Syndicate: New Media Art Event in Neunkirchen (Germany)

[Inke Arns <inke@snafu.de>]

From: "stuttgarter kunstverein e.v." <info@stuttgarter-kunstverein.de>
Subject: New Media Art Event
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 16:33:58 +0100


Wanted: Artistic conceptions for installation in 10 building site
containers ( 6 x 2.45 m )

We invite you to participate at an International Media Art Event.

http://www.the-virtual-mine.net is the forum and the virtual exhibition
space of worldwide incoming artistic conceptions, utopias and ideas.
Presentation in august and september 2001 in the former coal mine
"Gegenort" in Neunkirchen (Germany) and the World Wide Web. Every single
artistic conception will be displayed in the exhibit, but only ten
installations will actually be set up in containers at the site. The volume
of the sent material should not exceed three A4 pages per artist because
this material will be exhibited. The layout and the artistic nature of the
sent material are left to the imagination of every participant, but must
include a text on the artist?s conception.

Picture files (photos, sketches, drawings, etc. in jpg or gif at 72 dpi)
can be included and sent via database in the website. Personal information
(id-photo, biography, etc.) of the artists are welcome!

Deadline: 1st of May 2001

For further and detailed information on the project please go to:
http://www.the-virtual-mine.net

Please forward the letter to intersted friends, collegues, newsgoups, etc.!


Gegenort - The Virtual Mine

"Gegenort - The Virtual Mine" is a globally networked exhibition and
multimedia project initiated by five media artists from Germany (Monika
Bohr, Claudia Brieske, Leslie Huppert, Fevzi Konuk, Gertrud Riethm?ller) at
the site of the disused mine Gegenort in Neunkirchen (Saar), where it will
take place in summer 2001 with the support of the Neunkircher
Kulturgesellschaft (Neunkircher Culture Assosiation).

The exhibition will extend over the whole industrial site. In front of the
pit building ten containers will be set up in which artistic installations
from all over the world will be shown. Loosely laid cables will network the
containers with the pit building serving as a headquarter. Webcams will be
installed at the site feeding everything that happens at Gegenort into the
World Wide Web. The whole mine will, consequently, be transformed into a
modern factory erected for a limited period of time at a disused industrial
site with the purpose of taking up production.

What is the concept behind this exhibition project? The basic idea the
artists had in mind is that of the Gegenort mine as a place of energy
production. In former times coal was produced here; the most important raw
material of the industrial era. In our age of communication the primary
resources are information, knowledge and imagination. They are providing
the energy necessary to keep the economic motor running. Their utilization
is no longer locally restricted, rather they are distributed around the
globe, since knowledge and imagination are resources inherent in man
himself. The artists' intention is to continue the original purpose of the
mine as a place of energy production. From here they are looking everywhere
in the world for artistic ideas, concepts and suggestions or, to put it
briefly, for the artistic energy of the planet. Their tool is the internet,
which they use to invite artists from all over the world to send their
concepts to Gegenort.

The group of artists kept closely to the original purpose of the mine and,
moreover, drew inspiration from its meaningful name "Gegenort", which can
be literally translated into English as "opposing place". The idea was born
to look for today's raw material by creating a virtual borehole lengthening
the disused shaft up to the centre of the earth. The centre of the earth
constitutes the interface of five imaginary tunnels linking ten
diametrically opposed places from different parts of the world with one
another. These ten opposing places form a virtual mine aimed at the
production of artistic energy from all over the planet. The energy will be
led through the shafts of the mine to the disused industrial site near
Neunkirchen. Each of these ten opposing places constitutes the centre of a
zone, which will be systematically "exploited", much the same as a coal
bed. Via the medium internet the artists will carefully search the zones
for artistic ideas, approach foreign artists or people interested in art
from all over the planet and invite them to sent their concepts to the
Gegenort headquarter.

The exhibition will make the virtual mine tangible: The main building will
be the point, where the incoming ideas are collected. Here the artistic
energy will come out, here it will be transported from the invisible
virtual world into our reality - much the same as coal, which used to rest
invisibly in the earth at our feet, until it was brought to light and
consequently into our world to be made available for man. These processes
will be illustrated by video projections, cables emerging from the ground
etc. The cables will come out of the main building and end in the set up
containers. Each zone will be assigned to one container, in which the one
concept chosen from that zone will be realized and "worked on" for the
duration of the exhibition. All other ideas will be presented at the site
in the concept version they were sent in and will be "stock piled" until
further utilization.

The visitor to the exhibition will be able to travel through the artistic
evolution of the world. The invisible world of the internet will be made
visible at Gegenort and the transition from the industrial era to today's
information society will be made tangible by means of installations. On
this foundation a bridge is built between the industrial era and today's
communication society.


------Syndicate mailinglist--------------------
 Syndicate network for media culture and media art
 information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate
 to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at>
 in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress