[spectre] Collect the WWWorld. The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age

[Domenico Quaranta]

Collect the WWWorld. The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age

Curated by: Domenico Quaranta
Produced by: LINK Center for the Arts of the Information Age

Spazio Contemporanea
Corsetto Sant'Agata, 22 – Brescia

September 24 – October 15, 2011, 3.00 – 7.00 PM
Preview: September 23, 2011, 3.30 PM
Opening: September 24, 2011, 6.30 PM

Artists: Alterazioni Video (IT), Kari Altmann (US), Cory Arcangel  
(US), Gazira Babeli (IT), Kevin Bewersdorf (US), Luca Bolognesi (IT),  
Natalie Bookchin (US), Petra Cortright (US), Aleksandra Domanovic  
(DE), Harm van den Dorpel (NL), Constant Dullaart (NL), Hans Peter  
Feldmann (DE), Elisa Giardina Papa (IT), Travis Hallenbeck (US), Jodi  
(NL), Oliver Laric (DE), Olia Lialina & Dragan Espenshied (DE),  
Guthrie Lonergan (US), Eva and Franco Mattes (IT), Seth Price (US),  
Jon Rafman (US), Claudia Rossini (IT), Evan Roth (US), Travess Smalley  
(US), Ryan Trecartin (US).

On occasion of the Settimana dell'Arte in Brescia (September 24 –  
October 1, 2011), the LINK Center for the Arts of the Information Age  
is proud to present the group show Collect the WWWorld. The Artist as  
Archivist in the Internet Age, curated by Domenico Quaranta. The show  
brings together 26 artists from all around the world, and will be  
accompanied by a rich programme of related events: presentations,  
conferences and workshops.

The last decade has witnessed an incredible growth in the production  
and distribution of images. The availability of inexpensive production  
tools has seen an exponential rise in amateur creativity, while the  
Internet provides a new distribution platform for this kind of  
production, which previously remained private.

What is the impact of this process on art practices and the artist –  
in the past, the sole, hallowed depositary of the creative gesture?  
What kind of dialogue is there between amateur practices and codified  
languages?

Collect the WWWorld. The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age sets  
out to demonstrate how the Internet generation is implementing and  
developing a practice started in the Sixties by Conceptual Art, and  
further developed in subsequent decades in the forms of Appropriation  
Art and postproduction: the practice of exploring, collecting,  
archiving, manipulating and reusing huge amounts of visual material  
produced by popular culture and advertising. Collect the WWWorld is an  
attempt to show how art responds to the information society.

The research work around the show can be followed on the blog http://collectheworld.tumblr.com 
.

LINK Editions

A catalogue will be published for the show, with essays by Josephine  
Bosma, Gene McHugh, Joanne McNeil and Domenico Quaranta and  
presentations of all the artists on show. The catalogue (colour, 160  
pp.) will be available at the show, but can already be bought or  
downloaded free from the LINK Center website: an open approach that  
highlights the center's belief in the accessibility and free  
circulation of knowledge.
Together with the catalogue, the LINK Center will also publish - in  
the same way - the book Post Internet by the New York based art critic  
Gene McHugh. Edited by the author, the book is a selection of posts  
published on his blog Post Internet, which was developed between  
December 2009 and September 2010 with the support of the Creative  
Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program. It offers  
an overview of the art of the Internet Age; namely art capable of  
acknowledging the presence and impact of this unprecedented medium of  
distribution and dissemination.

Domenico Quaranta (ed.), Collect the WWWorld. The Artist as Archivist  
in the Internet Age, exhibition catalogue, 160 pp., colour, Italian /  
English. 46 €, LINK Editions, September 2011, ISBN 978-1-4478-3949-1.  
With texts by Josephine Bosma, Gene McHugh, Joanne McNeil.

Gene McHugh, Post Internet, 274 pp., English. 14 €, LINK Editions,  
September 2011, ISBN 978-1-4478-0389-8.

More info: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/linkeditions

Related events

Collect the WWWorld will be accompanied by a rich programme of related  
events. On the occasion of the opening of “Art Week” (September 24),  
the LINK Center will take part in the show “Arte nell'Arte” at the  
Museo di Santa Giulia (a new Unesco World Heritage site) with the  
installation Hellblau by the US based artist Kari Altmann. Hellblau  
(2008 – ongoing) is a project that consists in tracing the  
manifestations of a particular shade of blue (hellblau in German).  
According to Kari Altmann, this colour is often used as “an interface  
for control, distance, power, fetishization, lust, and omnipresent  
friendliness that acts as a sweet, high-pitched mask for deeper  
intentions”. In the installation, the images researched by the artist  
are printed on little polyurethane “icebergs” that float around in an  
electric blue swimming pool.
On the same night, the LINK Center will take part in the series  
“Artisti all'Eden” staged at the Nuovo Eden Cinema with the project  
Emoticons from Italian Cinema by Matteo Erenbourg with Claudio  
Beorchia: an archive of small animations “stolen” from Italian cinema,  
and shared online as “emoticons”, which add an emotional layer to  
online, text-based communication.
On Thursday 29 September Domenico Quaranta, Artistic Director of the  
LINK Center, will hold a talk on contemporary art at the San Barnaba  
Auditorium in Brescia. During the show, the exhibition venue will also  
host a series of artist's talks, workshops and performances by some of  
the artists in the show, including Matteo Erenbourg and the Dutch  
artists Harm van den Dorpel, Constant Dullaart and Jodi. The Dutch  
artists’ presentations are kindly supported by the Mondriaan Foundation.

More info: www.linkartcenter.eu

Educational

During the show, the LINK Center is willing to organize guided tours  
and programmes for visitors and students from art schools and  
universities. For information and bookings, please contact: edu at linkartcenter.eu 
.

More info: www.linkartcenter.eu
Contact: press at linkartcenter.eu
Press folder: http://linkartcenter.eu/public/press/Collect_press_folder.zip

Main Sponsor: Innovery
Technical Sponsor: ReinventArt
With the support of: Regione Lombardia
Dutch artists presentations supported by: Mondriaan Foundation

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Domenico Quaranta

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