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Painter, conceptual artist and theorist

Miltos Manetas is a Greek-born painter, conceptual artist and theorist whose work explores the representation and the aesthetics of the information society. Manetas is the Founder of NEEN (the first art movement of the 21st century), a pioneer of art-after-videogames (MACHINIMA) and an instigator of Post-Internet Art. In 2009 he initiated the INTERNET PAVILION for the Venice Biennial, in 2014, in collaboration with Rome's Swiss Institute, he introduced the concept of ÑEWPRESSIONISM. These days he is using DOCUMENTA 14 to develop the concept of MEDIOSUD. According to LEV MANOVICH, Manetas' art can be placed within a well-established tradition in modern painting (representing modern people in their particular modern settings). According to NICOLAS BOURRIAUD Manetas' work belongs to the domain of RELATIONAL AESTHETICS and POST-PRODUCTION

CV / Biography

Today the 5028 artist in the world and falling..

De reciente-muy de reciente- descubrí, que el tema de mi trabajo soy yo!

Descubrí esto en castellano que es el idioma en que ahora me atrevo de escribir estas palabras, un español bastante incoherente como mi obras de arte. Un castellano que todavía va a ser mejorado exactamente como mis obras de arte que van a ser mejoradas de otros autores, como lo son estado mejoradas las obras de todos los artistas primero y después de mi.

Como se mejora un obra de arte visual? Mirándola!

Porque castellano? Es el idioma de mi hija y entonces de un muy joven, muy prometedor version de mi. Ella, mi hija Alpha, tiene en estos días del 2018, seis años. Mi castellano tiene cuatro. Empece escuchando Proust en Audiolibro en una finca de amigos en Barichara. Jamas y buscado, ni busco aprender el idioma, mi intención desde el principio es convertirme en una Persona Colombiana, un “Colombiano" como lo he sido Gabriel García Márquez primero de mi y como soy yo ahora incluso mi español insuficiente. Uno no tiene tempo para aprender nada, todo el tiempo nos sirve solo para trasformarnos. Todavía, mi castellano va a mejorar de seguro como se mejora cada día mi vida, mi vida que no esta acabada! Mi vida es la vida de un artista visual y no de un escritor como yo soñé desde la edad que tiene ahora Alpha y es una vida de 53 anos que de seguro va a duplicarse hasta los 100 y seis años -porque me sirven… Mi vida va a continuar y continuar y yo a mirar y a mirar… No solamente a mirar ma también a programar.

Como se programa una vida? Una manera es pintándola. Esto lo estoy haciendo desde el año 1983. Quieres ir a mirar en esto año? Acá esta.. Tenia 19 años entonces, Grecia fu apenas envuelta una bolla de fantasía “Europea”, y gracias a esta fantasia-y por supuesto gracias al crédito que los “Europeos” regalaron a los Griegos por sentirse autorizados a tomar de ellos todo- me encontré estudiando Belles Artes en Roma y Milan. Esto fu en los años 1985-89, quieres ir a ver¿ Acá esta… Sabe uno que esta programando su vida? No lo sabe hasta que llega a ser viejo y entonces re-empezar a vivir, una segunda vida, posiblemente libre, posiblemente-si libre-una vida feliz! Esta es mi vida ahora: la vida feliz vida de un viejo que ahora sabe que la esta programando y lo quiere hacer acá, en el internet porque se volvió loco. Es una locura buscar de programar algo en el Internet!

Una locura buscar programar algo atreves idiomas! Yo ya pase por estas partes- gracias educación! gracias sociedad!- y jamas pensaría de hacerlo de nuevo si no fuera por mi hija Alpha. Ella ahora esta entrando en esta locura y quiero hacerlo yo también para mirar -con ojos abiertos esta vez- los horrores. Los dos estamos estamos aprendiendo Mandarin… me imagino que en sei años me voy a re-empezar todo el trabajo sobre mi en Chino..

En el mismo tiempo, yo estoy haciendo dibujos que no son dibujos pero “μέμωρι”. Que es μέμωρι? No se. Acá esta..

Y estoy mirando mis antiguas pinturas y estoy haciendo dibujos -que esta vez si! son dibujos.. Acá están: Drawings Quasi Paintings.

Y estoy pintando imágenes y material desde l’Internet..Porque? Estoy loco? Porque pintar l’Internet? No se.. Acá están..El Museo MAXXI en ROMA va a tener un exposición con estas pinturas en Marzo 2018.

Y estoy proyectando cosas sobre todas las cosas.. Ago esto con mi cellular.. Por mi estas son exposiciones, mis exposiciones mas preciadas en estos días! Si quieren ver, acá están.

Y estoy continuando la Berlin Biennial 2016, un exposición que no hacia parte ma que creo que tengo que continuar para siempre.. Acá esta…

Y estoy trabajando en muchas otras cosas.. con Nora Renaud desarrollando Ñewpressionismo, y sin mis viejos compañeros Angelidakis/Plessas/Rozendaal/Ueda/Calvert buscando siempre Neen y sin mucho interés desde los países de MedioSud estoy buscando MedioSud, y sin algún interés de parte de Colombia estoy continuando el trabajo de Taller4Rojo, y estoy continuando el Padiglione Internet para la Biennale de Venezia, y estoy probando la realidad de la sobre-realtad, y hasta ahora me gusta el concepto de la Piratería, y estoy a veces recordando l´arte que hacia años antes manejando videojuegos y Machinima, y estoy a veces-y siempre- pintando porque la pintura si!!

working HARD on Social Media

  • Facebook/Instagram /Twitter etc

Manetas on Instagram

What is Art today and why?

  • What & Why

Using just 15% of my full value

Taking advance today of the full value of our work its not a good idea. That's because Art has become such a profession that rips Time away from us... Read

»I"ve seen us locked in a triangle made by chopsticks... Three black chopsticks, USA-made by steel-Europe -made by wood- and China -a plastic one- are closing around us. They are hard and fast and we are rice. They represent the Total North«

Three black chopsticks (READ)

Art for a Middle South

Our lifestyle is now updated in real time. At the same time, all kinds of distances are canceled. Everywhere in the world, South and North become just one: NORTH. In the Western territories of the Northern World and mostly Europe, a new Middle South is born.

In the NORTH, the deal between society and government was always clear. During fascism, society is asked to obey, during democracy, society is asked to debate. In both cases - in the NORTH - art is the authorized voice of society. Therefore, during democracy, art HAS to debate.

read

2017, year of NOW

  • "TORTUGA" in Mexico City, Preparing MedioSud at DOCUMENTA, Preparing TOGETHERNESS for the Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Painting Dried Webpages, living in Bogotá.

Continuing ÑEWPRESSIONISM in America Latina

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

"Neonwater"

Neonwater

Un vídeo publicado por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

»ÑEWPRESSIONISM started in 2014 in Italy after an invitation of Rome's Swiss Institute«

ÑEWPRESSIONISM.COM

¨TORTUGA¨, A SHOW IN MEXICO CITY

“In Mexico City, "Tortuga" by Miltos Manetas and Nora Renaud at Aldo Chaparro Studio

In Mexico City

"Tortuga" at Aldo Chapparo Studio, Mexico City

While in Bogotá...

Fac-simile of "Tortuga" at our house in Bogotá

"ALPHA PAINTING HERSELF"

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

Alpha...

Alpha drawing herself

Un vídeo publicado por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

painting herself..

Alpha drawing herself

Un vídeo publicado por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

EXHIBITING MY PAINTINGS IN PLACES

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

At WOK...

My paintings in places

Una foto publicada por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

in Bogotá

My paintings in places

Una foto publicada por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

EXHIBITING MY PAINTINGS ON PEOPLE'S BACK

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

On Laura's back

My paintings in places (Laura)

Una foto publicada por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

Drawing...

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

Drawing...

Video (with Alpha Manetas)

Un vídeo publicado por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

Walking with Screens

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

Walking...

Myself

Un vídeo publicado por Miltos Manetas (@miltosmanetas) el

"Drops"

“From Screen to Nature and Back Again..

Dried Webpages AT THE INTERNET TALLER

“in Bogotá, at La Candelaria..

2016

2017

2017

2016, year of

  • 9th Berlin Biennial/the 05:05 show in Sabina/AFTER POKÉMON in Shanghai/MYSTICAL STAIRCASE/MY TIMELINE online

9th Berlin Biennial

“ In Spring 2015, invited to participate at the 9th Berlin Biennial the online magazine DIS was curating, I agreed meeting two guys from DIS in Bogotá but in the beginning of June, on the same day we had arrange to meet, I had to fly to Europe so our encounter never happened. We agreed to meet on Skype and discuss my participation but once I arrived in Greece I was catapulted into the Greek Summer of NO and I forgot everything else.. So the Berlin Biennial forgot me and I forgot it too until May 29th of 2016, just a few days before the opening of the exhibition that a friend told me he was going to Berlin. "I am part of this show"-I told him- "wait, I am not!".. Suddenly thinking I maybe missing something important, I looked online and noticed that the subject of this Biennial was exactly the issue that interests me the most: "our strange new life". So I decide to participate anyway... That same day, I sit on my computer and "sucked" everything from BB9's official website . Somehow magically learning how to modify it, I start re-creating the Berlin Biennial at Biennale.net by adding the content that -I believe- was missing.. I also start looking the Biennale online, at its […]” Instagram and Facebook and start remaking them at Instagram and Facebook . Following the tag #berlinbiennale , I discover that this exhibition was new Century's most interesting exhibition of its kind. But to become crystal-clear, my contribution was needed so I start "painting" it online, using my "Painting with Likes" technique that I invented on the spot. As I am convinced that "Shows-that-matter-should-never-end", I think I'll keep working on this show forever...

On Instagram

And in China...

“ in China..

Pokémon
Pokémon prints after Pokémon

AFTER Pokémon (15 years later)

In Shanghai..

Pokemon Again

And fifteen years earlier

“When in 2000, Gallery Analix (Geneva) asked me to do a new show with them, "Pokémon Stadium" had just launched for Nintendo 64. Pokémon's presence was for me some short of Manifesto and so I decide to make a Pokémon exhibition. I re-drawn and printed a number of Pokemon and then enlarged them using my Vibracolour on Super-glossy paper technique. In Geneva, Pokémon were met by the art world with total indifference, even embarrassment.

in Geneva

Who or better "what" was writing that "Manifesto" and what was stated on it wasn't completely clear back then. To me, it seamed written directly from "the computer world" and as with a few other "special" videogames like "Doom" & "SuperMario", its message was somehow existential. Now, 16 years later, in a world where our computer is no more kept "by the hand" -as with a PlayStation controller- neither it seats on our lap as with a laptop, now that its glued on our palm (a tablet) and has become a third-palm for us (instead of a third-eye), it all makes sense.. Pokémon and certain other videogame creatures were indeed a manifesto but it wasn't the generic "Computer World" promoting it, it was put forward instead by one of its more mysterious creations that was just coming of age: "Pokémon" was the Manifesto of the Animated Cartoon

And in Italy..

“in Italia..

"05:05" show in Sabina

“05:05" was a five minutes show that opened on 05:05 AM on "a beautiful road" in Sabina on July 30th, 2016. The show lasted about 55 minutes presenting the work of 5 artists: Alessandro Gianní , Joseph Kosuth, Miltos Manetas, Valentina Nascimben & Nora Renaud. Each work was visible for about 5 minutes. The show closed down at 06:06 AM. 6 cars were used to access the "beautiful road". The first car was carrying the artists that-in alphabetical order- had to pick a spot and install their work in a zone of 555 meters around the point where the "beautiful road" meets the river. The last car was carrying movie directors Emiliano Montanari & Gerdi Petanaj filming the event from a distance and collecting the works. At 5:55 AM, a 6 minutes ceremony was performed at the Agriturismo Paradiso before the closing of the show at 06:06AM.

And still in Italy..

“in Italia..

AMYSTICALSTAIRCASE
A MYSTICAL STAIRCASE

Curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi

Online exhibition hosted and powered by 63rd77thsteps.com As part of: The Internet Saga Artists: Sarah Abu Abdallah, Basma Al Sharif, Johanna Bruckner, FAKA, Gina Folly, ForeverAdaForever, Foundland, Chiara Fumai, Tiril Hasselknippe, Jerome Hill, Institute for New Feeling, Karl Larsson, Kareem Lotfy, Malibu 1992, Miltos Manetas, Eva Papamargariti, Luca Pozzi, Tabita Rezaire, Harry Sanderson, Fabio Santacroce, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Chai Siris, Berkay Tuncay, Brent Watanabe. Online opening: Thursday 23rd June 2016, www.63rd77thsteps.com Public presentation: 8th July 2016, Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum

And in Milan...

“in Italia..

SHOWING MY "TIMELINE"

And in Colombia..

“ in Colombia..

Social Art Now
TALLER 4ROJO AHORA

TALLER 4ROJO "AHORA!" (Now)

“2016: Reanimar el arte político colombiano para la Colombia de hoy."Re-enacting Colombian Political Art for today's Colombia".

and Munich..

“ in Germany..

Abstract Screens

Abstract Screens

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

Abstract Screens

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

Continuing the 444 PAINTINGS

Fourfortyfour Paintings

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

and on computer screen

“ on screens..

CROPPEDCABLES
CROPPED CABLES

Cropped-Cables

and from online

“ online..

2015, year of

  • BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, living in Bogotá, CO
INTERNET PAVILION 2015
INTERNET PAVILION 2015

"LOOKING AT THE INTERNET"

To understand this years Pavilion, I have to tell you first about the next one, the Pavilion I am planning for 2017. The theme will be TOGETHERNESS and that was actually the theme that I envisioned initially for 2015, but then I realized, that we are actually very far from TOGETHERNESS yet .. And when I say far, I mean we are far from even start thinking seriously about Togetherness: we are still at the stage of a-man-in-front-of-a-computer-screen, looking on what we call ”Internet”. So, I decide, to take a closer look to that “Internet” by making one or two videos per day, recording everything and recording myself and others as well, while we are "looking“.

LOOKING at the Internet (in Venice with Nora Renaud Where is Venice? Is it somewhere online? What happens there?)

And in Italy..

“ in Italy…

2014, year of

  • ÑEWPRESSIONISM, Studio in Sabina
ÑEWPRESSIONISM
ÑEWPRESSIONISM

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

First in Rome

Ñ in Purple

In Milan

»from Screen to Nature«

»and back again«

Started Painting...

“ Trees on Skype in Sabina, Italy

TREES ON SKYPE
TREES ON SKYPE

2013, year of

  • 55th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, The Unconnected, Two Francescos
The Unconnected
The Unconnected, INTERNET PAVILION 2013

"THE UNCONNECTED"

After having sailed together with the PirateBay in 2009 and after having conquered the island of San Servolo in 2011, the "Internet Pavilion" is now based in the old Oratory of San Ludovico, a holy church from the XVI Century. On the bare walls of the little Chapel, Miltos Manetas realizes a cycle of oil paintings inspired by the devotional paint work of the Venetian Renaissance. However, if Vittore Carpaccio - for example - in the Scuola di San Giorgi has glorified the gestures of St. George who killed the dragon, the Greek artist chooses a totally different kind of holy protectors for his Church. Patron saints of the Internet Pavilion are in fact the Unconnected: those people who indeed still live without an email or social network account, miraculously immune from internet dependency.
In an age like ours, where the border between real and virtual has collapsed, the digital Unconnected seem like real monks or holy men who – voluntarily or not – are detached from the world through an ascetic practice, being free from the chaotic flow of images and information. To show them how life works in the era of smart phones, between 2.0 vices and multimedia paradises, there is a “Tintoretto style” painting by Miltos Manetas, portraying the postures and behavior of those who come in contact with the web. Astonished looks, fixed on small mobile phone screens, or the expression of thinkers filmed by the laptops webcams, animate paintings of various sizes which, set up in a sacred space, recall both the polyptychs or the altar pieces as much as the opened tabs on a computer desktop. To know who the Unconnected really are is not easy. For this reason the power of the network has been challenged. A recruiting campaign has been launched on Facebook during the 2 months preceding the opening of the Biennial. The social network users have been asked whether they knew people who weren’t online and requested to advise the Internet Pavilion staff about their first names and surnames. Quickly a series of identities from various profiles was formed: from the parents of very popular bloggers to famous singers and showmen. Among the Unconnected there are, for example, Luigi Ontani and Enzo Cucchi, two of the most well known Italian artists, or Donald Knuth, computer technician and emeritus professor of the Stanford University, who at a certain stage of his life decided to repudiate Internet.
The list is clearly still incomplete. In order to evoke the spirit of the Unconnected inside the pavilion, some participants will act in the exhibition space on the opening day and in the following months. Particularly the bharatanatyam dance expert Marianna Biadene and the computer engineer Pasquale Fedele, who specialize in neuron interfaces. The borderline meeting between contemporary dance, ritual and brain control, under the sign of painting, will give life to a lyrical moment, unique and one-off, which will distance the audience from the expository bulimia typical of the Biennale to be transported to a contemplative dimension of inner peace. The multiform results of the III Internet Pavilion are collected in the exhibition’s catalog. The publishing is a special edition of Solo, the monographic magazine edited by AcM Collezione Coppola: a precious element to decode the history and the symbols of this Internet Pavilion 2013. The research of and about the Unconnected will then continue in unpredictable ways thanks to the collaboration with Nero Magazine. Produced by: Associazione E, AmC, Nuova Icona, Collezione Coppola Media partners: Gloria Maria Gallery, NERO, My Art Guide, Lightbox, UP3 Architetti Associati, Liquidweb, Drago Publishing.

"LOOKING AT SCREENS" Again...

Women Looking...

In Rome, Italy

M&A looking at screen

“In Rome, Italy”

Bipolar Paintings
Bipolar Paintings

Camilo & Benjamin

“In Bogotá, Colombia”

Alpha & Catalina

“In Rome, Italy”

MEDIO SUD
MEDIO SUD

MedioSud in my mind

The idea of MedioSud was born when Marina Fokidis invited me to write a text for her new-born magazine South. That was just after my daughter Alpha was born, I was living in the South of Europe again- in Rome- after many years spend in the World's North (USA, UK, Paris etc) and I had start thinking about it.. What was this place now- the Mediterranean basin- after all these years, after the Internet? Who were those people such as Fokidis and other old friends and family? Most of them would cry for help -as if the sky had fallen on their heads- (the crisis! the crisis!), still, having spend a bit of time in Colombia, I wouldn't believe them. So I visited Greece and I realized that the country and its people never looked more interesting and alive, I looked around Europe and I show a Middle South rising, a new reality that isn't "South" no-more, still its not - and doesn't agree to become - a Total North either. So I wrote for Fokidis' magazine "My Family in Middle South" and when a few months later, Salvatore Lacagnina and Rome's Swiss Institute, asked me to write something about art in Rome (for their contribution to Berlin Biennial), I took that opportunity to write a little manifesto about how I imagined art in Middle South-the art in MedioSud. And then-suddenly- a miracle: Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) decide to resign! As the history of the South was always depending on Christianity, I felt that the possibility or a new Middle South Movement starts existing exactly on the day the Pope resigns and the world is left unshadowed -for a bit a least- free from that religious ghost. Therefore, on Feb 28, 2013, I introduced MedioSud at the MACRO in Rome. In 2015- Greece surprised us all the way Ratzinger did two year earlier: the SYRIZA government had decide to put together a Mondial Performance by asking the Greek People if they agreed to continue be exploited by Europe. They answered NO, Europe ignored them and went on exploiting them. During the Greek Summer of NO, Adam Szymczyk, announced Athens as one of the two cities that will be hosting DOCUMENTA 14, the very Northern exhibition Total North is using to teach to the World "the way to be intellectual" (the Latin word "documentum" comes from "docere" -teach- and "mens" -intellect.)

And in 2013...

“I start painting "Skype Paintings" in Rome

"On Skype" Paintings

“"Skype Paintings" in Rome

"New Groups" Paintings

“"New Groups" in Rome

"Little Screen" Paintings

“ Suddenly its all about little screens... I decide to start painting portraits of my daughter Alpha as she grows up framed in the different evolution versions of those screens.. I also start doing "Parallel Portraits" and give as a present to those I love. Those who receive those paintings have the choose to either keep its "screen" as it is (blank) or ask me to paint their portrait in it..

Falling in Conero

I lost my grip on the rock, and I started going down on my back, slowly for two seconds, and accelerating immediately after. I remember everything, the whole timeline. My memory has kept every detail enveloped and timestamped. One-Two-Three-Four! I remember that for these first four seconds, I was simply mad with disbelief. I was upset with my destiny, annoyed that it was letting down my crazy plan of arriving at the beach by descending the impossible surface of a very steep rock. Five! By the fifth second, I was already falling very fast. Six-Seven- Eight! I could see only the void at the edge of the rock about thirty meters away, and I knew that I was about to die. Read more

Falling in Conero

PIRACY MANIFESTO & STICKER

“PIRACY MANIFESTO & STICKER designed by Experimental Jetset, commissioned by MAXXI National Museum of Art of the 21st Century in Rome for its inaugural exhibition in June 2010

At MAXXI

Reading the Manifesto

The Manifesto in 2009

Started Painting...

“ "Selfies Paintings" in Bogotá, Colombia

Selfies Paintings
"Selfies" Paintings

"Selfie" PAINTINGS

“ As we all start looking ourselves mirrored on the palms of ourselves where now a computer screen is glued, I start painting "Selfie Paintings" in Bogotá. I didn't paint any faces on them-that would be banal.. just the "mirrors"...

2009, year of

  • ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO, First Internet Pavilion
INTERNET PAVILION 2009
INTERNET PAVILION 2009

"The Embassy of Piracy"

For the first edition of the Internet Pavilion, Manetas and Aman invited to Venice a number of people involved with the activist website ThePirateBay.org to inaugurate the „Embassy of Piracy“. Just a few hours after the press-statement of Padiglione Internet was released, the administration of the Venice Biennial began receiving calls from the Berlusconi Government ordering from them to cancel the invitation of ThePirateBay.

Pirates of the Internet

For the first edition of the Internet Pavilion, Manetas and Aman, decide to invite a number of people involved with the activist website ThePirateBay.org to come in Venice and inaugurate the Embassy of Piracy. But just a few hours after the press statement of PadiglioneInternet was released, the administration of the Venice Biennial start receiving calls from the Berlusconi government asking them to cancel the invitation of ThePirateBay.

"We are Pirates of the Internet
Pirates of the World Wide Web
Nothing that can stop us now
We are here to stay..."


read full story

And "Pirate Paintings"...

“Paintings with the PirateBay.org boat painted on them and a hard drive from where one can "grab" pirated files..

And...

“I start painting "Monochrome Paintings" in Rome and Bogotá

"Monochrome" Paintings

“ Monochromes are the paintings of paintings..

"Nature" PAINTINGS

“ Suddenly I discovered nature so I start painting "Nature Paintings"

And in the UK..

“ in London…

Five O Five show
ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO

ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO

Bourriaud

AT TATE BRITAIN

in Seoul

“ In Seoul…

2008, year of

  • Cable-Rug, BURNING my paintings at the desert, Second Life

Started "EXISTENCE" Paintings

“ "Existence" in Milan, Italy

1995

SADTREE
SADTREE

"Sad Tree" First museodinverno.com painting

Sad Tree

In Bordeaux, France

Sad Tree Polaroid

In Derveni, Greece

TRAFFIC Introduction to Relational Aesthetics

Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at CAPC, Musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux

But Just Before..

“ I looked on my computer screen..

"Written in Computers" Paintings

“ I looked on the screen of my laptop and there were things written on it. There was a progress bar. A sign saying "Stop" and a sign saying "Continue". Another saying "Game Paused"...So I project them them and painted them..