Plato’s new exhibition brings net-art to the fore

Web Biennial is an online exhibition that has taken place once every two years since 2001. Turkish contemporary artist Genco Gülan, the founder and director of Web Biennial, organized the current exhibition in conjunction with İstanbul-based curator Marcus Graf.

The current show, “Regeneration.011,” is themed around “poetry and politics” and displays a selection of works by more than 23 international contemporary artists who have taken part in the four Web Biennials since 2003 (http://www.webbiennial.org).

Internet art (also known as “web” or “net” art) is a relatively new artistic genre that uses the Internet as its chief medium. However, rather than simply making traditional art forms available by digitalizing them and reproducing them online, net art intrinsically relies on the Internet as a separate social space and an electronic tool to connect people. Often, but not always, it involves a direct interaction between the viewer and the work, allowing the audience to become an integral part of the process of producing artistic meaning.

Gülan says he wanted to provide a platform for web artists to exhibit their work, because Internet art has so far remained at the periphery of contemporary art. According to Graf, this is partially owed to the paradox that lies at the heart of Internet art: “Since the Internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, in theory, net art should be very close to us. As an art form, however, it is still far from us, because it is non-physical. That opens up new discussions: How can we collect or preserve online art?”

The title of the exhibition stands symbolically for the “re-generation” that occurs when virtual art is transformed into a physical reality. Naturally, such a transformation also changes the relationship between art and audience: “While previously, you could view the collections from your computer at home,” Graf explains, “now it is presented to you in a definite space. This allows for a different, a physical experience.”

In order to underline this connection between the Internet as an abstract space and aspects of everyday life, the exhibition is organized around three platforms, each one of them representing both a distinct physical space and a different socio-political reality. While one platform is themed the “anti-war platform,” a second focuses on more personal work. The last platform displays pieces which deal with censorship and freedom of expression.

Greek artist Dimitris Fotiou says freedom of expression is exactly what his piece, “no more questions,” a collection of recorded webcam conversations joined to random snippets of conversations, is about.

The Internet has made it possible for people to communicate across physical and cultural boundaries. And yet, the new intimacy also entails a further distancing from one another, because we no longer know each other’s real-life circumstances. Instead, the new anonymity allows for the constant reinvention of identities independent of the norms that usually force us to adopt a coherent identity. In a way, this contradiction is captured nicely in Fotiou’s piece.

Watching two dozen chatterers parade themselves in the most obscure pieces of attire for, well, a camera, is contrasted with a never-dwindling stream of chat room banalities. The combination serves as a nice reminder of the fact that despite all the new freedoms the Internet offers, it has done little to change how we are as people.

The Web Biennial selection is currently showing at the exhibit space of the Plato Art Academy, a vocational school that offers training to students in the fields of art, media and design.

The exhibition will continue until March 20 and is open Tuesdays to Saturdays 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entry is free of charge. Plato is located on Ayvansaray Caddesi No: 33 in Balat. For more information, see www.platosanat.com.