represent immigrants aspects and conditions in London). The current essay use different concepts - related to the digital technology in the art field - to translate and illustrate the context about the work and also to create questions about the terminology ‘digital art’. What is produced today that we could call digital art? How we can identify this term in our contemporary production and how this technological evolution in the art field help to develop the society? Looking in the process of this art production the technology is inserted “as a tool” to engage social statements in different contexts, and at the same time, to represent and analyse the today’s society searching for further paradigms and aesthetics.
Keywords: digital art; social art; contemporary art; ‘work-in-process’; New British Art, Joseph Beuys.
*click here for download the paper.
25.2.08
Joseph Beuys at TATE collection
The German artist Joseph Beuys was highly charismatic figure whose sculptures, made from substances such as fat, felt, wax, honey, copper and bronze has distinctive symbolic associations that he derived from science, anthropology and identified with animals such as the stag, which Beuys associated with the power to move freely between the physical world and spirit realism. One of his last and most dramatic works, Lightning with Stag in its Glare 1958-85 brings together, in an apocalyptic flash of lightning many of the themes that had obsessed him throughout his life.
'In the massive installation Lightning with Stag in its Glare (1958-85), the suspended, bronze triangle embodies the energy of a powerful flash of lightning, which illuminates a group of half-formed creatures. The ‘stag’ of the title was originally made from an ironing board and then cast in bright aluminium to suggest the glare of the lightning. The cart represents a goat, and the clods of bronze on the floor are primordial creatures. A small compass, mounted on top of a box, is another reference, with the lightning flash itself, to the natural energies of the earth.'
Francesca Woodman at TATE Modern.
This week I went to the TATE Modern to check the exhibition about Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia, but what really make my mind was 2 works from the Tate Collection exhibition from the American Artist Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) and the German Joseph Beuys (1921-1986).
***
In the Woodman room a series of videos and photographs.
"Selected Video Works 1975 - 1978"
Influenced by Surrealist photography, Woodman's self portraits possess a remarkable psychological intensity. She produced a series of videos in the mid-1970s after borrowing a camera from the Rhode Island School of design. Recently discovered and restored, they include a sequence in which Woodman is obscured by a sheet of paper which she gradually tears until her naked form emerges through the ruptures surface.
"Poetry and Dream"
Woodman's ethereal photographs appear to explore and dissolve the boundaries of the human body. Many of her self-portraits present her in otherwise deserted interior spaces, where her body almost merges with its surroundings, covered by sections of peeling wallpaper, half hidden behind the flat plane of a door, or crouching over a mirror. Often using slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence, Woodman seems to combine performance with self-exposure, suggesting the exploration of extreme psychological states.
Born into a family of artists, Woodman grew up in Boulder, Colorado but regularly spent her summers in Italy. She began taking photography at the age of 13, and her work reflects her absorption of range of visual material from Surrealist and fashion photography to Baroque painting. She sometimes included fetishistic found objects and phallic props which are seen in relation to her own body, or to the bodies of her models. Many of the photographs suggest a spirit of playful experimentation at odds with their sense of claustrophobia. Most of the photographs were given by the artist to her boyfriend, who appears alongside her in a double portrait. Although she was only 22 when she took her own life, Woodman left behind a significant body of work of more than 800 images.
***
In the Woodman room a series of videos and photographs.
"Selected Video Works 1975 - 1978"
Influenced by Surrealist photography, Woodman's self portraits possess a remarkable psychological intensity. She produced a series of videos in the mid-1970s after borrowing a camera from the Rhode Island School of design. Recently discovered and restored, they include a sequence in which Woodman is obscured by a sheet of paper which she gradually tears until her naked form emerges through the ruptures surface."Poetry and Dream"
Woodman's ethereal photographs appear to explore and dissolve the boundaries of the human body. Many of her self-portraits present her in otherwise deserted interior spaces, where her body almost merges with its surroundings, covered by sections of peeling wallpaper, half hidden behind the flat plane of a door, or crouching over a mirror. Often using slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence, Woodman seems to combine performance with self-exposure, suggesting the exploration of extreme psychological states.
Born into a family of artists, Woodman grew up in Boulder, Colorado but regularly spent her summers in Italy. She began taking photography at the age of 13, and her work reflects her absorption of range of visual material from Surrealist and fashion photography to Baroque painting. She sometimes included fetishistic found objects and phallic props which are seen in relation to her own body, or to the bodies of her models. Many of the photographs suggest a spirit of playful experimentation at odds with their sense of claustrophobia. Most of the photographs were given by the artist to her boyfriend, who appears alongside her in a double portrait. Although she was only 22 when she took her own life, Woodman left behind a significant body of work of more than 800 images.
29.1.08
In this project my position is the artist as the mediator between , technology and the social environment.
The conceptual investigation created in the collaboration between me and the partners in the art production, using their own artist techniques in a digital context, such as: drawing, painting, and acting .
The result is an artworks selection made with digital technologies as a tool- creating an artistically representation about 4 different nationalities researched in the London context. (Brazil, German, Italy and Shout Africa).
In the work is identified the concepts of identity, belonging, environment and language as an input for each artwork in the collaboration.
Adriano Casanova (Brazil): denying identity, belonging and environment.
'invisiveis,07', digital photography (painting?),
-SESC gallery, Janurary 2008, Curitiba, Brazil.
-Newspace Center for Photography, February, 2008 Portland, OR, USA
'immigrants objects', digital photography.
-'mostra catálogo 2ptos', December 2007, Pernambuco, Brazil.
from the series: "keywords", digital video
-'Wilson Rd gallery, Camberweel College of Arts, 2008, London, UK.
'looking for the 'non-space', digital video
'looking for the 'non-space II', digital video
'Portuguese and Magyarország ', digital drawing
Emma Thomas gallery, September, 2007, São Paulo, Brazil.
'rabiscos de caderno', digital drawing
- Lana Lasagna (South Africa): investigating identity
'offering', digital video - narrative - 3'05"
'writing', digital video - document - 6'02"
'big projection' - digital video, damage
- Francesco Beneamato (Italy): investigating environment
'park-city', digital video - looping - 0'37"
'city-park', digital video - narrative I - 0'34
'park-city', digital video - narrative II, notebook- 2'09"
'city-park-city', digital video - all footage, 18'07"
- Aline Der Assem (German): investigating belonging.
'my house is my castles', digital photography, drawing
The conceptual investigation created in the collaboration between me and the partners in the art production, using their own artist techniques in a digital context, such as: drawing, painting, and acting .
The result is an artworks selection made with digital technologies as a tool- creating an artistically representation about 4 different nationalities researched in the London context. (Brazil, German, Italy and Shout Africa).
In the work is identified the concepts of identity, belonging, environment and language as an input for each artwork in the collaboration.
Adriano Casanova (Brazil): denying identity, belonging and environment.
'invisiveis,07', digital photography (painting?),
-SESC gallery, Janurary 2008, Curitiba, Brazil.
-Newspace Center for Photography, February, 2008 Portland, OR, USA
'immigrants objects', digital photography.
-'mostra catálogo 2ptos', December 2007, Pernambuco, Brazil.
from the series: "keywords", digital video
-'Wilson Rd gallery, Camberweel College of Arts, 2008, London, UK.
'looking for the 'non-space', digital video
'looking for the 'non-space II', digital video
'Portuguese and Magyarország ', digital drawing
Emma Thomas gallery, September, 2007, São Paulo, Brazil.
'rabiscos de caderno', digital drawing
- Lana Lasagna (South Africa): investigating identity
'offering', digital video - narrative - 3'05"
'writing', digital video - document - 6'02"
'big projection' - digital video, damage
- Francesco Beneamato (Italy): investigating environment
'park-city', digital video - looping - 0'37"
'city-park', digital video - narrative I - 0'34
'park-city', digital video - narrative II, notebook- 2'09"
'city-park-city', digital video - all footage, 18'07"
- Aline Der Assem (German): investigating belonging.
'my house is my castles', digital photography, drawing
28.1.08
www.thamesandhudson.com/digitalart
"Rather than being the sole 'creator' of a work of art, the artist often plays the role of a mediator or facilitator for audiences' interaction with and contribution to the artwork" (PAUL, Christiane. "Digital Art". 2003. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London. p21/22)
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