[spectre] Exhibition: ARCHIVES IN PROGRESS (projects 1987 - 2007) by Darko Fritz

[Dusica Parezanovic]

REX, Belgrade 
 
Exhibition: 
ARCHIVES IN PROGRESS (projects 1987 - 2007)
by Darko Fritz 
 
17 - 30 May 
Opening: Saturday, 17 May, 6 pm

 
Can new media help to archive art forever saving it thus from oblivion? The
exhibition Archives in Progress is a retrospective of artistic projects
carried out from 1987 until 2007 by Darko Fritz (Croatia/Netherlands), one
of the most important Croatian new media artists. Some of the projects
lasted for up to five years. The exhibition explores the possibilities of
putting archival tools (audio-visual media) and "pure information" to
artistic use as an art form which has been conceived as a "film shown in a
space" i.e. a gallery.

Twelve entities, separate audio-visual displays, feature material about ten
solo and two group art projects by Darko Fritz. The audio-visual archive
presentations feature more than two hundred art objects, in-gallery
installations, outdoor art installations, contextual projects, videos,
photographs, Internet projects and other art forms and formats.
The audio-visual displays show photographic and video documentary material
about the projects (that the author has been colloecting since 1987) adapted
to the gallery setting. The video material shown on the displays is a hybrid
of a documentary film (with a professional voice over narrator), art
documentation, animation and video art. Photo documentation and video
material recorded in different formats on different media, some of which are
no longer so easily available today, (e.g. U-Matic the old professional
video system) have been digitalized and reformatted.

The audio-visual displays provide an insight into the context of certain
projects that cannot be understood from a single segment. Some segments of
projects have been presented in such a way as to function as separate works
(e.g. a photograph from the End of the Message series. The context of the
work widens if one sees the entire series of photographs and discovers
further details of the story (which projects preceded or followed that
particular segment throughout the entire project that lasted for five
years). Thus the context itself becomes a work art. Such a context can be
shown in various formats including printed and electronic publications,
internet documents or video. The exhibition Archives in Progress features
video material of this kind. On the other hand, many of the individual works
contained material that is affected by the passage of time, making it
impossible to show them in their original context e.g. floral installations
in public spaces in Amsterdam, Linz, Zadar, Zagreb and Fuertevetura.
 
Featured works:
Imitation of Life Studio (1987 - 1990)
Cathedral (1988)   
3 x Moscow Intershadow (1992)
Theatre Time  (1994)
Keep the Frequency Clear (1994 - 1995)
Error Reports (1995 - 1997)
End of the Message (1995 - 2000)
XXX (1997 - in progress)
space=space (1998 - 2003)
time=money=time= (2000 - 2001)
Internet Error Messages (2001 - in progress)
Migrant Navigator (2002 - in progress)
        
Group projects:
Studio Imitation of Life: Darko Fritz, Zeljko Serdarevic
Cathedral: Bakal, Fritz, Juzbasic, Marusic, Premec
space=space 1999: Darko Fritz, Ademir Arapovic
p.sound remix (as part of the XXX project): network art
 
Additional info on Darko Fritz's work: http://darkofritz.net
 

The exhibition is part of the annual event MUSEUM NIGHT
www.nocmuzeja.org.yu. It will be open throughout the night of 17/18 May
 
Carried out with the support of the City Secretariat for Culture, Belgrade
and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia
 
Open daily 12:00 ­ 20:00 h
 
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Rex, Jevrejska 16, Belgrade, Serbia
tel/fax +381 11 3284534, 3284299
rex at b92.net
www.rex.b92.net