LX 2.0 Project's new project by Carlos Katastrofsky: lastwishes

For immediate release:
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Lisboa 20 Arte Contempor=E2nea is launching on November 8th (next =
Thursday) LX 2.0 Project's new comission, the project lastwishes by =
Vienna-based media artist Carlos Katastrofsky =
(http://www.lisboa20.pt/lx20 =
<https://webmail.netcabo.pt/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=3Dhttp://www.lisboa=
20.pt/lx20> ).=20
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Carlos Katastrofsky (1975) has been creating net art pieces that =
question both the notion of what an art work is and the notion of =
ownership of these processual projects, not defined by physical =
properties. Projects such as internet art for poor people (2006), free =
interactive readymade (2005) or the original (2005) are just a few =
examples of Katastrofsky's interest in exploring alternative ways of =
distributing and owning net art, always within the institutional art =
world logic and always through a critical, yet playful approach. His =
projects are mostly conceptual, not defined by fancy visual effects or =
sophisticated programming. There is no "beautiful" or "poetic" things to =
be seen on the screen, just the critical use of massified online tools =
that he masters in order to achieve his own agenda.
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lastwishes, the project the artist created specially for LX 2.0, is a =
great example of the lack of any visual aesthetics in his work. In a =
simplistic (yet pretty accurate) way, there is nothing to be seen in his =
new project. lastwishes deals solely with the principles of =
communication. Mailing lists are popular tools for the exchange of =
thoughts and opinions: they make multiple (written) dialogues possible =
as well as the archiving for future references. In this work the =
mailinglist-software "mailman" is modified to allow only one single =
posting from a sender. The user is able to subscribe and to receive =
messages endlessly but post only once and by this immediately get =
unsubscribed. The idea of "exchange" is thereby turned into something =
absurd: one can listen but only talk once. Sending a message thus =
requires meaningful content, "chatting" becomes impossible.=20
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The ephemeral quality of this sending-process reminds of zen-qualities: =
be quiet and learn to listen but if you really have to say something =
meaningful then talk. Above that, the question arises: how is =
communication possible when there is a quiet, listening mass and no one =
dares to stand up and speak? According to an Austrian proverb, "talking =
is silver and being quiet is gold", but being quiet only makes sense =
within the process of communication.
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Luis Silva
LX 2.0 Project (http://www.lisboa20.pt/lx20)
Lisboa 20 Arte Contempor=E2nea