Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.2
In the Venice Giardini: John Craig Freeman, Sander Veenhof, Simona Lodi (Share
Festival), and Will Pappenheimer and John Cleater in screens
We wanted our intervention however to go beyond merely addressing Curiger's
statement, and also reflect on events in the wider world as they related specifically to
the realities of Venice as a contemporary city. Questions about control of space went
beyond the confines of the Giardini. So-called “public” art has always depended on
permissions from the authorities to allow art to be placed in public view, and many a
“public” space is actually closely controlled. We therefore placed artworks not only
in the controlled curatorial space of the Venice Giardini, but also in the public space
of Piazza San Marco, which has itself seen censorship of officially planned artworks
(Magill
2007
).
Four of us from Manifest.AR were able to actually go to Venice, and another
five provided round-the-clock support from their various locations. Although AR
artworks can be created and placed on site from anywhere in the world via the
Internet, people are needed on site to document the artworks in screenshots and
video recordings, and - important for invisible artworks - to spread information
on the intervention to the audience and engage them in viewing the artworks.
We collaborated closely with another group intervention, The Invisible Pavilion.
Organized by Share Festival director Simona Lodi and the artist group Les Liens
Invisible, represented on site in Venice by Gionatan Quintini, we produced a
common flyer and held joint AR tours in the Giardini and Piazza San Marco (see
Figs.
2.2
and
2.3
, and also Manifest.AR Venice Intervention
2011b
).
