ƒ(x)=ax³+bx²+cx+d

Igor Štromajer
with Sakrowski
exhibition ➠ aksioma.org/fx

Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana
· opening: Tuesday, 28 June 2022, 7 pm
· exhibition: 28 June – 22 July 2022

↑ Photo: Domen Pal / Aksioma [more photos]

In the exhibition, the central role is occupied by a 1 m³ unsuccessfully depoliticized concrete cube [NFC – non-fungible cube; concrete block/non-chained] balanced on one of its vertices, representing the transposition into a physical space of the iconic gif animation created by Štromajer in 1996 and recreated in 2021 for AR environments by art historian and curator Sakrowski. The first two iterations of this trilogy complete the installation by materialising on the screens of visitors’ electronic devices.

↑ Photo: Domen Pal / Aksioma [more photos]

A cubic function is a function of the form ƒ(x)=ax³+bx²+cx+d where the coefficients a, b, c and d are complex numbers, and the variable x takes real values, and a≠0. It is both a polynomial function of degree three, and a real function. Setting ƒ(x)=0 produces a cubic equation of the form ax³+bx²+cx+d=0.

↑ Photo: Domen Pal / Aksioma [more photos]

Author of concrete cube and animated gif: Igor Štromajer
Authors of AR cube: Štromajer • Sakrowski

Production of concrete cube:
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2022
Manufacture: Samo Kralj

Production of AR cube:
openAR – Augmented Reality Platform, Berlin, 2021
Production of animated gif:
Intima Virtual Base – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 1996

Production of the exhibition:
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2022

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana

Special thanks to Anja Planišček, Irena Pivka and Vlado G. Repnik.

↑ Photo: Domen Pal / Aksioma [more photos]

Continue reading “Aksioma · ƒ(x)=ax³+bx²+cx+d”

⊡.gif
Иgor Щromajer
with Sakrowski

Gallery Gallery / Галерия Галерия, Sofia, Bulgaria
19 May – 3 September 2022
Opening: 19 May 2022, 7 pm at Ploshtadka

curators
Albena Baeva & Rene Beekman

In 1996, Igor Štromajer created his first work of net art; 0.html. The work was an elaborate game-like interactive story in which Machiavelli, Nietsche, Hobbes, Tito, Kraftwerk and Neil Armstrong, among others, have cameos.

German curator and theorist Inke Arns wrote that “0.html is an archive of historical techno imagination, world politics and a grain of melancholy. At the end of the tour through this complex project, Štromajer confronts the visitor with the following words: ‘Internet is the most primitive medium ever’.”

0.html was deleted as part of the Expunction project in 2011.

However, one visual element from this legendary work survived; the rotating cube. The original file is a 64 by 64 pixel gif animation of a cube that rotates on one of its corners.

In February and March 2022, Štromajer produced seven post-blockchain non-fungible cubes (NFC) from the original gif and secretly exhibited them at seven Frankfurt art venues; AtelierFrankruft, basis, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Portikus and Schirn Kunsthalle.

Now, 25 years after the original work was produced, Sakrowski, art historian, director and curator of router.gallery and the panke.gallery in Berlin, redesigned this iconic animation into an augmented reality (AR) artwork under the title Cube.Zero.

↓
Igor Štromajer: ⊡.gif, gallery Gallery
Sakrowski & Štromajer: Cube.Zero, Ploshtadka
↑

This spring, starting on 19 May, Štromajer presents ⊡.gif at Gallery Gallery; the original 64 by 64 pixel animated rotating cube is shown at the router gallery and the brand-new AR work Cube.Zero by Štromajer & Sakrowski at Ploshtadka. The exhibition will continue throughout the summer.

Gallery Gallery / Галерия Галерия is the first gallery that is exclusively focused on digital art in Bulgaria. All exhibitions at the gallery are shown in a virtual exhibition space.

Ploshtadka / Площадка is the new virtual sculpture park of gallery Gallery. It shows digital sculptures visible to visitors’ mobile devices through augmented reality. It is a natural continuation of a digital exhibition space and the permanent collection of gallery Gallery.

Continue reading “⊡.gif ▸ Gallery Gallery, Sofia”

Rencontres Internationales
new cinema and contemporary art
Paris, 2–8 May 2022

Opening night:
Louxor Palais du cinéma, Paris
Monday, 2 May 2022, 7:30 pm

↑ Igor Štromajer: Igor Štromajer in conversation with Igor Štromajer (video, 40:42)

• Štromajer‘s video is shown in the Data Dream section of the exhibition at Galerie Rue Française as part of the Rencontres Internationales festival.

• curated by Natalie Hénon and Jean-François Rettig

Les Rencontres Internationales traces the specificities and convergences of artistic practices between new cinema and contemporary art, examines new artistic forms and their critical approaches, and provides the necessary time for points of view to meet and be exchanged.

Galerie Rue Française
plateforme créative pour l’art
3 rue Française, 75001 Paris
Saturday, 7 May 2022 from 1 to 7 pm

Festival locations: Beaux-Arts de Paris, Louvre auditorium, Centre Pompidou, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Rue Française, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles and the Goethe Institut

With the support of DRAC Île-de-France – Ministère de la Culture, CNC Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Conseil Régional d’Île-de-France, Ville de Paris, Cité internationale des arts, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Rue Française, Goethe-Institut Paris, Center Wallonie Bruxelles, Austrian Cultural Forum, Arte, etc.