[spectre] PIXXELPOINT 2008 / FOR GOD'S SAKE!

[Domenico Quaranta]

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PIXXELPOINT 2008 / FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Kulturni Dom Nova Gorica (Slovenia) is pleased to announce the 9th  
International New Media Art Festival Pixxelpoint, that will open at  
the Nova Gorica City Gallery (Mestna galerija Nova Gorica) on December  
5, 2008, at 8.00 PM. The festival will run from December 5 to December  
12, 2008.
Pixxelpoint is one of the most successful and renowned festivals of  
new media art in Slovenia and also abroad. Its purpose is firstly, to  
bring the information technology and new media art closer to the  
general public, and secondly, to raise awareness about a different  
potential to use computer among the young.


FOR GOD'S SAKE!

This year's edition of the festival focus on the theme “FOR GOD'S  
SAKE! How the media change the way we imagine / represent / honour /  
curse the divinity”, suggested by the Italian art critic, teacher and  
curator Domenico Quaranta. In his words, “contemporary artistic  
projects have often raised such issues as technological fetishism, the  
oracular nature of the internet, the fideistic attitude we have  
towards the media and the evangelizing bent of those who produce them.  
This art often takes a critical approach, but also looks for an  
authentic vehicle of spirituality in the media. Taking this as its  
theme, Pixxelpoint 2008 addresses saints and heretics alike, showing  
projects which explore the relationship between media and spirituality  
at a key point in human history, a time of civilization clashes and  
neocon upsurges, apocalyptic nightmares and hopes for a new  
enlightenment.”
Among the works, distributed between the two spaces of Mestna Galerija  
Nova Gorica and Galerija Tir in Mostovna, the ones selected through  
the international call for artists are presented together with the  
ones proposed by internationally renown artists invited to take part  
in the exhibition. As in the previous editions, the festival program  
involves panels, workshops, musical events and the screening of a  
movie. The events will take place on both the sides of the border  
between Italy and Slovenia: together with Mostovna, Associazione  
Lucide and Dams – Università di Udine, located in Gorizia, have been  
involved. They will produce Pixxelmusic, a parallel festival that will  
run from December 10 to 12, 2008.


THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition, distributed between Nova Gorica and Mostovna, is the  
result of a difficult process of selection of the more than 110  
applications arrived this year; a selection that should take into  
account not just the quality of the proposals, but also their ability  
to embody the suggested theme in a different way, and to integrate  
effectively the projects shown by the invited artists. The exhibition  
consists of 30 works by 30 different artists. Among them, etoy's  
Mission Eternity project, described as a “digital cult of the dead”;  
the network of meditating computers set up by the German artists Ute  
Hörner & Mathias Antlfinger; the Empathy Box by the Italian collective  
Io/cose, which helps building a spiritual community based on the  
sharing of pain; the anti-institutional, new media rituality suggested  
by Otherehto; Martin Conrads and Ingo Gerken's conceptual work, an  
interrogation on the ritual use of communication technologies; and  
then Gazira Babeli and Patrick Lichty's video-installation 7UP, a  
research on the meaning of an avatar life, and Janez Janša's remake of  
Koyaanisqatsi, which uses Google Earth as a source. The video  
screening, situated in the Galerija Tir in Mostovna, collects all the  
videos on show at the festival, putting together some brand new works  
with recent “classics” such as Negativland's The Mashin' of the Christ  
(2004) and Eddo Stern's Deathstar (2004) , an exploration of the  
relationship between religion and violence.

Below, the complete list of all the participating artists:

ALTERAZIONI VIDEO (Italy); GAZIRA BABELI & PATRICK LICHTY (Italy /  
USA); BridA / JURIJ PAVLICA, TOM KERŠEVAN, SENDI MANGO (Slovenia);  
MARTIN BUTLER (Netherlands); MARTIN CONRADS & INGO GERKEN (Germany);  
BRYANT DAMERON (USA); ETOY (Switzerland / International); UTE HÖRNER &  
MATHIAS ANTLFINGER (Germany); IO/COSE (Italia); JANEZ JANŠA  
(Slovenia); JAŠA (Slovenia); MARKUS KISON (Germany); CLEMENS KOGLER &  
KARO SZMIT (Austria); OLIVER LARIC (Germany); LES LIENS INVISIBLES  
(Italy); KEVIN LOGAN (USA); MANU LUKSCH (UK); MOLLEINDUSTRIA (Italy);  
PETROS MORIS (Italy); NEGATIVLAND (USA); OTHEREHTO (Cyberspace); PASH  
(Germany); CRISTIANO POIAN & PAOLO TONON (Italy); SECOND FRONT (Second  
Life / International); DANA SEDEROWSKY (Sweden); GULI SILBERSTEIN  
(Israel); ALAN SONDHEIM (USA); EDDO STERN (USA).


PIXXELMUSIC

On December 10, 2008, at 6.30 PM Pixxelmusic, a related festival, will  
open in the restaurant “Al Falegname” in Gorizia, Italy. The festival  
will run until December 12, and includes many different events.  
Pixxeldinner, a dinner / panel (coordinated by Marco Mancuso, director  
of the editorial project Digicult) that will take place after the  
opening mixing pleasure, conviviality and culture, will involve the  
following speakers: Claudio Sinatti, filmaker, vj and video artist;  
Antonio Riello, artist and teacher; Peter Mlakar, head of the  
Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy of the NSK; Jurij Krpan,  
director and curator of the Galerija Kapelica in Ljubliana; and  
Claudia D’Alonzo, indipendent curator. Pixxellab (December 11), a vj  
session with the Dutch artist EBOMAN and the Italian duo Mylicon/EN,  
and Pixxelnite (December 12), with the group Useless Wooden Toys, will  
close the festival.


PROGRAM

December 5th 2008

8 p.m. Opening of Pixxelpoint - 9th International New Media Art Festival
Mestna galerija Nova Gorica (City Gallery)

December 6th 2008

6 p.m. Workshop with members of art group Etoy
Mestna galerija Nova Gorica (City Gallery)

9 p.m. Electro Music Night
DJ set Roli, Gogo, Krle
Mostovna
Entrance fee: 3 EUR

December 9th 2008

6 p.m. eXistenZ, D. Cronenberg (Canada, UK, 1999)
Kinemax, Hall 2 (P.zza Vittoria 41), Gorizia
In collaboration with organization “La Farfalla sul mirino”.
Film will be screened in Italian language. Free entrance.

December 10th 2008

6.30 p.m. Opening of Pixxelmusic08
Restaurant Al Falegname (Via Maniacco 2), Gorizia

7.30 p.m. Pixxeldinner
Restaurant Al Falegname (Via Maniacco 2), Gorizia
Participation confirmation needed. Contact pixxeldinner at yahoo.it.

December 11th 2008

3 p.m. Workshop with art group Mylicon/EN
Palazzo del Cinema, Dams Cinema, Red Hall
(P.zza Vittoria 41), Gorica
In collaboration with Universita di Udine, DAMS Gorizia.

9 p.m. Pixxellab
Participating: Mylicon/EN, EBOMAN
Performances
Auditorium della Cultura Friulana (via Roma 5), Gorizia

December 12th 2008

10 p.m. Pixxelnite
Mostovna
End of the festival


MORE INFOS:

www.pixxelpoint.org
www.pixxelmusic.com

PRESS IMAGES

http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/pixxelpoint2008.html



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Domenico Quaranta

mob. +39 340 2392478
email. qrndnc at yahoo.it
home. vicolo San Giorgio 18 - 25122 brescia (BS)
web. http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are  
incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful  
beyond imagination." Albert Einstein