Machines & Souls. Digital Art and New Media / Exhibition at The Reina Sofía, Madrid

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

Machines & Souls. Digital Art and New Media

• Hall A1: 26 June – 15 September 2008
• New Wing: 26 June – 13 October 2008

The exhibition Machines & Souls. Digital Art and New Media explores the convergence of art, science and technology.

The idea is to further investigate the fact that, in the early 21st century, art and science flow along parallel channels through the work of a group of artists chosen for their ability to combine art, technology, creativity, mystery, emotion and beauty.

SACHIKO KODAMA
Protrude Flow, 2008
© All rights reserved
Courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Although the exhibition hosted by the Museo Reina Sofía is not historical, linear and all encompassing, it does reflect the history of the transformations that underlie the practices of the participating artists.

The names present in the exhibition stand at a very specific crossroad. José Luis de Vicente, one of the exhibition curators, explains, “In some way, they represent the second generation that has defined the limits of the medium’s discourse, those who have pushed it beyond its speculative beginnings and consolidated the bases of its strategies and languages.

The exhibition includes the work of 17 artists, who were selected for their ability to combine art and science, creativity, emotion and mystery. They have multiple characteristics in common and very different career histories. They share a long career, the fact that they are highly respected in their fields and a creative maturity found in those who have developed their work over time. They differ from each other in age, educational background, the materials they use and the working methods they employ, but they all use digital technology as a tool. They use it in a variety of ways – as a supporting structure, as a developing element, as a research tool or as a springboard to new sensibilities. Although, as the other exhibition curator Montxo Algora reflects, “on their own, their computers do not create. And without the emotion and creativity of its authors, digital art is nothing.”

THEO JANSEN
Strandbeest, 2007
© All rights reserved
Courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

DANIEL ROZIN
Weave Mirror, 2007
© All rights reserved
Courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

JOHN MAEDA
Nature, 2005
© All rights reserved
Courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Visitors will be able to view a wide variety of pieces, from the interactive portraits of Rozin to the anthropomorphic robots of McMurtrie, the video-installation of Farocki, Friedlander’s light sculptures, the installation/denouncement of Muntadas, Sachiko Kodama’s ferrofluids, Abad’s project that gives marginalised groups a web presence, John Maeda’s software art, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive installation, Evru’s digital paintings, Daniel Canogar’s installations, Theo Jansen’s “beach beasts”, or the unclassifiable art of David Byrne, Ben Rubin, Vuk Cosic, Pierre Huyghe and Natalie Jeremijenko.

The tremendous diversity of their works is very representative of digital art, a field still in its infancy and with all the characteristics of a newborn: doubtful, expectant, compulsive and with enormous potential.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Antoni Abad (Spain, 1956)
David Byrne (USA, 1952) and David Hanson (USA, 1969)
Daniel Canogar (Spain, 1964)
Vuk Ćosić (Serbia, 1966)
Evru (Zush) (Barcelona, 1946)
Harun Farocki (Czech Republic, 1944)
Paul Friedlander (United Kingdom, 1951)
Pierre Huyghe (France, 1962)
Theo Jansen (Netherlands, 1948)
Natalie Jeremijenko/ Ángel Borrego
Sachiko Kodama (Japan, 1969)
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico, 1967)
John Maeda (USA, 1966)
Chico McMurtrie/ Amorphic Robot Works (USA, 1961)
Antoni Muntadas (Spain, 1942)
Daniel Rozin (Israel, 1961)
Ben Rubin (USA, 1964) and Mark Hansen (USA, 1964)

CATALOGUE

On the occasion of this exhibition a catalogue has been published with reproductions of the artworks included in the show and texts by the curators – Souls and Machines by Montxo Algora, and New Media and Old Institutions by José Luis de Vicente.
It also includes the following essays:

• At – or Beyond – Fingertips: Contemporary Art, Exhibition Practices, and Tactility. Erkki Huhtamo
• Syncretic Art and the Technology of Consciousness. Roy Ascott
• Art and Reality in a Liminal World. Rebecca Allen
• Whose Soul, What Machine? Derrick de Kerckhove
• The Medium of Response. Christiane Paul
• Art, the Museum and the 2.0 Public. Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana
• On Art, Science and Technology in the Network Society. Pau Alsina

Text © Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Images © All rights reserved

Links

• Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
• Enter to Exhibition Web Site …
• Enter the online Gallery

Disclaimer & Copyright

Stampfli & Turci Art Dealers – Espaces Arts & Objets

~ by Stampfli & Turci on August 29, 2008.