Re: Syndicate: "why & how" to exhibit net art?

[Raivo Kelomees <raivo@artun.ee>]

hello to everyone,

(if you don't have time to read text, read in the end conclusion *what i
wanted to say*)

net art here is not yet mania or golden fewer, but art museum started
with buying videos.

this is really progressive here in estonia, it looks like new page in
history of local art scene and in same time it is rather sign of death.
if something comes to museum,belongs to collections, it becomes a
commodity, a thing.

net art wants to be un-thing, objectless art, but there are already
discussions about money issues and about emerging new art stars, net art
stars (alexei shulgin has written about and became a star)

as we are organizing event which should consist net projects i can answer
or react on some questions which igor stromajerwrote.

igor's text shows things from point of view of practitioners and artist,
and i would say, more or less from point of view of western artist. i
know, he is from so-called east, as we are, but between east and east are
differences.

sometimes there are no differences at all, i mean you can't do art  with
expectations of earning with that, you get your pleasure from playing
with thoughts and with medium. it can happen in west and east, no
difference. it could be also bit romantic and *easty* point of view, but
actually it is true here as the opposite one. opposite: let's earn money
with digital art. i don't know, had anybody succeed in that? maybe
animators in hollywood.

net art or useless projects in the net are sometimes as element in
so-called new media art exhibitions, where dominant media is video,
*medium of our parents*, as it is in the west. here is still boom of
video art. institutions and galleries love it. it is even better as
paintings, it's a small thing, a cassette, it's good to put it into the
shelf. job of museum worker is starting to be easier in physical sence.
less heavy things.

from that sense are digital projects very important issue in breaking
art-as-object conventions or exploring new field of visual and textual
activity.

> the net artist should demand the same treatment. if you want me, if
> i'm good enough for you, if my project is so special that you invited
> me on the festival or exhibition: pay. you don't have to pay anything
> for my project because it's free, available on the net and anybody can
> visit it, but pay for my body to be transferred to your gallery,
> museum or any other exhibition/festival space. because my body (meat,
> flash, bones etc.) is equal to my net art project: that's me. but of
> course: if you are organising net art festival for yourself - please
> do it, but don't use my name to attract the audience.

with such demands artist could feel yourself as a real star. you can't
imagine it here, in east. you can't raise so much money from private and
rich sponsors, especially now in the time of russian crisis.

this request to *pay* is quite brutal too, because festival organizers
could be authors himself, they could be almost grassroots penniless guys
and girls who are working for free.

support from institutions and companies could very are irrational.
example: foundation, which is giving 20.000.000  4 times for diverse
culture fields in a year is supporting new media festival with, let's say
- 25 000 bones, which is as much as paid by same institution for one
video with length of 1:30 (which comes to collection of local museum). i
call it irrational, because function of state funders could be more
oriented to collectives as to individuals. festivals are trying to be
stage for many artists.

> b) concepts

i am not sure that importance of something which is called *art* is
measured by deepness, bigness and impressiveness of concepts. what's
actually meaning of *good concept*? in net art and digital art.

sometimes artists' work could be done in way that it just happened, when
it's not *made*, constructed and programmed. if concept less art is
coming after over conceptualized art it could work as relief, as frech
ear and freedom. therefore is good to see some scratch and other forms of
parasitic art, which needs something pre-existent big art.

i think main concept of festivals is meeting between people, exchanging
ideas, search for similarity and differences and introducing new
phenomena's into local scene.

what i wanted to say:

- artist is working not only for money, but he can't work for free for
long time
- money is useful for traveling, it means for contacts, meeting people
and exchanging experiences
- new media art funding in post east countries could be irrational: you
get what you don't need and you can't get what you really need
- if you meet good sponsors in that field, it is not rule but exception
- *pointless* could be sometimes more meaningful as *concept*
- *pointless* in not equal with *meaningless*
- *concept* doesn't equal with *meaningful*

>  free your mind and the rest will follow.
>

Raivo Kelomees

French-Baltic-Nordic Video and New Media Festival in Tallinn
FESTIVAL DATES 19-21 NOVEMBER 1998

E-Media Center
Estonian Academy of Arts
Tartu Str. 1.
0001, Tallinn, ESTONIA
Ph: (372) 6 267 336
Fax: (372) 6 267 350
e-mails: offline@online.ee, raivo@artun.ee
Festival director: Raivo Kelomees
Curator of  II part for online and digital video: Tiia Johannson,
e-mail: xtiiax@hotmail.com
URL: http://www.artun.ee/festival/
Mirror: http://www.online.ee/~offline/festival/