Digimag 42 - March 2009. Expanded Art, Expanded Box

8/7/2019 Digimag 42 - March 2009. Expanded Art, Expanded Box

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xpanded art, expanded box - Marco Mancuso

EXPANDED ART, EXPANDED BOXTxt : Marco Manc uso / Eng: Valer ia Gri l lo

From February 11 to 16, 2009, took place in Madr id the 28th ed i t ion o f A rco, one of the most important international fairs dedicated to contemporary art,if not perhaps the most important, that also this year has seen the presence of thesection Expanded Box, an island devoted to art expressed through newtechnologies.

Curators of Expanded Box 2009 w ere the I t a l ian Domenico Quaranta- w hom Dig imag 's readers know w el l ( for the s t ads sect ion) and

Carol ina Grau (for the c inema sec t ion) . Surely fascinating, especially the

section cared for from Quaranta, both for the heterogeneity of the artists and the proposed works, as well as for thelevel of the forum organized on February 15 with the presence of critics and curators such as Jon Ippo l i to &Jol i ne Bla is, Roberta Bosc o, Geert Lovi nk, Ink e Arns, Rgine Debatty, Zhang Ga , Joasi a

Krysa . A rich ensemble of critical voices coming from both the world of the contemporary art and the youngest newmedia art, testifying a growingly fleeting border between these two worlds.

Exactly of these subjects, and of the general philosophy that has driven the project of Expanded Box we spoke withDomenico Quaranta: Arc Project s of Sof ia w it h THOMSON & CRAIGHEAD, Ernst Hi lger of V iennaw it h Joh n GERRARD; Fabio Paris Art Gallery of Br esc ia w it h UBERMORGEN.COM, Fort l aan 17

of Gent w it h LAWRENCE MALSTAF, MS Galeri a of Madri d w it h ESTHER MANAS & A RASH

MOORI, One and J Gal lery of Seoul w ith K im J ONGKU, Projec t Gent i l i o f Prato w it h JOAN

LEANDRE and Vadehr a Art Gallery of N ew Delhi w it h PORS AND RAO, are the galleries and the artists

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http://www.digicult.it/archivio/digimag_42eng/


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presented.

With the duo of artists Ubermorgen.com , represented in their own stand at the Madrid fair Arco, the Bresciagallery Fabio Paris has been awarded the Arco Madrid / Beep Art Aw ard. The gallery was at the fair with themonographic project The Ekmr z - Tr i logy (introduced for the first time in a single installation projected for the fairthe "trilogy of the e-commerce") that explores the artistic use of the new technologies and their impact on arts.

Marco Mancuso: Let 's s tar t f rom a w ide perspect ive : how w as the exper ience o f Expanded

Box, in te rms o f understand ing by the organ izers o f Arco, the pub l ic , o f t he research o f t he

w orks and t he ga l le r ies, o f the ar ts m arket in genera l? What are t he pos i t ive and negat ive

feedback s o f th is exper ience?

Domenico Quaranta: In general, very well. But let's start from the negative aspects, so I get them off my chest .The present Expanded Box is the arriving point of a process that lasted ten years, where the extraordinary will - ofthe fair, of a sponsor (Beep Datal ogic ) and of an exceptional mediator (LaAgencia o f V ic ente Mata l lana ) -

to sustain the most (technologically) advanced and experimental art, is accompanied by an inevitable marginalizationdue to the concept itself of the Expanded Box and of its predecessors: creating, inside the complex organism that isa contemporary art fair, a "dedicated" section. This decennial work gave some remarkable products, first of all theconstitution of an exceptional collection (the Beep, tied up to the Arco Beep Award); an increasing awareness of thepublic; and, consequently, an increasing presence of "new media" works in the whole fair, not only in the ExpandedBox.

At this stage of the process, nevertheless, and exactly because of what has been done till now, some aspects of thisproject would deserve to be revised. This year, I have worked a lot in order to have the galleries perceive theExpanded Box not only as a place of cultural in-depth examination, but also as a market place. A place where toarrive not only with a strong project, but also with a project that can be sold. Some understood this, and this hasbrought its results. We still have to work on the architecture of the Expanded Box, that traditionally is a more intimate

and enclosed section if compared to others: all stands are open on a single side, on a narrow corridor.But these are in fact details, if compared to everything else. Arco has shown an exceptional sensibility andhelpfulness to face the specific problems created by the single projects; the galleries have responded withenthusiasm, even if the economic crisis has forced some of them to decline my invitation; the public came numerousand in the days reserved to VIPs and professionals the projects of the Expanded Box have called the attention ofnumerous curators, critics, institutions and collectors. If you sum to this the opportunity to operate in one of the mostimportant fairs worldwide, plus the presence - at the fair and in the city - of many other interesting initiatives, i.e.Oscar Abr i l Ascaso's projec t for the region of Murcia present ed at the fa ir , or the Vida pr ize, or

the act iv i t ies o f the Media lab Madr id; the result has been an extraordinary chance of networking, and amuch better mood than the past editions of the great festivals.



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Marco Mancuso: The cho ice o f t he w orks and the ar t is t s , al though l im i ted t o 8 ga l le r ies and 8

ar t is ts , represents in m y op in ion a good cross-sect ion o f the c ontemporary product ion in

var ious d isc ip l ines, f rom t he sound ar t to t he in teract ion des ign, f rom the 3d graph ic des ign to

the v ideo, f rom the so f tw are ar t to the new media cr i t ics . Did th is judgment in f luence your

cho ice o f the w orks or , a lso fo r p ract ic a l reasons, you 've had to foc us more on the ga l le r ies

ab le to understand an economic investm ent in a grow ing market c ontext ? I 'm w onder ing ,

because based on my exper ience, the ga l le r ies in the wor ld w ho be l ieve in th is t ype o f

investment are not m any.. .

Domenico Quaranta: Before talking about the single projects, it is necessary that we analyse a little the selectionprocess. Same as for all the projects of Arco, one can access the Expanded Box through an application or throughdirect invitation from the curator. Despite the numerous applications, I have tried to keep some liberty so that I couldinsert projects that corresponded more to my vision, or that completed the perspective proposed by the other works.Overall, as you say, I have tried to offer a cross-section of the present research, not so much in the media used forthe works, but rather in the attitude shown towards the media. There are works that use the most advanced

technologies, others that use obsolete technologies, even others in which technology as a medium disappears, onlyto be proposed as content, theme, cultural reference; in some cases, technologies are exhibited, in others theydisappear in the backstage; for some they are the main element of the project, for others they just another medium toproduce an experience.

Talking about the galleries, I started from a vast range of opportunities, that comprised of both galleries specialized indigital media, and many others that opened to the experimental research but also kept on working on a moretraditional and agreed on research. On my side I had of course the appeal of Arco, one of the most important fairs inEurope and the more visited in the world. Despite this, the process of selection has been tiring, but I wouldn'tattribute these difficulties to some kind of slow response by the galleries. The crisis we are going through is indeedserious, and especially in the United States and in the UK it struck extremely hard. Investing thousands Euro on amonographic project, where an economic gain is not guaranteed, it is not very easy today. The galleries that have

taken part to the Expanded box, but also those that have been forced to retire, they all have my gratitude andrespect .



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Marco Mancuso:Dur ing the last t w o years, you carved out a space for yourse l f a spec i f ic ro leat European level, especia l ly through Holy Fire at iMAL and Expanded Box, as a curator / cr i t i c

ab le to he lp the t rans i t ion o f the un iverse o f the d ig i ta l a r t ins ide the mec han isms and the

borders o f cont emporary ar t , even through a l l d i f f icu l t ies and r isk s. So, a c i rc le o f a r t is ts ,

w hose mul t imed ia w orks is exh ib i t ed and represented by a c i rc le o f ga l le r ies look ing fo r

space and market th rough the fa i rs or t he events around these: how do you consider your

persona l journey? And how does i t f i t in w i th the grow ing process, w i t hout w ant ing to judge or

cr i t ic ize?

Domenico Quaranta: This definition of "Charon of the digital art towards the heavens of contemporary art" makesme smile, and it is also a little excessive (there w as a ser ies o f cura tors , f rom Chr is t iane Pau l toClaudia Giannett i , for the previous edit ions of the Expanded Box ); but after all I've deserved it, at leasbecause of Holy Fire. Actually, I would gladly avoid to speak of market, but it seems that for many people it is notsuch an assumed subject. Personally I feel I am a curator of contemporary art who discovered in the digital cultures arenewing force, and who's trying to support in any way and in every context the things in which he believes. In the

panel I have organized for Arco, Jol ine Bla is and J on Ippol i to wondered if it is worth to take things froma ghetto to bring them in another one, just bigger, when by now a context exists (the net) where the most radicalresearches can live and reach a public unreachable for a museum. In my opinion, it is worth to try the three waystogether. The net guarantees the direct contact with the public, the community of the New Media Art allows an evencomparison and a first, very specialized context analysis. But market and the world of the contemporary art have anirreplaceable role of selecting, giving access to a wider and varied communication system, and of accessing the"history", the dimension of the duration that it's opposing the ephemeral nature of the event (the festival, theexposition) and the absence of memory of the media.

I think this approach shows very well in my personal curator path. After "Holy Fire", a show hosted by a small "newmedia centre", but included in the program of a big fair, I have taken care of the 2008 edition of the Pixxelpoint (asmall but brave provincial festival); then "RE:akt! | Reconstruction, Re-enactment, Re-reporting", an exposition that is

bringing the works of a small Slovenian institution (Aksioma) in various museums and institutions (from the MNAC ofBucharest to the KUC gallery, Ljubljana to the MMSU of Fiume); the "Expanded Box" in Arco 2009 and, in a coupleof months, a small section inside the "Biennial of Prague", a classical event of contemporary art.



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Marco Mancuso: There is a very in terest ing po in t o f your cura tor ia l s ta t ement in w h ich you

sta te : "Acc ord ing to th is model , a r t no longer cons is ts in the m aster fu l imp lementa t ion o f to

tec hn ique (pa in t ing , scu lp ture , music or w r i t ing) to w or ld (the k now -ca l led " rea l " w or ld , the

unconsc ious w or ld o f the Surrea l ists , e tc . ) p resent . Anyth ing K han be ar t , i f g iven to spec i f ic

d iscourse and to spec i f ic c oncept ion , and i f conveyed by means o f to spec i f ic c ontext . The

aura o f to w ork o f a r t , w h ich may be lost and found t ime and aga in , is now a t t r ibu ted by

means o f to prec ise process o f consecra t ion , w h ich tak es p lace on the market and in the

museums." You know very we l l t ha t th is s t a tement is ra t her s t rong and opens potent ia l

d iscuss ions. The ob l igated quest ion is : don 't you th ink tha t someone cou ld answ er tha t even

i f a r t w ou ld need some consecra t ion , tha t shou ld ar r ive f rom e i ther the pub l ic or the cr i t ic s ,

but cer t a in ly not f rom t he market o r f rom m useum co l lect ing? In o ther words, don' t you th ink

the aura o f a w ork, as you say, can be found w hen i t is f ree f rom these bonds and gets lost

instead when the s t r ings beg in to t igh ten ?

Domenico Quaranta: In fact, my text maintains that the most radical research opens small possibilities which

allow to overcome the so-called "contextual definition" of art, according to which "it is the context that makes thework" and on which the artistic production of the last 50 years was founded. I don't agree with the position that I'mdescribing, though I understand it. But let's be careful: to question the contextual definition doesn't mean to questionthe role of collecting and of museums in favour of the populist position according to which the public decides. If weare here speaking right now, it is because a couple of wealthy collectors has financially supported Duchamp for fiftyyears, and because the director of a museum has bought Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol without considering toomuch Greenberg's opinion. Public is now consecrating the impressionists - but if they had been able to decide at thetime, Bouguereau would still be the very best of art. What I criticize is rather the intellectual clumsiness of those whoaccept only a work of art because it is there, in the white hall of a museum, without questioning if it correspond totheir own idea of art.



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Marco Mancuso: In th is sense you are we l l aw are o f the cont rovers ies tha t rose around the

new media ar t - contemporary ar t debate . A l though i t is a l ready less and less debated in t he

fest iva ls , i t s t i l l is a p ivo ta l them e. Late ly I w as pondering , also pub l ic ly on the AHA l is t , on

how c ur ious the sh if t ing o f th is po lemic is : be fore , the debate w as betw een the wor ld o f

d ig i ta l a r t and that o f contem porary ar t , w i t h a l l the problems o f ident i f ica t ion and mutua l

accep tance tha t fo l lowed , bu t now i t seems tha t the p ivota l con f l i c t s i t s be tween the w or ld of

the d ig i ta l a r t and w hat is c ons idered and recogn ized as the w or ld o f the tec hno logica l

exper imenta t ion , of t he ar t is t ic hack ing, of the d ig i ta l avant -garde. Fur thermore t he

w eaken ing o f the po lemic around the d ig i ta l a r t - contemporary ar t debate , seems to suggest

a sor t o f sa t is fact ion in sp i t e o f the avant -garde or igina t ing f rom autonomous and se l f -

managed spaces: tha t is "w e have ar r ived here , whatever road is s t i l l ahead, we don ' t c are

about a l l the o thers" .

Domenico Quaranta: What are you saing? That Rifondazione Comunista split? That minuscule party that didn'treach the 3% has divided in two parts? Heck, I will have to choose what side to be, and in both cases I won't matter a

damn thing... Sorry for this vulgar and pseudo-politic detour, but these polemics always seemed futile to me, andusually harmful for the weakest part. What I know is that digital art, if ever has existed, doesn't exist anymore. HolyFire was already clear enough on this: what Casey Reas and Ubermorgen.com have in common, from a results pointof view, is zero. They continue to have in common a reference community, I agree, and this is something tooprecious to be abandoned. A place where one can nurture his own researches with total freedom, and where thesecan be submitted to a public of equals. But this doesn't prevent these researches to remain stuck in there, even ifthey would be ready to face a wider public. That's exactly what happened to Reas and Ubermorgen.com, and it willhappen again.



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Marco Mancuso: A s imi la r a rgument can perhaps be app l ied in the ar t is t ic sphere : there are

some "cont emporary" ar t is ts w ho beg in to tu rn the i r a t ten t ion tow ards the dig i ta l too ls and

aesthet ics , w h i le o thers tha t have begun wi t h the d ig i ta l avant -gardes seem t o be in terested

above al l to enter in the ar ts m arket - wh ich is a lw ays a market and can in f luence cho ices and

ar t is t ic in i t ia t ives. What do you th ink about i t?

Domenico Quaranta: I think that I've always liked the theory of the communicating vessels, like hybridizationsand migrations. I think that I'm tired of walls, and of hearing that an artist sold himself to the market just because he'searning his living with his job. I think that, if I like something, if I really believe in a work, I can't just speak about it onDigimag and present it in a small provincial festival, but instead I must write about it on Artforum and bring it to Arco,to the Biennale in Venice , to the MoMA and to any other available platform. And I believe that if I don't do this, and tothe best of my possibilities, I am not doing my job of critic and curator well enough. After all, I'm absolutely confidentthat if the so-called "New Media Art", despite its huge potentialities, has never succeeded in earning the place itdeserves in today's artistic scene, that's mainly our fault - that is, of a team of critics and curators who don't do their

job: to aim at the mainstream channels instead of continuing to survive in the "alternative" channels, to introduce

"their" artists to the galleries, to bring them in the museums, etc. And to abandon the critical horizon that divides"contemporary artists" and "digital artists"....

Marco Mancuso: However , I wasn ' t t a lk ing about se l l ing onese l f to t he market . I was ask ing

w hat you do th ink m ore contemporary ar t is ts w ho begin to exp lore techno log ies new t o them,

and o f a r t is ts born w i th t he d ig i ta l w ho on the o ther hand re turn to use hybr id too ls and

means, w i t h d i f fe rent languages, and ana log ica l , mechan ica l and m ater ia l t echno log ies,

in tegra ted in to t he d ig i ta l ones. I th ink tha t i t ' s a very in terest ing mix ture , tha t doesn ' t

exc lude any cho ice , th is is w hat I meant . Your words speak o f a dangerous ly rad ica l thought :

bas ica l ly I don' t l ike t o take a s ide and I love to conf ront myse l f w i th very d i f fe rent c u l tu ra l

spheres (s tar t ing f rom ga l le r ies to fest iva ls to soc ia l spaces) , bu t I t h ink t ha t t he cho ice o f

many "act iv is t " c ura tors and cr i t ics has to be respected, fo r the i r ideo log ica l credo, fo r the i r

in terest fo r ex per imenta t ion , fo r re fusa l o f the m arket , fo r the search o f ex press ion channelsa l te rnat ive and ext erna l to the main product ive c i rc u i ts . I don 't t h ink th is mak es them w orse

pro fessiona ls nor tha t , fo r the i r exper t ise t o be recogn ized, i t ' s necessary fo r them to be

mainst ream and inst i t u t iona l .

Domenico Quaranta: As for the first point, I really believe that the distinction that you mentioned - among "digital"artists and "contemporary" artists - doesn't have sense anymore, even if historically it had one. From this point ofview, the process you describe is interesting, but also entirely natural. With Inke Arns, I'm absolutely convinced thatthe new media art, or whatever we want to call it, doesn't have to appeal to its mediatic specificity, but instead on itscultural specificity: it is exactly this awareness of the political, social and cultural role of the new media that makes itstrong, competitive and absolutely contemporary. This, obviously makes the same term I just used obsolete, too



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characteristic in a mediatic sense. What we once called the new media art or digital art, can very well use non-newand non-digital media, because its strength is elsewhere: precisely in the cultural discourse it brings on. The victoryof UBERMORGEN.COM of the ARCO BEEP prize is an example of this. In the meantime, a "contemporary" artist nointerested to new technologies, can anyway adopt them as tools, and develop an interesting discourse: the job of thekoreano Kim Jongku presented at the Expanded Box exactly represented this point of view.

As for the second point, the matter is more complex. I have a total respect towards the work of the artists andcurators opposing the art system and trying to operate out of it, pursuing and developing alternative channels. In themeantime, nevertheless, I refuse to stick to the double equation art system = market and world of the new media art= alternative scene that seems implicit in your objection. In reality, independent platforms are distributed in both

worlds, and both worlds run the same risk of stiffening and paralysis. I have already presented the beautiful projectintroduced by Oscar Abril Ascaso at the fair, in the Murcia region pavilion. It was indeed an experimental, radical,outside-of- the-market-logics project, picking up urban performances that used technologies to stimulate socialdynamics. Nevertheless, it was presented to a fair. This way, he gave the chance to the artists involved to show upon an open, variegated and powerful platform, more than it would be offered by a festival of new technologies.Ascaso works for Sonar, but he didn't refuse to face the new stage offered by a fair. When I accuse the critics andcurators of new media art, I don't accuse them for what they do, but for what they don't do: for their incapability tomove on different platforms, to compare themselves with other contexts, other demands, other discursive systems,and "to hedge their bets": an incapability that favoured the "marginalization" process. And for what I know, artistsdon't like the ghetto, except obviously those who could only get visible in the ghetto .

Marco Mancuso: Refer r ing back to an in terest ing par t o f your tex t , tha t fo l low s a quota t ion o f

Wi l l iam Gibson: "The h is tor ic funct ion o f Expanded Box, the last embodiment o f an endur ing

at t ent ion Arco devoted to new media and languages, is p rec ise ly tha t o f cu l t iva t ing and

red is t r ibu t ing the fu ture , and suppor t ing an "expanded" def in i t ion o f a r t . " Do you want to t e l l

us in w h ich w ays and dynamics, can t he fa i rs o f contemporary / d ig i ta l a r t he lp a rea l

red is t r ibu t ion o f the fu ture? I have a lways t hought t ha t t ha t quota t ion o f Gibson carr ied w i th i t

po lemics about red is t r ibu t ion o f tec hno logies, wea l th , investments, in f rast ructures and

therefore art , cul ture, product ion .. .

Domenico Quaranta: Certainly. It's called appropriation. I took that sentence and used it to say that the signs ofthe arts future are still little considered in some works, but that thanks to specific systems of distribution, they willhave an increasing impact, and they will change, sooner or later, the future of the art. The market is one of thesesystems of distribution, of course not the only one, but one of them, and historically one of the most important. Doyou know why painters have stopped making bad abstract works? Because a gentleman named Leo Castellibelieved in two strangers called Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschemberg, and he was able to convince some peoplethat he was right.

I repeat: market is not the only medium to give mutant geniuses and changes their visibility. Not even the biennial



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exhibitions, the big expositions, the museums, the magazines, the books are enough. You just have to take thecatalogue of an old biennial exhibition or a number of Artforum from the 1970s, to understand that 90% of what wasthen considered "successful", has disappeared today. The stores of the museums are full of works of art defeated byhistory. But thanks to an incomprehensible combination of these elements, something came through, and todaycharacters like Jeff Koons or Cindy Sherman are considered part of the history of art. Now, let's take their morefamous contemporaries from the "new media" and let's look for them in one of the many books of arts history thathave greeted the change of millennium: needless to say that we won't find them. This means many things, but I'll tryto point out at least two of them: that the model of the festivals has not worked, and that the scene of the "newmedia" did not succeed in creating a single critic able to communicate his vision on an wider and open platform. It'stime to change. Something actually is already changing: I think, for instance, of the growing reputation of Rhizome atthe New Museum in New York ; I think about Raphael Lozano-Hemmer, that works with the Tate and with a famousgallery like Haunch of Venison. In my own small way, I would really like to contribute to this change.

Marco Mancuso: I imag ine you have d iscussed about th is dur ing the conference organ ized a t

Expanded Box: how w as the debate in th is sense? In a w ay I a l ready to ld you th is a t the

lect ure a t iMAL, don 't you t h ink t ha t i t cou ld be in terest ing and s t imula t ing fo r the debate , tohear in these spheres a lso more po lemic vo ices - or a t least some not agree ing in the

judgment and in the opin ions?

Domenico Quaranta: I assure you, my chairmen did anything but agree. Blais and Ippolito have given a beautifuspeech lingering on a series of projects whose strength comes exactly from the fact that they happened out of anyartistic frame. Roberta Bosco has talked about the entrance of the net art in the physical space, claiming that thepublic is by now ready to face technologically complex hypothesis and picking on those who, in this process, seemsto bend too much towards the market. Geert Lovink , following what he wrote in Zero Comments, has made a clearand harsh diagnosis of the actual state of the New Media Art, theorizing some ways out: he calls entering the worldof the contemporary art "strategy of disappearance". Inke Arns has illustrated her own curatorial work at theHartware MedienKunst Verein of Dortmund, that places the media art in a wider context, and at the same time forces

it to compare itself with the expositional space, not necessarily adopting "technology based" layouts; RgineDebat ty has shown the absurdity of a critical perspective that insists on the difference between contemporary artand new media art, while Zhang Ga has tried to explore the reasons that make the new media art so tremendouslyactual: all three interventions, with very different approaches, worked on the "specific form of contemporary" of thenew media art. Joasia Krysa, lastly, concentrated on a particular platform of artistic production - the RMB Cityfounded by Cao Fei in the virtual world of Second Life, and tried to understand its success and peculiar economicmodel .



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www.ifema.es/web/fer ias/arco/ in.html

www.domenicoquaranta.net /ARCO2009.html

www. imal .org /Ho lyF i re /

www. reak t .o rg /

www.p ixxe lpo in t .o rg / fo rgodssake-e .h tml
http://www.ifema.es/web/ferias/arco/in.htmlhttp://www.domenicoquaranta.net/ARCO2009.htmlhttp://www.imal.org/HolyFire/http://www.reakt.org/http://www.pixxelpoint.org/forgodssake-e.html%20http://www.pixxelpoint.org/forgodssake-e.html%20http://www.reakt.org/http://www.imal.org/HolyFire/http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/ARCO2009.htmlhttp://www.ifema.es/web/ferias/arco/in.html

Documents

Digimag 42 - March 2009. Expanded Art, Expanded Box