09 Feb 2014

Is It Art Or Is It Just at BWA Zielona Góra

IS IT ART OR IS IT JUST
Opening: Feb 14, 7pm
Exhibition open through: Mar 9, 2014

Performance at the opening: Kym Ward

Artists: Ghislain Amar, Annemarie van den Berg, Andrew Birk, Tymek Borowski, Debora Delmar Corporation, Rafal Czajka, Jaś Domicz, Manuel Forte, Piotr Grabowski, HARD-CORE, Piotr Łakomy, Anna Maria Łuczak, Noviki, Pikaso, Gregor Rozanski, Kym Ward, Beata Wilczek

Curator: Romuald Demidenko

Using a variety of devices and applications every day, we look at more content and images than ever before. The Internet has become not only an important communication tool, but an essential reference tool for young artists. In the context of dynamic gradations of economic and political influence, the framework for the definition of contemporary art is becoming less tangible, and the role of the artist and their production model has transformed.

Andrew Keen in his book 'The Cult of The Amateur' argues that the characteristic democratization of art which takes place on the Internet is a threat to high culture. His theory pretty quickly ceased to be valid, as people have become active users nowadays, not just remaining passive recipients of content, but partakers in going beyond the realm of social networking sites. Responding to the allegation that the lack of new content, it could be that the role of an artist is no longer to create new content and gestures, but to subtly compile those already existing in a way that their intentional meaning is changed. Because there are no external constraints to overcome and twentieth-century strategies of transgression or subversion are incorporated by cognitive capitalism as a common tool to gain attention by consumers - artists began to explore the reality from the inside, looking for real or radical experiences in accelerated everyday life, dominated by virtuality and global brand images.

The exhibition is a sequel of the project IS IT ART OR IS IT JUST, which began in 2013 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in collaboration with the exhibition platform Het Plafond. The aim was to characterize the selected attitudes present within the young artistic and curatorial scene, particularly in relation to the changing role of the internet and the interrelationships between the virtual world and the latest visual culture. We employed a survey and interviews plus discussions with representatives of the world of art and young professionals active in other areas to build a database on the future of their practices. The exhibition will run from the results of last year's draft and selected works of invited artists.

IS IT ART OR IS IT JUST is accompanied by two publications - supplementary reader and the #trendbook, available now online (bit.ly/1kDffrY). The Polish edition will be released shortly afterwards.

Contributors of the #trendbook: Ada Avetist, Andrew Birk, Billy Gallery, Anne de Boer, Eloise Bonneviot, Sebastian Cichocki, Gerardo Contreras, Martyn Richard Coppel, Debora Delmar Corporation, Guia Cortassa, DJ New Jersey Drone, Travis Egedy (Pictureplane), Julie Grosche, Hard-Core, Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir, Sæmundur Þór Helgason, Blair Kneppers, Piotr Łakomy, Perla Montelongo, Museum of Internet, Kubiat Nnamdie, Wyatt Niehaus, Karolina Plinta, Lauren Reid, Manuel Roßner, Gregor Rozanski, ScreenSaverGallery, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Manuel Solano, Johannes Thumfart, Upominki, Guus Vreeburg, Beata Wilczek

IS IT ART OR IS IT JUST is a research project conceived by NEW: ART CENTER, a multifaceted communication platform for emerging artists and curators.

For more details go to www.newartcenter.info