Curators
Madeleine Aktypi and Nicolas Frespech with Poptronics
Artists
Annie Abrahams – Pierre Alferi – Andreas Angelidakis – Pascale Barret – Zoe Beloff – Sarah Bodman – Harry Burke – Lucille Calmell – Marco Cetera – Thomas Cheneseau – Claude Closky – Clôde Coulpier – Serge Comte – Carla Demierre – Maurizio Di Feo – Constant Dullaart – Emmanuelle Gibello – David Guez – Jodi – Jérôme Joy – Olga Kisseleva – Silvio Lorusso – Jonas Lund – Miltos Manetas – M.E.R.C.U.R.E. – Albertine Meunier – Rosa Menkman – Eva Papamargariti – Gabriel Peyre – Angelo Plessas – Jim Punk – Sebastian Schmieg – Rafaël Rozendaal – Yoshi SodeokaProject Octopus / / towards an online exhibition
Projet Octopus °°a self-growing exhibition with tentacles gradually extending all over the globe / online opening October 22, 2012 – expiry date unknown –<
Am I an octopus? William Burroughs’ question may seem unlikely but it is not really. Not if you consider that cunning and polymorphic animal. Think of the fearsome creature of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or the « sweet virtue of communication » of Lautréamont’s octopus or even the aquarium octopuses that Jean Painlevé filmed, not to mention the cephalopod’s erotic couplings as depicted by Hokusai. These molluscs attract the attention of artists and excite the imagination of scientists. These invertebrates show their true colors: they exhibit their emotions directly on the surface of their skin. Plastic and changeable, the octopus is « a mutant visuality » (W.B.) attuned to real-time display. It is the ultimate visual animal. Equipped with a multitude of neurons distributed all along its 8 tentacles, the octopus preaches decentralized thinking. Endowed with a memory that scientists call spatial, the octopus is also capable of tracing amazing trails.
Throughout the summer and until the « Forms and processes » Symposium (26 and 27 November 2012, Centre Rabelais, Montpellier) the School of Fine Arts of Montpellier and the team of pratiquesetnumerique.com – in partnership with Poptronics.fr, which celebrates its 5th year anniversary – invites artists, researchers and journalists to stage an online exhibition, the Projet Octopus.
Based on an idea by Nicolas Frespech, the exhibition unfolds in two phases. Participants are first asked to answer a list of questions. Once completed and forwarded, these forms will determine the artworks shown and will serve as the exhibition catalog. Shared externalization / distributed existence.
Madeleine Aktypi
Thomas Cheneseau 