biennale.NO
curation of participation list
discussion



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Zsolt Mesterhazy:
my 2 pence worth:
i support the point raised by nn simply on account of/ in upholding 
the most precious part of the call:
“The biennale doesn't take place, with works that don't exist.
There is nothing special to do.”
Therefore, to me “special fonts, characters, etc.” are out.
would it be a way to announce any changes by the way of an archive 
message from the biennale.no accompanied by short clarifications?

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Bjørn Magnhildøen:
Thanks for the considerations.
Here's my point of view:
The biennale's "There is nothing special to do." doesn't necessarily 
mean there's nothing to do, just that the biennale doesn't request 
anything The about page https://biennale.no/about.html mentions the 
use of hashtags people can use (if they want to do something).
On the other hand people haven't actually done anything, not even with 
the hashtags afaik.
What remains is the creativity employed by participants knowing the 
info will be displayed on the website.

And that's the question at hand, should we sober up the participant 
list, and in what way?
There are some issues:
- people participating multiple times? is that possible? i suppose i 
can be. it can be seen as an artistic take on what it means to 
"participate" and the racket it involves.
- organisations, galleries, etc.? again why shouldn't they be able to 
participate?
- self-promotion, url as name, special font? it could actually be an 
artist's name/nick, so hard to rule out.
- obviously non-entities, incl. statements, ascii-art, webhacks, etc.? 
creative use of the participant form, an entangled participant-work or 
a hostile attack?

If it was up to me I'd probably leave the page as it is, with people 
having different approaches to the play of participation. It messes 
with the protocols.
The biennale board can come to a compromise I suppose. For instance:
Distinguish between the main page list and a curated list. Keep a 
curated participant list in line with protocols: eliminating most of 
the issues above, and keep the cleaned name of existing entities. This 
curated list can be linked to from the main page, on the top as
Particiants
curated list
-
or at the bottom
See curated list of participants

And the curated list will be used for future reference, in archives 
and documentation, who participated in the festival. While the webpage 
will continue to show the full uncurated list.

Would this be ok for all?

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Bjørn Magnhildøen:
I've tidied up the participant list a bit: removed duplicate names, 
duplicate emails. I haven't verified emails, nor artist names or nicks 
(impossible). I've kept "ascii-art"-parts and special font (if not to 
censor it, then how to replace it?). I have removed the webhack though.

I see the project as part of a net art practice. It's playful and 
joking about name-dropping, participation, and biennales. I'm not 
sufficientlly concerned about it being taken seriously in the 
mainstream art world. I might not be the right person to deal with it 
I fear.

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Zsolt Mesterhazy:
@bjørn: thanks (again)!
@nn: about conversations connected to shows, ‘we’ tend to like them 
:D! if you have six minutes to spare, turn your display into portrait 
mode, lean back and watch: https://youtu.be/glP6PFkMAxU

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