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
De reciente-muy de reciente- descubrí, que el tema de mi trabajo soy yo!
Descubrí esto en castellano que es el idioma en que ahora me atrevo de escribir estas palabras, un español bastante incoherente como mi obras de arte. Un castellano que todavía va a ser mejorado exactamente como mis obras de arte que van a ser mejoradas de otros autores, como lo son estado mejoradas las obras de todos los artistas primero y después de mi.
Como se mejora un obra de arte visual? Mirándola!
Porque castellano? Es el idioma de mi hija y entonces de un muy joven, muy prometedor version de mi. Ella, mi hija Alpha, tiene en estos días del 2018, seis años. Mi castellano tiene cuatro. Empece escuchando Proust en Audiolibro en una finca de amigos en Barichara. Jamas y buscado, ni busco aprender el idioma, mi intención desde el principio es convertirme en una Persona Colombiana, un “Colombiano" como lo he sido Gabriel García Márquez primero de mi y como soy yo ahora incluso mi español insuficiente. Uno no tiene tempo para aprender nada, todo el tiempo nos sirve solo para trasformarnos. Todavía, mi castellano va a mejorar de seguro como se mejora cada día mi vida, mi vida que no esta acabada! Mi vida es la vida de un artista visual y no de un escritor como yo soñé desde la edad que tiene ahora Alpha y es una vida de 53 anos que de seguro va a duplicarse hasta los 100 y seis años -porque me sirven…
Mi vida va a continuar y continuar y yo a mirar y a mirar… No solamente a mirar ma también a programar.
Como se programa una vida? Una manera es pintándola. Esto lo estoy haciendo desde el año 1983. Quieres ir a mirar en esto año? Acá esta.. Tenia 19 años entonces, Grecia fu apenas envuelta una bolla de fantasía “Europea”, y gracias a esta fantasia-y por supuesto gracias al crédito que los “Europeos” regalaron a los Griegos por sentirse autorizados a tomar de ellos todo- me encontré estudiando Belles Artes en Roma y Milan. Esto fu en los años 1985-89, quieres ir a ver¿ Acá esta…
Sabe uno que esta programando su vida? No lo sabe hasta que llega a ser viejo y entonces re-empezar a vivir, una segunda vida, posiblemente libre, posiblemente-si libre-una vida feliz! Esta es mi vida ahora: la vida feliz vida de un viejo que ahora sabe que la esta programando y lo quiere hacer acá, en el internet porque se volvió loco. Es una locura buscar de programar algo en el Internet!
Una locura buscar programar algo atreves idiomas! Yo ya pase por estas partes- gracias educación! gracias sociedad!- y jamas pensaría de hacerlo de nuevo si no fuera por mi hija Alpha. Ella ahora esta entrando en esta locura y quiero hacerlo yo también para mirar -con ojos abiertos esta vez- los horrores. Los dos estamos estamos aprendiendo Mandarin… me imagino que en sei años me voy a re-empezar todo el trabajo sobre mi en Chino..
En el mismo tiempo, yo estoy haciendo dibujos que no son dibujos pero “μέμωρι”. Que es μέμωρι? No se. Acá esta..
Y estoy mirando mis antiguas pinturas y estoy haciendo dibujos -que esta vez si! son dibujos.. Acá están: Drawings Quasi Paintings.
Y estoy pintando imágenes y material desde l’Internet..Porque? Estoy loco? Porque pintar l’Internet? No se.. Acá están..El Museo MAXXI en ROMA va a tener un exposición con estas pinturas en Marzo 2018.
Y estoy proyectando cosas sobre todas las cosas.. Ago esto con mi cellular.. Por mi estas son exposiciones, mis exposiciones mas preciadas en estos días! Si quieren ver, acá están.
Y estoy continuando la Berlin Biennial 2016, un exposición que no hacia parte ma que creo que tengo que continuar para siempre.. Acá esta…
Y estoy trabajando en muchas otras cosas.. con Nora Renaud desarrollando Ñewpressionismo, y sin mis viejos compañeros Angelidakis/Plessas/Rozendaal/Ueda/Calvert buscando siempre Neen y sin mucho interés desde los países de MedioSud estoy buscando MedioSud, y sin algún interés de parte de Colombia estoy continuando el trabajo de Taller4Rojo, y estoy continuando el Padiglione Internet para la Biennale de Venezia, y estoy probando la realidad de la sobre-realtad, y hasta ahora me gusta el concepto de la Piratería, y estoy a veces recordando l´arte que hacia años antes manejando videojuegos y Machinima, y estoy a veces-y siempre- pintando porque la pintura si!!
»Como se mejora un obra de arte visual? Mirándola!«
Taking advance today of the full value of our work its not a good idea. That's because Art has become such a profession that rips Time away from us... Read
»I"ve seen us locked in a triangle made by chopsticks... Three black chopsticks, USA-made by steel-Europe -made by wood- and China -a plastic one- are closing around us.
They are hard and fast and we are rice. They represent the Total North«
Our lifestyle is now updated in real time. At the same time, all kinds of distances are canceled.
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 authorized voice of society.
Therefore, during democracy, art HAS to debate.
“
In Spring 2015, invited to participate at the 9th Berlin Biennial the online magazine DIS was curating, I agreed meeting two guys from DIS in Bogotá but in the beginning of June, on the same day we had arrange to meet, I had to fly to Europe so our encounter never happened. We agreed to meet on Skype and discuss my participation but once I arrived in Greece I was catapulted into the Greek Summer of NO and I forgot everything else.. So the Berlin Biennial forgot me and I forgot it too until May 29th of 2016, just a few days before the opening of the exhibition that a friend told me he was going to Berlin. "I am part of this show"-I told him- "wait, I am not!".. Suddenly thinking I maybe missing something important, I looked online and noticed that the subject of this Biennial was exactly the issue that interests me the most: "our strange new life". So I decide to participate anyway... That same day, I sit on my computer and "sucked" everything from BB9's official website . Somehow magically learning how to modify it, I start re-creating the Berlin Biennial at Biennale.net by adding the content that -I believe- was missing.. I also start looking the Biennale online, at its […]” Instagram and Facebook and start remaking them at Instagram and Facebook . Following the tag #berlinbiennale , I discover that this exhibition was new Century's most interesting exhibition of its kind. But to become crystal-clear, my contribution was needed so I start "painting" it online, using my "Painting with Likes" technique that I invented on the spot. As I am convinced that "Shows-that-matter-should-never-end", I think I'll keep working on this show forever...
“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
“05:05" was a five minutes show that opened on 05:05 AM on "a beautiful road" in Sabina on July 30th, 2016.
The show lasted about 55 minutes presenting the work of 5 artists: Alessandro Gianní , Joseph Kosuth, Miltos Manetas, Valentina Nascimben & Nora Renaud. Each work was visible for about 5 minutes. The show closed down at 06:06 AM. 6 cars were used to access the "beautiful road". The first car was carrying the artists that-in alphabetical order- had to pick a spot and install their work in a zone of 555 meters around the point where the "beautiful road" meets the river. The last car was carrying movie directors Emiliano Montanari & Gerdi Petanaj filming the event from a distance and collecting the works. At 5:55 AM, a 6 minutes ceremony was performed at the Agriturismo Paradiso before the closing of the show at 06:06AM.
5 km circa
05.05 AM
Cars paying tribute
ZOOM TO 05:05
A MYSTICAL STAIRCASE
MYSTICAL STAIRCASE
Mystical and staircase
Genova at Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum
Curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi
Online exhibition hosted and powered by 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: 8th July 2016, Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum
ZOOM TO Mystical Staircase
in Milan, SHOWING MY "TIMELINE"
Preparing the show
Showing...
ZOOM TO Showing my Timeline
in Colombia, TALLER 4ROJO
TALLER 4ROJO In COLOMBIA, "AHORA!" (Now)
“2016: Reanimar el arte político colombiano para la Colombia de hoy."Re-enacting Colombian Political Art for today's Colombia".
To understand this years Pavilion, I have to tell you first about the next one, the Pavilion I am planning for 2017. The theme will be TOGETHERNESS and that was actually the theme that I envisioned initially for 2015, but then I realized, that we are actually very far from TOGETHERNESS yet .. And when I say far, I mean we are far from even start thinking seriously about Togetherness: we are still at the stage of a-man-in-front-of-a-computer-screen, looking on what we call ”Internet”.
So, I decide, to take a closer look to that “Internet” by making one or two videos per day, recording everything and recording myself and others as well, while we are "looking“.
LOOKING AT...
LOOKING at the Internet (in Venice with Nora Renaud
Where is Venice? Is it somewhere online? What happens there?)
@ Ai Wei Wei
ZOOM to Before Togetherness
2014, in Italy
ÑEWPRESSIONISM
ÑEWPRESSIONISM
ÑEWPRESSIONISM
First in Rome
Ñ in Purple
In Milan
ZOOM TO ÑEWPRESSIONISM
PAINTING TREES ON SKYPE
"TREES ON SKYPE"
TREES ON SKYPE
In Sabina
TREES ON SKYPE
In Sabina
ZOOM TO Trees on Skype
2013, 55th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
The Unconnected, INTERNET PAVILION 2013
"THE UNCONNECTED"
After having sailed together with the PirateBay in 2009 and after having conquered the island of San Servolo in 2011, the "Internet Pavilion" is now based in the old Oratory of San Ludovico, a holy church from the XVI Century. On the bare walls of the little Chapel, Miltos Manetas realizes a cycle of oil paintings inspired by the devotional paint work of the Venetian Renaissance. However, if Vittore Carpaccio - for example - in the Scuola di San Giorgi has glorified the gestures of St. George who killed the dragon, the Greek artist chooses a totally different kind of holy protectors for his Church. Patron saints of the Internet Pavilion are in fact the Unconnected: those people who indeed still live without an email or social network account, miraculously immune from internet dependency.
In an age like ours, where the border between real and virtual has collapsed, the digital Unconnected seem like real monks or holy men who – voluntarily or not – are detached from the world through an ascetic practice, being free from the chaotic flow of images and information. To show them how life works in the era of smart phones, between 2.0 vices and multimedia paradises, there is a “Tintoretto style” painting by Miltos Manetas, portraying the postures and behavior of those who come in contact with the web. Astonished looks, fixed on small mobile phone screens, or the expression of thinkers filmed by the laptops webcams, animate paintings of various sizes which, set up in a sacred space, recall both the polyptychs or the altar pieces as much as the opened tabs on a computer desktop.
To know who the Unconnected really are is not easy. For this reason the power of the network has been challenged. A recruiting campaign has been launched on Facebook during the 2 months preceding the opening of the Biennial. The social network users have been asked whether they knew people who weren’t online and requested to advise the Internet Pavilion staff about their first names and surnames. Quickly a series of identities from various profiles was formed: from the parents of very popular bloggers to famous singers and showmen. Among the Unconnected there are, for example, Luigi Ontani and Enzo Cucchi, two of the most well known Italian artists, or Donald Knuth, computer technician and emeritus professor of the Stanford University, who at a certain stage of his life decided to repudiate Internet.
The list is clearly still incomplete. In order to evoke the spirit of the Unconnected inside the pavilion, some participants will act in the exhibition space on the opening day and in the following months. Particularly the bharatanatyam dance expert Marianna Biadene and the computer engineer Pasquale Fedele, who specialize in neuron interfaces. The borderline meeting between contemporary dance, ritual and brain control, under the sign of painting, will give life to a lyrical moment, unique and one-off, which will distance the audience from the expository bulimia typical of the Biennale to be transported to a contemplative dimension of inner peace.
The multiform results of the III Internet Pavilion are collected in the exhibition’s catalog. The publishing is a special edition of Solo, the monographic magazine edited by AcM Collezione Coppola: a precious element to decode the history and the symbols of this Internet Pavilion 2013.
The research of and about the Unconnected will then continue in unpredictable ways thanks to the collaboration with Nero Magazine.
Produced by: Associazione E, AmC, Nuova Icona, Collezione Coppola
Media partners: Gloria Maria Gallery, NERO, My Art Guide, Lightbox, UP3 Architetti Associati, Liquidweb, Drago Publishing.
Curated by
Dos Francescos
ZOOM TO INTERNET PAVILION
"LOOKING AT SCREENS" Again...
Women Looking...
In Rome, Italy
M&A looking at screen
“In Rome, Italy”
ZOOM TO "Looking at Screens Paintings"
Bipolar Paintings
"Bipolar Paintings"
Camilo & Benjamin
“In Bogotá, Colombia”
Alpha & Catalina
“In Rome, Italy”
ZOOM TO "Looking at Screens Paintings"
MEDIO SUD
THE ARRIVAL OF 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 realized 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 government 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, announced 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.)
ZOOM TO MEDIOSUD
in 2013 "On Skype" Paintings
“"Skype Paintings" in Rome
2013
2013
2013
ZOOM TO Skype Paintings
"New Groups" Paintings
“"New Groups" in Rome
2013
2013
ZOOM TO "New Groups" Paintings
"Little Screen" Paintings
“ Suddenly its all about little screens... I decide to start painting portraits of my daughter Alpha as she grows up framed in the different evolution versions of those screens.. I also start doing "Parallel Portraits" and give as a present to those I love. Those who receive those paintings have the choose to either keep its "screen" as it is (blank) or ask me to paint their portrait in it..
"Alphas"
"Alphas"
"Parallel Portraits"
ZOOM TO "Little Screens" Paintings
"Self-portraits"
2013
2013
20105
ZOOM TO "Self-Portraits" Paintings
"The Unconnected"
2013
2013
ZOOM TO "Unconnected" Paintings
2012,
OVEREALITY
“The World appears now "stamped" with digital objects. Those objects (data/menus/pictures/movies/sounds/code) are not at all present the way the prophets virtual-reality predicted but they are simply "attached" on the World via our imagination (the only true computer). They are attached on quite everything...
Preparing a painting
Overeality
Overeality
Overeality
ZOOM TO OVEREALITY
And from 2012...
“I start painting "Google Nature Paintings" in Derveni
"Google Nature" Paintings
“"Google Nature Paintings" in Derveni
2012
2012
ZOOM TO "Google Nature" Paintings
in Rome..
“ in Rome, Italy
Studio in Rome
Studio in Rome
Preparing a painting
Preparing a painting
ZOOM TO studio in Rome
Started Painting...
“ FourfortyFour Paintings in Rome, Italy
"FOURFORTYFOUR" PAINTINGS
Fourfortyfour Paintings
at UNPAINTED in Munich.
4:44 Paintings
2012
2014
ZOOM TO FourFortyFour Paintings
while in Venice...
“ in Venice, Italy
2011,
54th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Biennale
INTERNET PAVILION 2011
"BYOB-ISLAND OF THE NET"
The Island of Internet & BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer, an exhibition series created by Rafael Rozendaal) The artists are invited to bring their own machines and projecting on any space that they can grab. Its a desperate attempt to open a few windows of fantasy and creativity over a heavily nested "real space".
BYOB is one of the few original expressions-even if its somewhat of a grimace- that are still possible to be achieved with visual arts. Its the scream of our extended bodies, while trapped between computer keyboards and the unnatural light of the computer projectors. Artists: Agnes Bolt, Alterazioni Video, Andreas Angelidakis, Angelo Plessas, Anna Franceschini, Billy Rennekamp, Boris Eldagser, Britta Thie
Claudia Rossini
Cristian Bugatti
Elisa Giardina Papa
Emily Jones & Sarah Hartnett (, year of the Hare)
Giallo Concialdi
Hayley Silverman
Interno3 and crew
Iocose
Ivano Atzori
Jaime Martinez
Jeremy Bailey
Les liens invisibles
LG Williams/Estate Of LG Williams
Luca Bolognesi
LuckyPDF
Marc Kremers
Marco Cadioli
Marisa Olson
Marlous Borm
Martin Cole
Matteo Erenbourg
Mike Ruiz
Miltos Manetas
Nazareno Crea
Nikola Tosic
Parker Ito
Pegy Zali
Petros Moris
Priscilla Tea
Rachele Maistrello
Rafaël Rozendaal
Rene Abythe
Riley Harmon
Sarah Ciraci
Tele Ghetto Haiti
Theodoros Giannakis
Travess Smalley
UBERMORGEN.COM
Valery Grancer
Wojciech Kosma
Yuri Pattison
Rafael Rozendaal's
ZOOM the II Internet Pavilion
and in Milan...
“ in Milan, Italy
METASCREEN
Just recently, all art that deals with computers directly, became data itself.
It started referencing other data and lost its status of "Avant-garde".
In Milan
in a gallery that is a monitor
ZOOM TO METASCREEN
2010,
BlackBerry Paintings
“There is a fundamental error in painting-in every school of painting: we always paint on a plane that’s different from the plane of reality. We either paint on a canvas or on some other support positioned in parallel or in front of the world, we never paint over the reality itself, we never “paint reality”.
“That was to change for me when - back in 2010 - I had an accident: I went down 117 meters from the top of a rock on my back, a little tree finally saving my life... After a month of immobility in the hospital, I returned to the place where I had the accident and I rented a little yellow house. Waiting to recover completely, I had my colors and canvasses brought there but I couldn’t paint: regular painting just didn’t seamed a good idea anymore. Finally one day, I took a brush and without any color on it, I started “painting” over the landscape. was making an invisible painting...
”A few days after my discovery, I start filming whatever it was I was painting with my BlackBerry (my right hand the hand of the painter, the left the hand of a videomaker). I was happy, a BlackBerry and a brush was now all I needed for a studio! That’s how the BLACKBERRY PAINTINGS were born and I decide to go on with my life and at the same time paint it.”
BLACKBERRY PAINTINGS
I began painting..
Painting my shadow
ZOOM TO BlackBerry Paintings in USA
ZOOM TO BlackBerry Paintings in Amazonas
ZOOM TO BlackBerry Paintings in Italy
Cucchi Ospita Manetas
ENZO CUCCHI OSPITA MILTOS MANETAS
Ancona, 21 luglio 2010 - L'artista greco Miltos Manetas torna ad Ancona, dopo la disavventura che lo aveva visto protagonista ai primi di giugno, quando in un'escursione sul Conero fece una rovinosa caduta che gli costò un ricovero in ospedale.
L'occasione per il ritorno è fornita dalla rassegna 'Incontro con l'autore', organizzata al Fortino Napoleonico di Portonovo. All'evento parteciperà con tre sculture inedite Enzo Cucchi, il maestro della Transavanguardia, che ha voluto al suo fianco, come ospite speciale, l'artista multimediale greco.
ilrestodelcarlino.it
I lost my grip on the rock, and I started going down on my back, slowly for two seconds, and accelerating immediately after. I remember everything, the whole timeline. My memory has kept every detail enveloped and timestamped.
One-Two-Three-Four! I remember that for these first four seconds, I was simply mad with disbelief. I was upset with my destiny, annoyed that it was letting down my crazy plan of arriving at the beach by descending the impossible surface of a very steep rock.
Five! By the fifth second, I was already falling very fast.
Six-Seven- Eight! I could see only the void at the edge of the rock about thirty meters away, and I knew that I was about to die. Read more
Falling in Conero
ZOOM TO Falling in Conero
PIRACY MANIFESTO & STICKER
“PIRACY MANIFESTO & STICKER designed by Experimental Jetset, commissioned by MAXXI National Museum of Art of the 21st Century in Rome for its inaugural exhibition in June 2010
At MAXXI
Reading the Manifesto
The Manifesto in 2009
ZOOM TO PIRACY MANIFESTO
Started Painting...
“ "Selfies Paintings" in Bogotá, Colombia
"Selfies" Paintings
"Selfie" PAINTINGS
“ As we all start looking ourselves mirrored on the palms of ourselves where now a computer screen is glued, I start painting "Selfie Paintings" in Bogotá. I didn't paint any faces on them-that would be banal.. just the "mirrors"...
2010
2010
2010
ZOOM TO "Selfie" Paintings
2009,
53th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Biennale
INTERNET PAVILION 2009
"The Embassy of Piracy"
For the first edition of the Internet Pavilion, Manetas and Aman invited to Venice a number of people involved with the activist website ThePirateBay.org to inaugurate the „Embassy of Piracy“. Just a few hours after the press-statement of Padiglione Internet was released, the administration of the Venice Biennial began receiving calls from the Berlusconi Government ordering from them to cancel the invitation of ThePirateBay.
Jan&Daniel&Miltos
Pirates of the Internet
For the first edition of the Internet Pavilion, Manetas and Aman, decide to invite a number of people involved with the activist website ThePirateBay.org to come in Venice and inaugurate the Embassy of Piracy. But just a few hours after the press statement of PadiglioneInternet was released, the administration of the Venice Biennial start receiving calls from the Berlusconi government asking them to cancel the invitation of ThePirateBay.
"We are Pirates of the Internet
Pirates of the World Wide Web
Nothing that can stop us now
We are here to stay..."
The first of December 2006 I had an idea- ideas often come to me with a tittle-this idea had a tittle too, "Existential Computing". But the day after after, I realized that the 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 and therefore revolutionary, something very important to try and discover.
on YouTube..
“Hi. This is Miltos Manetas”
“This is a conversation. Its between me and you. At any point, when you have something to say, please pause this video and record your message. Then post it on YouTube and send me the link so I can reply to you”.
“I want to give a theme to our conversation. That theme is our new life. Its a complex theme, it has to do with our intelligent machines. That’s what I call Existential Computing, it has to do with our perception of reality”.
“There’s new information today about reality. According to many scientists, we live in a Multiverse. There are many versions of ourself, each of them inhabiting a parallel word. Also, according to a few but quite respected scientists, time doesn’t flow. Everything that is possible, has already happened somewhere and what we perceive as change, its some kind of illusion”.
“Until yesterday, such ideas were esoteric but today, it is the observation of the World that tell us so. Therefore, we should start thinking differently, start living our life differently. Maybe we need to modify our language, maybe we need new words to say to ourself that what’s now happening, is also not happening. That there is an instant person of me who is recording this message and there is another who doesn’t. And that I am both of them and many other too”.
“Maybe your questions- or my answers- will be inspiring. Remember, that in another universe, its YOU the one who initiated this conversation”.
ZOOM TO Existential Computing
Workshop at the Hayward Gallery in London
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..."
a total Neen Eclipse
Existential Computing started when Caroline Hancock and Paul Green asked me to do a project at the Hayward and they booked for me the Waterloo Sunset Pavilion. This location is unique, a capsule in the city designed by artist Dan Graham.
But unfortunately, there’s something wrong with it, something went wrong with its construction, or maybe it was the artist’s intention.
So I asked the curators to bring a cat there, because a cat may have been able to fix the Pavilion’s problems. But Museums, every-time I ask for animals they refuse, they give me computers instead and videos and digital cameras which is not the same at all, because cats know how to record events in a way that is not digital but its not analogue either. Cats collect quantum facts from multiple realities. I think cats are Universal Reporters.
Existential computing however, started on Feb 3. Some people came and begun working like crazy, doing I don’t know what. Working on their machines, working, working.. Others came to visit.. As one of them said later, “ I learned about things I knew already but I wasn’t sure they actually exist”.
And finally there was a party and speaking about data that meet each other beautifully, while I was showing Rafael Rozendaal’s futurephysics.com where planets attract each other, a total lunar eclipse started and went on for an hour and fourteen minutes.
»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«
»what a way to put it I said..«
»Yes, I do!«
ZOOM TO Existential Computing
and in USA..
“in New York City…
"DOGS & CABLES"
At Yvon Lambert
Gallery
ZOOM TO the"dogs and Cables" exhibition
2005,
starting a book..
“ everywhere...…
Marx&Marinetti&Miltos&Manetas
Marx & Marinetti
& Miltos & Manetas
ZOOM TO Marx&Marinetti&Miltos&Manetas
And in 2005
“I start painting "Point of View" in NYC
"Groups" Paintings
“"Groups" Paintings in Paris
2005
ZOOM TO "Groups" Paintings
2004,
Living in Paris..
“ in Paris...
Memoirs of the Devil
“
A show by Miltos Manetas at COSMIC GALLERY in Paris. Jan-Mar, 2004. The title of the show, is a homage to the book "Memoirs of the Devil" written by director Roger Vadim. Vadim was married to Bridgette Bardot, Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve. Entering the show: "Manifesto with 4 Women" , a remake of a work by Italian artist Alighiero Boetti. In 1969, Boetti made a poster about the artists of his generation. Each symbol on that poster was referring to a characteristic of each artist included. Collectors could buy the poster for a low price, however the "code" that would explain the piece was on sale for a very high price and if nobody purchased it before a certain date, it would be destroyed and the decryption would remain secret forever (and that's what happened). My collectors could buy the code of my poster too but it didn't happened either. So I hide the code somewhere online..
Websites are today’s most radical and important art objects
“ Because the Internet is not just another “media”as the Old Media insists, but mostly a “space”, similar to the American Continent immediately after it was discovered – anything that can be found on the Web has a physical presence. It occupies real estate. “Things” in the Internet exist in a specific location, while in magazines and on TV, contents are mostly bullets of information. Online they constitute a body: they are parts of a new genre. They are Web Entities. They get in touch and advertise their existence to each other. Similar to human beings, they will evaluate, criticize, “link” to each other. Ultimately, these Web Entities develop a “taste”. Bob Dobbs (a friend of McLuhan) said that “advertising is communication between machines”. He also suggested that machines came alive in 1967 and that “now they are in an angelic state”. “Advertising is communication between Angels” he said..
2001,
IAMGONNACOPY
“In 2001 I started iamgonnacopy.com In that page you could vote FOR or AGAINST intellectual property and copyright. Back then I wrote this text: The Coca Cola logo. A little poem. A well known painting by Picasso, a Pokemon picture, an article published in a website, a scientific discovery about DNA, a Beatles song, a piece of computer software. Think of your perception as a piece of land.
Once you will access any of the above, something is built over it. What you've seen, heard or learned becomes part of your self, literally your property.
There is no way to undo that information. You will have to work to put it in order, accept it or modify it in a way that fits your mental scheme. The more intelligent you are, the more you will have to work.
You are now a vehicle, a subway train wall and a cultural slave. You cannot go back in time and become a person who doesn't know how to write FedEx, but if you will actually decide to write it over your paintings, FedEx may sue you: that company holds a copyright and apparently owns that part of your head Where the FedEx logo is located.
There is a company based in Amsterdam which produces screen recognition software. Its' clients, can use their technology to help their newest systems communicate with their older computers.
A New York based company sued them on the basis that they keep a pattern on screen recognition.
Content (what the case above, what the old computers are saying), becomes a valuable for whoever will register a way to read it!
It promises double profits. A painter may become famous because the public saw his images. He will sell the physical object-the canvasses but he will still demand control over the public's imagination, through his copyright.
One of the most beautiful aspects of contemporary life is emulation. It makes from life an open project, a work in progress. But our freedom to emulate is limited.
This page is naive: it will not attempt to be scientific* because I didn't' study law.
But I know that what I mostly enjoy do is copying, even more than creating or even consuming.
I also know that none of the people who's work I respect, could live without copy.
Miltos Manetas, 2001…
Logo on Mai's ass
Manifesto and Sticker
ZOOM TO IAMGONNACOPY
And in Los Angeles...
in Chinatown...
ELECTRONICORPHANAGE: party location, partly Internet.
electronicOrphanage
"In Los Angeles"
“In Los Angeles”
MACROeo in Rome
eo in Siena
ZOOM TO THE ELECTRONICORPHANAGE
Everything started in NY...
at Chelsea...
2000,
NEEN
The BirthTHE BIRTH OFNEEN
Gagosian gallery
“In New York”
Neen is a
“Neen is a two-faced word.”
»computing is to NEEN what fantasy is to Surrealism«
»and freedom to Communism«
»it creates the context but it can also be postponed«
ZOOM TO THE NEEN
But in Italy...
&#in Milan and in Savona...
Murakami-Manetas
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 «
» gave a lecture together at the Art School in Milan, (Accademia di Brera)«
ZOOM TO MURAKAMI-MANETAS EXHIBITION
And from 2000..
“I start painting "Screens" in NYC
"Screen" Paintings
“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC
2000
2010
2010
ZOOM TO "Screens" Paintings
And in France...
“at Sette, MIDI PYRÉNÉES…
1999,
LE CAPITAL curated by Nicolas Bourriaud
“Miltos Manetas's paintings take as subjects the Internet and the
power of computers, but use the features of physical objects situated
in a domestic interior to allow us access to them. The current success
of the market as a formal matrix among contemporary artists
has to do with a desire to make commercial relations concrete once
again, relations that the postmodern economy tends to make immaterial.
And yet this immateriality itself is a fiction, Henochsberg suggests,
insofar as what seems most abstract to us - high prices for
raw materials or energy, say - are in reality the object of arbitrary
negotiations. The work of art may thus consist of a formal arrangement that generates relationships between people, or be born of a social process;
I have described this phenomenon as "relational aesthetics," whose
main feature is to consider interhuman exchange an aesthetic object
in and of itself. (From Bourriaud-Postproduction)…
LE CAPITAL
LE CAPITAL
ZOOM TO "LE CAPITAL" EXHIBITION
1998,
VIRTUAL WORLDS
Working in Virtual Worlds"
Chelsea in Active Worlds
Interview at my floating studio
»
Virtual Worlds
«
»
Chelsea «
ZOOM TO Virtual Worlds
Everybody now Looking at Screens...
“I start painting "Looking at Screens" in NYC
"LOOKING AT COMPUTER SCREENS"
1998
and in 1999...
and in 2005
ZOOM TO Looking at Computer Screens Paintings
1997,
"Playing Videogames"
PAINTING "Playing Videogames" PAINTINGS
1997
1998
1999
ZOOM TO "Playing Videogames" Paintings
PRINTS FROM VIDEOGAMES
"Prints after Videogames"
after "Tomb Rider"
1996
After TOMB RIDER
after "Zelda"
1997
after ZELDA
after "SuperMario"
1999
after "SuperMario"
ZOOM TO Prints After Videogames
ART FROM VIDEOGAMES continues
"Videos after Videogames"
Flames
1997
SuperMario Sleeping
1997
King Kong after P.J
2006
ZOOM TO Videos After Videogames
1996,
THE BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA
THE BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA
BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA
After Videogames Manifesto
Videogames aren't games but EVR: extended versions of reality.
Through videogames the process that started with the poems of Homer, Mahabharata and the Bible, continues..
ZOOM TO Machinima
Miracle
"MIRACLE"
After "Hornet 18" for Apple
First shown at the exhibition "Joint Ventures"
A video after videogames
ZOOM TO "Miracle" video
And in 1997, looking what's next to the computer I started..
“ "Peripherals Paintings", in NYC
"Peripherals" Paintings
Painting "Peripherals" Paintings
ZOOM TO ALL MANETAS PAINTINGS
1997
1997
1997
ZOOM TO "Peripherals" paintings
And then...
“I start painting cables in NYC
Cable Paintings <
"CABLES" Paintings
“painting cables in NYC
1997
and in 1998..
and in 2008..
ZOOM TO CABLE PAINTINGS
And at the same time I looked at my floor
“I looked at my floor in NYC
My Floor Paintings <
"My Floor" Paintings
“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC
1997
1997
1997
ZOOM TO "My Floor" Paintings
At that same year...
“I noticed there's a new point of view so I start painting "Point of View" in NYC
"Point of View" Paintings
“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC
1997
and in 1998..
and in 1999..
ZOOM TO "Point of View" Paintings
And because there was already INTERNET ...
“I start painting "Internet Paintings" in NYC
INTERNET PAINTINGS
"INTERNET PAINTINGS"
1997
and later in 2002
ZOOM TO the Internet Paintings
1996: I begun Painting...
“ "NEW ABSTRACTION" Paintings in New York, US
NEW ABSTRACTION
"New Abstraction" Paintings
"New Abstraction"
1996
1996
ZOOM TO "New Abstraction" paintings
And...
“NEW ABSTRACTION" Paintings in New York, US
DIGITAL MACHINES
PORTRAITS OF DIGITAL MACHINES
“During the Traffic exhibition I was invited for an one-man show by Xavier Douroux, Franck Gautherot and Eric Troncy. After seeing my "Sad Tree" at Bourriaud's exhibition, they wanted paintings! "What shall I paint?" I asked Vanessa Beecroft- my partner of those days.. She had no idea either but she was reading a book about Andy Warhol. "here it says that Warhol also didn't know what to paint so he asked a friend of his. "What do you like the most?" the friend asked. "Money"-said Warhol. "so just paint money".. At that moment, what I liked most was computers so I decide to start painting them...
paintings.manetas.com
1996
1996
ZOOM TO "Portraits of Digital Machines" paintings
ZOOM TO ALL MANETAS PAINTINGS
But also people...
"Patients" PAINTINGS
"Patients" Paintings
1996
1997
1998
ZOOM TO "PATIENTS" paintings
1995,
Relational Aesthetics
“
Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." The artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre..
One of the first attempts to analyze and categorize art from the 1990s, the idea of Relational Art was developed by Nicolas Bourriaud in 1998 in his book Esthétique relationnelle (Relational Aesthetics).The term was first used in 1996, in the catalog for the exhibition Traffic curated by Bourriaud at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux. Traffic included the artists that Bourriaud would continue to refer to throughout the 1990s, such as Henry Bond, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Liam Gillick, Christine Hill, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Miltos Manetas, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_art
RELATIONAL AESTHETICS
Relational art - Wikipedia
ZOOM TO Relational Aestetics
Started "EXISTENCE" Paintings
“ "Existence" in Milan, Italy
1995
1995
ZOOM TO "Existence" Paintings
SADTREE
"Sad Tree" First paintings.manetas.com painting
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
But Just Before..
“ I looked on my computer screen..
"Written in Computers" Paintings
“
I looked on the screen of my laptop and there were things written on it. There was a progress bar. A sign saying "Stop" and a sign saying "Continue". Another saying "Game Paused"...So I project them them and painted them..
1995
1995
1995
ZOOM TO "Written in Computers" Paintings
1994,
SOFTDRILLER
"Soft Driller"
Soft Driller
In Milan, Italy
COMPUTER READY MADE
"COMPUTER DESKTOP READY MADE"
"Output 1.0" & "Whoops!"
In Milan, Italy
Computer-Desktop Readymade
In Naples, Italy
ALAPTOP
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 gray 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
1993,
EXTRAS: THE BOOK OF OTHERS
“
EXTRAS: imaginary people I meet in books. This work is an infinite, constantly growing collection of descriptions of fictional characters. It exists in form of a database that is stored partly online, partly on a series of books in demand and finally in the documentation attached to the "Collector's Item" that represents this artwork.
EXTRAS has to be performed by the latest laptop in the market with a computer voice chosen randomly.
"Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice"
I start collecting EXTRAS in 1993. My first "EXTRAS" performance was created for the group show "Het krijwitte kind" (SCHONHEIT MACHT SCHAMHAFT), Aschenbach Gallery, Amsterdam, curated by Paul Groot, staring Vanessa Beecroft.
The same year, I had my first one-man show in Italy at the historical Galleria Fac-Simile in Milan.( "COMPARSE", staring Vanessa Beecroft)
Book of Others
Book of Others
Mr Hyde was pale
points against him
extraordinary looking man
something wrong with his appearance
ponderous pundit MacHuge
Two men dressed the same
Method in his madness
1992,
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 «
“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 catalog of TRAFFIC, CAPC
Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR
“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 dialogs 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«
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
Performance
“Finishing artschool I looked around me. I could see people everywhere, art people, artists, collectors, art-writers,photographers, gallerists.. I thought I should start from them, come to know them and at the same time make a work out of their faces. I didn´t really want to look at them so I impose myself to do exactly that: go met them and ask them to pose for a profile picture. Then I would cut their profile on a piece of plywood, curve their name on it and hang them alfabetically in the gallery. It was a kind of performance and at the same time, I was putting together some kind of primitive Facebook...
First Shows
"PERFORMANCE"
In Milan, Italy
»From 1990, I start collecting art-people. «
»Taking a profile picture from them«
»cutting their figure on a piece of plywood and tracing their name under«
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.
1990 and earlier, years of
FIRST SHOWS
Succesfully Contemporary
“These were the years of Art Magazines and NeoGeo. Many same things.. In Greece an enthousiastic collector was buying everything. Together with his friend Jeffrey Deitch they were planning POST HUMAN, a very important show and they wanted to include my "51 Chairs and a few Assholes". I got inspired.. Dakis owned a big hotel, The Intercontinental. I remember reading somewhere about computers and projectors and although I had never seen one, I asked Dakis if I could make a new work to one of his many hotel rooms instead, using a computer. I would be travelling all around the globe and from time to time, I will be sending pictures by FedEx and someone would be loading them at the computer and projecting them in such a way that everytime that hotel´s door would be opened, a new fresh picture from the world would appear. It was a pro-Facebook fantasy but Dakis said he didn´t like computers and finally they never include me in POST HUMAN, Jeffrey replaced me with someone from NY who was doing something quite similar to my 51 Chairs.
Different Opinion
Different Opinion
»
At 1990 I founded Different Opinion to allow to artists start producing artworks that were different from what each of us usually does«
51 Chairs...
51 Chairs and a few assholes
"Psicofarmaci"
In Milan, Italy
Vases
“Finishing artschool, I tried doing something that was far from all my contemporary art references, something that looked old..
Identity Vases
In Milan, Italy
Large Vase on the highway
Two Vases
an early solo show
“Fifteen notebooks with dots for children installed at the Cafe Pallas in Karditsa, Greece
"Kafka Birds"
Schoolbooks
1989
»Finished Artschool«
in Rome & in Milan
EARLY DAYS
In 1986 made a drawing with a Sad Tree. I was doing some kind of Neo-Geo installations back then and I asked my girlfriend to perform in them.
A tree at Brera
A first Tree in Brera, Milan
Moved to Milan
Went to study in Brera, Milan, Italy
Went to Rome, the first place after leaving Greece
In 1985 I left Athens. The Art-school there wouldn't accept me. "Don't lose your time, you have no talent" one of the professors said- I think his name was Tetsis or Kokkinidis. Or maybe it was Yiannis Moralis, an old man who- at the beginning of his carrier as professor - had send away Jannis Kounellis. He had said exactly the same to him 40 years earlier: Don´t try, you have no talent.
read on the New York Times
