Ivano Atzori, House of an Alien (Facebook), March 24

 

 

 

 

 

IVANO ATZORI, HOUSE OF AN ALIEN (FACEBOOK) 

Thursday 24 March 2011 | from 7pm to 9pm

Gloria Maria Gallery,Via Watt 32, 20143 Milan

 

 

Gloria Maria Gallery is pleased to announce “House of an Alien” a performance by Italian artist Ivano Atzori.

 

 

House of an Alien (Facebook), by Miltos Manetas

 

In a short story from 1992, the Australian science fiction writer Terry Dowling describes an alien race that decides to inhabit planet Earth. The houses that they build seem semi-abandoned though they are actually treasure troves of the aliens’ most prized possessions. These objects begin, in fact, to stand in for their owners’ own identity. It is soon considered the most daring and the most fashionable activity (not to mention a highly profitable one) to enter into the houses. They are easy to get into, but difficult to leave alive as they are filled with deadly traps that should ostensibly protect their precious contents. Overcoming these dangerous obstacles is, however, possible. It requires keen and attentive observation: every trap reveals much of the particular mindset of the alien that owns the house. It almost seems as though they are slyl y tempting the humans into the act of stealing their valued belongings.

I think that we have constructed a similar mechanism through our use of Facebook, the prevailing social network that has turned our private world into public domain and that has taught us to believe that whatever small thing is shared within its boundaries automatically grows in value.

The artist Ivano Atzori, whose work often contemplates the significance of his own identity and the contradictions therein (let us not forget that he, for years, was known as Dumbo and his omnipresent tag still marks the city to this day), has shown little interest either in Facebook itself or in the consquences of its ever- growing viral use. Only now has he taken the significant step of signing up and entering this “community,” all the while carefully ensuring that it not remain a purely virtual experience. By keeping in stand-by the numerous requests for friendship sent to him, Atzori transforms them instead into a basis for his own invitation, saying, “If you want to be my friend on Facebook, come meet me in person.”

The space that Atzori refers to is filled with a one-day autobiographical installation created from his private belongings, photographs and mementos of past work. Rather than posting a sterile Profile picture, Atzori has chosen to display a piece of his being, therefore anticipating the, by now highly announced, “end of the digital age” and ushering in a new neo-analogic era.

We find ourselves in front of a threshold that allows us to guess and dream about a new Internet, one that still relies on technology and digital machines, but will not remain prisoner to them. Instead, it insists on its own offline existence. Choosing to meet Ivano Atzori at Gloria Maria Gallery is the most genuine way, therefore, to take the first step towards this new, and yet old, application. It’s an occasion to not wait passively to be accepted, but to handle the matter in person.

 

 

 

House of An Alien (Facebook), by Federico Sarica, Editor-in-Chief, Rivista Studio

 

Requesting friendship is a gesture that, thanks to the overwhelming use of Facebook by more than 500 million individuals in the world, has become commonplace. It has reached the banality of getting dressed, going to work, watching television. The friend request implies – at least to the person who receives it – acceptance. Until the recipient accepts, the relationship between the requester and the request receiver remains in suspense, in limbo.

This is exactly the limbo that Ivano Atzori – previously uninitiated in the world of Facebook – has decided to work on with House of An Alien (Facebook), a project hosted by Gloria Maria Gallery with a introduction written by the Internet artist Miltos Manetas. The latter, upon learning of the project, immediately recognized in Atzori’s piece an alternative use of the Internet that coincided with his theories of slow-net and a neo-analogic era.

The idea is simple and linear: Atzori opens a profile on Facebook. News spreads virally and in a short period of time he is able to amass numerous friendship requests. He doesn’t accept any and therefore accumulates a list of names that would, virtually, like to be his friends. They are real friends, simple acquaintances, curious strangers, professionals in his field, colleagues. While the aforementioned list remains in limbo, Atzori prepares – at Gloria Maria Gallery – a flesh and blood version of his own Profile: objects that pertain to his world, works, photographs, himself. This is where the artist – inside his living, three-dimensional version of his Profile – will invite these suspended “friends” and put to them the question, “So, you want to be friends? I agree, but meet me face-to-face.”

It isn’t so much a social critique, nor is there any ideological bias to Atzori’s act: Facebook – like the Internet in general – is a technological innovation, and therefore in and of itself can hold neither a positive nor a negative connotation. It all depends on who uses it and how. In this way Atzori chooses to treat it with a romantic approach, not strictly digitally, but emphasizing the objects and memories in the exhibition, as though they could serve as an umbilical cord between the online and offline worlds.

It is certain that, in the same year that Time names Mark Zuckerberg Man of The Year, someone like Atzori, who has for years explored the dynamics of human interaction – pushing them to their limits, bringing individuals face-to-face with the brutality that is often part of living in society – can no longer disregard such a phenomenon as Facebook. The modality of interaction has changed profoundly with the introduction of the all-consuming social network, and no one will ever be the same again: the young, the old, the pioneer, the uninitiated. And the alien.

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact:

Simona Carchia, Ivano Atzori HOUSE OF AN ALIEN, Press Office | simona.carchia@gmail.com

Sonia Magliari, Gloria Maria Gallery Press Office | pr@gloriamariagallery.com

 

 

 

Gloria Maria Gallery

Via Watt 32

20143 Milan

Tel +39 02 8708 8548

www.gloriamariagallery.com