Neterotopia
Neterotopia is an event that takes place from 16th to 31st March in various spaces on the Net. Eleven artists from different countries have been invited to choose an Internet site and use the spaces usually reserved for advertising.
Christophe Bruno on http://www.liberation.fr, Ghazel on http://www.sortiraparis.com, Susan Hefuna on http://movies.tenuae.com, Nathalie Hunter on http://www.google.com, Yuji Oshima on http://www.arman.fm, Peter Lemmens and Eva Cardon on http://www.wunderground.com, Adam Vackar on http://www.inrockutibles.com, Stephen Vitiello on http://www.villagevoice.com, Luca Vitone on http://www.viamichelin.it, Version (Gabriela Vanga, Ciprian Muresan and Mircea Cantor) on http://www.corriere.it, 0100101110101101.ORG on http://www.film.it.
These spaces are thus transformed into exhibition surfaces and points of access to a pathway branching through the public and virtual space of the Internet, the major node of which is the neterotopia.net website.
The project, ideated and curated by Daniele Balit, is the result of works between the European organisations NICC (New International Cultural Center), Love Difference and the Pistoletto Foundation. Neterotopia is simultaneously hosted via web by three European exhibition spaces, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the NICC in Antwerp and the Careof in Milan. Through the stations installed in physical space, the public can see the artworks on-line, and experiment with digit@al, a special device by artist Pierre Mertens that puts a new slant on the rules of chatting.
Neterotopia traces the confines of a hybrid space, with a changeable and heterogeneous geography, drawing on Michel FoucaultÌs concept of Heterotopia. As opposed to the non-places of Utopia, Heterotopias (literally: places of difference), are defined by Foucalt as Ïother spacesÓ capable of accepting difference and possibility, while not detaching from the real world. Neterotopias are therefore inserted into the Network system of communication, observing its rules and limits, while giving a new value to these advertising spaces.
