MARCO MENDENI – Deceptive Perceptions|GALLERIA CIVICA CAMPIONE D’ITALIA Curated by Matteo Bittanti - There are two kinds of players. Those who play video games. And those who play with video games. Marco Mendeni belongs to the latter category. It is not a matter of semantics. For a player, the message is the medium. For Mendeni, the medium is the message. The difference is crucial. Mendeni appropriates a medium in its entirety – its aesthetics, logic, and eidos. He likes to take things apart and put them back together – not exactly as they were. Iteration is the name of his game. Mendeni triggers epistemological short circuits through actions that subvert the viewer’s expectations. He brings to the surface the parameters which regulate the inner workings of virtual environments. His foregrounding practice evokes the techniques of the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, like Jean-Luc Godard. The director of À bout de souffle deliberately disrupts the arbitrary logic of narrative and aesthetic conventions that define our sense of cinematic reality (Galloway 2006). In the process, he forces the spectator to come to terms with the artificial nature of film. Mendeni applies Godard’s method to a different medium: digital games. Like his precursor, he does not abide to the rules. On the contrary, he invents new rules, new contexts, new games. Mendeni creates novel solutions, situations, and simulations. His eclectic practice ranges from synaesthetic performances to the heaviness of concrete, which reifies fluid, abstract moving images. Sounds, installations, and gestures: Mendeni plays with channels and codes, signals and formats. He produces a peculiar kind of video art by tinkering with the games’ virtual camera. He photographs simulacra. He juxtaposes lines and polygons, colors and noise. He wanders into uncharted territories, discovering secret passages. DECEPTIVE PERCEPTIONS urges the viewer to acknowledge the role of algorithms in creating a world as Will and Simulation. What happens to the transcendental categories of space and time as we move from the material to the ethereal? DECEPTIVE PERCEPTIONS is an invitation to dissociate and deconstruct, to displace and discern. After all, Mendeni’s works are a possible reaction - and a very convincing one - to Bruno Munari’s call for arms. In his seminal Manifesto of Machinism, apparently penned in 1938 and published in 1952, the Milanese artist wrote: “We live in a world owned by machines. We live among them, they help us do everything, from working to playing. [...] In a few years, we will become their little slaves. The artists are the only ones who can save mankind from this danger.” According to Munari, artists must develop a close relationship with technology, abandoning the traditional disciplines of painting and sculpture, doing away with “romantic brushes, the dusty palette, the canvas, and the easels.” The artists, Munari added, “must learn the mechanical anatomy of the machines, their mechanical language, their nature... They must distract them, make them behave erratically, create works of art with the machines, their tools.” Mendeni took up the challenge, turning the machines’ errors and glitches into a new kind of aesthetics. But there is nothing automatic or impersonal in this manipulation. His practice could not be more different from Andy Warhol’s desire “to become a machine” (Swanson 1963). Mendeni is a visual mechanic. A hacker who deconstructs, rebuilds, and repurposes his favorite toys. He makes them do things they were not designed to do. By reinventing the code, Mendeni turns machines into artworks, fulfilling Munari’s mandate. He introduces the viewers to new visual and psychological landscapes. Mendeni is a game changer. Don’t call it Op Art. This is the true art of the machine. Matteo Bittanti
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ROBOT06 FESTIVAL BOLOGNA/ITLAY
I'M NOT PLAYING_audiovisual performance
Mendeni, the scientist of the visual image. Meanza, the minister of sound. Together, they are ready to deconstruct and give a disturbing "twist" to the concept of play and amusement. "I'm Not Playing" actually looks like a game. In fact it looks like a typical situation of gaming, with the classic COD4. But in this live audio/video performance, things begin to take an unexpected turn, where real and virtual combine and interact creating more doubts than certainties. Marcella Loconte
For hacked videogame and real-time sampler I’m not playing is an audiovisual performance that talks about the relationship between the videogame medium and the culture of simulation in the digital era. Through the years, videogames have influenced our perception of space/time and our concept of identity, and we have now reached a point where real and virtual worlds are merging their borders. In this process, the videogame as a container of ideological power cannot be underestimated. I’m not playing addresses all this through a war videogame played every day by millions of people: COD4. During the performance, COD4 is played in real time, but the visual and sound landscapes of the game are transformed. Thanks to a hack of the graphic engine, the game shows us real and virtual battlefields at the same time, fragmented among islands of disturbing hypnotism. The audio track is also de-structured in real time, through a script that assigns new sounds to the original sound effects, which is controlled live during the performance. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BYOB Milano Museo Pecci Milano, Ripa di Porta Ticinese 113 Thursday, April 12th, 2012, 8 PM -11 PM curated by Domenico Quaranta BYOB MILANO will take place in the exhibition space of Museo Pecci Milano, and will host in a flexible, always-changing setup the work of many artists, including: Alterazioni Video, Andreas Angelidakis, Ivano Atzori, Fabrizio Bellomo, Enrico Boccioletti, Paolo Branca (VjVISUALOOP), Martin Butler, Marco Cadioli, Diego Caglioni, Claudia Campus, Sarah Ciracì, Adam Cruces, Sabine Delafon, Carlo dell’Acqua, Matteo Erenbourg, Francesco Fonassi, Helga Franza, Silvia Hell, Iocose, KK,S, Luca Leggero, Les Liens Invisibles, Miltos Manetas, Kenji Matsushita, Marco Mendeni, Filippo Minelli, Molta Gente, Bruno Muzzolini, Otolab, Laurina Paperina, Angelo Plessas, Anja Puntari, Sara Rossi, Claudia Rossini, Rafaël Rozendaal, Santa Ragione, Lorenzo Sarti, Filippo Solibello, Priscilla Tea, Maurizio Temporin, Tonylight, Carloalberto Treccani, Carlo Zanni. BYOB Milano is the first experiment of adaptation of this format to a museum space, and will profit from the dialogue with some of the works of the collection, presented in the exhibition Turbolenze (curated by Stefano Pezzato).
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"KENELL GAME OVER" solo exhibitions_Marco Mendeni
Lugano, Switzerland /04.04.13- 24.5.13
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ABSTRACT
La mostra personale di Marco Mendeni, Kenell Game Over, organizzata da Theca Gallery e curata da Andrea Carlo Alpini, ospitata nella sede luganese della galleria, si focalizza su alcune opere cardine della produzione artistica degli ultimi anni dell’artista Marco Mendeni realizzati a Berlino. Kenell un termine americano, troncato della sua lettera finale, che significa “gabbia”. Kenell rappresenta però anche l’unione di ingredienti diversi che, miscelati tra di loro, originano un nuovo composto dalle qualità uniche. Lo stesso avviene nelle opere di Marco Mendeni, che unisce componenti e linguaggi artistici differenti per creare un’opera unica all’interno del mondo dell’arte contemporanea. Le sue opere sono un mix di media, fotografia, video, grafica digitale computer game, ecc, Durante la mostra luganese sarà possibile interagire con opere provenienti dalle serie SIM CITY, ispirate al celebre
social game americano. Vi saranno poi opere provenienti da GAME OVER, serie in cui grafiche di software game rielaborate dall’artista vengono impresse su pannelli di cemento, quasi a concretizzare, ad arrestare il lento ma inesorabile procedimento di invecchiamento del mezzo digitale. Concluderanno la mostra le opere AVATAR e Evolution Life. L’esposizione di Lugano farà da
contraltare alla mostra milanese dell’artista che sarà allestita durante la Fiera di Arte Accessibile 2013, presso la sede del Sole 24 Ore di Milano, nel mese di aprile. Theca Gallery ha voluto fortemente credere in questo artista, dando la possibilità ad appassionati e collezionisti di avere due mostre personali dell’artista, una a Lugano e l’altra a Milano, dove l’artista realizzerà anche un’installazione video site specific in cui il pubblico sarà attivamente coinvolto.
www.theca-art.com
Andrea Carlo Alpini
Direttore Theca Gallery
Lugano
GAMESCENES ARTESERA ARTSLIFE EXIBART ARTRIBUNE TIrepubblica e Canton Ticino LOBODILATTICE ESPOARTE
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FUORISALONE 2013 MILANO Arte Accessibile 13 - Contemporary art fair "A CONTRIBUTION TO ANONYMOUS HISTORY" _MARCO MENDENI_____________________
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conference and interview by Domenico Quaranta -
the critical text by Matteo Bittanti -
curated by Andrea Carlo Alpini
Palazzo del Sole 24 Ore - MILANO
STAND 36 Artist: Carlo Buzzi, Marco Mendeni, Federico de Leonardis, Claudia Scarsella, Mohsen Taasha Waihdi Special Project: Marco Mendeni Installazione + Carlo Buzzi Pubblica Affissione FFPP Milano + Conferenza Arte Pubblica + Conferenza Game Art Conference and interview Domenico Quaranta and Marco Mendeni curated by Andrea Carlo Alpini/ THECA GALLERY
Arte Accessibile 2013_Contemporary Art Fair
_Palazzo del Sole 24 Ore_MILANO
The critical text by Matteo Bittanti: Game Art: Representation, Simulation and Dissimulation |
EVOLUTION LIVE_SITE-SPECIFIC VIDEO INSTALLATION Project by Marco Mendeni for Arte Accessibile 13 - curated by Andrea Carlo Alpini/ THECA Gallery - Evolution Life is a site-specific video installation that plays in the construction and deconstruction of hypothetical scenarios of video games. It is a new interpretation of universes now in disuse. The videogame 80's are broken, reprogrammed and then deprived of their original function. A loop of electronic platforms that show us a world, now deserted, awaiting permanent.
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Georgia_U.S.A_EATHENS SLINGSHOT March 2013 Marco Mendeni //FOV01 VIDEOINSTALLATION THE NEW SHOWCASE FOR INNOVATIVE ART AND TECHNOLOGY IN ATHENS GA, TAKES OVER DOWNTOWN ON MARCH 9th, 2013. — presso Athens, Georgia, U.S.A. The art dimension of Slingshot makes it unlike any event that has occurred in Athens. The event highlights non-traditional art forms: interactivity, new genres, social media, performance, sound, site specific works and locative works, and works integrated with the urban environment. Slingshot is featuring artists from across the country and around the world (20+ countries) including Canada, Brazil, Chile, Italy, France, England, Ireland, N. Ireland, Germany, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia Our TECH SHOTs are calibrated to bring together the brightest minds working at the intersection of music, art and technology to advance creativity and lay the foundations for the next big thing. Athens GA has been the birthplace of a variety of music and art movements over the past decades - come join us for the start of a new one! Contact us: info@athensslingshot.com
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ATTENTIONAL SHIFT_ THE ARMONY CENTER FOR THE ARTS_LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA_U.S.A March 2013 MARCO MENDENI /VIDEOINSTALLATION The Armory Center for the Arts Los Angeles, California, U.S.A MIA presents ATTENTIONAL SHIFT Video art that confounds expectations from nine international artists
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PLAYING THE GAME_MILANO_ITALY "PLAYING THE GAME" (Milano, 27-28 Ottobre 2012) a cura di Paolo Branca aka VJ Visualloop Game Art - Percorso espositivo articolato in una serie di opere consapevolmente contaminate da suggestioni videoludiche, nelle quali si riscontrano linguaggi e tematiche proprie dell'immaginario dei videogiochi. L'esposizione comprenderà opere di Matteo Bittanti, Emanuele Bresciani, Marco Mendeni, Shinji Murakami,Kenton Sheely, TonyLight e VjVISUALOOP.
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GAMES WEEK_FIERA MILANO CITY 9/ 11/ 2012-GAMES WEEK Fiera Milano City curato da Game Art Gallery.
game over_Screenshot_ComputerGame_Concrete-16x16_2010
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PULSART FESTIVAL_2012 Pulsart: music, art & exibithions a Schio MARCO MENDENI, LAURINA PAPERINA, MAX PAPESCHI ARTIST EXHIBITIONS ART CONTEST INSIDE ME Palazzo Fogazzaro from 14 to 29 july INSIDE ME: A BIG ISSUE Lanificio Conte from 14 to 22 july
MARCO MENDENI FOV01 VIDEOINSTALLATION > Take and assault one of the contemporary entertainment fetishes, the video game: "FOV01" by Marco Mendeni. Thanks to a decoding with which the functionality of the original game is transmuted, it carries you from recreational dimensions to islands of disturbing hypnotism, to tell in the best way possible the world in which we are migrating.
http://www.vicenzatoday.it/eventi/mostre/pulsart-schio-luglio-2012.html http://www.facebook.com/pages/VicenzaToday/212021655498004______________________________________________________________________________________________________
-I'M NOT PLAYING Life audiovisual performance_BERLIN
__________________________________________________________________________________________-I'M NOT PLAYING Life audiovisual performance 29/01/2013 AltesFinanzamat Berlinhttps://vimeo.com/60989328BOB MEANZA/ live electronics FILIPE DIAS DE/sitar MARCO MENDENI/Game Art visualsfor hacked videogame and real-time samplerI’m not playing is an audiovisual performance that talks about the relationship between the videogame medium and the culture of simulation in the digital era. Through the years, videogames have influenced our perception of space/time and our concept of identity, and we have now reached a point where real and virtual worlds are merging their borders. In this process, the videogame as a container of ideological power cannot be underestimated. I’m not playing addresses all this through a war videogame played every day by millions of people: COD4.
IMPOSSIBLE BACKGROUND_audio visual performance_BERLIN IMPOSSIBLE BACKGROUND/ 08-08-2012/ BERLIN Live audiovisual performance, recorded on 08/08/12 at Sowieso, Weiserstr. 24, Berlinhttps://vimeo.com/47517972
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