Montreal Biennial 2002 ( WebArt )

Montreal Biennial

Sept.26 - Nov.3
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http://www.ciac.ca/no_16/index.html
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P r e s s R e l e a s e
P r e s s R e l e a s e
P r e s s R e l e a s e
P r e s s R e l e a s e


Invited Artists:

anonymous (nino rodriguez)
tara bethune-leamen
michael daines
frederic durieu
jhave
wolf kahlen
lia
jillian mcdonald
brooke singer
carlo zanni



Aesthethics - Ethics:
Between these two terms, the logical symbol, not of equality, but of equivalence. Since more than any other media, the Web seems to force a posture on the artist - that is, at once an ethical stand and an aesthetic gesture.
By placing between the artist and his work the action of the machine, the electronic media introduces a distance between gesture and expression. Just as the line of the drawing breaks down into pixels, the body and person of the artist appear disembodied, absent.

Yet, paradoxically, many Web artists have managed to make of this place - or rather non-place - that is Internet a privileged space for personal expression, communication and communion with the spectator/visitor as well as a place for questioning and appropriating the media itself. This is because the Web, contrary to "traditional" art, is above all a "media" in the strong sense of term, that is, a communication channel between worlds, interior and exterior, real and virtual, the world of the surfers as well as the artists.


Ten webworks for the Biennale:

The ten works selected here show the variety of choices and means of expression of the artists who have opted for the Web as their media as well as the material and subject for their work.
In keeping with the theme of the 3rd Biennale de Montreal, "Life is life!… Pleasures, passions, emotions", they nonetheless have in common humour, sometimes irony … but also elegance and beauty… in various degrees, sometimes in the simplicity of their design or, conversely, by the brilliance of their colours and their forms.

Each one finally strikes by its playful aspect… and, in short, by its ease, a certain mastery, or rather a definite mastery of the media, which also knows how to involve the visitor. Thus interactive and expressive, such works undoubtedly manage to turn the Web into a "hot" media.

Between celebration and dissolution (cf. Michel Tournier), these works are then divided.

The ten webworks that have been chosen for this exhibition will be presented and commented in a special issue of the CIAC's Electronic Magazine which will be published for the Biennale.

Anne-Marie Boisvert
Web Art Curator

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