Against the Stream of Time
· 10th Triennial of Contemporary Art U3
Proti toku časa
· 10. trienale sodobne umetnosti U3
ˢˡᵒ ˢᵖᵒᵈᵃʲ
Opening: Friday, 21 June 2024, 8 pm
Moderna galerija MG+
Museum of Modern Art
Ljubljana, 21 June – 17 November 2024
Curator: Tevž Logar
Igor Štromajer ↝ 101.72 MB (2024)
aₚ=tF²
Štromajer participates at the exhibition with his latest series on memory – electrical machines, computers, phones and other digital devices and their parts that once produced, processed, transmitted and stored his net ⁿᵒⁿ⁻art (motherboards, sound and graphics cards, disks and magnetic tapes, fans, keyboards, chips, processors, cables, etc.), but are now partially or completely dead, no longer performing their basic functions, carrying only a physical memory of them.
These dead machines are part of the author’s intimate history, the memory which serves to mislead, betray and misrepresent, instead of describing the past. A false memory, however, does not offer an authentic image of the past it speaks of, but always only a misleading, deceptive, fictional and distorted, falsified image.
Like software, hardware is also changing rapidly, continuously and inexorably, losing its functionality, purpose and, consequently, its content – the (non-)art itself. The author’s basic premise here is that (non-)art is not only hidden in the concept, the idea, i.e., not only in the nominal and declared (non-)art, but equally also in the tools and machines that produce it. That is why the parts of machines on display, now more or less dead, are full of intimate memories that have faded and stories that have died.
In the exhibition, Štromajer‘s 101.72 MB is presented through a two-part setup that includes twenty framed electronic ready-made objects that simulate—pretend to be—art, and the skeleton of a disused robot employed in his previous works.
The series as a whole is part of Štromajer‘s years-long de-digitalization processes, from the deletion of his classical net ⁿᵒⁿ⁻art works in 2011 to the present, because the author believes that the only way to liberate ourselves from feudal techno-capitalism is through collective and total de-digitalization.
The title of the work indicates the amount of now deleted net ⁿᵒⁿ⁻art works (101.72 MB of files) produced and processed by the exhibited machines and their parts between 1996 and 2007: intima.org/ex.
de-digitalization ≠ re-analogization
Štromajer first appeared at the U3 in 2003, curated by Christine Van Assche, chief curator of new media at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
↓ artists ↓
Nika Autor, Jaka Babnik, Nataša Berk, Viktor Bernik, Maxime Berthou & Mark Požlep, Martin Bricelj, Jasmina Cibic, Ana Čavić, Lana Čmajčanin, Aleksandra Domanović, Miha Erjavec, Vadim Fishkin, Jošt Franko, Tomaž Furlan, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Sanela Jahić, Staš Kleindienst, Andrea Knezović, Polonca Lovšin, Danilo Milovanović, The Nonument Group, Gala Alica, Marjetica Potrč, Tobias Putrih, Tjaša Rener, Peter Rauch, Maruša Sagadin, Duba Sambolec, Luka Savić, Maja Smrekar, Robertina Šebjanič, Andrej Škufca, Igor Štromajer, Apolonija Šušteršič, Ulay, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, Nana Wolke, Neja Zorzut
Proti toku časa
· 10. trienale sodobne umetnosti U3
Moderna galerija MG+
21. junij – 17. november 2024
kustos: Tevž Logar
odprtje: v petek, 21. junija 2024 ob 20h
Igor Štromajer ↝ 101.72 MB (2024)
Štromajer sodeluje na razstavi s svojo najnovejšo paraumetniško serijo o spominu – električnimi stroji, računalniki, telefoni in drugimi digitalnimi napravami ter njihovimi deli, ki so nekoč proizvajali, procesirali, prenašali in hranili njegovo spletno in video paraumetnost (matične plošče, zvočne in grafične kartice, diski in magnetni trakovi, ventilatorji, tipkovnice, čipi, procesorji, kabli in drugi računalniški deli), danes pa so delno ali popolnoma mrtvi, ne opravljajo več svojih osnovnih funkcij, ampak nosijo le še fizični spomin nanje.
Kakor programska, se tudi strojna oprema hitro, neprestano in neizprosno spreminja ter tako izgublja svojo funkcionalnost, namen, in posledično tudi vsebino, (para)umetnost samo. Avtorjeva osnovna premisa pri tem je, da (para)umetnost ni skrita samo v konceptu, v ideji, torej ne zgolj v nominalnem in deklariranem, ampak enakovredno tudi v orodjih in strojih, ki jo proizvajajo. Zato so tudi razstavljeni deli strojev, zdaj bolj ali manj mrtvih, polni intimnih spominov, ki so zbledeli, in zgodb, ki so umrle.
Delo 101.72 MB je na razstavi predstavljeno kot dvodelna postavitev, ki vključuje dvajset uokvirjenih elektronskih ready-made objektov, ki simulirajo – se pretvarjajo, da so – umetnost ter skelet odsluženega robota, uporabljenega v njegovih prejšnjih delih.
101.72 MB je kot celota del Štromajerjevih večletnih dedigitalizacijskih procesov, od brisanja njegovih klasičnih spletnih paraumetniških del leta 2011 do danes, saj avtor verjame, da je edini način, da se osvobodimo fevdalnega tehnološkega kapitalizma, kolektivna in popolna dedigitalizacija.
Naslov dela označuje količino (danes izbrisane) spletne paraumetnosti – 101.72 MB datotek – ki so jo razstavljeni stroji in njihovi deli proizvedli in procesirali v obdobju med letoma 1996 in 2007: intima.org/ex.
dedigitalizacija ≠ reanalogizacija
Štromajer je na U3 prvič sodeloval leta 2003, ko ga je kurirala Christine Van Assche, glavna kustosinja za nove medije v pariškem Centru Pompidou.
intima • Igor Štromajer 