BORN In OCT 1964

in Rome & in Milan

EARLY STUDENT-DAYS IN ITALY

In 1985 I left Athens. The Art-school there wouldn't accept me. "Don't lose your time, you have no talent" one of the professors said- I think his name was Tetsis or Kokkinidis . Or maybe was Yiannis Moralis who 40 years earlier, at the eve of his professor career had refused Jannis Kounellis: "Don´t try Jannis, you have no talent."

1985, Rome

3D tree in Brera

In 1986 I made a 3Dtree-installation at Brera (the artschool in Milan) and I asked my girlfriend to perform in it.

1986, Milan

I also made a drawing with a Sad Tree.

an early solo show

“Fifteen notebooks with dots for children installed at the Cafe Pallas in Karditsa, Greece

1998, "Kafka Birds"

at Karditsa

a few schoolbooks...

"Plywood Vases" Vehicles of Identity

“Finishing art-school, I tried doing something that was far from all my contemporary art references, something that looked old..

1989:"Identity Vases"

two Vases

Two Vases

on the highway

Large Vase on the highway

near Cascina Gobba

near Cascina Gobba where I used to live

My First Gallery One-Man Show

“Finishing artschool I looked around me. Art-people everywhere, artists, collectors, gallerists, art-writers, photographers.. I thought I should start from them. Come to know them and at the same time produce a work from their faces, their profiles to be exact... I´d go met them and I´d ask them to pose for a profile picture. Then I ´d draw each profile on a piece of plywood, cut it out, curve the name of the person on it and hang them all alfabetically in the gallery. It was some kind of performance, a primitive Facebook...

1991

At a gallery in Milan and Athens and Hamburg

Pre-FACEBOOK

At a gallery in Milan and Athens and Hamburg

"PERFORMANCE"

At a gallery in Milan and Athens and Hamburg

»From 1990, I start collecting art-people. «

»Taking a profile picture from them«

»cutting their figure on a piece of plywood and tracing their name under«

FIRST SHOWS

Successfully Contemporary

“These were the years of Art Magazines and NeoGeo. Many same things.. In Greece an enthusiastic collector was buying everything. Together with his friend Jeffrey Deitch they were planning POST HUMAN, a very important show and they wanted to include my "51 Chairs and a few Assholes". I got inspired.. Dakis owned a big hotel, The Intercontinental. I remember reading somewhere about computers and projectors and although I had never seen one, I asked Dakis if I could make a new work to one of his many hotel rooms instead, using a computer. I wanted to start travel all around the globe and from time to time, to send pictures by FedEx that an assistant would be loading to a computer and projecting them in such a way that every time that hotel´s door would be opened, a new fresh picture from the world would appear. It was a pro-Facebook fantasy but Dakis said he didn't´ like computers and finally they never include me in POST HUMAN, Jeffrey replaced me with someone from NY who was doing something quite similar to my 51 Chairs.

"Psicofarmaci"

Different Opinion

1991: "51 Chairs..."

» At 1990 I founded Different Opinion to allow to artists start producing artworks that were different from what each of us usually does«

The concept of "Demenza"

DEMENZA

"Demenza"

“Demenza, 1990-1994. Each photo, edition of 3, Exhibited at FATTO IN ITALIA, Contemporary Art from Italy, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva,- ICA, London. Published at the catalog of TRAFFIC, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR

DEMENZA IN NAPLES

Lunacy, Insanity, Socratic Irony

“In Greek ancient comedy there are two dogs: Eirôn and Alazon. Eiron was a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogs derives from this comic origin. The Italian word "demenza", (from the Latin dementia deriving from "demens"), translates in English to "insanity" and "lunacy". I believe there exists a certain performative element of the world that can be expressed with a certain lunacy and insanity. In that sense, "demenza" would be better translated as "irony", not the irony of our days but the Socratic irony, an attitude that isn't just limited in the dissimulation of ignorance but becomes- as a matter of fact- a performance.

»Demenza«

The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates

“‘As Søren Kierkegaard explains on his doctoral thesis, "The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates" “Socrates not only used irony but was so dedicated to irony that he himself succumbed to it.” That was back then, when the world was fresh. In our days, such "insanity", not only is often performed (especially in the arts & spectacle) but more importantly, it has become an element of our environment. We find "demenza" in our cities, in Milan, Athens, Berlin (where I took some of these pictures) and sometimes we also find it in the countryside

1992, "SATELLITES"

"SATELLITES". Fast old Ladies

B&W Photograph

Satellites, 1992-1993, 100 x 300 cm, B&W Photograph, Edition of 3 + 2 A/P, Collection: Polla, Geneva, Private Collection, GR, Photo by Armin Linke, styled by Vanessa Beecroft

Drawings

"SATELLITES" (Drawings, started in 1992)

Photographs

Satellites, 1992-1993, 100 x 300 cm, B&W Photograph, Edition of 3 + 2 A/P, Collection: Polla, Geneva, Private Collection, GR, Photo by Armin Linke, styled by Vanessa Beecroft

»They flow around your life«

» From its beggining until its end «

1992, "COLLEGAMENTI"

COLLEGAMENTI

Dedicated to William Gibson's "Neuromancer"

In Milan, Italy

Installation "Collegamenti"

In Milan, Italy

Performance "Collegamenti"

»A wall was prepared with stereo sockets mounted on it (I knew nothing about computers yet)«

» A number of "collegamenti" pencil-drawings were drawn directly onto the wall. On the surface of an over-scaled table, some plugs were left «

1993, EXTRAS,"THE BOOK OF OTHERS"

“ EXTRAS: imaginary people I meet in books. This work is an infinite, constantly growing collection of descriptions of fictional characters. It exists in form of a database that is stored partly online, partly on a series of books in demand and finally in the documentation attached to the "Collector's Item" that represents this artwork.

EXTRAS has to be performed by the latest laptop in the market with a computer voice chosen randomly. "Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice" I start collecting EXTRAS in 1993. My first "EXTRAS" performance was created for the group show "Het krijwitte kind" (SCHONHEIT MACHT SCHAMHAFT), Aschenbach Gallery, Amsterdam, curated by Paul Groot, staring Vanessa Beecroft. The same year, I had my first one-man show in Italy at the historical Galleria Fac-Simile in Milan.( "COMPARSE", staring Vanessa Beecroft)

Book of Others

on Facebook

Mr Hyde was pale

Extraordinary looking man

Two men dressed the same

Method in his madness

1994, My First Computer: Powerbook

ALAPTOP

A PowerBook

Suddenly, the computer enter my life. A dealer had sold a work and need to give me 2000 USD. I was at her house holding that money when a yuppie friend of hers arrived. He had a gray box with him and he said: " I am selling it, do you want it?"Yes, I am buying it, what is it? I asked"A computer" he said. Macintosh PowerBook". He turned it on and the thing light up, its screen black & white.

10 British Poets

10 APPLE laptops (Powerbook) are turned into poets. Each "poet", is using a different computer simulated voice, reading-in loop- a poem written in the 18th Century . Exhibited at VHS, a show curated by Giacinto di Pietrantonio at Palazzina Liberty, Milan, Italy

Palazzina Liberty

COMPUTER-DESKTOP READYMADE

COMPUTER READY MADE

1995

In Naples, Italy

"Output 1.0" & "Whoops!"

In Milan, Italy

Computer-Desktop Readymade

In Naples, Italy

1994, "Soft Driller"

SOFTDRILLER

Soft Driller

In Milan, Italy

1995, First oil on canvas Paintings

“ 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..

1995

1995

1995

ZOOM TO "Written in Computers" Paintings

THE "Sad Tree"

SADTREE

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

1996, Relational Aesthetics

“ Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." The artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre.. One of the first attempts to analyze and categorize art from the 1990s, the idea of Relational Art was developed by Nicolas Bourriaud in 1998 in his book Esthétique relationnelle (Relational Aesthetics).The term was first used in 1996, in the catalog for the exhibition Traffic curated by Bourriaud at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux. Traffic included the artists that Bourriaud would continue to refer to throughout the 1990s, such as Henry Bond, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Liam Gillick, Christine Hill, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Miltos Manetas, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_art

RELATIONAL AESTHETICS

Relational art - Wikipedia

ZOOM TO Relational Aesthetics

"EXISTENCE" Paintings

“ "Existence" in Milan, Italy

1995

1995

ZOOM TO "Existence" Paintings

"Patients" PAINTINGS

"Patients" Paintings

1996

1997

1998

ZOOM TO "PATIENTS" paintings

in 1996 I begun Painting...

“ "NEW ABSTRACTION" Paintings in New York, US

NEW ABSTRACTION

"New Abstraction" Paintings

"New Abstraction"

1996

1996

ZOOM TO "New Abstraction" paintings

DIGITAL MACHINES

PORTRAITS OF DIGITAL MACHINES

“During the Traffic exhibition I was invited for an one-man show by Xavier Douroux, Franck Gautherot and Eric Troncy. After seeing my "Sad Tree" at Bourriaud's exhibition, they wanted paintings! "What shall I paint?" I asked Vanessa Beecroft- my partner of those days.. She had no idea either but she was reading a book about Andy Warhol. "here it says that Warhol also didn't know what to paint so he asked a friend of his. "What do you like the most?" the friend asked. "Money"-said Warhol. "so just paint money".. At that moment, what I liked most was computers so I decide to start painting them...

QuickTake & PowerBook

1996

1996

ZOOM TO "Portraits of Digital Machines" paintings

ZOOM TO ALL MANETAS PAINTINGS

And because there was already INTERNET ...

“I start painting "Internet Paintings" in NYC

INTERNET PAINTINGS

in 1997, "INTERNET PAINTINGS"

1997

and later in 2002

and in 2018

The InternetPaintings at MAXXI

ZOOM TO the Internet Paintings

That same year...

“I noticed there's a new point of view so I start painting "Point of View" in NYC

"Point of View" Paintings

“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC

1997

and in 1998..

and in 1999..

ZOOM TO "Point of View" Paintings

And looking at my floor..

“I looked at my floor in NYC

My Floor Paintings <

"My Floor" Paintings

“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC

1997

1997

1997

ZOOM TO "My Floor" Paintings

And then...

“I start painting cables in NYC

Cable Paintings <

"CABLES" Paintings

“painting cables in NYC

1997

and in 1998..

and in 2008..

ZOOM TO CABLE PAINTINGS

And "Peripherals" Paintings

“ "Peripherals Paintings", in NYC

"Peripherals" Paintings

ZOOM TO ALL MANETAS PAINTINGS

1997

1997

1997

ZOOM TO "Peripherals" paintings

THE BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA

THE BEGINNING OF MACHINIMA

»I locate the roots of this medium in early artistic experimentations such as Miltos Manetas's "Videos After Videogames"

After Videogames Manifesto

Videogames aren't games but EVR: extended versions of reality. Through videogames the process that started with the poems of Homer, Mahabharata and the Bible, continues..

ZOOM TO Machinima

IN 1996, FIRST VIDEO FROM VIDEOGAMES: "MIRACLE"

Miracle

After "Hornet 18" for Apple

First shown at the exhibition "Joint Ventures"

A video after videogames

ZOOM TO "Miracle" video

"Videos after Videogames"

ART FROM VIDEOGAMES continues

Flames

1997

SuperMario Sleeping

1997

King Kong after P.J

2006

ZOOM TO Videos After Videogames

"Prints after Videogames"

PRINTS FROM VIDEOGAMES

after "Tomb Rider"

1996

after "Zelda"

1997

after "SuperMario"

1999

ZOOM TO Prints After Videogames

"Playing Videogames" PAINTINGS

"Playing Videogames"

1997

1998

1999

ZOOM TO "Playing Videogames" Paintings

"LOOKING AT COMPUTER SCREENS"

Everybody now Looking at Screens...

“I start painting "Looking at Screens" in NYC

1998

and in 1999...

and in 2005

ZOOM TO Looking at Computer Screens Paintings

Working in Virtual Worlds"

VIRTUAL WORLDS

Chelsea in Active Worlds

floating studio

Interview at my floating studio

» Virtual Worlds «

» Chelsea «

ZOOM TO Virtual Worlds

And in France...

“at Sette, MIDI PYRÉNÉES…

1999,

LE CAPITAL curated by Nicolas Bourriaud

“Miltos Manetas's paintings take as subjects the Internet and the power of computers, but use the features of physical objects situated in a domestic interior to allow us access to them. The current success of the market as a formal matrix among contemporary artists has to do with a desire to make commercial relations concrete once again, relations that the postmodern economy tends to make immaterial. And yet this immateriality itself is a fiction, Henochsberg suggests, insofar as what seems most abstract to us - high prices for raw materials or energy, say - are in reality the object of arbitrary negotiations. The work of art may thus consist of a formal arrangement that generates relationships between people, or be born of a social process; I have described this phenomenon as "relational aesthetics," whose main feature is to consider interhuman exchange an aesthetic object in and of itself. (From Bourriaud-Postproduction)…

LE CAPITAL

LE CAPITAL

ZOOM TO "LE CAPITAL" EXHIBITION

And from 2000..

“I start painting "Screens" in NYC

"Screen" Paintings

“"My Floor" Paintings in NYC

2000

2010

2010

ZOOM TO "Screens" Paintings

MURAKAMI-MANETAS

Murakami-Manetas

MURAKAMI-MANETAS

»Takashi Murakami, the founder of Superflat and Miltos Manetas, the founder of Neen,«

» met in Italy on February 2000 for an exhibition at the Pinksummer Gallery in Genova «

»On Friday February 18th, 2000 «

» gave a lecture together at the Art School in Milan, (Accademia di Brera)«

ZOOM TO MURAKAMI-MANETAS EXHIBITION

The Birth THE BIRTH OF NEEN

NEEN

Gagosian gallery

“In New York”

Neen is a

“Neen is a two-faced word.”

»computing is to NEEN what fantasy is to Surrealism«

»and freedom to Communism«

»it creates the context but it can also be postponed«

ZOOM TO THE NEEN

And in Los Angeles...

in Chinatown...

electronicOrphanage

ELECTRONICORPHANAGE: party location, partly Internet.

"In Los Angeles"

“In Los Angeles”

MACROeo in Rome

eo in Siena

ZOOM TO THE ELECTRONICORPHANAGE

IAMGONNACOPY

“In 2001 I started iamgonnacopy.com In that page you could vote FOR or AGAINST intellectual property and copyright. Back then I wrote this text: The Coca Cola logo. A little poem. A well known painting by Picasso, a Pokemon picture, an article published in a website, a scientific discovery about DNA, a Beatles song, a piece of computer software. Think of your perception as a piece of land. Once you will access any of the above, something is built over it. What you've seen, heard or learned becomes part of your self, literally your property. There is no way to undo that information. You will have to work to put it in order, accept it or modify it in a way that fits your mental scheme. The more intelligent you are, the more you will have to work. You are now a vehicle, a subway train wall and a cultural slave. You cannot go back in time and become a person who doesn't know how to write FedEx, but if you will actually decide to write it over your paintings, FedEx may sue you: that company holds a copyright and apparently owns that part of your head Where the FedEx logo is located. There is a company based in Amsterdam which produces screen recognition software. Its' clients, can use their technology to help their newest systems communicate with their older computers. A New York based company sued them on the basis that they keep a pattern on screen recognition. Content (what the case above, what the old computers are saying), becomes a valuable for whoever will register a way to read it! It promises double profits. A painter may become famous because the public saw his images. He will sell the physical object-the canvasses but he will still demand control over the public's imagination, through his copyright. One of the most beautiful aspects of contemporary life is emulation. It makes from life an open project, a work in progress. But our freedom to emulate is limited. This page is naive: it will not attempt to be scientific* because I didn't' study law. But I know that what I mostly enjoy do is copying, even more than creating or even consuming. I also know that none of the people who's work I respect, could live without copy. Miltos Manetas, 2001…

Logo on Mai's ass

Manifesto and Sticker

ZOOM TO IAMGONNACOPY

"OUR WEBSITES IS THE ART OF OUR DAYS"

WEBSITES

jesusswimming.com

jacksonpollock.org

maninthedark.com

ZOOM TO Websites

Websites are today’s most radical and important art objects

“ Because the Internet is not just another “media”as the Old Media insists, but mostly a “space”, similar to the American Continent immediately after it was discovered – anything that can be found on the Web has a physical presence. It occupies real estate. “Things” in the Internet exist in a specific location, while in magazines and on TV, contents are mostly bullets of information. Online they constitute a body: they are parts of a new genre. They are Web Entities. They get in touch and advertise their existence to each other. Similar to human beings, they will evaluate, criticize, “link” to each other. Ultimately, these Web Entities develop a “taste”. Bob Dobbs (a friend of McLuhan) said that “advertising is communication between machines”. He also suggested that machines came alive in 1967 and that “now they are in an angelic state”. “Advertising is communication between Angels” he said..

"WHITNEY BIENNIAL DOT COM"

WHITNEYBIENNIAL DOT COM

WHITNEYBIENNIAL

ZOOM TO WHITNEYBIENNIAL.COM

»www.whitneybiennial.com«

»2002«

And from 2000...

“I start painting "Women" in Los Angeles

"Women" Paintings

“"Women" in Los Angeles

2002

2003: "LONG MAI"

2003: "LONG MAI"

ZOOM TO "Women" Paintings

"INTERNET PAINTINGS CONTINUES..."

Started in 2002

Google Maps

2002

ZOOM TO Internet Paintings

2003,

What happened in 2003? I was kind of lost...

“in Paris and New York and Los Angeles...

Living in Paris..

“ in Paris...

Memoirs of the Devil

“ A show by Miltos Manetas at COSMIC GALLERY in Paris. Jan-Mar, 2004. The title of the show, is a homage to the book "Memoirs of the Devil" written by director Roger Vadim. Vadim was married to Bridgette Bardot, Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve. Entering the show: "Manifesto with 4 Women" , a remake of a work by Italian artist Alighiero Boetti. In 1969, Boetti made a poster about the artists of his generation. Each symbol on that poster was referring to a characteristic of each artist included. Collectors could buy the poster for a low price, however the "code" that would explain the piece was on sale for a very high price and if nobody purchased it before a certain date, it would be destroyed and the decryption would remain secret forever (and that's what happened). My collectors could buy the code of my poster too but it didn't happened either. So I hide the code somewhere online..

Memoirs of the Devil

Memoirs of the Devil

ZOOM TO Memoirs of the Devil

And in 2005

“I start painting "Point of View" in NYC

"Groups" Paintings

“"Groups" Paintings in Paris

2005

ZOOM TO "Groups" Paintings

2005,

starting a book..

“ never finished it..…

Marx&Marinetti&Miltos&Manetas

Marx & Marinetti

& Miltos & Manetas

ZOOM TO Marx&Marinetti&Miltos&Manetas

and in USA..

“in New York City…

"DOGS & CABLES"

At Yvon Lambert

Gallery

ZOOM TO the"dogs and Cables" exhibition

Workshop at the Hayward Gallery in London

workshop-searching for Existential Computing at the Hayward Gallery in London

In 2007- still suffering from a sense of loss for my great Existential Computing idea (which now seamed gone forever with only the video on YouTube left, the beginning of a conversation that nobody really seamed interested undertaking), I accepted giving a seminar at the Hayward Gallery in London, commissioned to me by a young curator.
"What's the subject of your workshop?" She asked. "Existential Computing"- I said- "A subject that I know nothing about..."

a total Neen Eclipse

Existential Computing started when Caroline Hancock and Paul Green asked me to do a project at the Hayward and they booked for me the Waterloo Sunset Pavilion. This location is unique, a capsule in the city designed by artist Dan Graham.
But unfortunately, there’s something wrong with it, something went wrong with its construction, or maybe it was the artist’s intention.
So I asked the curators to bring a cat there, because a cat may have been able to fix the Pavilion’s problems. But Museums, every-time I ask for animals they refuse, they give me computers instead and videos and digital cameras which is not the same at all, because cats know how to record events in a way that is not digital but its not analogue either. Cats collect quantum facts from multiple realities. I think cats are Universal Reporters.
Existential computing however, started on Feb 3. Some people came and begun working like crazy, doing I don’t know what. Working on their machines, working, working.. Others came to visit.. As one of them said later, “ I learned about things I knew already but I wasn’t sure they actually exist”.
And finally there was a party and speaking about data that meet each other beautifully, while I was showing Rafael Rozendaal’s futurephysics.com where planets attract each other, a total lunar eclipse started and went on for an hour and fourteen minutes.

»Are you expressing a new version of troubleshooting «
»a 21st century idea of unhappiness?«
»What a beautiful thing that would be«
»Malcolm asked me straight away after his arrival at the Hayward«
»what a way to put it I said..«
»Yes, I do!«

ZOOM TO Existential Computing

2006,

Existential Computing

Existential Computing

"A great idea"

The first of December 2006 I had an idea- ideas often come to me with a tittle-this idea had a tittle too, "Existential Computing". But the day after after, I realized that the concept of Existential Computing had disappeared from my memory somehow, the only thing I knew about it at that point, was that it was different than anything else and therefore revolutionary, something very important to try and discover.

on YouTube..

“Hi. This is Miltos Manetas”
“This is a conversation. Its between me and you. At any point, when you have something to say, please pause this video and record your message. Then post it on YouTube and send me the link so I can reply to you”.
“I want to give a theme to our conversation. That theme is our new life. Its a complex theme, it has to do with our intelligent machines. That’s what I call Existential Computing, it has to do with our perception of reality”.
“There’s new information today about reality. According to many scientists, we live in a Multiverse. There are many versions of ourself, each of them inhabiting a parallel word. Also, according to a few but quite respected scientists, time doesn’t flow. Everything that is possible, has already happened somewhere and what we perceive as change, its some kind of illusion”.
“Until yesterday, such ideas were esoteric but today, it is the observation of the World that tell us so. Therefore, we should start thinking differently, start living our life differently. Maybe we need to modify our language, maybe we need new words to say to ourself that what’s now happening, is also not happening. That there is an instant person of me who is recording this message and there is another who doesn’t. And that I am both of them and many other too”.
“Maybe your questions- or my answers- will be inspiring. Remember, that in another universe, its YOU the one who initiated this conversation”.

ZOOM TO Existential Computing

in 2007 we had GPS...

“I start painting ""Navigator" PAINTINGS" in France

"Navigator" PAINTINGS

“ Are we lost? No, there are all those GPS with us..

• Started in France
• paintings.manetas.com

And in 2010...

ZOOM TO "Navigator" Paintings

2007, in London

The Internet Paintings

Continuing them...

ZOOM TO the Internet Paintings

and online...

“ in Virtual Worlds…

SECOND LIFE

MANETAS DESERT in SECOND LIFE

BURNING my paintings at the desert

ZOOM TO MANETAS DESERT IN SECOND LIFE

in Seoul

“ In Seoul…

2008,

The Cable-Rug

Cable-Rug

Cable-Rug

And in the UK..

“ in London…

ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO

ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO

Bourriaud

AT TATE BRITAIN

ZOOM TO ALTERMODERN MANIFESTO AT TATE BRITAIN

"Nature" PAINTINGS

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

2009

2009

2009

ZOOM TO "Nature Paintings"

AND

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

“ Monochromes are the paintings of paintings..

2009

2013

2013

ZOOM TO "Monochrome Paintings"

53th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Biennale

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.

Jan&Daniel&Miltos

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

ZOOM TO EMBASSY OF PIRACY

And "Pirate Paintings"...

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

2009

2009

2009

ZOOM TO "Pirate Paintings"

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

ZOOM TO PIRACY MANIFESTO

Started Painting...

“ "Selfies Paintings" in Bogotá, Colombia

"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"...

2010

2010

2010

ZOOM TO "Selfie" Paintings

Falling in Conero

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

ZOOM TO Falling in Conero

Cucchi Ospita Manetas

ENZO CUCCHI OSPITA MILTOS MANETAS

Ancona, 21 luglio 2010 - L'artista greco Miltos Manetas torna ad Ancona, dopo la disavventura che lo aveva visto protagonista ai primi di giugno, quando in un'escursione sul Conero fece una rovinosa caduta che gli costò un ricovero in ospedale. L'occasione per il ritorno è fornita dalla rassegna 'Incontro con l'autore', organizzata al Fortino Napoleonico di Portonovo. All'evento parteciperà con tre sculture inedite Enzo Cucchi, il maestro della Transavanguardia, che ha voluto al suo fianco, come ospite speciale, l'artista multimediale greco. ilrestodelcarlino.it

CUCCHI AND MANETAS

Cucchi and Manetas ilrestodelcarlino.it

ZOOM TO ENZO CUCCHI OSPITA MILTOS MANETAS

2010,

BlackBerry Paintings

“There is a fundamental error in painting-in every school of painting: we always paint on a plane that’s different from the plane of reality. We either paint on a canvas or on some other support positioned in parallel or in front of the world, we never paint over the reality itself, we never “paint reality”. “That was to change for me when - back in 2010 - I had an accident: I went down 117 meters from the top of a rock on my back, a little tree finally saving my life... After a month of immobility in the hospital, I returned to the place where I had the accident and I rented a little yellow house. Waiting to recover completely, I had my colors and canvasses brought there but I couldn’t paint: regular painting just didn’t seamed a good idea anymore. Finally one day, I took a brush and without any color on it, I started “painting” over the landscape. was making an invisible painting... ”A few days after my discovery, I start filming whatever it was I was painting with my BlackBerry (my right hand the hand of the painter, the left the hand of a videomaker). I was happy, a BlackBerry and a brush was now all I needed for a studio! That’s how the BLACKBERRY PAINTINGS were born and I decide to go on with my life and at the same time paint it.”

BLACKBERRY PAINTINGS

I began painting..

Painting my shadow

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and in Milan...

“ in Milan, Italy

METASCREEN

Just recently, all art that deals with computers directly, became data itself. It started referencing other data and lost its status of "Avant-garde".

In Milan

in a gallery that is a monitor

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while in Venice...

“ in Venice, Italy

54th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Biennale

INTERNET PAVILION 2011

"BYOB-ISLAND OF THE NET"

The Island of Internet & BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer, an exhibition series created by Rafael Rozendaal) The artists are invited to bring their own machines and projecting on any space that they can grab. Its a desperate attempt to open a few windows of fantasy and creativity over a heavily nested "real space". BYOB is one of the few original expressions-even if its somewhat of a grimace- that are still possible to be achieved with visual arts. Its the scream of our extended bodies, while trapped between computer keyboards and the unnatural light of the computer projectors. Artists: Agnes Bolt, Alterazioni Video, Andreas Angelidakis, Angelo Plessas, Anna Franceschini, Billy Rennekamp, Boris Eldagser, Britta Thie Claudia Rossini Cristian Bugatti Elisa Giardina Papa Emily Jones & Sarah Hartnett (, year of the Hare) Giallo Concialdi Hayley Silverman Interno3 and crew Iocose Ivano Atzori Jaime Martinez Jeremy Bailey Les liens invisibles LG Williams/Estate Of LG Williams Luca Bolognesi LuckyPDF Marc Kremers Marco Cadioli Marisa Olson Marlous Borm Martin Cole Matteo Erenbourg Mike Ruiz Miltos Manetas Nazareno Crea Nikola Tosic Parker Ito Pegy Zali Petros Moris Priscilla Tea Rachele Maistrello Rafaël Rozendaal Rene Abythe Riley Harmon Sarah Ciraci Tele Ghetto Haiti Theodoros Giannakis Travess Smalley UBERMORGEN.COM Valery Grancer Wojciech Kosma Yuri Pattison

Rafael Rozendaal's

ZOOM the II Internet Pavilion

Started Painting...

“ FourfortyFour Paintings in Rome, Italy

"FOURFORTYFOUR" PAINTINGS

Fourfortyfour Paintings

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

4:44 Paintings

2012

2014

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in Rome..

“ in Rome, Italy

Studio in Rome

Studio in Rome

Preparing a painting

Preparing a painting

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And from 2012...

“I start painting "Google Nature Paintings" in Derveni

"Google Nature" Paintings

“"Google Nature Paintings" in Derveni

2012

2012

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2012,

OVEREALITY

“The World appears now "stamped" with digital objects. Those objects (data/menus/pictures/movies/sounds/code) are not at all present the way the prophets virtual-reality predicted but they are simply "attached" on the World via our imagination (the only true computer). They are attached on quite everything...

Preparing a painting

Overeality

Overeality

Overeality

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"The Unconnected"

2013

2013

ZOOM TO "Unconnected" Paintings

"Parallel Portraits"

ZOOM TO "Little Screens" Paintings

"Self-portraits"

2013

2013

20105

ZOOM TO "Self-Portraits" Paintings

"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..

"Alphas"

"Alphas"

"New Groups" Paintings

“"New Groups" in Rome

2013

2013

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"On Skype" Paintings

2013, "Skype Paintings" in Rome

2013

2013

2013

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THE ARRIVAL OF MEDIOSUD

MEDIO SUD

Day without God

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.)

ZOOM TO MEDIOSUD

Bipolar Paintings

Bipolar Paintings

Camilo & Benjamin

“In Bogotá, Colombia”

Alpha & Catalina

“In Rome, Italy”

ZOOM TO "Looking at Screens Paintings"

"LOOKING AT SCREENS"

Women Looking...

In Rome, Italy

M&A looking at screen

“In Rome, Italy”

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55th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

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.

Curated by

Dos Francescos

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PAINTING TREES ON SKYPE

"TREES ON SKYPE"

TREES ON SKYPE

In Sabina

TREES ON SKYPE

In Sabina

ZOOM TO Trees on Skype

2014, in Italy:

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

First in Rome

Ñ in Purple

then in Milan

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56th BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

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...

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

@ Ai Wei Wei

ZOOM to Before Togetherness

CROPPED CABLES

Cropped Cables

Cables

Cropped Cables

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Continuing the 444 PAINTINGS

Fourfortyfour Paintings

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

4:44 Paintings

2016

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"Abstract Screens" in Munich

Abstract Screens

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

Abstract Screens

at UNPAINTED in Munich.

ZOOM TO Abstract Screens

in Colombia, TALLER 4ROJO

TALLER 4ROJO In COLOMBIA, "AHORA!" (Now)

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

Rojo y mas Rojo

On Instagram

Taller 4 Rojo now

video: M.M #taller4rojo

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in Milan, MY "TIMELINE"

Preparing the show

Showing...

ZOOM TO Showing my Timeline

A MYSTICAL STAIRCASE

MYSTICAL STAIRCASE

Mystical and staircase

Genova at Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum

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

ZOOM TO Mystical Staircase

"Dried Webpages"

“in Bogotá, at La Candelaria..

WEB

BECOMES

WOOD

ZOOM TO Dried Webpages at the Internet Taller

"05:05" show in Sabina, Italy

“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.

in Sabina

5 km circa

05.05 AM

paying tribute

ZOOM TO 05:05

15 years later (from my "Pokémon" exhibition in Geneva in 2001)

in China, "Pokémon Again"

Davide Quadrio (乐大豆) and his team invited me in Shanghai, to perform a peculiar exhibition/presentation at Arthub Asia, re-enacting my Pokémon 2001 project using the latest Pokémon technology. Trapped into the half virtual/half real world that China is becoming, my work there end up with a 6000KLM train trip into Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia . During this trip, I wrote "Three black chopsticks" and I start planning a quite-ambitious crazy large-scale operation in China. Stay tuned... “

Pokémon prints after Pokémon

15 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.

15 years later

In Shanghai..

Pokemon Again

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

ZOOM TO Pokémon Again

Berlin Biennial

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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...

9th Berlin Biennial

Painting with Likes

Painting on Instagram

Redoing...

»Shows-that-matter-never-end«

Biennale.net

ZOOM TO THE 9TH BERLIN BIENNALE

"TORTUGA" WITH NORA RENAUD IN MEXICO CITY

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

At Aldo's

"Tortuga" at Aldo Chapparo Studio, Mexico City

in Mexico City

"Tortuga" at Aldo Chapparo Studio, Mexico City

and in Bogotá...

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

"Tortuga" is a show I did with Nora Renaud in Mexico City«

http://tortuga.ñewpressionism.com

Continuing ÑEWPRESSIONISM in America Latina

"Neonwater"

ÑEWPRESSIONISM

ZOOM TO ÑEWPRESSIONISM 2016-17

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

ÑEWPRESSIONISM.COM

EXHIBITING MY PAINTINGS IN STRANGE PLACES

around...

At a restaurant

At WOK in Bogota

At people's backs

At people's backs

A friend's house..

At WOK in Bogota

»using Overeality«

»you can exhibit everywhere«

http://ñewpressionism.com

Walking with Screens

One of the things we do in ÑEWPRESSIONISM is walking around with screens.. Here, I am walking around in Cartagena , Colombia

Walking...

Walking with a screen in Cartagena

Walking...

Walking with a screen in Cartagena

Walking...

Walking with a screen in Cartagena

»Walking around with a screen...«

http://ñewpressionism.com

2017, "ΜEμωρι" Solo show

in Rome

Preparing the show

Preparing...

"Μέμωρι"

6 October 2017 in Galleria Valentina Bonomo

"Μέμωρι" book

»Μέμωρι«

http://galleriabonomo.com/

2018, "Internet Paintings", Solo show at MAXXI

" MAXXI dedicates a focus exhibition to the artist that between social networks, selfie, fashion and Google Street View explores the imaginary of the contemporary age. For his solo show at MAXXI, Miltos Manetas (Athens, 1964) brings together with large canvases a world populated by selfies, a reality observed by Facebook, pornographic images next to fashion, the streets of the whole world he recorded by Google. A painter, conceptual and theoretical artist, recognized at international level for his internet-based works and for having founded in 2009 the first Internet Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Miltos tells about the emotions and the imaginary of our contemporary era." IT

Collegamenti

at the Internet Paintings

An interview

Exhibition view

Potato-stuff arrangement. Solutions for keeping computers, clothes, bags placing them in potato-bags. Inspired by the ideas and everyday modus operandi of @norarenaud

NEEN

Neen..

Chinese explorers

Chinese explorers of the InternetPaintings at MAXXI

»Cercar a dipingere l´Internet, fare dal mondo dei schermi olio su tela, sarebbe di sicuro una cosa demente«

William S. Burroughs, "Conversations", 1996