[spectre] Gazira Babeli: ACTING AS ALIENS

Tue Oct 20 10:47:07 CEST 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gazira Babeli: ACTING AS ALIENS

Exhibition curated by Domenico Quaranta

Galerija Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia
November 3 – 15, 2009

Opening and performance: November 3, 9.00 PM (CET)

Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art and Kapelica gallery are  
proud to announce “Gazira Babeli: Acting as Aliens”, the first solo  
exhibition of the avatar artist Gazira Babeli in Slovenia.  
Internationally renowned for her activity in the digital reality of  
Second Life, Gazira Babeli is born there in spring 2006. She is a  
character in the Matrix, something in between the Oracle and Neo. What  
she does has been either dubbed as bug, virus, performance or art;  
what we can say about it is that it subverts the traditional notions  
of space, time, body, identity and behavior we inherited from our  
daily experience.
The show borrows its name from the opening performance, in which  
Gazira and the audience will share the same space and will play  
through material means, in an unprecedented overlap between digital  
reality and physical reality. The remains of the performance will be  
put on show after the event.

The exhibition will also feature a consistent video documentation of  
Gazira's previous performances, including 7UP (2008), a clockwork  
orange of twelve micro-performances made in complicity with Patrick  
Lichty, in a compulsive mix between slapstick comedy and Fluxus  
scores. Also on show two brand new works in which a self standing doll  
house – be it a desert or a prison – is built around some  
characters performing a singular, repetitive, sometimes destructive  
action.

In the occasion of the show in Ljubljana, the Cultural and Congress  
Center Cankarjev dom and Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator, Second  
Life, will host the round table “ACTING AS ALIENS. The ways of  
Performance Art in Digital Realities” in the frame of the Reflection  
on Contemporary Art / Seminar of Contemporary Performing Arts IX,  
organized by Maska, Institute for Publishing, Production and Education  
and the Cankarjev dom.

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Gazira Babeli and Patrick Lichty
ACTING AS ALIENS
the ways of Performance Art in Digital Realities

Round table moderated by Domenico Quaranta

Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia, hall M3/M4
and Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/122/45/25/
November 2, 2009 at 7 PM (CET), 10 PM (Second Life Time)

What happens to performance when the place is a computer screen and  
time is better described as the timelessness you experience in front  
of it, as both a performer and a spectator? When reality fades into  
the background to be replaced by a simulated scenario where physical  
laws are disregarded and almost anything is possible? When the body  
itself becomes a software (and cultural) construction? On the occasion  
of the exhibition of Second Life performer Gazira Babeli hosted by  
Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana, this panel will try to answer these  
questions involving some of the most important practitioners and  
theoreticians in the field.

 From the seminar room, curator Domenico Quaranta will moderate a  
round table that will alternate theoretical discourse and  
performances, involving:

- Helfe Inhen, Manager of Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator, the  
place where the most active community of art practitioners in Second  
Life gathers. Odyssey will host the panel in Second Life, too;

Join the lecture in Second life HERE: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/122/45/25/

How to create an account on Second Life: HERE: http://www.aksioma.org/gaz/join_sl.html

- Patrick Lichty, artist, theoretician, curator and (as Man Michinaga)  
founding member of the performing art collective Second Front;

- Gazira Babeli;

- and other members of the Odyssey community.

PRESS

Download high resolution image HERE
http://www.aksioma.org/gaz/images/gazira_image.zip

Gazira Babeli
Self-portraits - Russian Roulette
Courtesy the artist

Gazira Babeli (http://gazirababeli.com/) has been living and working  
as an artist, performer and film-maker in Second Life since spring  
2006. In September 2006 she published records of a number of “non  
authorized performances” on the web, capturing the attention of art  
critics and artists. Artists above all. She then became part of Second  
Front, an international group of artists/performers dedicated to the  
formal, aesthetic, cultural and social exploration of a reality dubbed  
“virtual”. She was involved in the launch of the first native  
artistic community in Second Life: Odyssey. In April 2007, after  
filming the movie/performance Gaz of The Desert, she staged an  
exhibition entitled [Collateral Damage]. Gazira Babeli has taken part  
in various festivals and events outside Second Life, including:  
Peam2006 (Pescara), DEAF07 (Rotterdam), Fabio Paris Art Gallery  
(Brescia), iMAL (Brussels), PERFORMA 07 NYC (with Second Front), DAM  
Gallery (Berlin). Most of Gazira Babeli's works are currently archived  
in the Locusolus region of Second Life.

Patrick Lichty (http://www.patricklichty.com/) is a conceptually-based  
artist, writer, curator, and activist. He has been exhibiting  
internationally since 1990, and is best known for his 3D animations  
with the activist group, The Yes Men, and as Editor in-Chief of  
Intelligent Agent Magazine in NYC. Venues in which Lichty has been  
involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin  
Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars  
Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts  
(ISEA). He is currently a member of the faculty of the Interactive Art  
& Media Department of Columbia College, Chicago.

Domenico Quaranta (http://domenicoquaranta.com) is a contemporary art  
critic and curator based in Italy. PHD, he lectures internationally  
and teaches at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. With a specific  
interest in digital culture, Domenico regularly writes for Flash Art  
magazine. His first book titled, NET ART 1994-1998: La vicenda di  
Äda'web was published in 2004; he also co-edited, with Matteo  
Bittanti, GameScenes. Art in the Age of Videogames (Milan, October  
2006) and edited or contributed to many other books. As a curator, he  
organized several exhibitions in Europe, including: Connessioni  
Leggendarie. Net.art 1995-2005 (Milan 2005); GameScenes (Turin 2005);  
Radical Software (Turin 2006); Holy Fire. Art of the Digital Age  
(Bruxelles 2008); For God’s Sake! (Nova Gorica, 2008); RE:akt! |  
Reconstruction, Re-enactment, Re-reporting (Bucharest – Ljubljana –  
Rijeka, 2009); Expanded Box 2009 (ARCO Art Fair, Madrid 2009);  
Hyperlucid (Prague Biennal, Prague 2009).

Credits:

Gazira Babeli
ACTING AS ALIENS
(Exhibition and performance)

Curated by Domenico Quaranta
Produced by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Co-produced by Kapelica gallery

Gazira Babeli and Patrick Lichty
ACTING AS ALIENS - the ways of Performance Art in Digital Realities
(Lecture)

Moderated by Domenico Quaranta
Produced by Aksioma in the frame of the Seminar of Contemporary  
Performing Arts organized by Maska and Cankarjev dom
Co-produced by Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator

These activities are part of Aksioma's international program 2007-09  
supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and  
the City of Ljubljana.

Executive producers: Marcela Okretič and Janez Janša

Special thanks: Fabio Paris Art Gallery, Helfe Ihnen, Jansmina  
Založnik, Bojana Kunst

Contacts:
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art
Neubergerjeva 25, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tel. +386-(0)41-250 669
aksioma at aksioma.org
www.aksioma.org

Links
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana | www.aksioma.org
Kapelica gallery | www.kapelica.org
Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator | http://odysseyart.ning.com
Maska, Institute for Publishing, Production and Education | www.maska.si
Cankarjev dom - Cultural and Congress Centre | www.cd-cc.si
The Seminar of Contemporary Performing Arts | www.maska.si/en/symposium/seminar_of_contemporary_performing_arts

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Domenico Quaranta

web. http://domenicoquaranta.com/
email. info at domenicoquaranta.com
mob. +39 340 2392478
skype. dom_40