STRP festivals
03.04.2009 - 13.04.2009

Eindhoven, the Netherlands
project of LAb[au]: SwarmDots, generative art console
Kiok. Artefacts of a post-digital age

About STRP festival:

The STRP Festival is one of the largest art & technology festivals in Europe and the mix of music, art & technology makes it unique. The multidisciplinary programme appeals to a wide audience. The focus during the opening weekend in 2009 is on impact and experience, while the second part will concentrate on delving deeper, amazement and quieting down. In addition to the festival, the STRP Foundation also organised the 5MM (five minute museum) in cooperation with Eindhoven's MU art space.

STRP stands for Strijp, the name of the industrial site where the STRP Festival is held. The Strijp-S location is a huge industrial area where Philips came up with practically all of its revolutionary inventions during the previous century. This is where the audio cassette, the CD and the video 2000 system were born. In addition to all of these technological advances, Strijp-S was also the scene of an honest-to-goodness creative revolution. After Philips left the area, it was time to find a new use for Strijp-S. The solution was to provide and develop a home for the creative urban centre of Eindhoven: 'The Creative City'. --->

LAb[au] is part of the KIOSK-gallery, curated by Yves Bernard and Domenico Quaranta.

About Kiosk exhibition
http://www.strp.nl/strp/artist/125

Guest curators: Yves Bernard (Belgium) and Domenico Quaranta (Italy)
http://www.imal.org ; http://www.domenicoquaranta.net

Many people collect art while others collect technology. Then there are the pioneering types who look for a combination of art and technology. They collect art objects that are continually changing, or as Yves Bernard and Domenico Quaranta put it: "They love screens. They love bits with atoms. They love things that move and change, because they live in a world that moves and changes." They love the process, not necessarily static finished products. "They wouldn't mind a Mona Lisa, provided it alternates between smiling and crying. For these art lovers KIOSK is bound to be a dream come true."

Bernard and Quaranta are the joint curators of KIOSK, which is one of the possible outcomes of the exhibit "Holy Fire: Art of the Digital Age" at iMAL in Brussels in 2008. Holy Fire was an attempt to organise a New Media Art show in cooperation with galleries and collectors, who are far and few in between in the field of New Media Art. KIOSK collects works of art related to digital art and technology that are not "afraid" of becoming objects.

KIOSK refers to the small vending stalls where you can buy lighters, newspapers, magazines and scratch cards. The name plays with the fleeting "collectible" nature of the works on display. KIOSK is about technology, screens and the changing nature of information. While the line between art and everyday consumer items sometimes can be very hard to define, the work nevertheless has that special something. And that is why we call it art. Come be amazed! --->

Artists featured in the KIOSK space:

Boredomresearch (UK), Jim Campbell (USA), Alessandro Capozzo and Katja Noppes (IT/USA), Driessens & Verstappen (NL), LAb[au] (BE), Golan Levin (USA), Olia Lialina & Dragan Espenschied (RU DE), Manfred Mohr (DE), Mark Napier (USA), Björn Schälke (DE), Yacine Sebti (BE), Sakurako Shimizu (USA), Alexei Shulgin & Aristarkh Chernyshev (RU), Tonylight (Antonio Cavadini, IT), Siebren Versteeg (USA), Peter Vogel (DE), Marius Watz (NO)