[spectre] Tactics & Practice #11: MEMESTETICA

Tue Jun 8 18:34:22 CEST 2021

Dear Spectres,

I kindly invite you to follow the MemesteticA programme, which is running
until 2 July 2021 in Ljubljana and online:

Tactics & Practice #11

MEMESTETICA

19 MAY-2 JUL 2021

 <https://aksioma.org/memestetica> https://aksioma.org/memestetica 

A month-long conference on the relationship between visual art and memes -
the hot core of the fresh aesthetics of the online ecosystem and the mother
tongue of internet subcultures. Curated by Valentina Tanni.

Publications

Valentina Tanni: MemesteticA (more <https://aksioma.org/memestetica-book> )
Clusterduck: The Detective Wall Guide (more
<https://aksioma.org/the-detective-wall-guide> )

Primož Krašovec: Smetnjak vs. Ljubljana (Coming soon)

Exhibitions

Clusterduck: Meme Manifesto, 19 MAY-4 JUN 2021 (more
<https://aksioma.org/meme.manifesto> ,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/aksioma-org/albums/72157719324943250>
opening)

Smetnjak: Everything Must Go, 9 JUN-2 JUL 2021 (
<https://aksioma.org/everything-must-go> more)

Series of talks (more <https://aksioma.org/memestetica.talks> )

Valentina Tanni / Book presentation ( <https://aksioma.org/memestetica-talk>
video)

Marc Tuters ( <https://aksioma.org/memestetica-tuters> video)

Joshua Citarella ( <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl-gJFGB-w> video)

Smetnjak / 9 JUN 2021 ( <https://aksioma.org/streaming> streaming)

Clusterduck / 16 JUN 2021 ( <https://aksioma.org/streaming> streaming)

Eva & Franco Mattes / 23 JUN 2021 ( <https://aksioma.org/streaming>
streaming)

In 1995, less than one percent of the world's population had access to the
Internet. Today, that number exceeds 60 percent, representing a staggering
4.5 billion people. It is a phenomenon that has brought all the levers of
culture management into crisis and, in most cases, caused the collapse of
the economic models associated with it. The field of visual arts also had
radical consequences: the century-old crisis of the fundamental values of
the art system, ie. uniqueness and originality, has just reached its peak,
and the rise of the World Wide Web has brought a new destabilizing factor -
the untamed emergence of amateur creativity. Internet memes, in all their
various forms and remixes, have become the core of this new online
ecosystem, and their impact has quickly transcended the boundaries of the
web.

Through the Tactics&Practice program, Aksioma has been mirroring and
researching current social debates for more than a decade. The MemesteticA
conference represents the eleventh edition, focusing on memes, online
subcultures and a new conception of art in the age of the Internet. Its
starting point is the book of the same name by the Italian art historian
Valentina Tanni, which was also translated to Slovenian as part of the
program.

MemesteticA explores memes in relation to visual art in a month-long program
and in a variety of formats. In an attempt to map the spontaneous and
untamed nature of Internet images of "wild conceptualism", it studies
the"memesthetics" of digital culture through a combination of activities of
an aesthetic and discursive and individual and participatory nature.

The program extends of two solo exhibitions of two art collectives that have
been delving into memes and communication potential of meme symbology for
years. The interdisciplinary collective Clusterduck, whose exhibition kicked
off the conference in May, explores the processes and actors behind the
creation of Internet-based content. As part of Memestetica, the collective
presented the evolving transmedia project Meme Manifesto, which includes a
solo exhibition and two interactive workshops, as well as the book novelty
The Detective Wall Guide. The Slovenian anonymous collective Smetnjak has
been combining memes with theory and art for more than a decade, and within
Memestetica it delves into the (non) political nature of memes in the
exhibition Everything Must Go and in a new essay by Primož Krašovec,
Smetnjak vs. Ljubljana: The Singularity of Humour and Politics Beyond
Elections.

The discursive part of the program takes the form of short discussions with
the curator Valentina Tanni and well-known artists and theorists who
research meme aesthetics and digital culture. Tanni opened the series of
talks with the presentation of the book MemesteticA, and the following
weekly streams host names such as the aforementioned Clusterduck and
Smetnjak, professor of Media studies Marc Tuters, who discusses the
connection between "deep vernacular web" and far-right political groups,
artist Joshua Citarella who dissects the aesthetics of Generation Z memes,
and the artistic duo Eva & Franco Mattes, pioneers of the net.art movement,
who study the ethical and political issues arising from the beginning of the
internet.

As an "Easter egg", hidden in the conference program is the Internet black
market  <https://www.flickr.com/photos/aksioma-org/albums/72157719277773826>
Internet Yami-Ichi, where at the end of May several local and international
creators sold their Internet-related products in an attempt to recall the
internet as a space of 'freedom' - and further blur borders between the
online and offline.

Production : Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2021

Coproduction: Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana

The Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana

Partners: IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture], Utrecht; konS - Platform for
Contemporary Investigative Arts

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the
Municipality of Ljubljana and the Italian Cultural Institute, Ljubljana

Marcela Okretič

Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana

Jakopičeva 11, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Aksioma | Project Space

Komenskega 18, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

tel.: + 386 - (0)590 54360

gsm: + 386 - (0)41 - 250830

e-mail: marcela at aksioma.org

www.aksioma.org

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