[rohrpost] 50^ Biennale

[Galleria A+A]

Press Release
MAKROLAB TERRITORY 2003  - CAMPALTO ISLAND, VENICE LAGOON Dreams and Conflicts - the dictatorship of the spectator - 50th Venice International Biennale of Art
As part of the 50th Venice International Biennale of Art, under the artistic direction of Aurora Fonda, with the  support of Interreg III A Phare CBC Italy/Slovenia, and in collaboration with Zavod Projekt Atol Ljubljana and zavod RX:TX Nova Gorica, the Patagonia Art Cultural Association presents as part of the curator Igor Zabel's section "Individual Systems" (on the Island of Campalto in Venice lagoon and at the Corderie), the project of the Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan

MAKROLAB mark Ilex

A real working laboratory, Makrolab is equipped to support artists, scientists and tactical media workers, who are supplied with instruments and means for collective progressive work aimed at developing wide-ranging research in the fields of telecommunications, climate research and migrations. Starting with the observation and identification of migratory flows, with (in the case of the Venetian laboratory) particular attention given to migrations linked to war zones and areas of social tension, migration of birds, their navigation skills and the migration of capital, the primary results will be analysed by the operators both while the laboratory is functioning and also in the future.  At the same time priority will be given to the exploration of new sensibilities together with a revision and redefinition of the terms of the social and individual concentrating on the network-centric identity.  This creative communication traces its origins to individual forces capable of developing a psycho-scientific entity in a particular environment, space/time. The Venetian setting - an abandoned island in the lagoon with a particular ecological and political history - offers itself as the ideal structure, an inspired vehicle-instrument, to achieve absolute independence, and reflection on the present entropic social conditions.  Therefore in Makrolab the environment is the primary factor in the development of a rapid formation of new social, creative, spiritual and, last but not least, economic concepts based solely on what is defined as integral individuality. 

Communication is developed through technologically advanced systems while energy is supplied through photovoltaics and wind generators. So, it is  not only and exclusively an artistic work with all the limitations of the term,  but more a progressive activity in  time and a projection in space/real time - susceptible to all possible modifications and enrichments, projecting into a social evolution of the intermediate environment. 
 

          Makrolab, started in 1994 by Marko Peljhan, and realised for the first time as part of Documenta X at Kassel in 1997, draws on the collaboration of people from many different studies and disciplines. It is expected to end in 2007, when the structure will be placed permanently in the Antarctic.  From then on Makrolab will be managed by a new trans-national foundation. The project has already been presented as a plan in  Venice, in June 1999 at the Querini Stampalia Foundation and, in February 2001 in a lecture, at the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation as part of the Guggenheim Public project.

 

Marko Peljhan was born in 1969 in Sempter pri Gorici, and having graduated in theatre and radio from the University of Ljubljana, in 1992 he founded Projekt Atol in order to realise visual arts works, performances and situations.  In 1995 he developed the technological branch of Projekt Atol - Pact Systems and is one of the founders of Ljudmila (Ljubljana Digital Media Lab). He has been involved in many projects in the field of technology and communications research, including the collaboration with the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow, where he coordinated seven parabolic flights in microgravity for different artistic projects from 1999 to 2003. Together with the Baterija group of architects he coordinated the production of the mobile media lab Transhub in 2001, later realised as Mobilatorij for the Mobitel d.d. company. He has worked on Makrolab since 1994.  

He has participated in numerous festivals, exhibitions and presentations including Documenta X at Kassel, the Johannesburg Biennale, Manifesta, Gwangju Biennale, ISEA and many others. His work has won several awards including the Medienkunst prize of SWR and ZKM. Together with Carsten Nicolai, for their work Polar, he won the Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica in 2001.  He is currently professor of art and media at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 
Below are the artists, scientists, tactical operators involved in the Makrolab project:  
LJUDMILA (Ljubljana Digital Media Lab) - project web portal, database creation, finalising of SLIX (Slovenian version of LINUX) 

BUREAU D'ETUDES - Sofware development to visualise automatic mapping of non-linear databases.

BRIAN SPRINGER - tactial satellite project

PATAGONIA ART - in collaboration with l'ASSESORATO ALLE POLITICHE SOCIALI - research on migration, interviews with migrant workers

DOPPS - (Association for Research and Observation of Birds) - Venice Lagoon Brid Count, migration research 

PACT SYSTEMS - research of network centric warfare methods

UCSB, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA - Summer study programme/ convergence of art and telecommunications.

PREPCOM MAKROLAB - Meeting of the tactical coordination group for the WSIS summit, which will take place in Geneva in December 2003

DYNE.ORG -  Open source software development and distribution

POLITEHNIKA NOVA GORICA - ecological measurements project, analysis of the architecture of Makrolab and of the sustainability of the laboratory technological systems.

 

>From 15 June until September it is possible to reach the laboratory and visit it daily thanks to a ferry service which leaves from the Arsenale (timetable still to be confirmed). For information and reservations write to makrolab at libero.it or phone the Slovenian Cultural Centre on 041 2770466 between 12 and 6pm.

 

The project is divided into the following phases:

 

MAKROLAB MARK IIEX Laboratory Operations, June-September 2003

MAKROLAB MARK IIEX Network  Operations, June-November 2003

 

Project URL is: http://makrolab.ljudmila.org

 

The inclusion of the laboratory in  the 50th Venice Biennale was made possible thanks to:  Comune di Venezia, Assessorato alle Politiche Sociali, Regione Veneto, Commisione Europea Interreg III Phare CBC Italy/Slovenia, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Ljubljana City Council, Nova Gorica City Council and Mobitel d.d. 

The project could not have been realised without the support, financial or otherwise of the following: Patagonia Art, Venice; zavod Projekt Atol, Ljubljana. zavod RX:TX Nova Gorica; Ljudmila, Ljubljana; HIT Nova Gorica; Peter Bednar Logistica, Venice and many others. 

 

 

International press office :   

                                                                                                       

Roberta Lombardo Hurstel                                                                                                                          

8bis, rue de l'Argonne - 75019 Paris                                                                                                                             

tel. +33 1 53 26 04 26 - fax +33 1 53 30 00 26                                                                                                             

fax: +386-1-563 5247

Castello, 5064/b - 30122 Venezia

tel. +39 041 52 87 721 - cell. +33 6 10 56 42 51 

hurstel.roberta at wanadoo.fr

makrolab at ljudmila.org