Free Art - What is the Big Sheep?

ATENTION:!

BIG SHEEP, A NEW BLOG IS OPENING AT:

http://bigsheep.blogspot.com/ or at http://arteonline.arq.br/sheep/

Sheep's Parade / Sheep's Parade II, the Big Sheep


The Project Sheep’s Parade was launched in March 2005 through a funny call which announced the “Fall and Spring Sheep’s Parade", an allusion to the collections of feminine fashion that are lauched to each new season. That because the parade was related to the new series of collaborative reviews - “Electric Green Sheep” - a Museum of the Essential and Beyond That 2005 activity which would analyse the web.art done by three women from three different regions of the Earth: France, USA and Chile. The title “Electric Green Sheep” was a reference to the work of the first artist analysed - the french artist Isabel Saij and to Internet and its electric green. To show those wonderful women / sheep that come standing out by the active participation in cyberspace and to confirm that technology also is a woman’s space nowadays is our intention with these review series - 2005.

The first invitation to Shep’s Parade was funny:

Send your sheep image, drawing, painting, photo, animation - any kind of sheep: Dolly ( coming back to cloning…), white, fashion, shock pink, electric green, what sheep you imagine, even the famous black sheep will be welcome!

The sheeps deadline will be May 15 th 2005. Send how many sheeps you want, we are looking forward to see the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That invaded by a sheep’s flock !!!!!

They sheep were arriving, at first funny sheep the first flock to arrive was the colorful flock of the Brazilian and carioca artist Paulo Villela, which deserved a comment by Muriel Frega (Argentina):

“- Y las de Paulo son senoras en la peluqueria, graciosisimas!” ( Paulo Villela’s sheep are madams at the hair - dresser, amusing!)

After the Easter holiday, more jokes and an excuse for the delay of the Summer's and Winter Festival end:

Everything is always perfect in the virtual cities or museums found on the Internet, but the Museum's space does not work that way. Instead, its operations aim at fulfilling the dictates of the principle of reality. For example, the Summer's and Winter Festival is finishing today, with a delay of about 15 days! The reason? Well it is not easy to manage a museum of this size but lately, as you certainly know, the museum is being invaded by sheeps' flocks (http://arteonline.arq.br/sheep ), and during the Easter's holiday the sheep ran away from their gallery and spreading theirselves by all the museum. It was difficult to control and to place to their own location such sheep quantity, for you have an idea, the "330 º sheep" that Rob Myers sent us insisted on form a halo around the museum… But finally, it seems that everything came back to calm, then you have here the complete Festival (http://arteonline.arq.br, go down by the scrollbar until the link or go direct to http://arteonline.arq.br/festival ):

But suddenly the parade started to change the tone, the first sign of this change was “The Sacrificial Lamb” by Colino and Babel, that revealed in a wise and ironical way and with lots of black humor that all sheep have a defect. Just after Tamara Lai (Belgica), sent us her sheep, which was an answer to the “Altar” (http://arteonline.arq.br/web\_art\_considerations) I built to the her Project Sacrifier le Sacrifice sacrificing 2005. In this "Altar" I ask in a funny way:

- How many pixels I sacrifice before finish a web.art work? Is this the web.artist craft or a sacrifice?

The image sent by Tamara Lai shows the image of an innocent little lamb being retreat from a computer screen in order to be sacrificed - devoured (?) by the web.artist (?), well maybe it is much more than this … in fact the text that accompanies the work contrasts terribly with the innocent image.

Then Isabel Saij sent her serious and political sheep collection that was analysed in details in the first collaborative review 2005. In that review also was anlysed the flock done by Edward Picot (UK), which also burrow in serious political subjects. So the Sheep’s Parade that had started as a joke became something much more serious… And then Louise Desrenards (France) sent a comment to the lists nettime-fr-raw and nettime-fr:

“Lorsque Regina depuis le Bresil a lance l'appel de mai pour le defile des moutons "Sheep’s Parade", n'etait-elle pas visionnaire du mouton noir et du mouton du Non socialiste, mais aussi du Non europeen, car le mouton d'autrepart est devenu celui du Non divers de la gauche et pour dire l'appel quenous soyons les plus nombreux possibles ? C'est le mouvement de Mai 2005 “!

It is just because the black sheep has become in France a kind of symbol to the “left” NO in the countersign - for a constitutional treaty for Europe - on May 29th 2005… So that Sheep's Parade is now a Historical Parade !

Well, after all of this, there is not how to interrupt that sheep’s triumphant parade, which grew so much and acquired such different functions from those that have been proposed in our release.

My most graceful thanks to all the artists that have participated in its first edition, contributing to its success:

ALEXANDRE VENERA - ANGELICA CHIO - ASTREA EL-JAICK & RAYMUNDO AMADO GONCALVES - CARLOS RAMIREZ - COLINO / BABEL - CRISTINA ORENSZTAJN - DANIELLE RICCIARDI - DEA JUNQUEIRA - EDWARD PICOT - FRED FOREST - ISABEL ARANDA - YTO - ISABEL SAIJ - JOAO PEDRO - JOESER ALVAREZ - JUDSON PLASMA STUDII - LIA BELART - LISA HUTTON - LOUISE DESRENARDS - MIGUEL JIMENEZ - MURIEL FREGA - PAULO VILLELA - PAULO VILLELA & REGINA PINTO - REGINA CELIA PINTO - ROB MYERS - TAMARA LAI

I am sure that you would like to know that the project continues, now it is called “Sheep’s Parade II - the Big Sheep.”

What is the “Big Sheep” ?

It is a proposal of cloning. Every 15 days we will be commenting two of the first project flocks / sheep and at the same time mixing their “DNA” visually. Also a image / clone of them will be available on the “blog” to be copied and changed for who want and wish to participate of the Big Sheep. This mutant sheep or flock should be sent to [email protected]. All the mutant sheep will form the “Big Sheep”, which will be exhibited permanently at the Museum of the Essential and That’ s Gallery Cloning and WEB.

With that project will be giving force to the Free Art:

"Free Art license / Copyleft Attitude

With this Free Art License, you are authorised to copy, distribute and freely transform the work of art while respecting the rights of the originator. Far from ignoring the author's rights, this license recognises them and protects them. It reformulates their principle while making it possible for the public to make creative use of the works of art. Whereas current literary and artistic property rights result in restriction of the public's access to works of art, the goal of the Free Art License is to encourage such access.

The intention is to make work accessible and to authorise the use of its resources by the greatest number of people: to use it in order to increase its use, to create new conditions for creation in order to multiply the possibilities of creation, while respecting the originators in according them recognition and defending their moral rights. In fact, with the arrival of the digital age, the invention of the Internet and free software, a new approach to creation and production has made its appearance.

It also encourages a continuation of the process of experimentation undertaken by many contemporary artists. Knowledge and creativity are resources which, to be true to themselves, must remain free, i.e. remain a fundamental search which is not directly related to a concrete application.

Creating means discovering the unknown, means inventing a reality without any heed to realism. Thus, the object(ive) of art is not equivalent to the finished and defined art object. This is the basic aim of this Free Art License: to promote and protect artistic practice freed from the rules of the market economy."

Much more at: Free Art (http://artlibre.org)

The last edition of the “Big Sheep” will be registered in Free Art site and so that it can be used indefinitely, for who wants, always respecting creators' rights.

In case one the artists of the first “Sheep’s Parade” does not agree to offer his/her sheep or flock to be "mixed and cloned”, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with “No Big Sheep” in the subject.

Regina Celia Pinto

http://arteonline.arq.br
http://arteonline.arq.br/library.htm