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Shortlist Share Prize 2009
The artists selected for Share Prize 2009 are:
Ernesto Klar Convergenze parallele, USA
http://www.klaresque.org/conver.htm
Lia Proximity of needs, Austria
http://www.proximityofneeds.org
Andreas Muxel Connect, Germany
http://connect.andreasmuxel.com
Francesco Meneghini-William Bottin Sciame 1, Italy
http://www.williambottin.com/sciame
Ralf Baecker Rechnender Raum, Germany
http://www.no-surprises.de/cms/index.php?id=1,59,0,0,1,0
Random International / Chris O’Shea Audience, UK
http://www.chrisoshea.org/projects/audience
The theme of Share 2009 is Market Forces. The Share Festival in 2009 showcases works about complexity. “Market Forces” responds to the crucial contemporary concerns which affect us all. These works explore what happens when we connect things together into systems and set these systems into motion - questions of chaos and value, meaning and randomness, politics and economics. These unstable abstractions have a concrete effect on our daily lives.
Five of the 6 pieces are sculptural - substantial installations which model their abstractions in wood or in steel, in string or paper or dust. These works refuse to be defined as digital, going beyond limits of generative and interactive aesthetics to expand the boundaries of digital art and culture. They are also beautiful in the old fashioned way, in their form and their physicality, and in the way they slide between hacking and traditional craftsmanship. The walls dividing digital art and the rest of the art world are breaking down. Freed of its ghetto, digital art is celebrating its power and growing relevance.
The jury was faced with a difficult, almost impossible task - to select six finalists from among almost 300 submissions sent to Torino from all around the world. Some superb pieces could not be included in our final selection and the jury took its responsibility seriously. We chose artworks which deal with important questions in an innovative and aesthetically relevant way. There is a cluster of mirrors which follow the spectator as he or she wanders among them - who is watching whom? - a cloud chamber which makes art from human breath and a handful of dust, and a neural network realised in wood and string which simulates the process of thinking, yet has nothing to say. A kinetic sculpture models chaos with flying spheres of steel, and a simple hacked toy sends swarm of paper fragments floating in the wind. A generative net art piece grows into gorgeous patterns which are always unique and always the same.
The theme builds on and develops the previous Share theme of Manufacturing into a new but related terrain - from production to consumption, from the creation of a commodity to its exchange value. We look forward to returning in 2009 to select the overall winner from among these six superb pieces and to participate in what we believe will be the best Share Festival ever.
