LUOGHI VARI - MODENA

30 MAGGIO - 28 GIUGNO 2009

Direct Digital
Exhibition | Live media | Workshop | Cinema | Contest

Direct digital is a new media art event presented by the cultural association Artegenti, which will take place from 30 th May 2009 to 28 th June 2009 in Modena and Carpi (Italy) , in the Ex-Ospedale Sant'Agostino and in Palazzo Pio, under the conception and artistic direction of Gilberto Caleffi. Direct Digital will be presented in preview on Saturday the 8 th of May with a live exhibition of the visionary musician Dm Stith at the Circolo Zuni in Ferrara .

Direct Digital proposes a thick calendar of five sections, Exhibition, Live Media, Workshop, Cinema, Contest in order to show a detailed perspective of the most recent developments of art and creativity linked to the use of digital technologies. The event, at its first edition, aims at becoming a benchmark for those who are interested in knowing, proposing and creating moments of meetings between contemporary art and digital innovation .

In the last years the spread of informatics has brought to a revolution that is still in progress, both regarding the instruments and the ways of making art, and the modalities of production and display of the creative act. A constant contamination and reprocessing of the languages is destroying the boundaries among the different forms of artistic expression and, at the same time, is perceiving the viewer as an active character, involved in multiple forms of participation: live media, networking, interactive exhibitions, interaction, urban design. Direct Digital puts together in a multidisciplinary platform the most interesting expressions of these creativity forms, in order to allow to an heterogeneous and full of artists, fans and thinkers audience, to meet and exchange views about making art in the digital age.

EXHIBITION

Exhibition is the section dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary and digital art Il canto del corpo elettrico (The singing of the electrical body), organized by Gilberto Caleffi , that will take place in Modena at Ex-Ospedale Sant'Agostino and in Carpi at Palazzo dei Pio from 30 th May to 28 th June, and that will be presented to the journalists 29 th May.

he title of the exhibition is based on a verse by Walt Whitman, rearranged by Ray Bradbury, dedicated to the relationship between art and new technologies applied to the fields of animation, video, music and design. The “digital” wants to stimulate a language commixture which is shown in a selection of artworks divided into two major sections, video art and interactive art , hosting some of the most relevant names of the contemporary artistic experimentation: Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Andy Warhol, Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno, Sam Taylor-Wood, Tony Oursler, Chris Levine, Julian Opie, Gina Czarnecki, Heinrich Gresbeck, Golan Levin, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Takahiro Matsuo, Jin-Yo Mok, Kenichi Okada, Agostino Di Scipio, Mimmo Rotella.

The video art section puts together authors that come from different periods and spheres, comparing them through their works in order to find a common interest in time, memory, perception and duplication, elaborated through the electronic languages. They analyse the relationship among human beings, art and metaphysic dimension through the handling of languages and materials. By altering time and space notions, the artists succeed in modifying the original organization of the communicative flow, and transform the consumer object in artistic experimentation's matter. The artist feeds his own imaginary of atmospheres, suggestions and quotations taken from mass communication, and re-edits them in his own artwork that becomes, in this way, remainder of his individual experience and mirror of his own time.

The exhibition also includes a section dedicated to the relationship between interactive art and pop culture . Interactive art analyses the relation between human beings and technology, studies the relationships among the available technologies, combining them with human necessities and desires in the contest of everyday experience. The exhibition path Il canto del corpo elettrico does not want to come to a conclusion, but it wants to create a chance to make questions about the interaction between human beings and technology, and between human beings and communication means, throughout the questions and the reflections stimulated by the artworks.

The exhibition catalogue, by Marco Mancuso and Claudia D'Alonzo and realized with the support of Nuova Grafica , is a further instrument of this analysis, thanks to its critical texts and inedited interviews of the artists of the exhibition.

LIVE MEDIA PROGRAM

The section Live Media presents a series of performance events, located in different places in Modena, Carpi and Ferrara, all of which are dedicated to the several expressions created by the meeting between music and digital technology, from the clubbing scene to the experimentation , with the participation of international artists such as: Agf + Delay, Pantha Du Prince, Hauschka, Ben Frost, Murcof + Francesco Tristano, Dm Stith, Thomas Fehlmann + Eraldo Bernocchi, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Telefon Tel Aviv, Badge and Talkalot, Giardini Di Mirò.

First appointment of the event is the celestial folk of David Michael Stith , who will perform on Friday 8 th May at 21.30 in at the Circolo Zuni in Ferrara during the Direct Digital preview. Electronic pearls of the duet Agf/Delay and the oneiric dance of Pantha Du Prince , will fill the spaces of Teatro delle Passioni of Modena with sound matter, on Friday 29 th May , from 21.30. The interbreeding between electro music and acoustic instruments of Hauschka aka Bertlmann meets the experimental Icelandic music of Ben Frost in the live of Saturday 30 th May , at 21.00, in Carpi at the Cortile d'Onore of Palazzo del Pio , while on Monday 1 st June at 21.30 again Cortile d'Onore will host the spiritual resonances of Murcof and Francesco Tristano . The euphoric atmospheres of the old European East enliven the spaces of Auditorio San Rocco in Carpi , thanks to the music of A Hawk And A Hacksaw on Wednesday 10 th June at 21.00.

On Wednesday 17 th June , at the Teatro delle Passioni in Modena , Thomas Fehlmann, Eraldo Bernocchi and Petulia Mattioli will perform in a live show totally inedited, commissioned on purpose by Direct Digital for this event, whose recording will be edited by the label Rare Noise . The warm and wrapping sound of Badge and Talkalot and Telefon Tel Aviv will be the protagonist on Friday 19 th June , from 22.00 at Vibra, in Modena ; while Saturday 27 th June Giardini di Mirò present their live Il fuoco, in Carpi at Piazzale Re Astolfo.

WORKSHOP

Workshop section is developed in three meetings, 28 th May, 5 th June and 26 th June 2009 , dedicated to the crucial themes of the new media art with the presence of international speakers, such as Golan Levin , Marco Mancuso , Paolo Rigamonti, Boris Debackere, Lucredia Cippitelli, Emidio Clementi, Paolo Nori, Emiliano Colasanti. A series of moments dedicated to the presentation of projects, to the production of ideas and to reflections about creative software and about the relationship among art, interaction design and audiovisual design.

The Cinema section presents a wide overview of the audiovisual ever-developing forms of art, that follow the quick developments of the society and the technologies. The appointments will talk about these mutations, trying to find, in the multiplicity of aspects and languages, shared themes such as: the creation of new narrative settings, new links between the concepts of time and space allowed by the digital world, the experimentation of senses and perceptive boundaries. The artwork selection will include: feature films, short films, video clips, digital animations, live cinema.

COMPETITION

Finally, Direct Digital proposes the contest Digital Direction , opened until the 10 th May 2009, addressed to the young under 35 artists. The project is based on the loan of four contemporary artworks by Mimmo Rotella, an artist directly connected with the theme of the event, and who is recognized as a maestro for a new generation of digital artists. Sorprendente Marilyn (2004), Pazzo per le donne (2004), Gioventù bruciata (2004), Marlon Brando (2004) , will be a source of inspiration for the creation of original and unpublished works of new media arts. The contest winners will see their works/projects exhibited in Direct Digital 2009 alongside the originals by Mimmo Rotella .

www.directdigital.org

www.digitaldirection.org