Extimacy: the intimate is Other

EXTIMACY
ART, INTIMACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma
29.01.2011 – 01.05.2011

GAZIRA BABELI, CLARA BOJ, MARTIN JOHN CALLANAN, GRÉGORY CHATONSKY, DIEGO DÍAZ, RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER, LAURENT MIGNONNEAU, PAUL SERMON, CHRISTA SOMMERER, CARLO ZANNI.

Inside the immense flow of data exchange, the new technologies have facilitated an interdependency between the spheres of what is private and what is public, between interior and exterior, leading us to reveal, in an increasingly natural manner, our experiences, thoughts and feelings, enlarging the circle of intimacy to the point of sharing our inner life with the invisible, abstract audience of Internet users. Things personal become collective, things belonging to others become our own and intimacy is no longer something that is preserved and kept in our innermost circles, but something that is projected in all directions in an eccentric movement. Thus intimacy turns into extimacy, to use the term created by Jacques Lacan to define the existence, within the most intimate sphere of the I, of a “foreign body”, that which is external to the individual and with which one identifies.

We need to share our intimacy because what we are is defined both by our subjectivity and by what surrounds us. In the realm of digital art, several artists have worked with the new parameters of subject, body, interpersonal relationship and intimacy introduced by the new technologies. Their works enable us to initiate a reflection on the ways in which the mobile phone, e-mails, chats, social networks and instant messaging systems modify, increase or condition our communication with others. They also allow us to consider where the boundaries of our personal space lie, where our “I” ends and that of others begins.

Extimacy. Art, intimacy and technology” is a group digital art exhibition which puts forward a proposal that spectators reflect on these concepts through the presentation of works by recognised artists from the international scene. Interactive installations, mainly, that involve spectators in what is active participation with the work, which never ceases to be a piece with its own identity, the fruit of the firm artistic background of creators who combine art and technology in their work. In an era in which the user adopts an active role in the diffusion and manipulation of information on the global network (known as web 2.0), in art, too, a change in roles between spectator and work is taking place, with interactive art as the best expression of this new paradigm. The works of some great names from this sphere, such as Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer or Paul Sermon, for instance, are combined with the creations of promising artists like Gazira Babeli, Clara Boj and Diego Díaz, Gregory Chatonsky, Carlo Zanni or Martin John Callanan. All of them exhibit the multiple facets a concept as complex and at the same time as simple as extimacy can present, from different angles and with diverse intentions.

Several Interruptions

To celebrate 15 years of ground breaking research in electronic media, the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art (SCEMFA) will hold a 14 week exhibition, showing new works from eight internationally acclaimed artists: who use emerging practices to explore electronic and digital media, as both a source and material.

Martin John Callanan, 24 – 30 January
Thomson & Craighead, 2 – 13 February
Tim Head, 15 – 20 February
Simon Faithfull, 22 February – 6 March
Brighid Lowe, 8 – 13 March
Melanie Jackson, 15 – 20 March
Susan Collins, 23 March – 17 April

An exhibition that revolves every fortnight between each artist, acting as a showcase for the best of contemporary art in the UK, and highlighting the Slade’s pivotal role in the history, development and current research in the many varied forms of electronic media.

Tuesday – Friday: 10 am – 5pm, Saturday & Sunday: noon – 5pm
North Lodge, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT

Regeneration.011

A Selection of The Web Biennial Revealing The Poetics and Politics of Net Art
20 January – 20 March 2011

Internet has contributed to the transformation and spreading of new forms of art, provided boundless creating, exhibiting and consuming opportunities. Regeneration.011, in this context, is presenting works that deal with freedom of speech and anti-war activism as well as revealing the political and poetical aspects of contemporary net art. Plato Art Space, by this project, aims to draw attention to net art which gained considerable importance in the recent years as an alternative space for contemporary art.

Artists: Magda Bielesz, Alan Bigelow, Immo Blaese, Andrew Chee, Martin John Callanan, Andy Deck, Dimitrios Fotiou, Matthias Fritsch, Genco Gulan, Elli Harrison, Sachiko Hayashi, Anni Holm, Aoghus Kneeshaw, Cardarelli Luigia, Marcello Mercado, Alexander Mouton, Christian Rupp, Evelyn Stermitz, Jurgen Trautwein, Merve Unsal, Nanette Wylde, Jody Zellen, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga.
Curator: Marcus Graf

The exhibition is supported by Plato College of Higher Education (www.plato.edu.tr)

PLATO ART SPACE, Ayvansaray Caddesi, No: 33, Balat 34087 Istanbul-Turkiye

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