Celebrating the Demon:
The Whitneybiennial.com, two years later.

On the occasion of the opening of the Whitney Biennial 2004:
“The Best of Our Stuff against the Best of your Art.”

Opening March 12 at 18.00
At Färgfabriken, Stockholm
The project will be presented until March 28.

On March 12 at Färgfabriken:
A cocktail party.
A presentation of the most beautiful websites in the world.
Selected websites from whitneybiennial.com 2002 and new works.
Introducing Neen in Sweden.
Special appearance by Mai Ueda, her Iammai songs.
Live music by Autohorse. Two DJ's. Two bars..
Logo designed by Angelo Plessas.

Celebrating the Demon.

It was February 1st 2004 and the day after the opening of Memoirs of the Devil , Miltos Manetas' current exhibition at the Cosmic Gallery in Paris. We were sitting at the Café Flore, Miltos and I, late in the afternoon. We talked a bit about the opening the previous night. Miltos had made a sort of cliché of gallery show, playing the role of the “artist/painter” with an exhibition dedicated to three of the most important women in his life.
In the basement there was a room dedicated to his relationship with Vanessa Beecroft, a small painted portrait of her face in a room turned into a spatial Jackson Pollock painting. What few visitors knew, though, was that Miltos a few weeks before the show created a webpage called “jacksonpollock.org”

Miltos is always playing a game in his art. He plays with his own life and his role as an artist. He plays with the media, he plays with the structures and with the expected – to set things in motion. It is a risky business and a serious game, since it is based on the fact that Manetas wants the very opposite of doing another thing called “art” (in a situation where there already is an abundance of precisely that).
I think this is one of the reasons for his interest in the Internet. It is new (still). It is more open than an evaluating and regulated art world could ever be. Manetas is not interested in the technical side of the net. Not even the new expressions coming out of it is his primary interest. His energy is into how this new territory actually affects us. Internet marks the end of one-way communication. It no longer matter how much media you own or control. It no longer matters how big your institution is. To be relevant you need to convince the receiver, or system of receivers, that your message is relevant. That it is fresh. Otherwise you risk being ignored. You risk becoming an elephant. An easy target.
This is why the “art”, the “exhibition” and the “institution” may very well have more to do with setting boundaries and securing a system rather than opening up for new influences and possibilities. And this is the reason why Miltos and I, then and there at Café Flore, gave birth to an idea of celebrating the demon, of awakening the sleeping beauty, the Whitneybiennial.com two years later. There is more work to show. New works. And there is a story to be told. Songs to be sung. Something to experience and reflect upon. It is as fresh as ever.

The elephants are still there. But so is the beauty of the gesture. That very disturbing gesture.

Jan Åman, Stockholm , 2004

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credits:

"Whitneybiennial.com 2004, The Celebration" , created in March 2004

design by Miltos Manetas, based on www.seethrough.org by Rafael Rozendaal.

realization by Sebastien Ducos.

emblems, designed by Angelo Plessas.

thanks to : Jan Aman and Färgfabriken, Daniel Daboczy, Matti Molin, Cecilia Lindstrom and the COSMIC Gallery in Paris for the office space that they gave us to create the website.

the works that are included in the "Whitneybiennial.com 2004 : The Celebration", are all "complete" artworks. Read also : "Websites is the Art of Our Days", by Miltos Manetas.

artists included: Andreas Angelidakis, John White C, Aaron Clinger, Deconcept, Joel Fox, Roya Jacoby, Carbonated Jazz, Miltos Manetas, Angelo Plessas,Rafael Rozendaal, Nikolas Tosic, Mai Ueda.

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Whitneybiennial.com, 2002, the first versio, was created in Feb 2002

a concept by miltos manetas

organized by the electronicOrphanage and assisted by michele thursz

website design : carbonatedjazz , music by gnac.

special thanks : michael rees for "turntable" and rafael rozendaal for the sticker.

curators/writers and organisations who invited artists: jan aman, andreas angelidakis,archinect.com, stefano chiodi , joshua decter, laurence dreyfus, alex galloway,paul groot,patrick lichty ,peter lunenfeld, lev manovich , magda sawon, newstoday.com, hans ulrich obrist ,marisa olson, michele thursz, roosavelt savage, philippe vergne, olivier zahm and purple magazine.

Artists partecipated:

andreas angelidakis ,

fia backstorm , tobias bernstrup , andrew bucksbarg , christophe bruno,

mike calvert , carbonated jazz , larry carlson , mauro ceolin , sarah ciracì , kevin chan , sadie chandler , chiaki , taro chiezo ,aaron clinger , john white c

nic clockworker , claude closky , jennifer and kevin mccoy , joyce charis , andrew childs , jordan crane ,

donleo.org , dj.spooky , gisela domscheke , décosterd & rahm

fat architecture , reinier feijen/marjan lemmens , adam somlai-fischer , joseph franklyn & donna mcelroy , amy franceschini ,ryan francesconi , foreign office architects , joel fox ,

rainer ganahl , joaquin gañez , gnac , valery grancher , stefan gruber ,

debra hampton , elsa harkins , heidrun holzfeind , han hoogerbrugge ,

alejandra jarabo , experimental jetset , roya jakoby

thorsten iberl , young hae chang heavy industries , digital sisters indeed ,

mitchell kane , yael kanarek , kol mac studio , eleni kostika , ioanna kostika , jon krusell ,