News

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

Moderna galerija MG+
Museum of Modern Art
Ljubljana, 21 June – 17 November 2024
Curator: Tevž Logar

Igor Štromajer ↝ 101.72 MB (2024)

aₚ=tF²

↝ more: TikTok · Instagram

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 Baraga, Jasmina Cibic, Ana Čavić, Lana Čmajčanin, DNLM, Aleksandra Domanović, Vadim Fishkin, Jošt Franko, Tomaž Furlan, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Sanela Jahić, Staš Kleindienst, Andrea Knezović, Polonca Lovšin, name:, The Nonument Group, Gala Alica, Marjetica Potrč, Tobias Putrih & Ardalan SadeghiKivi, 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

Continue reading “U3 · Triennial of Contemporary Art”

Digital Oxymoron
group show
Digitalni oksimoron
28 March – 17 April 2024

MKC – The Multimedia Cultural Centre / Multimedijalni kulturni centar, Split, Croatia
curator: Irena Borić
production: Sonda Foundation, MKC Split

Igor Štromajer exhibits his work:

Quantum Dawn or Transcending Political Anxiety
ㄴ (Non)Data Traps
2023
[20 mousetraps for non-mice]

Kvantna zora ili nadilaženje političke tjeskobe
ㄴ (ne)podatkovna klopka
2023

· artists: Format C (Dina and Vedran Gligo), Hrvoje Hiršl, Petra Mrša, Toni Soprano Meneglejte, Andrej Škufca, Igor Štromajer, Ivana Tkalčić

The exhibition Digital Oxymoron reflects the material side of digital technologies through artistic practices. Although the virtual seems immaterial, the space beyond the other side of our keyboard is based on physical conditions and has concrete (often negative) consequences for the environment and society. At the same time, it is a space of exchange and the circulation of capital which influences the narrative about the immateriality of the digital. Precisely because of this apparent dematerialization in relation to other technologies and industries, the trace of digital technologies is even more ‘insidious’. It is difficult to make end users aware that digital waste is not only hardware and computer monitors, but also has environmental, social, political and economic consequences. Precisely because the scope of the material and ecological consequences of digital technologies is not easily comprehensible, the exhibition explores the different poetics and politics of digital technologies from this side of the screen.

»In Quantum Dawn or Transcending Political Anxiety – (Non)Data Traps, Štromajer establishes a humorous dialogue by placing twenty mousetraps in the gallery space. Mousetraps everywhere, but not for mice. Like the miniature servers in their cages, the mousetraps are miniature terrariums with bio- and electronic parts (chips, cables, computer parts), and the artist questions our position in relation to the predicaments of new technologies. The term ‘quantum dawn’ also refers to a series of cyber-security exercises that allow financial institutions and the sector as a whole to practice and improve coordination with key industry and government partners to keep the financial market functioning in the event of a systemic cyber-attack. On the other hand, the term ‘non-data’ does not mean that there is no data, but is a physical term and is used in quantum physics to refer to another state of data, as every data has its opposite, i.e. non-data.«
— Irena Borić, curator

Continue reading “Digital Oxymoron · Quantum Dawn”