THE BREEDER ! ! ! !
ANGELO PLESSAS PORTFOLIO
THE BREEDER 45 Iasonos st, GR 10436, Athens, t/f: +30 210 33 17 527, gallery@thebreedersystem.com www.thebreedersystem.com
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ANGELO PLESSAS
Cover images:(top) Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood (1-3), Deste Prize, Cycladic Art Museum (bottom) projection of MonumentToSomething.com, 2013, Las Pozas, Mexico
Description In my work I make internet psychogeography. I name places on the web and I make interactive portraits of my friends or versions of myself (MeLookingAtYou.com, 2001, PlagueOfFantasy.com 2010). Sometimes they are online orgonic talismans to protect us from technology and cyber nightmares (EtherealSunrise.com 2015). I make places where people can meet offline (Monument to Internet Hook-ups, 2009) and I organize situations with internet friends in remote locations (Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 2012-ongoing). Sometimes my websites pretend to be monuments in real cities (Every Website is a Monument, Milan 2010, Mexico City 2011, London 2012). I also registered my own foundation, The Angelo Foundation, which I use as a vehicle for educational meditational participatory setting like the “Temple Of Play” (Frieze Projects London, 2013) and as a tool for experiential learning like the “School of Music” (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens 2011). Other times the foundation hosts performative works, like the auto-complete theatrical play “Fantasy Plot Generator” where actors recite dialogues produced by a web software fed character names by internet users who then become online photo-novels. All these works are more or less based on the social lessons that the internet has taught us: you can say anything, be anyone, meet everybody. Nobody will know what color you are, how old you are, or if you are in fact a human or a bot. My work revolves around these issues of internet freedom and online personality that evolves through social media. In between all the social happenings, I keep making the websites that started my art practice in 2000. They are in a way sketches for online personas, and their single domain-name titles make them unique internet objects. In the last couple of years I’ve been focusing a lot on the Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood, a gathering and residency of all sorts of artists, writers, thinkers that I organize independently and crowdsource once a year. It has already happened on the greek island of Anafi, in the surrealist park of Las Posas in the mexican jungle, in an abandoned military camp in the West Bank in Palestine and most recently in the tuscan Malaspina Castle where Dante spent his exile. What I like about this event is that it is an ephemeral exhibition where the only audience is the participating artists. Everybody is free to make what they feel like, whatever the chosen location tells them. I try to make work for the current time of the internet. The focus of my work is to network the offline with the online in ways that make us understand aspects of both conditions, and to generate new ways of relating to both. When its a gathering of people who know each other online only, we observe how they react with each other, what works they make, what they wont do. When its a website work projected in a real space, we observe a usually solitary internet object interacted with, in a public space. When its a monument generated by a website, we understand that cities are just places we scroll and click through, massive multiuser environments full of precarious information graphics. My work is a portrait of your online and offline self, Together. Angelo Plessas, 2015 www.angeloplessas.com
Extropic Optimisms In situ neon installation The Breeder, Skin Dec 2015 - Nov 2016, Athens
Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood (1-3) mixed media, 2015 winner of Deste Prize 2015, Cycladic Art Museum, Athens
Ethereal Sunrise Artwork of the Year, special commission by Onassis Foundation Sep -June 2015-16, Athens
Fantasy Plot Generator Installation, website, series of perfomances and graphic novels Trust exhibition, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, September-December 2011, Copenhagen
I amness Web and Mural commission by Onassis Foundation NYC Sep-Jan 2015-16, New York
The Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 2015 Annual gathering / Residency, Curator in Castello Malaspina in Fosdinovo, Italy 2015
Mirage Machines exhibition view at The Breeder, 2015, Athens
Auto-Monuments online videos, 2014
The Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 2014 Annual gathering / Residency, Curator Still from live-streaming perfomance in Dead Sea, Palestine 2014
Temple of Play Installation, websites, series of workshops Family Space for Frieze Projects, London 2013
Fantasy Plot Generator Perfomances, installation, website (FantasyPlotGenerator.com) Scenes d’Europe, Frac Champagne-Ardenne November 2013, Reims
The Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 2013 Annual gathering / Residency, Curator Still from perfomance in the surrealist park Las Pozas, Mexico, 2013
Temple of Truth: the Cycladic Approach Installation and series of meditation workshops Cycladic Museum, Athens, February 2013
The Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 2012 Annual gathering / Residency, Founder/Curator Still from perfomance on Anafi island, Greece, 2012
The Twilight of the Idols Website installations solo show at Cell Projects, London June-July 2012
Fantasy Plot Generator Installation, website, series of perfomances and graphic novels Word of Mouth, 3rd Athens Biennale- Monodrome, September-December 2011, Athens
Monument to Internet Hookups II Installation A Rock and a Hard Place, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale Thessaloniki, September-December 2011
The Angelo Foundation School of Music Installation, websites, series of workshops, perfomances solo show at The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens May- August 2011
Angelo Plessas: Selected Works solo show at the facade of Triennale Bovisa Museum, Milan, February 2011
Every Website is a Monument multimedia installation solo show at Gloria Maria gallery, Milan, January 2011
MarathonMarathon commissioned ZizZagMarathonPhilosophy website and IOS application, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Nadja Argyropoulou Acropolis Museum, Athens, October 2010
Monument to Internet Hookups I perfomance + sculpture, 2009 Heaven 2nd Athens Biennale- Splendid Isolation (in collaboration with Athens Pride)
TheAngeloFoundationHeadquarters.com website, 2009 in collaboration with Andreas Angelidakis commission for Jeu de Paume, Satelite programme Paris, March-Sep 2009
Headquarters Angelo Head, dowe, 2009 (in collaboration with Andreas Angelidakis) Angelo Foundation Statement, print on kapamount paper, 2009, The Angelo Foundation neon 2007 Rebecca Camhi gallery, June-September 2009
Robot Poetry Reading perfomance, website, 2008 Canada gallery, New York
The Angelo Foundation press conference Installation, perfomance, neon, projection group show, In Present Tense National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, March 2007
Neen Demo curator and participating artist Synch Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens2006
Superneen TryingSoHard.net website and Me Looking at You mural. Galleria Pack, Milan, 2006
TalkingAndWalking.com Aluminum sign, 2006 photo from the Grande Promenade exhibition, National Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006
Neen Season: Angelo Plessas solo exhibition Sketch, London, March 2005
Salon du Casse Coeur group exhibitionDeitch projects, Brooklyn, NYC, September 2004
Very Upset With you solo show at Electronic Orphanage Los Angeles, July 2003
EtherealSunrise.com, 2015
BeforeEverything.com, 2014
Where-Do-I-Go-From-Here.com, 2014
MonumentToSomething.com, 2013
Re-TwitteringMachine.com, 2012
HorizonOfResemblance.com, 2012
MirageMachine.com, 2011
ObjectRelatedTheory.com, 2011
PlagueOfFantasy.com, 2010
Different websites 2010-2015
PianoWhispers.com, 2009
ElectricityComesFromAnotherPlanet.com, 2008
TheHistoryOfADecadeThatHasNotYetBeenNamed.com, 2007
SheNeverToldHerLove.com, 2006
MeLookingAtYou.com, 2005
ElasticEnthusiastic.com, 2004
FutureIsFake.com, 2003
OneAfterTheOther.com, 2002
AroundMyself.com, 2000
Different websites 2000-2009
CV Angelo Plessas Born 1974, Greek-Italian, Studied Industrial Design in Athens. Lives and works in Athens, Greece SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2015 - Ethereal Sunrise, Artwork of the Year, special commission by Stegi/Onassis Cultural Center, Athens - Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood (1-3), Deste Prize 2015 (winner), Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens - Mirage Machines, The Breeder gallery, 2015 2012 - Mirage Machines, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini and Rhys Coren, bubblebyte.org - Independent projects, curated by Maria Ines Rodriguez, ArtBo, Bogota, Colombia - The Twilight of the Idols, Every Website is a Monument, Cell Projects, London - Temple of Truth, Rebecca Camhi gallery, Athens 2011 - Every Website is a Monument: Mexico City, Preteen Gallery, Mexico City - The Angelo Foundation School of Music, curated by Stamatis Schizakis, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens - Angelo Plessas presents, Triennale Bovisa, Milan - Every Website is a Monument, Gloria Maria gallery, Milan - One Related Philosophy, Future Gallery, Berlin 2009 - Symmetry of Chaos, Charles de Jonghe gallery, Brussels - Angelo Plessas Works, curated by Richard Rinehart, NetArtPortal, Berkeley Art Museum - Headquarters, (coll. with Andreas Angelidakis), Rebecca Camhi gallery, Athens - The Angelo Foundation Headquarters (coll. with Andreas Angelidakis), curated by Maria Ines Rodriguez, Jeu De Paume, Paris - International Portrait Gallery, solo presentation, Volta New York, USA 2007 All Day Doing Nothing, curated by Sylvia Kouvali, Yama project, Istanbul, Turkey 2005 3 websites at Sketch: Gallery, London UK 2004 Bonjour Tristesse, curated by Marina Fokidis, Oxymoron, Athens, Greece 2003 Very Upset with You, Electronic Orphanage, Los Angeles, USA SPECIAL PROJECTS: - Extropic Optimisms, Skin project, The Breeder Gallery, Dec 2015- Nov 2016 - The Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood 4, curator/organizer, Castello Malaspina, Italy, July 2015 - The Eternal Internet Brotherhood 3, curator and organizer, Dead Sea, West Bank/Israel, Apr 2014 - The Eternal Internet Brotherhood 2, curator and organizer, Las Pozas, Xilitla, Mexico, Apr 2013 - Sound Meditation:Cycladic Approach, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Jan-Feb 2013 - The Eternal Internet Brotherhood, curator and organizer, Anafi island, Greece, Aug 2012 - MasterOfTheEclipse.com, curated by Duncan Malashock, Klausgallery.net/Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, April 2012 - MirageMachine.com, web commission for Broadway Media Arts, curated by Mat Trivett, 2011
- Robot Poetry Reading, one night perfomance, Canada gallery, New York, 2009 - ArtReview Project space, series of presentations on ArtReview.com, 2009-10 - The AF notice board, curated by Tolo Canellas and Guillermo Espinosa, The Black Pillar, Madrid, 2009 - A Website Triangle, a special project at Blow de la Barra, Rebecca Camhi and Rodeo, part of the Remap KM, Athens, 2007 - Videos for the Fischerspooner World Tour, 2007 selected GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2015 - SuperSuperstudio, curated by Andreas Angelidakis/Vittorio Pizzigoni/Valter Scelsi, PAC, Milan - Narcissus and Us, curated by Amalia Kosmetatou / Violaine Huisman, Onassis Cultural Center, New York - Trust, curated by Sonia Dermience, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen - We’ll Meet Again, curated by KA team, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens 2014 - A Cab, curated by Valentinas Klimasauskas, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens - Hypersalon, XPO Gallery, Miami, Usa - A Cab, curated by Valentinas Klimasauskas, Podium, Oslo, Norway - Food, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg, MuCEM, Marseille, France - Monument to Cold War Victory, cur. by Yevgeniy Fiks and Stamatina Gregory, Cooper Union, New York - Parallel Borders, curated by Mark Mangion, Forum Stadpark, Graz, Austria - Born Digital, online benefit auction curated by Domenico Quaranta, Paddle8 - Food, curated by Adelina Von Furstenberg, Sesc Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, Brazil 2013 - Scenes d’Europe, curated by Florence Derieux and Antoine Marchand, Frac Champagne-Ardenne - Frieze Projects 2013 curated by Nicola Lees, Frieze London - Parallel Borders, curated by Mark Mangion, Malta Contemporary Art at Remap4, Athens - Art Licks weekend, curated by bubblebyte.org - Digitart at Studio13/16, curated by Abdel Bounane, Centre Pompidou, Paris - This must be the place, curated by Marina Fokidis, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens - bubblebyte.org, Secondo Anniversario, Seventeen gallery, London - Group Mountain, a show curated by Andreas Angelidakis, The Breeder gallery, Athens - I don’t know it’s an illusion I don’t care, curated by Preteen, Vamialis gallery, Athens 2012 - Food, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg, Ariana Museum, Geneva - Mythologies Onlines, curated by Nadya Suslikova and Katya Sinitsina, Polytechnic Museum of Science, Moscow, Russia - Rhizome/Fact 5 videos for the 2012 Liverpool Biennial, curated by Joanne McNeil and Omar Kholeif - Parallel Borders, curated by Mark Mangion, Malta Contemporary Art - Everything was Michael Bolton and nothing hurt, Preteen Gallery, Mexico City - BYOB Milan, curated by Domenico Quaranta, Museo Pecci, Milan - Visions Fugitives, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, France - SPAMM, SuPer Art Modern Museum, curated by Thomas Cheneseau & Systaime, online exhibition 2011 - I just want to be loved, curated Gabi Scardi and Ruth Cats, Museo Arte Gallarate, Italy - Word of Mouth, curated by Kernel, 3rd Athens Biennale- “Monodrome” - A Rock and a hard place, curated by Paolo Colombo, Mahita Ebu, Marina Fokidis, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale, CACT - Padiglione Internet- BYOB, curated by Rafael Rozendaal, Academy of Fine Arts, San Servolo, Venice - BYOB Bonn, curated by Angelo Plessas and Patrick C. Haas, Art History Dpt - University of Bonn - 100 di 50, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Marco Scotini, part of Miart at Naba, Milan - Greek Contemporary Woman, The Hub, Athens, curated by Marina Fokidis - DLD Arts, DLD11 conference, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Johannes Fricke, Munich, Germany
2010 - Carnets d’inspiration, a group show/auction at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - Visual Dialogues, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens - MarathonMarathon, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Nadja Argyropoulou, Acropolis Museum, Athens - Bring Your Own Beamer, curated by Angelo Plessas, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens - Bring your own beamer, curated by Anne de Vries and Rafael Rozendaal, Friedrich Projectstudio, Berlin - Kunsthalle Athena-The Bar, curated by Marina Fokidis, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens - Mixed and Mastered, curated by Xenia Kalpaktsoglou and Christopher Marinos, Centre for Visual Introspection, Bucharest 2009 - The drawing room of Fruit and Flower Deli, Tiergarten 1, Berlin - A personal shout, curated by Lovett/Codagnone, White Columns, New York - Splendid Isolation, curated by Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, for “Heaven” 2nd Athens Biennial - Extended Ecologies, curated by Dafni Vitali, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens - Are you sure you are you? Spencer Brownstone Gallery - Random Rules, curated by Marina Fokidis, Pulse Art Fair, New York - Electricity comes from another planet, Rebecca Camhi gallery, Athens - Straylight Cavern, curated by Richard Priestley and Milika Muritu, Cell Project Space, London, UK 2008 - It Ain’t Fair, invited by Pablo de la Barra, O.H.W.O.W, Art Basel/Miami week, Miami - Straylight Cavern, curated by Richard Priestley and Milika Muritu, Cell Project Space in Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Scotland - Everyday Utopia, curated by Marina Fokidis, Charles de Jonghe gallery, Brussels, Belgium - RRRIPP!! Paper Fashion, curated by Vassilis Zidianakis, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg - If Tomorrow never comes, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey - Athensville, curated by Marina Fokidis, Art Athina Fair, Athens - A personal shout, curated by Lovitt/Codagnone, Turin Gay and Lesbian Festival, Turin - Teleport Fargfabriken, curated by Jan Aman and CM Von Hauswolff, FF Norr, Ostersund, Sweden 2007 - In Present Tense: Young Greek Artists, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens - Her(His)tory, curated by Marina Fokidis, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens - H sygxroni elliniki skini, curated by Nadia Argiropoulou, ART ATHINA, Athens - Art Athina, with Blow de la Barra gallery, Athens - Existential Computing, (guest of Miltos Manetas), Hayward Gallery, London - Mulher Mulheres, curated Adelina Von Furstenberg, SESC Paolista Museum, Sao Paolo, Brazil - RIP, curated by Vassilis Zidianakis, Benaki Museum, Athens 2006 - Club 11 Museum Night, Stedeljik Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Anathena, curated by Marina Fokidis and Marina Giotis, Deste Foundation - What Remains is Future, curated by Nadia Argiropoulou, Patras Cultural Capital of Europe - The grande promenade, curated by Anna Kafetsi, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens - A Neen Demo, curated by Angelo Plessas, Synch Festival at Benaki Museum, Athens - Fresco Bosco, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Padula, Italy - Art in the countryside, Beltsios Collection, Trikala, Greece - A show with Andreas Angelidakis and Miltos Manetas, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens - Supeneen, Pack Gallery, Milan, Italy - Re-opening of Magasin, curated by Claude Closky ,Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble 2005 - III Valencia Bienial, curated by Franck Gautherot and Seung-duk Kim Convent of the Carmen, Valencia - Hide and Seek- Hello Kitty 30th Anniversary, organized by Sanrio, Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong - Sonar Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, Barcelona - A Videogame Social, presentation, at Sketch gallery, London
- 8th Media Arts Festival, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2004 - A new site for the Magasin, curated by Claude Closky, Magasin Center of Contemporary Art, France - Salon du Casse Coeur, invited by Casey Spooner, Deitch Projects Brooklyn, NYC, USA - Playgrounds and Toys, organized by Art for the World, Musee Oceanographie, Monaco - Neentoday, curated by Rafael Rozendaal, MU Foundation, Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Celebrating the Demon, Fargfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden - Ideal Office, invited by Miltos Manetas and organized by Outcasts Inc, Paris, France 2003 - Tirana Biennial 2, curated by Valery Grancher, Tirana, Albania 2002 - Villette Numerique Festival, curated by Isabelle Anvers, Parc de Villette, Paris, France - AfterNeen, Casco Projects, Utrecht, The Netherlands - Whitneybiennial.com, online 2001 - Last Year (with Andreas Angelidakis), Electronic Orphanage, Los Angeles, USA - Biennale.net, curated by Miltos Manetas, Deitch Projects, New York city, USA LECTURES: - Internet Phychogeography, Royal Art Academy, Copenhaghen, Denmark, October 2015 - Intenet Utopia, Onassis Cultural Center, Athens, Greece, Oct 2014 - Works and Eternal Internet Brotherhood, Instituto Svizzero Roma, March 2014 - Global Tools, invited by Silvia Franceschini and Valerio Borgonuovo, Salt, Istanbul, March 2014 - Angelo Plessas Works, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb 2014 - Post Digital Cultures, curated by Elise Lammer and Federica Martini, Fine Arts, Lausanne, Dec 2013 - Art online, Ibero University, invited by Johannes Thumfart, Mexico City, April 2013 - PechaKucha, Heraklion, September 2011 - Rhizome 2010 commissions panel, invited by Lauren Cornell, The New Museum, January 2010 - Angelo Plessas Works, at Heaven- 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens auditorium, Athens, Sep 2009 - Rhizome work, at the Polytechnic School of Architecture of Volos, May 2009 - Artist presentation, at Electrofringe Festival, October 2008 - Hospitable, KAM Mediterranean Centre of Architecture, Chania, August 2007 - Last year, with Andreas Angelidakis at KTH school of Architecture, Stockholm, Sweden, 2002 GRANTS/PRIZE: - Deste Prize 2015 winner, Cycladic Art Museum - Monument to Cold War Victory, competition(shortlisted) organized by Yevgeniy Fiks and Stamatina Gregory, Cooper Union, New York, 2014 - Fulbright scholarship 2009-10 in New York, invited by Rhizome, Fulbright Foundation, Athens - The Rhizome Commissions 2009, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY WORKSHOPS: - Temple of Play workshops, Frieze Projects 2013 - Uovo Kids, Science Museum, Milan, 2012 - Uovo Kids, Teatro Grande, Brescia, November 2011 - Sound Meditation, at Emst, 2011 - Sound Fertility, at Emst,2011 - Robot Poetry Reading, at Emst, 2011 - Upload a Monument, at Naba- Film and New Media Department, Milan,2011 - The Prospect Academy, at Heaven- 2nd Athens Biennale, 2009, Athens - Poetry on the web, at Electrofringe Festival, 2008, Newcastle Australia - Poetry on the web, at SESC Av Paulista, 2007, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Selected Press/Essays
Review of the Mirage Machines show by Michelangelo Corsaro, ArtReview mag
Cover and image and text by Mario Ballesteros Domus Mexico
Special project on Art Review project space invited by Laura McLean - Ferris
Review of the Temple of Truth show by Stephanie Bailey on Artforum Picks
Essay and review by Marina Fokidis to Art Agenda
Essay and review by Brian Droitcour to Artforum magazine
Interview to LuckyPdf, Dazed and Confused magazine, March 2012
Text by Elena Bordignon for the 2nd Eternal Internet Brotherhood
Text by artist Pae White for the 20th anniversary of Frieze Magazine
Review and images on the Folha de S.Paulo newsparer
THE MONUMENT IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE MONUMENT! Essay by Caroline Corbetta for the exhibition “Every Website is a Monument” at Gloria Maria Gallery, January 2011 The last time I went to New York my hotel window was facing the Hudson. It would have been an amazing sight if, far away, off to the right bank, standing on its little Island, the Statue of Liberty wouldn’t have been there. There it was with its ghostly presence - nothing to do with its innocuous tourist reproductions. Luckily a dense mist fell on the river. Otherwise I would have closed the curtains. The statue is almost an unbearable sight for me, especially due to its movie dipictions, such as the final one in the Planet of the Apes (1968) where the humans find the iconic monument’s head and other fragments on a beach, all signs of a self destructive, extinct civilization. The same symbolism is the Statue of Liberty’s broken head which appears on the poster of another cult science fiction movie 1997 Escape from New York (1981). The image of a broken monument is one of the strongest dystopic images existing, especially the anthropomorphic one. A monument, for better or for worse, embodies a collective ideal and utopian imagery. Sequences of the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s statues, as well as Ceausescu’s, just to name a couple of a long series, gave us testimony of a sudden power change, as well as a different self- representation of a society. Luckily, we don’t have to free ourselves from such an oppressive power (and it seems we are far away, but not far enough, from self-destruction) and we nourish a double feeling towards urban monuments, and their traditional embodiment of shared values both political and aesthetic. We are hyper-individualists and it is hardly possible for us to find unanimous agreement under a monument’s shadow. Paradoxically, there’s a unifying moment where we debate on public art. They are ugly and/or questionable (therefore removable) even if they are signed by prestigious names. For example, let’s refer to the monument to Pertini by Aldo Rossi and, most recently, L.O.V.E. by Maurizio Cattelan. Both monuments are installed in Milan, and both, quite remarkably, are in transit. The first one, after twenty two years of disputed presence close to Via Manzoni, is about to be moved, with not yet a specific destination, most likely to make space to a commercial activity. And only now, while a loose red and white tape surrounds its huge cubical frame, many people are fighting for it. The second one - intentionally controversial - should have been left in the middle of Piazza Affari from where it mocked the ambiguous exchange only for a month (i.e. until last October 24th). But it is still there while I write these thoughts, waiting to be assigned its final destination; while the artist, who is corroborated by Internet polls, wants to donate it to the city, only if it could stay in that very Piazza. Public art is a hot topic. It is also a thorny issue because of its intrinsic public nature: as a matter of fact, it’s one thing to look for art in galleries and museums (where it’s customary to discuss around the concept of anti-monumentality, or more precisely, a-monumentality, which is a quite vague notion attempting to represent our present time and its multidirectional desires), quite another to bump into art while walking on a public street. But they are somehow stimulating. They help us to understand that in our consumerist and perpetual present - where the preservation of memory and the planning of the future are both reduced to goods or marketing strategies- we still long for public art work that represents the society that produces and exhibits them. Amongst such projects experimented with in the last few years, there are two revealing trends. The first one is related to the transitory nature of the are, such as the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square in London: a long time empty plinth is now adorned with works commissioned to famous artists in rotation. This is a Solomonic choice which makes temporariness an effective trigger for/of public debate. The other trend is related to virtuality, which is masterly investigated by artist Angelo Plessas. After a dip dive in the Internet, which represents for Angelo a “real” environment such as a gallery (with the advantage of a disproportioned visibility), the artist presents a physical and tangible translation of some of his websites that have been realized in the last ten years; diverse works that we could define as poetic interactive anima-
tions, embellished with titles that emphasize the deep humanistic intention of the project. Each of those websites is already a monument, in the most contemporary sense, because it is a work of art that stands in a new public field, the Internet, without imposing meanings from above, but actually proposing itself as a recipient of diverse stances, even opposite ones. In order to make his reasoning even more layered, playing with the ambiguity between reality and virtuality, (which is nowadays typical of the life of millions of people, who not only shop online but also establish diverse relationships through the web), Angelo has created these “offline monuments”: MeLookingAtYou.com, DoubleFaced.com, ZigZagPhilosophy.com taken directly from the websites, becoming urban and three-dimensional. They are participatory and playful sculptures, as the “originals” from which they are derived. They are to be installed in the streets of Milan, in places that have been coherently choosen with Google Street View. The “offline monuments” are projects that have two levels of users (local and global) and usage (real and virtual) that often get interconnected and generate interesting questions on the nature of contemporary monument. Muddling it up even more, Angelo Plessas increases the exhibition structure with some signs that “advertise” the actual realization of those monuments, works of art where real and illusionary elements synchronize to form a new aesthetic dimension. Moreover, the only real monument physically present in the exhibition, “The Monument to An Online Persona”, is two-dimensional like an online icon. Plesas describes this as such: «I borrowed the “face” of this imaginary person I call Leo Sky which I devised as a board member of the Angelo Foundation - my imaginary foundation. The star “represents” that everybody with the internet now can become famous and a star. For example you create an interesting blog and you become famous in the most convenient way even if you are in the most remote place in the world. There are more connotations in this monument like the crown/mouth can be seen as the “www”, and that can be seen as representing the internet way of doing things which makes everybody a “king” of his castle. I also chose this because a star is the national symbol of Italy». Has Angelo realized that his star shaped Leo resembles the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty’s head? I really believe so, as he declares to be interested in exploring a new genre of monumentality, where the classic notions of time and space are questioned. Caroline Corbetta, Milan, December 2010.
Angelo Plessas, a Modern Day Explorer, written by Stephanie Bailey, published in Highlights magazine, Winter 2010 For Angelo Plessas, the internet is his medium. “I love working on the internet because it evolves; everything is becoming richer, almost more lyrical than a painting or a sculpture - these things inspire me very much,” he proclaims enthusiastically. Known for his website pieces that act like internet graffiti, Plessas creates websites for the sake of a website, like virtual dead ends that simultaneously act as portals into other worlds. Like a wizard, Plessas finds deep enjoyment in playing with the boundaries of virtual reality and reality. “I approach the virtual and the real as the same thing, though perhaps I really just look at reality in a surreal way,” Plessas muses, noting that “now I’m moving into physical realms,” an example being Monument to Internet Hook-Ups (2009), a pyramid sculpture that travelled from the Athens Gay Pride parade to the Athens Biennale on a float, with Angelo Plessas Foundation Board members and others who came along for the party. “There are many meanings to that work. It combined everything - I love parades and I love social networking. In gay culture, meeting online is very common,” Plessas explains. Having witnessed the internet’s beginnings, and indulging in its possibilities, Plessas discovered an expanding universe where he could connect with others, leading him to partner and collaborator, architect Andreas Angelidakis. “Andreas played a huge role in my life. He introduced me to the art scene,” Plessas remembers, though he had always played with ideas. One such project, TheInternationalPortraitGallery.com, was born out of a childhood habit of searching for faces in things, and while working for his father in manufacturing, Plessas was already developing the websites that define him as an artist. Beginning his career at 25, Plessas reveals, “I didn’t want to be an artist as a child. I wanted to be a traveller.” Sitting in his studio-cum-residence near Flisvos Park, with a panoramic view of the sea, he describes the allure of the internet for him was the possibility to travel through it, rendering his laptop his studio. “What I like about this apartment’s view is that I feel the world,” he explains pointing at the horizon. “I look out into the sea and Long Island is just around the corner.” It was this view that led to one of Plessas’s websites, ZigZagPhilosophy.com, inspired by an evening of falling stars and passing ships he wanted to share. And sharing comes easily. “I’m an open book,” Plessas reveals. “I don’t have this complex with privacy. The word privacy has been redefined with the internet and is being redefined all the time. It also has this shame attached to it. Why should we be ashamed of what we do?” His outlook makes Plessas a very likeable person. His modesty coupled with an obvious appetite and curiosity for life feeds his work, making it impossible to separate the person from the profession. “The thing with the arts is experience is more powerful than knowledge a lot of the time,” he explains. With no formal artistic training, Plessas is an explorer who voyages into physical and virtual worlds, collecting, communicating and exchanging ideas, searching for visual and conceptual possibilities. With the AngeloPlessasFoundation.com, the Bank of Angelo and Angelo currency in circulation, “which I use to buy love,” Plessas adds, his next step is a collaboration with the New Museum, New York, supported by a Fulbright scholarship. But after all this, does he think he is an artist? “The definition art has become very broad, so I don’t know what I would call myself,” he ponders. “I guess I’m an artist.”