“JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES NEW MEDIA ART SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING?”


One of the main aims of Holy Fire …

One of the main aims of Holy Fire is to take a snapshot of a situation - the present situation - in which an art practice that arose from the intersections of art and technological developments in the Sixties developed into a self-built, parallel art system, and had a second, wonderful youth in the last half of the Nineties. It has always been described as process oriented, open, immaterial, and therefore un-collectable and un-preservable - this art practice is now reaching its adult age, that means, among other things: finding its own segregation intolerable, thinking about itself as “just art”, looking at its own nexus to our techno-environment as a strength (not deafness), and, last but not least, entering the contemporary art world and market.

This is why we look at Holy Fire as the result of a “choral” effort, and this is why we decided to work on a “choral” catalogue. This is also why we decided to ask people (curators, artists, gallerists and collectors) a little, silly question (inspired by the title of a seminal pop collage, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?, by Richard Hamilton), but a question that gives rise to a series of others; some dumb, some serious (ie. Are new media art and contemporary art two different things? Is new media art the art of our time? Is it the art of the future or an art without a future? New media art collecting: what does it signify to you? Is it a conflict? A dream? A problem? A solution? Nonsense?). But, most importantly, we wanted some interesting answers. Most people replied and some gave us permission to use excerpts from texts that we find inspiring.

Here they are, just as we got them: some short, others long; some witty, others serious; some enthusiastic, others polemical. Enjoy them all!

Domenico Quaranta, Yves Bernard

Don’t miss our Collateral Event at Art Brussels!

Conference-debate

Saturday 19 april, 11:30 - 13:30

Art Brussels

“Holy Fire: Exhibiting and Collecting New Media Art”.

Moderated by Patrick Lichty (Yes Men and Columbia College, Chicago) with Alexei Shulgin (RU), Olia Lialina (RU/DE), Steve Sacks (bitforms, New York), Wolf Lieser (DAM, Berlin), Stéphane Maguet (Numeriscausa, Paris), Philippe Van Cauteren (SMAK, BE), Domenico Quaranta (Brescia, I) and Yves Bernard (Brussels).

One of the targets of the Holy Fire exhibition (iMAL, 18-30 april) is to take a snapshot of the present situation of New Media Art, an art practice arose from the meeting of art and computer technology in the Sixties. This practice developed into a self-built, parallel art system and had a second youth in the last half of the Nineties. New Media Art has always been described as process oriented, immaterial, and therefore un-collectable and un-preservable. Now getting to its adult age, it is entering the contemporary art world and market.

If you don’t have an invitation or entry ticket to Art Brussels and want to attend this conference, please registrate here !

3 Responses to “One of the main aims of Holy Fire …”

  1. Yves Bernard Says:

    There are interesting discussions going on rhizome about Holy Fire;
    see http://rhizome.org/editorial/fp/blog.php/590

    See also Patrick Lichty’s article on his blog on http://post.thing.net/node/1990

  2. hans verhaegen Says:

    Here in Europe (and especially in Brussels) we need exhibitions like ‘Holy Fire’ very badly. I just visited ARTBrussels. My personal favourite work was one by Alexei Shulgin (a version of ‘Media Mirror’ 2006), the only ‘NMA’ work around…
    Can’t wait to see the works in ‘Holy fire’…

  3. Mark Dotzler Says:

    Being an artist who is currently making minimal tech sculpture from the debris of the digital revolution (silicon wafers, hard drives, etc.), I found the exhibition and artist information here very interesting and enjoyable. Wish I could have attended this!