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

["intim@" <igor.stromajer@guest.arnes.si>]

dear syndicalists,

melentie explained many facts about the seafair98 and he was kind
enough to share with us also some details about organising such a
festival which is obviously a heavy task (especially for us who are
not doing such things: we just go to the festivals, present our
projects and return home).

from that point further i'm not going to analyse seafair anymore but
only going to talk about net art exhibitions in general. i want this
to be clear.


= = = = = = = = = =

"art is never chaste, one should keep all innocent 
buffoons steered well away. people who are not prepared well enough
for art should never be allowed near it. yes, art is dangerous. if
it's chaste, it's not art."
(pablo picasso)


somehow i do understand the position of the organisers of different
net art festivals and exhibitions: there are people all around the
world who are dealing with net art exhibitions. and they need to do
something, to be present and known as curators as those who have power
to promote you or to bring you down. the stupid game which is present
in different art spheres (fine art, theatre, music etc.) so why would
net are be an exception.

olia lialina explained many things concerning net art festivals and
exhibitions very well in her historical "cheap.art" article 
<http://www.v2.nl/mail/v2east/0455.html>

tonight i recognise two problems:
a) money
b) concepts



a) money

there is never enough money, of course. if george soros (no matter how
we critique him) wouldn't finance our work there wouldn't be any
nettime and syndicate meetings, there wouldn't be many net art
festivals and exhibitions etc. but george soros is not enough, so jaka
zeleznikar told me (as a joke - but as a conceptional one) that he's
waiting some other organisations to be establish: like CCNCA - The
CocaCola Network for Contemporary Arts or MDNCA - The McDonalds
Network for Contemporary Arts. until then we'll be without enough
money because george soros is not enough (uh, that's ok - how would it
looks if he would own the complete net art scene).

but the organisers of net art festivals and exhibitions get the money
somehow. there are many possibilities, of course. some organisers even
get some money from different sponsors, ngo, foundations and also from
the governments (ministries for culture). but of course, they want to
keep it for themselves as much as they can. "to keep it" means to
spend it for posters, fancy multicolored catalogues, 
tv and printed commercials and
announcements etc. - for their own rating as curators and
organisers. it's very expensive to organise theatre festivals, because
you have to bring the complete scenography, many actors, technical
equipment and it costs a lot. net art is perfect: you just publish
some urls on one page in the catalogue and that's it. the rest are
presentations of sponsors, and maybe four or five pages of curator's
text to prove that she/he knows what she/he is doing and to do some
self promotion.

everybody are satisfied - even the artists: we put the catalogue into
our cv and we feel good: we think: hey, i'm an international star,
they are inviting me to many festival and exhibitions...

some of the exhibitions and festivals are honest: they tell you in
advance that the presentation will be on internet only (virtual stays
virtual). now it depends of how well known the organiser and the
curators are, how important are they in net art world, what's the
concept of the festival / exhibition etc. so you can decide by your
own if you will submit your work to such an event.

here are 3 good examples of such net-only exhibitions (professionally
prepared and well done). there are probably others also but
unfortunately i don't know them. 
http://ir.uz 
http://www.altx.com/ds
http://aleph-arts.org/m2m/ 
the problem is that the content is almost the same in every 
exhibition mentioned here, but that is another thing.

another good example is what Rhizome is doing. on their website
<www.rhizome.com> they randomly exhibit different net art projects at
the entrance. also very professionally done and completely inside the
spirit of net art.

and there are others: once i was invited to the net art festival where
they treated us like hollywood stars. they covered all the travelling
expenses, the best hotel in town, a lot(!) of money for daily
allowances, dinners on the boat organised by very rich sponsors,
prepared interviews and press conferences etc. like in heaven. i came
together with my wife and we wanted to pay all the extra costs for
her: they said no, there's no need to do that, we'll pay all.  they
selected the artist who won the first prize: 10.000 DM, can you
imagine?

speaking of my wife: she is often invited to many philosophical 
conferences, contemporary dance and theatre festivals and meetings all
around europe and she never spent one single dollar of her own money
for these events (not even mine :). everything is well organised and
the organisers knows that they have to pay if they want to have some
people there. otherwise they would be alone sitting at a round table
end debate with walls.

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.

in some cases the audience must even pay to enter the gallery where
net art projects are exhibited on the exhibition! - isn't that
strange? there are also other, maybe more strange concepts: some
festivals are charging entry fees to the net artists who are
submitting their works to the jury or curators. what a perversity!

sometimes i'm asking myself: why do we have our syndicate? 
aren't syndicates meant to protect their members in 
their relationships with <...who...>?


b) concepts

the inflation of the net art festivals and exhibition also results in
the lack of concepts. what do some net art festivals and exhibitions
understand as the main theme? all the festivals have some title which
represents the main theme and the projects should somehow be inside
the theme. but we all know that this are just titles, not very often
followed by the real concept that one can see at the final selection
on the exhibition. just look at the titles: general themes that any
project can fit in.

net art as a media is very democratically: it is available on the net
for free and to everybody. big net art indexes were made for the
audience to make it easier to find them and to enjoy art. so if you
are intending to organise a festival or an exhibition you must have a
very very good reason for that. a very very good concept. if not you
better stay away, observe and enjoy net art projects like any other
surfer. don't do anything. nobody would blame you. because dealing
with art is dangerous, very dangerous. 

pablo picasso said (and i'm proud to repeat it in the present 
context): "art is never chaste, one should keep all innocent 
buffoons steered well away. people who are not prepared well enough
for art should never be allowed near it. yes, art is dangerous. if
it's chaste, it's not art."

the question still remains: how / why to exhibit net art? free your 
mind and the rest will follow.



igor stromajer / intim@