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“The Other Shapes of Art” – Emilio Vavarella

The project rs548049170_1_69869_TT (The Other Shapes of Me) by artist Emilio Vavarella, winner of the 6th Edition of Italian Council (program to promote Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism), is now presented in New York, at the Institute, with this event titled: rs548049170_1_69869_TT: Genesis of an Idea, curated by Ramdom.

Streaming on Ramdom’s Facebook page 

From 12pm to 1:30pm (EST Time) / from 6pm to 7:30pm (CET).

The title of the project – rs548049170_1_69869_TT (The Other Shapes of Me) – refers to the first line of text resulting from the genotyping of Vavarella’s DNA. The work is based on the translation of his genetic code in a large fabric, through the labour of his mother, using one of the first modern computational machines: the Jacquard loom. The result is a monumental work composed of a fabric, a loom and a video, that is part of the permanent collection of MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.

The event will focus in particular on the film Genesis, and the artist book ‘rs548049170_1_69869_TT’ (published by MOUSSE), along with a discussion of the theoretical issues raised by Vavarella’s project. With the participation of Emilio Vavarella (Artist and Researcher, Harvard University), Paolo Mele (Director of Ramdom), Claudio Zecchi (Curator at Ramdom), Stephen Monteiro (Media Scholar and Theorist, Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal) and Ursula Wolz (Lecturer, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, New York). Introductory remarks by Fabio Finotti (Director of Italian Cultural Institute, New York),

 

Ramdom is an organization dedicated to cultural and artistic productions, based in Gagliano del Capo, Italy. It was founded in 2011 by Paolo Mele and Luca Coclite with the aim of providing international visibility to contemporary art projects produced in a collaboration with the local territory of Salento. Over the past seven years, its activities have included exhibitions, public art productions, residencies, and workshops, plus two ongoing research-focused endeavors: Investigation of Extreme Lands and DEFAULT. In 2016 it launched Until the End of the Sea Residency program, dedicated to artists and curators under thirty-five. Ramdom’s headquarters, Lastation, is located on the first floor of a still-active railway station (Gagliano–Leuca) in southeast Italy and is home to a media library, a residency room, and an open space for exhibitions and performances.

Claudio Zecchi is curator at Ramdom. His research investigates new visions and readings of the public sector, analyzing the relationship between practices, territories, and local communities. He was part of the curatorial team of the 2013 Biennale of Young Artists from Mediterranean Europe. He has undertaken research projects, mainly to investigate discursive formats, at Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2014), Residency Unlimited, New York (2015), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, (2016), Pivô Pesquisa, São Paulo (2017), and TOKAS_Tokyo Arts and Space (2018).

Emilio Vavarella is an artist and researcher at Harvard University, where he is currently working toward a PhD in film and visual studies and critical media practice. Vavarella’s work blends interdisciplinary art practice and theoretical research, and centers on the relationship between humans and technological power. He has exhibited at MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome; KANAL – Centre Pompidou, Bruxelles; MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago.

Ursula Wolz studies educational informatics and combines academics and entrepreneurship to develop computer-based learning environments for hands-on and hands-off computer workshops, storytelling engines for instruction, and artificially intelligent tutors. She founded RiverSound Solutions with the mission of empowering computer users to become creators with—rather than consumers of— computing. Her recent work focuses on “code crafting,” an exploration of how computer science concepts (from function parameters, to path finding, to generative design) can be expressed through hand and machine textile production.

Stephen Monteiro is a media scholar and theorist based in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. His work focuses on the cultural roots and consequences of media design and networked interactivity. He is the author of two books, The Fabric of Interface (MIT Press, 2017) and Screen Presence (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), and edited The Screen Media Reader (Bloomsbury, 2017). His essays and articles on contemporary media have appeared in numerous international journals.

 

 

  • Organized by: ICI
  • In collaboration with: Ramdom