The Artist Is Online

With: Dragana Bulut, Cássio Diniz Santiago, Leigha Dennis, Néstor García Díaz, Arthur Gillet, Vedran Gligo/ Dina Karadžić, Travis Hallenbeck, Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt, and Nina Sarnelle), Marie-Eve Levasseur, Adityan Melekalam

Curated by Julia Eckert, Judith Engel, Paula Kohlmann

Internet dating, Skype conferences, and Facebook profiles as a live update of an analog existence are just a few examples which show how human interactions are increasingly moving into the virtual world.

With the current increase in the digitalization of our lives, the idea of presence is also changing.

What happens when physical encounters are replaced by virtual ones? What are the consequences for privacy and intimacy if encounters only happen through the channels of the World Wide Web? Which new performative fields emerge from it?

Marina Abramović, an icon of performative self-staging, turned the simplest form of interpersonal contact into an event. For the project The Artist Is Present at MoMA, every day, for the duration of three months, she looked into the visitors eyes as long as they wanted.

By contrast, The Artist Is Online deals with the currently commonplace and ubiquitous practice of self-presentation in the virtual world. It turns this practice into an event, yet counteracts it at the same time.

Artistic contributions from current and former Akademie Schloss Solitude fellows and international guest artists approach the possibilities, boundaries, and characteristics of virtual presence in very different ways, creating a kaleidoscopic perspective on the subject.

The Artist Is Online oscillates between physical absence and digital presence; interactive installation and moving projection; performance and sculpture; digital immateriality and the materiality of its medium.