biography

NYTimes, OCT. 21, 2016
The Mission to Save Internet Art

By FRANK ROSE read on the New York Times

Painter, conceptual artist and theorist

Miltos Manetas is a Greek-born painter, conceptual artist and theorist whose work explores the representation and the aesthetics of the information society. Manetas is the Founder of NEEN (the first art movement of the 21st century), a pioneer of art-after-videogames (MACHINIMA) and an instigator of Post-Internet Art. In 2009 he initiated the INTERNET PAVILION for the Venice Biennial, in 2014, in collaboration with Rome's Swiss Institute, he introduced the concept of ÑEWPRESSIONISM. These days he is using DOCUMENTA 14 to develop the concept of MEDIOSUD . According to LEV MANOVICH, Manetas' art can be placed within a well-established tradition in modern painting (representing modern people in their particular modern settings). According to NICOLAS BOURRIAUD Manetas' work belongs to the domain of RELATIONAL AESTHETICS and POST-PRODUCTION

Full Biography

Today the 4477 artist in the world and falling..

Miltos Manetas talks about Neen

What is Art today and why?

Using just 15% of my full value

Taking advance today of the full value of our work its not a good idea. That's because Art has become such a proffesion that rips Time away from us. more.

A Chopsticks Triangle

"Three black chopsticks, one made by steel-USA- the second by wood-Europe- the third a plastic one-China"

I was in China recently, after travelling 5000 klm -by train and bus and taxi- for just a week, after visiting a newly born private art-museum and its "First Biennial Exhibition" build in the middle of "nothing" after visiting an "Inner Mongolia" tourist-trap where the chinese middle class dress- up "Mongolians" and take pictures with animals and peasants the company sublets, after counting from the train at least 40 brand new large cities all looking the same, all growing in every direction, I think I have a clear image of the actual situation.
I've seen us locked in a triangle made by chopstics: three black chopsticks, one made by steel-USA- the second made by wood-Europe- the third a plastic one-China- are closing around us. They are all hard and fast and we are rice. They rappresent the Total North.
US is Total North's philosopher, it teaches how life is worthy only if spend in confusion and fear, how everything feels better if it means nothing and how daydreaming some future-any future- is a better Now
Europe is the philosopher's PR-agent and engineer, it advertises the secret meanings of that flat retoric, there's beauty in pop and consumerism Europe suggests- just try turning your toilet seat the other side, try focus on it and re-discover it the way "European Culture" teaches for centuries now and you'll see.. it's powerful, artistic, scentific and spiritual.
Then there is China, the Mother-Worker/Provider/Ultimate Customer the experiment and the cave of the experimentation, the body and its coffin in a single set.
Outside of that terrifying triangle, a crazed Pacman, the Muslim World, is expanding-like the chinese cities-to all directions, copying like it always did, the worst of the West and suffocating as always, the best of the East. The only variety of life benefiting from this state of affairs are cellphones, indeed each and every Chinese city seams designed and re-arranged by families of cellphones so that they will proliferate happily. read.

Art for a Middle South

Our lifestyle is now updated in real time. At the same time, all kinds of distances are cancelled. Everywhere in the world, South and North become just one: NORTH. In the Western territories of the Northern World and mostly Europe, a new Middle South is born.

In the NORTH, the deal between society and government was always clear. During fascism, society is asked to obey, during democracy, society is asked to debate. In both cases - in the NORTH - art is the authorised voice of society. Therefore, during democracy, art HAS to debate.

In the old South the deal between society and government has never been clear and its not clear at the new Middle South either . This new MIDDLE SOUTH is already visible in the self-transforming territories such as Greece and Italy below Rome. People there aren't perfectly comfortable, even if they accept the ultra-modern NORTHERN lifestyle, they are searching for an art that's somehow different from the very successful industry of isolation our contemporary art has become.

In the NORTH, most public money are spend to protect. When fascism reigns, culture is protected by regulation. But even when there is democracy and culture seams free, still it's controlled in elaborate, quite religious ways, art institutions are the new temples and their directors the new high priests. The artworks have to make it to the collections of the Museums as sacrifice: artefacts of propitiation and worship.

The people of the new MIDDLE SOUTH aren't perfectly happy with this Church of Art. They are already looking for alternatives. Art forms in websites, videogames and software pass from one computer to another, from one network to another, they belong to collections and at the same time to everyone: they are digital graffiti.

read.

Berlin Biennial

9th Berlin Biennial

In Berlin

Painting with Likes

Painting with Likes from MILTOS MANETAS on Vimeo.

Content Fear

Re-DOING the BERLIN BIENNIAL

the "other partecipants"

TIMELINE EXHIBITIONS

Preparing the show

MM-TIMELINE *2013/2014

“MANETAS *TIMELINE 2013-14”. Galleria PACK, Milan

Nowadays, art exhibitions are made on Facebook and galleries have become irrelevant. Yes. No! At least not completely, certainly large galleries have. These are places of alienation where division and separation between citizens, is glorified. These days, big galleries have no personality, their spaces being interchangeable. They do their exhibitions at art fairs, as commercial performances. They are the artists, while their collectors – who all buy almost all the same things – are the curators. We, the artists, have become the “medium” material in that context. On the other hand, we are able to create our exhibitions as we really want them on Facebook/ Instagram/Twitter:doors and windows opened on “something else”. This “something else”, sometimes needs to be transferred to “reality”, shown in its essence, outside the computer screen. In order to answer to this need, there are small galleries, run by passioned people who take risks. These people provide their walls and their work, looking for something different from big gallerists (who have little time for this kind of things): they look for relationships. These days, it’s impossible to create relationships, it might be, if we were able to start from scratch. The show “MANETAS *TIMELINE 2013-14” is an attempt in this direction. The first of a series of shows in which the works of Miltos Manetas (for whom I work), appear as 3D representations in a simulation of his Timeline on Facebook. The show ignores the habit of creating exhibitions on a theme, or it doesn’t, maybe it even strengthens it. The theme is the entire life of myself, every single event illustrated in each chapter of this (endless) series of possible shows, organized at the last moment, in order to start from NOW, in Milan, at the very first gallery that accepted this challenge, Galleria PACK.

Miltos Manetas, August 2016

Pokémon prints after Pokémon

POKEMON AGAIN

Ten Years Ago

When in 2000, Gallery Analix (Geneva) asked me to do a new show with them, "Pokémon Stadium" had just launched for Nintendo 64. Pokémon's presence was for me some short of Manifesto and so I decide to make a Pokémon exhibition. I re-drawn and printed a number of Pokemon and then enlarged them using my Vibracolour on Super-glossy paper technique. In Geneva, Pokémon were met by the art world with total indifference, even embarrassment.

In Geneva

Who or better "what" was writing that "Manifesto" and what was stated on it wasn't completely clear back then. To me, it seamed written directly from "the computer world" and as with a few other "special" videogames like "Doom" & "SuperMario", its message was somehow existential. Now, 16 years later, in a world where our computer is no more kept "by the hand" -as with a Playstation controller- neither it seats on our lap as with a laptop, now that its glued on our palm (a tablet) and has become a third-palm for us (instead of a third-eye), it all makes sense.. Pokémon and certain other videogame creatures were indeed a manifesto but it wasn't the generic "Computer World" promoting it, it was put forward instead by one of its more mysterious creations that was just coming of age: "Pokémon" was the Manifesto of the Animated Cartoon

and in Milan

In 2001 I tempted showing Pokémon again, this time at Antonio Colombo Gallery in Milan. Again, nobody seamed to care. "I'll send my son to see this show"-an big Italian collector said-"maybe he'll find something he likes in it. He is 4 years old"

Need to Catch them all

Laura Cherubini: "In this universe in evolution composed of transformations and metamorphoses everything can change into something else, including the most authoritative of the characters. Jesus is another recurring figure in the writings of Manetas: in a text entitled Save As…he speaks of the resurrected Christ according to the evangelist Mark, “under another form”, and Caravaggio, in fact, in the Cena in Emmaus, paints Jesus without a beard. “Jesus returns in a new format”, Manetas comments, “a version probably lighter and easier for people to copy. He probably lost some pixels during the compression but that was necessary”. Save the Savior. In another text, Choose Expand, the artists notes that were Jesus to want to return today he wouldn’t settle for a shaven face – he’d rather appear as a giant Pokémon. And if he wants to try walking on water, he should come equipped with a joystick."

read

» were Jesus to want to return today «

»he wouldn’t settle for a shaven face «

»he’d rather appear as a giant Pokémon «

and then..

After Milan, the World started forgetting Pokémon and videogames altogether. The same happened a few years later to Second Life and Internet Worlds. There was a resistance-from the side of us humans- to face reality and evolution. "If we'll ignore it, it will probably go away" people seamed thinking, "after all, we are the most intelligent life-form on this planet, aren't we?"

in Geneva again..

July 2016 and I was in Geneva together with my partner Nora Renaud and a Samsung Galaxy 5. By some strange coincidence, a large Pokémon Vibracolour print of mine had just opened at Milan's Triennale in a show curated by Matteo Bittanti in that city. On Facebook, people were speaking about Pokémon and realising that there was a new version out there- this time for tablets- I downloaded it and a few days later I launched it from the top of one of those Swiss mountains which-looking so artificial already- a Pokémon or two walking on them shouldn't be making such a difference. There WAS a difference.. Pokémon felt more natural somehow that all those cows and snow and Swiss-chalet. Getting into the car to drive back to Geneva, I"ve seen the Animated Cartoon calmly walking next to the road covering the distances and taking each and every curve with a pace that only Jack Kerouac would appreciate. It was dressed badly- a teenager- the music was horrible and its haircut dozenal, still it was there and this time it could "see" the landscape I was looking at.. Well.. a GPS version of that landscape to be exact.

in Derveni

in Sabina

in Shanghai

Pokemon Again

A MYSTICAL STAIRCASE

MYSTICAL STAIRCASE

Curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi

Title: A Mystical Staircase Curator: Francesco Urbano Ragazzi Online exhibition hosted and powered by: www.63rd77thsteps.com As part of: The Internet Saga Artists: Sarah Abu Abdallah, Basma Al Sharif, Johanna Bruckner, FAKA, Gina Folly, ForeverAdaForever, Foundland, Chiara Fumai, Tiril Hasselknippe, Jerome Hill, Institute for New Feeling, Karl Larsson, Kareem Lotfy, Malibu 1992, Miltos Manetas, Eva Papamargariti, Luca Pozzi, Tabita Rezaire, Harry Sanderson, Fabio Santacroce, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Chai Siris, Berkay Tuncay, Brent Watanabe. Online opening: Thursday 23rd June 2016, www.63rd77thsteps.com Public presentation: Friday 8th July 2016 9pm, Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum

Mystical and staircase

» These tarots will also allude to the rotations of our point of view on moving images, a silent revolution which is happening on our devices. The possibility of writing a new vertical cinema «

CROPPED CABLES

Cropped Cables

INTERNET PAVILION 2015

"LOOKING AT THE INTERNET"

Man in the Dark

Looking at www.maninthedark.com

»OUTSIDE OF THE INTERNET THERE IS NO GLORY, guydebord.com«

LOOKING AT

Looking at the internet

@ Albero Triste

LOOKING AT www.alberoTriste.com

@ Petra Cortright

LOOKING AT PETRA CORTRIGHT

@ The Sky in Google

LOOKING AT The Sky in Google

56th VENICE BIENNIAL

Before Togetherness, LOOKING AT the internet

TREES ON SKYPE

"TREES ON SKYPE"

TREES ON SKYPE

In Sabina

TREES ON SKYPE

In Sabina

TREES ON SKYPE

In Sabina

» Trees on Skype «

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

In Milan

Ñ in Purple

In Milan

» From Screen to Nature «

» And back again «

Ñ in Milan

In Milan

The Unconnected, INTERNET PAVILION 2013

"THE UNCONNECTED"

The Internet Pavilion of the Venice Biennial 2013 is dedicated to the "unconnected"

In 2013 Venice Biennial"

The Pavilion is hosted in a Christian Church, the Oratorio di San Ludovico, protector of hysteria

The Church's Touchpad

Enrico Ghezzi's, Italy's Guy Debord comes to perform

Enrico Ghezzi's Arrival

»Venice Biennial 2013 «

»The Church of the Unconnected«

»Curated by Two Francescos«

»Francesco Urbano Ragazzi«

Madre Maria Vittoria Longhitano celebrated a Mess dedicated to the UNCONNECTED

Internet was projected during the Mess.

Internet was projected during the Mess

Closing the Unconnected

Manetas painting Ghezzi

Painting a BlackBerry Painting of Enrico Ghezzi

on Purple Fashion

PURPLE DIARY: "A VISIT TO MILTOS MANETAS' 3RD INTERNET PAVILION at the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice", Photos by Marta Galli

LOOKING AT SCREENS

"LOOKING AT SCREENS"

Palm screens

“In Rome, Italy”

"Haim"

“In Rome, Italy”

Women looking

“In Rome, Italy”

»Six Autobiografical Paintings«

M&A looking at screen

“In Rome, Italy”

Bipolar Paintings

"Bipolar Paintings"

Alpha & Catalina

“In Rome, Italy”

Catalinas

“In Rome, Italy”

Camilo & Benjamin

“In Bogota, Colombia”

Self-Portraits

“In Bogota, Colombia”

MEDIO SUD

MEDIOSUD

Day without God

MedioSud in my mind

The idea of MedioSud was born when Marina Fokidis invited me to write a text for her new-born magazine South. That was just after my daughter Alpha was born, I was living in the South of Europe again- in Rome- after many years spend in the World's North (USA, UK, Paris etc) and I had start thinking about it.. What was this place now- the mediterranean basin- after all these years, after the internet? Who were those people such as Fokidis and other old friends and family? Most of them would cry for help -as if the sky had fallen on their heads- (the crisis! the crisis!), still, having spend a bit of time in Colombia, I wouldn't believe them. So I visited Greece and I realised that the country and its people never looked more interesting and alive, I looked around Europe and I show a Middle South rising, a new reality that isn't "South" no-more, still its not - and doesn't agree to become - a Total North either. So I wrote for Fokidis' magazine "My Family in Middle South" and when a few months later, Salvatore Lacagnina and Rome's Swiss Institute, asked me to write something about art in Rome (for their contribution to Berlin Biennial), I took that opportunity to write a little manifesto about how I imagined art in Middle South-the art in MedioSud. And then-suddenly- a miracle: Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) decide to resign! As the history of the South was always depending on Christianity, I felt that the possibility or a new Middle South Movement starts existing exactly on the day the Pope resigns and the world is left unshadowed -for a bit a least- free from that religious ghost. Therefore, on Feb 28, 2013, I introduced MedioSud at the MACRO in Rome. In 2015- Greece surprised us all the way Ratzinger did two year earlier: the SYRIZA goverment had decide to put together a Mondial Performance by asking the Greek People if they agreed to continue be exploited by Europe. They answered NO, Europe ignored them and went on exploiting them. During the Greek Summer of NO, Adam Szymczyk, announched Athens as one of the two cities that will be hosting DOCUMENTA 14, the very Northern exhibition Total North is using to teach to the World "the way to be intellectual" (the latin word "documentum" comes from "docere" -teach- and "mens" -intellect.)

2013Inviting for MedioSud at MACRO, MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN ROME

MedioSud is born

I had no idea how to introduce MedioSud at MACRO, I just knew that I HAD to do so the day the Pope resigns, because God's authority in our world-that day- was loosen (at least for Catholics) and also because Mr. Ratzinger's behaviour, although he is German-was typically MedioSud. He was leaving indeed this job, because it was impossible for him to follow (too many trips, too many people, too much visibility). I read that the exact hour he would be dropping out of Christianity -because a Pope can't really leave his place and expect continue belonging to his faith- was at 8 in the evening so I decide to launch MedioSud at 20:20- the first FourFortyFour moment in the (indefinite because nobody knew how long will take to Vatican to elect a new representative of "Dios") free-time that Ratzinger was offering to all of us. That same morning, I start emailing invitations around and the first reply I received was philosopher's Antonio Rainone. "For Christianity-he wrote- Time isn't a human affair but it belongs to God. Its exactly the Pope- God's representative, the one who governs Time.. Miltos Manetas, 2013.

Ossi di seppia, Eugenio Montale

Non domandarci la formula che mondi possa aprirti sì qualche storta sillaba e secca come un ramo. Codesto solo oggi possiamo dirti, ciò che non siamo, ciò che non vogliamo. Ossi di seppia, Eugenio Montale, 1925.

Cuttlefish bones, Eugenio Montale

Don't ask us for the phrase that can open worlds, just a few gnarled syllables, dry like a branch. This, today, is all that we can tell you: what we are not, what we do not want. Don’t Ask Me for Words Poem from Cuttlefish bones, 1925 by Eugenio Montale Ossi di seppia, Eugenio Montale, 1925.

Κόκαλα σουπιάς Eugenio Montale

Μην μου ζητάς την φόρμουλα που κόσμους θα σου ανοίξει, Ίσως μια κάποια συλλαβή στρεβλή σαν το ξερό κλαδί Δεν έχουμε άλλο τίποτα σήμερα να σου πούμε Μάνο το τι δεν είμαστε, τι δεν επιθυμούμε. (Από τη συλλογή «Κόκαλα σουπιάς», 1925) Κόκαλα σουπιάς, Eugenio Montale, 1925.

»This, today, is all that we can tell you«

»what we are not, what we do not want«

2012"South as a State of Mind", Issue #1 Publishing "MAC" My Family in Middle South

South Magazine

»This is definitely a new south«

»populated by MAC (man-after-computers/man-after-contemporary art)«

My family at “Middle South”

I am born and grown up in Greece: that definitely makes me a Southerner. Those days, phones were analogue and while my mother was working at the central phone station connecting phone calls as a phone operator, my father was repairing the electric circuits at the same building.

Outside that building and all over Greece, old ladies in black were everywhere, orbiting like human satellites around our life from its beginning until its end. Apart from a few politicians, no Greek would bother if he is a European and had no need to prove it either. There was a single book on the History of Modern Art, but you could go find Tsarouchis at his garden in Marousi and look at him while he was painting. Google cars would not take pictures for their maps: it was a totally PC universe (PreComputers and PreContemporary art) and I remember myself in it, excited, bored and happy

read

SOUTH'S unlucky history”

SOUTH was published by Marina Fokidis, a lady trapped between North and South. Charismatic but not-determined, courageous but not always, dedicated still losing most of her time doing "jobs", Marina would always throw her diamonds to the dogs: after 5 amazingly "South" issues, she gave the magazine to the Northerners of DOCUMENTA with the illusion that once they are done with it, she"ll bring back somehow its originality.

Find here "South" before and after

Zoom to MedioSud

BLACKBERRY PAINTINGS

"BlackBerry Paintings"

Painting A&C

Painting rain

Painting Munich..

nature...

the seashore..

my shadow...

ALTERMODERNMANIFESTO

ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO

AT TATE BRITAIN

Altermodern: A Conversation with Nicolas Bourriaud

Existential Computing

The first of December 2006 has been a hard day for me. At some point during the morning of that day, I had an idea- ideas often come to me with a tittle,
this idea had a tittle too, "Existential Computing". Whenever a good name occurs to me I am registering it “dot com”, “existentialcomputing.Com” - another website…
A website necessitates content so I spend a good part of the rest of Dec-01-2006 producing content for existentialcomputing.Com,
the content was supposed to be an illustration of my “good idea” and what's a better way to illustrate something than to record yourself talking about it?
So I start making a video and publishing it on YouTube. The thing with publishing something on YouTube, is that you can immediately watch it and watching something you published has an effect on you. In addition, its very rare accepting our self from the very first video we publish-especially if one is not a professional actor. I am not a professional actor and I didn't like how I looked on that very first Existential Computing video that I recorded and published at some point after lunch on Dec 01 2006 at my little apartment on Old Street, 350m away from Hoxton Square in London.
So I deleted it and I recorded a second video and a third and then a forth...
In London, on December it gets dark very soon, that day it got dark around 4:30pm. Time passes fast when one records and publishes and at some point, I found myself in the middle of the night exhausted but with a final video that I really liked.
Satisfied I went to sleep, only to woke up the morning after and to realise that this video wasn't describing my initial idea about Existential Computing.
It was something on its own, something that during that endless December 01 had grown to the beginning of a conversation.
The original concept of Existential Computing had disappeared from my memory somehow, the only thing I knew about it at that point, was that it was different than anything else I knew and therefore revolutionary, something very important to try and discover more

Video on YouTube

Existential Computing video on YouTube

workshop-searching for Existential Computing at the Hayward Gallery in London

In 2007- still suffering from a sense of loss for my great Existential Computing idea (which now seamed gone forever with only the video on YouTube left, the beginning of a conversation that nobody really seamed interested undertaking), I accepted giving a seminar at the Hayward Gallery in London, commissioned to me by a young curator.
"What's the subject of your workshop?" She asked. "Existential Computing"- I said- "A subject that I know nothing about..." more

ZOOM TO Existential Computing

» Are you expressing a new version of troubleshooting, a 21st century idea of unhappiness? «

» What a beautiful thing that would be-Malcolm asked me straight away after his arrival at the Hayward- «

» A 21st century idea of unhappiness- what a way to put it! «

» Yes, I do «

The seminar had been concluded a few weeks before with quite interesting people attending including Malcolm McLaren, the man who invented the Sex Pistols back on the 20th Century

Are you expressing a new version of troubleshooting, a 21st century idea of unhappiness? What a beautiful thing that would be-Malcolm asked me straight away after his arrival at the Hayward- Yes, I do-I said- Its probably the idea of Existential Computing.. but I can't tell you much about it.. On this seminar we are searching to reconstruct what I had in mind when I thought of it more than a year ago but we haven't made much progress

INTERNET PAINTINGS

"INTERNET PAINTINGS"

Started in 2002

Continuing

Google Maps

WHITNEYBIENNIAL DOT COM

"WHITNEY BIENNIAL DOT COM"

WHITNEYBIENNIAL

» www.whitneybiennial.com «

» 2002 «

WEBSITES

"OUR WEBSITES IS THE ART OF OUR DAYS"

jesusswimming.com

YesMichel — jesusswimming.com, 2001

visit jesusswimming.com

jacksonpollock.org

maninthedark.com

alberotriste.com

dearyvon.com

darkhole.net

friendsleeping.com

ginodedominicis.com

guydebord.com

luciofontana.com

farewelltophilosophy.com

thankyouandywarhol.com

ELECTRONICORPHANAGE

electronicOrphanage

eO Logo

"In Los Angeles"

“In Los Angeles”

NEEN

The Birth THE BIRTH OF NEEN

Gagosian gallery

“In New York”

»computing is to NEEN what fantasy is to Surrealism«

»and freedom to Communism«

»it creates the context but it can also be postponed«

dust shadows

“Andy Warhol”

NEEN MANIFESTO

NEEN MANIFESTO designed by Experimental Jetset

NEEN DAY

NEEN TODAY

NEEN TODAY at MU, Einhdoven

Murakami-Manetas

MURAKAMI-MANETAS

» Takashi Murakami, the founder of Superflat and Miltos Manetas, the founder of Neen, «

» met in Italy on February 2000 for an exhibition at the Pinksummer Gallery in Genova. «

» On Friday February 18th, 2000 «

» they give a lecture together at the Art School in Milan, (Accademia di Brera) «

» invited by professors Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Laura Cherubini «

» Neither Superflat or Neen exist yet in that point «

» «

» Murakami did eventually introduced Superflat with an exhibition in October 14, 2001 «

» at the Walker Art Center «

» and Manetas presented Neen at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in May 2000 «

» Neither Superflat or Neen exist yet in that point «

» But it was during their meeting «

» in Milan, «

» where the two artists would eventually defined- in front of the public «

» the basic ideas for the two art movements «

"In Virtual Worlds"

Chelsea in Active Worlds

Interview at my floating studio

» Virtual Worlds «

» Chelsea «

Exhibiting Virtual Worlds

cables

"CABLE PAINTINGS"

1997

1998

1999

2005

2008

2010

2013

2014

ZOOM TO CABLE PAINTINGS

PRINTS FROM VIDEOGAMES

"Prints after Videogames"

after "Tomb Rider"

1996

After TOMB RIDER

after "Zelda"

1997

after ZELDA

after "Tekken"

1997

after "Tekken"

after "SuperMario"

1999

after "SuperMario"

after "DOOM"

1998

.after "DOOM"

after "Crash"

1997

after "Crash"

ART FROM VIDEOGAMES continues

"Videos after Videogames"

Flames

1997

I am Sorry

1997

SuperMario Sleeping

1997

Not a Pretty Job..

1998

Follow Me

1998

What Happens?

2001

I can't go on

2000

People Against Things

2001

King Kong after P.J

2006

THE BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA

BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA

"Miracle" video

"MIRACLE"

After "Hornet 18" for Apple

First shown at the exhibition "Joint Ventures"

A video after videogames

NEWABSTRACTION

"NEW ABSTRACTION"

NEW ABSTRACTION

1996

1998

NEWABSTRACTION

"PORTRAITS OF DIGITAL MACHINES"

DIGITAL MACHINES

1996

1997

ZOOM TO PORTRAITS OF DIGITAL MACHINES

2001

2002

2008

SAD TREE

Sad Tree

In Bordeaux, France

Sad Tree Polaroid

In Derveni, Greece

TRAFFIC Introduction to Relational Aesthetics

Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at CAPC, Musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux

SOFT DRILLER

"Soft Driller"

Soft Driller

“In Milan, Italy”

COMPUTER READY MADE

"COMPUTER DESKTOP READY MADE"

Software Art "Output 1.0" and "Whoops"

In Milan, Italy

Computer Desktop Readymade

In Naples, Italy

A LAPTOP

Powerbook

A PowerBook

Suddenly, the computer enter my life. A dealer had sold a work and need to give me 2000 USD. I was at her house holding that money when a yuppie friend of hers arrived. He had a grey box with him and he said: " I am selling it, do you want it?"Yes, I am buying it, what is it? I asked"A computer" he said. Macintosh PowerBook". He turned it on and the thing light up, its screen black & white.

10 British Poets

10 APPLE laptops (Powerbook) are turned into poets. Each "poet", is using a different computer simulated voice, reading-in loop- a poem written in the 18th Century . Exhibited at VHS, a show curated by Giacinto di Pietrantonio at Pallazina Liberty, Milan, Italy

COLLEGAMENTI

"COLLEGAMENTI"

Dedicated to William Gibson's "Neuromancer"

In Milan, Italy

Installation "Collegamenti"

In Milan, Italy

»A wall was prepared with stereo sockets mounted on it (I knew nothing about computers yet)«

» A number of "collegamenti" pencil-drawings were drawn directly onto the wall. On the surface of an over-scaled table, some plugs were left «

Performance "Collegamenti"

In Milan, Italy

DEMENZA

"DEMENZA"

"Demenza"

“Demenza, 1990-1994. Each photo, edition of 3, Exhibited at FATTO IN ITALIA, Contemporary Art from Italy, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva,- ICA, London. Published at the catalogue of TRAFFIC, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR

Lunacy, Insanity, Socratic Irony

“In Greek ancient comedy there are two dogs: Eirôn and Alazon. Eiron was a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. The Italian word "demenza", (from the Latin dementia deriving from "demens"), translates in English to "insanity" and "lunacy". I believe there exists a certain performative element of the world that can be expressed with a certain lunacy and insanity. In that sense, "demenza" would be better translated as "irony", not the irony of our days but the Socratic irony, an attitude that isn't just limited in the dissimulation of ignorance but becomes- as a matter of fact- a performance.

»Demenza«

more..

The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates

“‘As Søren Kierkegaard explains on his doctoral thesis, "The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates" “Socrates not only used irony but was so dedicated to irony that he himself succumbed to it.” That was back then, when the world was fresh. In our days, such "insanity", not only is often performed (especially in the arts & spectacle) but more importantly, it has become an element of our environment. We find "demenza" in our cities, in Milan, Athens, Berlin (where I took some of these pictures) and sometimes we also find it in the countryside

Demenza

FIRST SHOWS

First Shows

"PERFORMANCE"

In Milan, Italy

»From 1990, I start collecting art-people. «

»I would take a profile picture from them first, «

»then I would cut their figure on a piece of plywood and I would trace their name under it «

Elizabeth Janus, "Miltos Manetas", Frieze Magazine, Review - 05 Sep 1996

Over the past several years Miltos Manetas has experimented with a variety of media - from painting, photography, video and performance to computer-generated images - producing a body of work that is as visually diverse as it is conceptually intricate. Some of the most successful pieces include the performance/video, Satellites (1991-94), in which the artist, along with several other men, wanders around disguised as a quintessential old woman, hunched and aimless" (Elizabeth Janus) Frieze Magazine.

"51 Chairs..."

Different Opinion

» At 1990, I founded the Different Opinion art movement. The idea was that one could allow himself producing weird artworks, collaborating with other artists who had a "different opinion" about art than himself «

"51 Chairs..."

51 Chairs and a few assholes

"Psicofarmaci"

In Milan, Italy

First Solo Show

Fifteen notebooks with dots for children installed at the Cafe Pallas in Karditsa, Greece

"Kafka Birds"

In Kardiza, Greece

Identity Vases

In Milan, Italy

Large Vase on the highway

Two Vases

»Vases of identity«

EARLY DAYS

Early days

A tree at Brera

Moved to Milan

Went to study in Brera, Milan, Italy

Went to Rome, the first place after leaving Greece

I left Greece in 1985 because Athens art-school wouldn't accept me. "You aren't talented, don't lose your time" one of their professors said, I think his name was Tetsis but maybe he was Kokinidis or their boss, Moralis. (to be continued)