DOMENICO QUARANTA

Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG, Pseudo-Futurist Video Game Improvisation Extravaganza, 2009. Synthetic Performance (extract). More performances’ documentation on Eva and Franco Mattes’ Youtube account.

Eddo Stern: Flamewar

First published in the catalogue of the exhibition “Eddo Stern: Flamewar“, curated by Ilana Tenenbaum at the Israeli Haifa Museum of Art (January 24 – June 20, 2009). With texts by Ilana Tenenbaum, Ed Halter and Domenico Quaranta.
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Domenico Quaranta, “Second City”, first published in Spawn of the Surreal, September 24, 2007.

Let’s say it: Second City, German artist’s Aram Bartholl curatorial project for Ars Electronica 2007, was far from being a success. OK, it was raining, and the rain changed the sandbox/beach (called Lido) installed in Pfarrplatz into a morass, and dropped merciless onto the heads – and the mood – of the “residents”. But is that the only one reason? Second City failed – at least, partially – notwithstanding the strength of some of the projects shown, in spite of the fact that it was the first important show organized in real world and devoted to art propagated from the Metaverse, and under the umbrella of a credible institution such as Ars Electronica.
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Domenico Quaranta, “A silent, ironic criticism. Interview with Aram Bartholl”, first published in Spawn of the Surreal, September 26, 2007.

Second City – the show “curated” (reading on you will understand why I use the quotation marks) in Linz by the German artist Aram Bartholl – has been – no doubts – one of the cardinal points of Ars Electronica’s last edition, Goodbye Privacy. The show disseminated through the city was highly representative of the “nice side” of surveillance in the age of digital exhibitionism, an issue that was at the core of the Festival. “Showcasing ones customized persona, staging ones own image is the order of the day. Feature yourself or its GAME OVER, dude!”, wrote the curators Christine Schöpf and Gerfried Stocker.
As one of the first big shows raising the issue of art and virtual worlds, Second City has been an important show, and a point of departure for further research. In the same time (and for the same reason), it has been an highly problematic show, too. People liked the idea to bring the exhibition to the city and the streets, but there was a lot of mumbling and discussion about an approach that, for many, was superficial and looked like promotion. As you may guess from the previous post, I agree with this criticism, but what Bartholl is saying below made the show more clear to me – and made me more indulgent to the show. Hopefully, it will be the same for you…
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Transcript of a video interview by Costanza Baldini (Festival della Creatività, Firenze) for Rinascimento Virtuale, the exhibition (curated by Mario Gerosa aka Frank Koolhas) that took place from October 21 to November 20, 2008 at the Museo di Storia Naturale in Firenze, Italy. First published on Spawn of the Surreal.

Rinascimento Virtuale. L’avatar è un’opera d’arte?
Domenico Quaranta. L’avatar può essere un’opera d’arte, come qualsiasi altra cosa del resto. Nella maggior parte dei casi, ovviamente, non lo è. Il mio avatar in SL, ad esempio, non è un’opera d’arte: è solo la maschera che io mi sono disegnato per interagire in un mondo sintetico. È un autoritratto, un dispositivo di socializzazione, un sistema di navigazione. Certo, ci ho messo della creatività per farlo, come del resto ne ho messa nel realizzare il mio biglietto da visita. Nessuno dei due è arte, anche se entrambi potrebbero diventarlo, in certe condizioni.

RV. Si metterebbe nel salotto un quadro realizzato in Second Life?
DQ. Lei si metterebbe in casa un quadro realizzato in Photoshop? Si e no, dipende dal quadro, non certo dal mezzo. In SL non si realizzano quadri: si importano realizzazioni esterne, si scattano fotografie, si realizzano installazioni che possono avere una valenza iconica.

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