[Yasmin_announcements] Mark Amerika - Unrealtime - EMST

[Daphne Dragona]

*Mark Amerika**
UNREALTIME*

Retrospective exhibition


The National Museum of Contemporary Art presents from October 22nd, 2009
until January 3rd, 2010, for the first time in Greece, a retrospective
exhibition of the American artist and pioneer in the media arts field, Mark
Amerika. The first presentation of his work in Greece took place in the
framework of EMST's online exhibition titlted *e-critures* (2008).

By emphasizing the construction of new digital identities and fictional
personas, as well as the cross-correlation of new histories and mythologies
in website, Amerika investigates the ways by which the somatic-sensory
experience evolves into a new "Life Style Practice". He perceives the
networked and interconnected digital space as an inventive remix machine, a
multimedia network publishing platform, an exhibition space, a performance
venue, a conceptual art canvas, a computer supported collaborative research
lab and an an experiential design playground. His work, therefore, work is a
critical reflection of the different sides of today's digital culture
offering an opportunity to speculate on the ways our lives are changing in
the contemporary realm.

Amerika describes himself as a "thoughtographer", an "artist-medium", a
"fictional philosopher", a "remixologist", a "network conductor", a wonderer
who constantly changes identities and roles in a fragmentary world where
time acquires an a-synchronic and non real dimension. By trying to express
the complexity and the interest of contemporary digital reality, he delves
into different aspects of himself and draws on elements and traits that he
transfers to the characters of his works, by using the media the
technological platforms of our time. Developing projects on the net, filming
with mobile phones, remixing common moments and figures of today`s culture
in an VJ-like audiovisual rhythm, Amerika redifines the characteristics of
today's culture and opens up the possibilities for new interpretations and
thoughts from the audience itself.

Having been characterized as a "Time Magazine 100 Innovator" between the
most influential artists, scientists, entertainers and philosophers of the
21st century, and having been acknowledged by museums, art-centers and
festivals with solo exhibitions and presentations around the world, Amerika
is an example not only of an important artist but of a multi dimensional
personality. This becomes apparent not only from his work but also from his
lifestyle, which is directly interwoven with digital culture.

*Mark Amerika is a net artist, a published novelist, an experimental
essayist and a Professor of Art and Art History at the University of
Colorado at Boulder. In addition to his artistic work, Amerika also gives
performances, lectures, and workshops on new media culture, electronic
literature, web publishing, Internet art and theory, live audio/visual and
VJ performance, hypertext, hactivism, and Web 2.0. He is also the author of
many books, including the published collection of artist writings META/DATA:
A digital poetics (The MIT press, 2007).*

*http://www.markamerika.com/*



*Curated by: Daphne Dragona
*

*Opening: Thursday 22 October 2009, 8 pm
Duration: 23 October 2009 - 3 January 2010*

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The artist will present his work on *Friday the 23rd of October*, at 7 pm in
the context of the programme "The artists meet the audience".

Title of talk: *"Living in Unrealitime: A networked narrative"*.





* *

*With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens*

* *

*National Museum of Contemporary Art*
Building of the Athens Conservatory:
Vas. Georgiou Β 17 -19 & Rigillis street, Athens, 10675
Tel: + 30 210 92.42.111 - 3, Fax: + 30 210 92.45.200
emails: protocol at emst.gr <protocol at emst.culture.gr>, pressoffice at emst.gr
www.emst.gr <http://www.emst.gr/>, http://fixit-emst.blogspot.com