Curated by Nestor Siré
In the time of the Havana Biennial in April 2019 and for the first time ever, !!!Sección ARTE created a collective curatorial project called !!!Act [No.22]. More than thirty artists participated with specially created artworks and three guest curators participated with micro projects of their own. The exhibition dynamics worked by sharing one artwork per day through la CARPETA =galería= in the Paquete Semanal (Weekly Package), taking advantage of the recent evolution of the Package towards a folder structure that includes a daily update.
The audience had two ways of accessing the works: through the regular sales points of the Weekly Package, where the daily update was supplied, or accessing the works presented in la CARPETA =galería= each week through the regular informal subscription service to the Package. For practical reasons and only during this month, !!!Sección ARTE simplified its folder structure by focusing on the contributed artworks and an extra folder of materials related to the biennial events.
“Act” is the abbreviation used by the makers of the Package to denominate the Daily Update folder. The title of the exhibition !!!Act [No.22] refers to this practice widespread in all distribution centers. The code “[No.22]” is related to the cardinal enumeration of the folders for the !!!Sección ARTE. In addition, it adds exclamation symbols which are used in the Package as a strategy to highlight folders within its information architecture.
The selection of participating projects and artists has a direct conceptual relation to the way in which the Weekly Package operates. The Package creates its structure of materials according to what it can find and as a result of the team work. !!!Sección ARTE favored the creation of a contact network that grows organically and finds related projects. Once selected, they obtain the privilege of inviting other creators to participate and become part of this community. In order to be invited they must be artists with a career in digital art according to the project Manifesto. In the stage of conception and presentation, the artist has total freedom to choose what he wants to exhibit.
Example of daily update folders in the Weekly Package
This space has very specific limitations that result from the ways in which the Weekly Package is circulated and consumed. Said limitations have to do with the weight of the files that make up the work and also with the works’ digital formats. Given the fact that the Weekly Package is a decentralized phenomenon with regard to its forms of distribution and reproduction, the users consume it through the most diverse media and digital devices. Therefore, the projects must assume this as a condition, and must plan the different adaptations for the reproduction of the work in order to reach a wider public. One of the most common strategies used in this curatorship was the creation of videos for works that require the interactivity of operational systems. Also, Spanish subtitles are always essential whenever the work contains dialogues or texts in other languages.
When distributing the artistic projects in the circulation space, these works will become public, meaning that they may be edited, modified, reconfigured and reproduced with an approximate receiver scope of ten million people along the entire Island.
The curatorial project included a digital catalog that allowed users to download the information through a Torrent file and then copy it to a USB memory stick with the identity of the exhibition.
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GUEST CURATORS
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Curated: Michael Connor y Aria Dean
Artists: Brian Mackern
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Artists: Donika Çina, Lek M. Gjeloshi y Anri Sala
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Adonis Ferro, Ali Eslami, Andrew Demirjian, Bram de Groot, Cheon Pyo Lee, Dale Small, Ed Pien, Franco Mattes & Eva Mattes, Gaia Tedone, Gethan & Myles, Jan Robert Leegte, Johannes Zits, Lara Baladi, Luis-Rodil Fernández, Max de Esteban, Mina Cheon, Mitra Azar & Malthe Stavning Erslev, Paul Soulellis, Rachel Devorah, Sunwoo Hoon, Supervivo, Dianett Quintana Solís & Yonlay Cabrera and Yves Mettler.
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