Studio Visit: all six works now available on 5e.centre.ch!

Exhibitions

With the upload of Eva and Franco Mattes‘ contribution, Studio Visit – my curatorial project for the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève online platform, the 5th Floor – is now complete. Following the link above, you can now enjoy 6 newly commissioned videos by Lu YangJames BridlePetra CortrightOliver LaricAria Dean and Eva & Franco Mattes, sharing with us the intimacy of their desktop studio while they work. 
Studio Visit invites artists to allow us access to their desktop studio and their working process. In Studio Visit, the desktop studio is shown off as the real space where an artist’s practice manifests. The focus is both on its furniture – files, tabs, programs – and on the artist at work – their favorite tools, their rhythm, their automatism, the way they find a balance between focus and distraction, between managing and creating, between online life and work. Thanks to the generosity and openness of the participating artists, through the project viewers can silently enjoy how Lu Yang gives shape to his imaginary worlds and fictional characters, how Bridle make research for their future projects, how  Laric investigates the circulation and dispersion of his own iconography; they can attend the genesis of Cortright’s digital paintings as well as see how drawing, reading and collaborating with external producers intermingle in Dean’s practice. 

Let Me Feel You Streaming

Exhibitions, Texts

Let Me Feel You Streaming

A cura di: Michela De Carlo, Domenico Quaranta

Location: online, parte della programmazione della Milano Digital Week

Quando: 17 – 21 marzo 2021

Artisti partecipanti: Cristina Angeloro, Martina Ferrario, Christina G. Hadley, Marco Ginex, Carla Rossi, Laura Tura (Accademia di Brera) e Lisa Buffagni, Noemi Capoccia, Maria Chiara Gagliardi, Ariele Giari, Fabio Ronchieri (Accademia di Carrara).

Nel corso dell’ultimo anno, la città è diventata soprattutto una città di case. In maniera crescente, percepiamo lo spazio pubblico come lo spazio in cui siamo costretti a indossare la mascherina, a fare la fila, a mantenere le distanze. Ci scambiamo sorrisi imbarazzati mentre ci diamo goffamente di gomito, ed è, a seconda dei casi, con imbarazzo, preoccupazione o astio che guardiamo l’altro quando si avvicina troppo, quando non porta la maschera, quando ci tocca. Lo spazio pubblico è diventato il luogo del non si può, sottolineato da opportuni indicatori visivi: percorsi tracciati al suolo, nastri attorno a fontane e panchine, cartelli “seduta non utilizzabile”, “non più di due persone alla volta”, ecc. La socialità è diventata assembramento, il tatto il più dileggiato dei sensi.

“For net art, being on the web has always been the consequence of a choice of freedom, not an imposed condition.” Interview on Generazione critica

Texts

In this recent interview I had for the online magazine Generazione Critica I discuss about the internet as a space of freedom vs confinement, net based galleries and shows, the success and failures of net based art. Available both in English and Italian.

“Like many other realities, in this time of lock-in and fear of human contact, the world of art has been forced to migrate online. Some have been content with putting things on their social media or live streaming on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube, or to further utilise their mailing list as a communication tool; the more adventurous organized online exhibitions, fairs and virtual viewing rooms. All of a sudden, the network has changed, from a place of communication and support to physical space, to the only possible space for the manifestation of art. Given the current circumstances, it was predictable that the artistic practices that had long ago chosen the network as their primary space of existence would find renewed interest. There is nothing wrong with that, a reinterpretation of the net art tradition might prove to be one of the positive aspects of this unfortunate period, and teach to the “non-native” arts something about this space. But describing net art as perfect for this moment of forced imprisonment on the screen and on the net is very dangerous, because it risks falsifying completely its nature and jeopardizing its understanding. For net art, being on the web has always been the consequence of a choice of freedom, not an imposed condition. We choose to make art on the net to explore new conditions, to be part of a community, to establish a direct dialogue with the spectator and with the public space of which we are part. That’s how it was in the Nineties, and continues to be today, but with differences. Think about Land art: it was, and in some ways still is, a refusal of the white cube and its implications, the search for huge spaces, the desire to leave a formal mark on the natural world and to create new spaces for relationships. But if, due to some cataclysm, the whole world of art was forced to leave the museums and galleries, and retreat to the Nevada desert, would they continue in the same way? Would we all become Land artists?”

Go on reading…