Digital #MediaArt(s) Numérique(s)

Media art, tech art, web art, digital art, time based media art...What, why and where to?

ticket (free) >>> eventbrite.fr

This panel will examine the recent developments of technology in contemporary art and highlight its importance in relation to a transition into a digital society.

Alain Servais (collector, Belgium), talks to Valentina Volchkova (International Director Pace gallery, Paris), and Hampus Lindwall (collector, Sweden) to assess the role of digital technology in art and discuss how it has changed since it gained public attention in the late 90’s.

Through the work of JODI and Felix Luque Sánchez, they will explore how artists are responding to technology as a new tool and the different aspects and problematics that digital and technological methods bring to light, as preservation, access and property.

Moderated by Alain Servais, with the participation of:
Hampus Lindwall, collector (Sweden)
Valentina Volchkova, International Director Pace gallery (Paris) JODI, artists (Netherlands - Belgium)
Félix Luque Sánchez, artist (Belgium)

This talk is a part of Art Brussels Talks 2017 and is coordinated with the help of :
>> Selin Ben Mehrez & Vincent Matthu, founders of RLTY.
RLTY is an online resource and communication tool for the development of new technologies in the art market.
>>> Jacques Urbanska, digital art(s) project manager at Transcultures, Belgian Center for digital & sound cultures, Media Artist, art curator, and fouder of a large information web network on « Art(s) + Science(s) » thematic.

Pau Waelder is a researcher, art critic and curator who recently finished his PhD about the art market, its displacement on internet platforms and the interactions between contemporary art and New Media Art. His research acknowledge the explosion of the Post-Internet Art, as example of an artistic sector connected to New Media Art that stimulated the interest of the traditional art market.

Post-Internet Art has been for many a short parenthesis, a phenomenon which is already obsolete, but it setted a precedent of a successful artistic production for the art market, in the general context of New Media Art, even if some artists of the new generation does not recognize himself in the New Media Art field. From a different perspective, this interview also focuses on the new online resources for buying art and the new forms of distributions of digital contents.

InterAccess is an art gallery, educational facility and production studio dedicated to the creative use of technology, electronic art and new media culture.

Our programs support art forms that integrate new technologies from conception and development to exhibition and discussion. We explore the impact of technology on the social, political and cultural aspects of contemporary life, and encourage audiences to see anew their relationships with interactive artworks.

We provide a public forum for the development of practices involving interactivity, networked and remote connection, and the interface of the physical and the virtual. We provide diverse year-round public programming, including:

• Exhibitions and events (live music and performance)
• Hands-on workshops (intro to advanced)
• Professional development and teacher training
• Free weekly drop-in Open Studio
• Artist talks and panel discussions
• Documentation through video and publication
• Partnerships and special projects
• Annual support for the InterAccess Media Arts Award through OCAD University

In the nearly one month since the 9th Berlin Biennale opened, I’ve seen a lot of articles about a slick show curated by a fashion collective from New York called DIS. I read one particularly scathing review in which Jason Farago suggests that the only responsible biennale to curate at this time of humanitarian crisis would be one that sincerely reflects on the refugees whose lives have been upended. But I haven’t read much, if anything, about what I saw this week, admittedly late in the game. DIS’s 9th Berlin Biennale, “The Present in Drag,” actually does offer pathways to break down the power systems that have contributed to the refugee crisis and the resurrection of pseudo-fascist politics. It also demonstrates a new future for art that jibes with our présent...

Since the early 2010s, the contemporary art market has been showing signs of a renewed interest in digital media. On the one hand, several online marketplaces have been launched with the support of investor groups that include leading contemporary art galleries. On the other hand, a growing number of startups have been developing forms of accessing and collecting art in a digital format by means of mobile apps, streaming services and digital frames. Most of these business initiatives have been launched in the past four to five years and are currently exploring models of selling art which have yet to prove their profitability in the context of a market that is changing rapidly, but at the same time holding on to established structures and hierarchies. 

The traditional mechanisms of selling and collecting art that have shaped the art market for more than a hundred years are being challenged by the transformations introduced by digital technologies. The Internet facilitates access to a vast amount of data, as well as the possibility of reaching audiences regardless of their geographical location, while everyday devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops provide new contexts in which to experience art, away from the white walls of the museum or the gallery. ...

Today, H&M will release a special-edition leather handbag featuring the likeness of Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog (Yellow) in some stores and on its website. To celebrate (and, really, further publicize) the occasion, Koons will decorate the six-story facade of the Swedish retailer’s Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York City with images of his iconic sculpture.

The most expensive living artist as of a November 2013 auction, Koons is routinely noted for his shrewd, and sometimes unusual, business practices. But the former Wall Street commodities broker also has a knack for science and technology.

In fact, his works are often so cutting edge that some of the world’s leading museums have found themselves ill-equipped to handle them. (Asked why the Guggenheim never went through with its 1996 plan for a major Koons exhibition, former director Lisa Dennison admitted to the New York Times that “finding the technology to match Jeff’s vision became impossible.”)

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The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and MOTI in Breda are jointly acquiring 17 top digital works by contemporary artists in the Netherlands and abroad who are among the pioneers of digital art. This collaboration is spurred by MOTI’s change of course: it is due to reopen in the course of 2017 as the Stedelijk Museum Breda, where the legacy of the city of Breda will have a more prominent role.

In the short space of time that it existed, and under the management of Mieke Gerritzen, MOTI – founded in 2011 – has managed to build a remarkable collection of digital works by leading artists. The joint acquisition with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam means investing in a national collection in the field of digital art. This merging of curatorial vision transcends local museum policy. The course taken by MOTI in the collection of digital art coheres perfectly with the policy of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, which is always geared to new forms of art with a particular interest in the cross-over between graphic design and visual arts.

De la réunion de deux entités, connues sous leur nom respectif – Art2M et Anne & Julien – est né ArtJaws, une plateforme de vente d’œuvres d’art et d’éditions limitées.

ArtJaws met en contact privilégié les acteurs de l’art (artistes, galeries, collectionneurs, amateurs). Pensée comme l’espace-outil d’exploration des champs contemporains de l’art numérique et de celui de l’outsider pop, ArtJaws souhaite s’engager pour des artistes peu ou sous représentés – notamment dans le paysage actuel du marché de l’art – afin d’étendre les ponts de leur rayonnement.

Son originalité est d’être le fruit d’une réflexion de même nature qu’un commissariat d’exposition grâce auquel on retrouve un présupposé, une identité claire, une force de proposition régulière – le commissariat faisant valeur d’expertise.
La réunion des deux entités est également synonyme d’innovation avec la proposition et le développement de nouvelles manières de produire « l’objet artistique », et d’étendre ainsi le territoire créatif des artistes. En faisant le pari d’être 100% connecté au présent grâce aux capacités numériques, ArtJaws invite le collectionneur confirmé ou en devenir à partager cette vision neuve et dynamique.

Pour un hacking vertueux des habitudes du marché de l’art, ArtJaws mord à pleines dents dans des normes et des catégories figées de la création contemporaine afin d’en repousser les frontières.

Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel and CNN Style's latest guest editor on why we are experiencing a defining moment for digital art.