THE SCHOOL OF SPAM

(SPAM the musical)
SPAM TURNED VIDEO ART (2008)

1-Channel Video
16:9 HD Bluray
4:57 / 5:30 / 6:29 mins loop

Based on the texts of e-mail-spam, this work is about make-believe and truth, hope and betrayal. Having collected e-mail-spam for over 2 years, I turned e-mail-spam into video art and video art into art spam. Together with a group of a dozen Melbourne artists (renowned composers and sopranos, video and mixed-media artists of the next generation, new talents in music or drama) I created a project that stretches genre limits and plays with the viewer’s mind.

Each of the four videos is divided into two parts. The first part (‘SPAM the muscial’) is an ironic, luring interpretation of a specific spam-email. The second part (‘deleted scenes’) turns this notion around, creating an image of reality that looks behind the scenes and works like a cold shower compared to the first part. ‘SPAM the musical’ can be presented as net art, a single-channel-screening or a site-specific multimedia-installation, playing with the cultural conventions of the place.

As an installation, the webpage of the project will come to life as a 3D installment, based on a spam-like meta-narrative and fake characters. The meta-narrative will be based on social problems of the city/country that hosts the show.

‘SPAM the musical’ was shown over 60 times worldwide, amongst them Edinburgh Art Festival, European Media Art Festival Osnabrück, Internet Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Media Art Forum Moscow, Media Art Biennale Wroclaw, Simultan Festival Timisoara, Espacio Enter Tenerife, MAGMART Naples, Crosstalk Budapest, Fondazione March Padua, Museum of New Art Detroit, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Rome.

More infos on www.spamthemusical.com.

FESTIVALS / INSTALLATIONS / SCREENINGS

2011
  • Shorts, VideoTime, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
  • See You on the Flip Side, AC Institute, New York (USA)
  • The Art of Love, 27th International Winter Festival, Sarajevo (Bosnia&Herzegovina)
  • 7th International Director’s Lounge, Meinblau, Berlin (Germany)
  • Video Row, Torrance Art Museum, California (USA)
  • 2nd Internet Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, Academia di Belle Arti, Venice (Italy)
2010
  • MAGMART, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples (Italy)
  • Frieze, MKL Medienkunstlabor Graz, Kunsthaus Graz (Austria)
  • Free Fall, Apartment Project, Istanbul (Turkey)
  • Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Centro Cultural y de Convenciones Teatro los Fundadores, Manizales (Colombia)
  • CROSSTALK video art festival, Budapest (Hungary)
  • cameraVideo, Fondazione March, Padua (Italy)
  • Kaunas in Art, Kaunas (Lithuania)
  • 7th Naoussa International Film festival, Naoussa (Greece)
  • tina b. – Prague Contemporary Art Festival, Prague (Czech Republic)
  • New Media, Sex and Culture in the 21st Century, Museum of New Art, Detroit (USA)
  • Pfalzpreis für Bildende Kunst, Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern (Germany)
  • tina b. in Venice, Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice (Italy)
  • Screengrab, eMerge Media Space, Townsville (Australia)
  • Moving Frames, Videoart and Animation Festival, Mytilene (Greece)
  • Media Facades Festival Europe 2010, Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin (Germany)
  • FestArte VideoArt, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome (Italy)
  • pixxelpoint,11th International New Media Art Festival, Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
2009
  • European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück (Germany)
  • 30 Years, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  • 13th Media Art Biennale WRO’09, Wroclaw (Poland)
  • Simultan Festival, Timisoara (Romania)
  • Media Forum / 31th International Moscow Film Festival, Moscow (Russia)
  • Kurye International Video Festival, Istanbul (Turkey)
  • Visions in the Nunnery, London (UK)
  • EuroITV, Leuven (Belgium)
  • Festival miden, Kalamata (Greece)
  • Videoholica Video Art Festival, Varna (Bulgaria)
  • Art Under The Bridge / video dumbo, DAC Brooklyn, NY (USA)
  • 12th Electrofringe Festival, Newcastle (Australia)
  • Art Science Innovation, Espacio Enter Canarias, Tenerife (Spain)
  • IN OUT Festival, Laznia Contemporary Art Centre, Gdansk (Poland)
  • Euroshorts Festival, Warsaw + Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala (Poland)
  • 4th Internacionalni Festival In-Difference, Galerija SKC Belgrade (Serbia)
  • 14th Videomedeja, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad (Serbia)
2008
  • Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh (UK)
  • Galerie Wagner + Partner, Berlin (Germany)
  • Interfiction / Dokfest, Kassel (Germany)
  • ‘SPAM the Musical’ is about make-believe and truth, hope and betrayal. It stretches genre limits and plays with preconceptions of the viewer’s mind.

    Edinburgh Art Festival (UK)

  • That’s how twisted the world of today is.  Nevertheless one is touched by the ‘deleted scenes’.

    Berliner Zeitung, Berlin (Germany)

  • Genre-bending, theatrical and very funny. Compulsive to watch, but very disturbing.

    RealTime, Sydney (Australia)

  • Viral, punk, trojan, fabulous & fucked up.

    The List, Glasgow (UK)

  • HYPE of the week.

    Vanity Fair (Germany)

  • Don’t miss ‘SPAM the musical’!

    The Independent, London (UK)

  • Our Tip of the Week!

    Art (Germany)

  • Visual Art Highlight!

    TIP, Berlin (Germany)

AWARDS

  • 36th Concours Internationaux de Bourges / Netart, IMEB Bourges, Bourges (France)
  • Media Forum / 31st International Film Festival / Special Mention, Moscow (Russia)

TV + WEB

  • Special Selection, Kanal København (Denmark)
  • Visualcontainer, Milan (Italy)
  • Incident (France, Canada, Senegal)
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