"Legal Perspective" by Cornelia Sollfrank in Basel

"Legal Perspective"
Exhibition by Cornelia Sollfrank
November 5 - 22nd, 2004
Opening: November 4th, 2004; 8pm

For the exhibition Cornelia Sollfrank realized a
new work in the trouble spot between a current
artistic practice and the laws in force. Part of
her original project for the [plug.in] exhibition
was to display a series of images which were
produced by her net.art generator. For these
pieces the net.art generator used Andy Warhol's
flower images, and reassembled parts of them to
create new images. In the opinion of certain
lawyers this project would not have been in
accordance with the law and could therefore not
be realized.

As a consequence, Sollfrank and her camera team
visited four lawyers specialized in intellectual
property right. She talked with the lawyers about
the legal risks implied in running and using the
programs and in downloading, saving, publishing
and distributing the re-worked images, also with
regard to the possibility of displaying her work
in [plug.in]. With this project Sollfrank tries
not only to make a point for artistic freedom in
general, but especially for free experimenting,
processing and re-working of exisiting material
as a legitimate and serious artistic practice
that has been developed throughout the 20th
century.

The interviews address the limitations of the
artistic freedom, which is granted by the basic
rights of most countries. They also ask about the
infringement of intellectual property rights,
which are committed by a computer program, by
internet users, and by an artistic practice which
is becoming more and more important in a
contemporary cultural discourse. The beautiful
and visually seducing re-worked Andy Warhol
flower images are at the core of the interviews,
but must remain absent in the exhibition. What
becomes visible instead is the boundary, where
it's no longer artists but lawyers and courts
which take decisions on cultural developments:
The 'legal perspective' as one possible
contribution to art history's central discussion
about perspective?

Collaborating lawyers: RA Peter Eller, Munich; RA
Jens Brelle, Hamburg, Dr. Rolf Auf der Mauer,
Zurich; Dr. Sven Kruger, Hamburg;

The exhibition takes place within
'copy-create-manipulate", a part of the VIPER
Festival 2004 which was curated by [plug.in].

Location:
[plug-in], St. Alban-Rheinweg 64, CH-4052 Basel
Tel. +41 61 283 60 50, Fax +41 61 283 60 51, [email protected]
Opening hours: Wed-Sat 2-6 pm, Thu 2-6pm and 8-10pm
http://weallplugin.org
http://www.viper.ch


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take it and run!