Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.1
The Manifest.AR Venice Biennial Intervention website
posed five questions on identity to each of the artists officially included in the
Biennale: “Where do you feel at home? Does the future speak English or another
language? Is the artistic community a nation? How many nations do you feel inside
yourself? If art was a nation what would be written in its constitution?”
4
As an international artist collective that coalesced around challenging con-
ventions of inclusion and participation, we saw this as a personal invitation to
participate. Sander hijacked Curiger's curatorial statement and the Venice Biennale
website to create our Venice Manifesto, in which we proclaimed (see Fig.
2.1
): As
“one of the world's most important forums for the dissemination and 'illumination'
about the current developments in international art” the 54th Biennial of Venice
could not justify its reputation without an uninvited Manifest.AR Augmented Real-
ity infiltration. In order to “challenge the conventions through which contemporary
art is viewed” we have constructed virtual AR pavilions directly amongst the
30-odd buildings of the lucky few within the Giardini. In accordance with the
“ILLUMInations” theme and Bice Curiger's 5 questions our uninvited participation
will not be bound by nation-state borders, by physical boundaries or by conventional
art world structures. The AR pavilions at the 54th Biennial reflect on a rapidly
expanding and developing new realm of Augmented Reality Art that radically
crosses dimensional, physical and hierarchical boundaries (Manifest.AR Venice
Intervention
2011
a).
4
Although Curiger refers frequently to the “five questions,” they are not to be found on the official
Venice Biennale website. See for instance Flash Art (
2011
).
