Medi@terra: 6th International Festival of Art & Technology, Athens, Greece

medi@terra

The international festival Medi@terra invites the audience from January 30 to February 2 to a visit at the Byzantine and Christian Museum to see contemporary digital artworks by Greek and foreign artists, selections from CD Rom and Net Art.

We invite interested parties to attend the big conference on "Digital Culture in Greece" on 13, 14 and 15 February at the amphitheatre of the Ministry of Culture (Bouboulinas 20), where the course of digital culture in our country will be examined. At the conference invited to adopt a stance are organisations, artists, scientists, educational foundations, that are directly related to the evolution of Digital Culture.

What is more, Medi@terra presents at Fournos on February 2 in collaboration with Goethe Institut German VideoArt 2000-2002, in particular the prizes and other works that have stood out at the competition of "VideoArt prize of the town Marl, 2002".

The Medi@terra festival is being organised for the 6th consecutive year by the Centre for Digital Culture FOURNOS with the co-operation and support of the Ministry of Culture.

Every year it shapes its concept according to issues that interest society and more specific subjects that have to do with contemporary digital culture and the wide communion of artists.

In keeping with the times, Medi@terra tackles the issue of the text and the possibilities it acquires through modern technology, emphasising equally on form and content. It explores the part played by the text, the written word, a powerful section of culture in which everybody participates, from the emigre to the philosopher to the administrator. A field of social practice that had been degraded now comes back in full force thanks to the internet and SMS messages.

This year's soul searching that backs the exhibition at the Byzantine Museum, relating to the value of the letter and its dynamics, leads to links with the research of artificial intelligence. The artworks that utilise or handle these studies, present the contemporary forms of artistic expression. A selection of works that tackle the fields of A.I. will be presented at the Festival, attempting a connection between speech, technology and, ultimately, politics (with the wide sense of the word).

Artists, researchers and universities from all over the world responded with remarkable proposals to the festival's invitation for the construction of a letter in hypertext form. Every letter - proposal acquires a complex form once it is exhibited. Thus we are talking about a hypertext, consisting of a letter, a website, an exhibition of photography in real space, or a multimedia performance etc. At the Byzantine Museum the works that have been selected and made especially for Media@terra will be presented.

Byzantine and Christian Museum
Vas. Sofias 22
Athens, GREECE
Opening: Friday 30

31 January , 1 and 2 February 9.00 - 20.00
More info: http://www.mediaterra.org
tel. 210 6460748 - 6420451
email: [email protected]