#LAYERS presents creations by 15 contemporary Italian artists, who reflect in their work on the influence of the Internet and the digitisation of our society.
Since the nineties technology has opened new avenues for creativity and democratized the creation and distribution of images. This democratization poses new challenges to art. How do artists engage with the social and cultural transformations introduced by the web? How do they relate to big data, the cloud, the end of privacy, generative processes, the corruption of digital data, endless scrolling and everything that concerns our online lives?
The title of the exhibition, #LAYERS, refers to the different ways in which digital complexity manifests itself in the works presented: the distinction between code and interface in generative art and glitch art; the creative use of social media; the stratification of different timeframes in the archives of digital memory; the distinction between public and private, material and immaterial, visible and invisible.
#LAYERS was first presented in fall 2016 in the Spazio Contemporania in Brescia, Italy, as part of refresh, an ongoing investigation by curator Fabio Paris and producer Link Art Center of Italian contemporary art that tackles the themes, languages, and forms that have emerged during the digital turn of the last twenty years.
(from the press release)
REFRESH02 – #LAYERS – Contemporary Art in the Digital Era, curated by Fabio Paris and organized by iMAL The catalogue is published by Link Editions and available online (Italian /English)
La Rafinerie, Bruxelles, 18.04 (opening) – 26.05.2018
images: (cover 1) Marco Cadioli, «PROTO #11», 2016, digital print on DBond, 140 x 100 cm. Photo: Roberto Ricca (2) Guido Segni, «Demand full laziness, today. A five-year plan for the dull automation of art production», 2018 – 2023. Website, AI performative algorithm, music: Fabio Angeli. AI technical support: Michele Toni (3) IOCOSE, «Drone Memorial», 2016, Plexiglass mirror, laser engravings on Plexiglas, aluminum, patinated copper, GPS module, website – 350 x 160 x 250 cm. Photo: Matteo Cattaruzzi (4) Carlo Zanni, «Ohhhhh.me»,2018, customized card file cabinets, business cards, iPhone, Internet, 100 x 65 x 26 cm
