Post by pieter on Jun 8, 2007 8:45:23 GMT -7
WRO Centrum Sztuki Mediów
Open Studio/WRO is an independent formation which came into existence in 1988, at the dawn of the transition period which had a crucial significance for Poland. It is the first in Poland, and the largest and oldest according to the Central-East Europe survey of media art, taking up issues of contemporary art in the perspective of culture and communication. Initially an international festival of media art, WRO (the first edition of which took place in 1989, under the name WRO being an acronym standing for Polish Wizualne Realizacje Okolomuzyczne - International Sound Basis Visual Art Festival, starting from 1993 in a two-year cycle as an International Media Art Biennale) has surpassed its role of just a cyclical event, operating since 1998 as the WRO Center for Media Art Foundation and initiating a number of innovative artistic projects. The WRO Center for Media Art Foundation(wrocenter.pl) is currently an independent cultural institution that has the status of a public utility foundation, operating in the area of new media art in its broad sense. Starting from 2007 the main location for organizing Biennale, regularly showcasing and rendering accessible the collection along with documenting media art works is the WRO Art Center; a new gallery and cultural institution of exhibitory and workshop character, recently brought into existence by funds of the Municipality of Wroclaw, located at Teatralny Square 5, Wroclaw, in the attics of the former Stiebler’s coffee roasting plant.
From an international perspective the WRO Center for Media Art Foundationis the only Polish organization operating on such a large scale, bringing together recognized artists, curators, theoreticians, art managers and activists from all over the world, simultaneously promoting artists from Central and East Europe and creating a framework for cultural and intellectual exchange, preparing numerous experimental events, carrying out interactive installations, internet performances, multimedia concerts, exhibitions as well as documentation of artistic activity. WRO, being directly involved in the creation, production and implementation of projects in the area of media art is particularly interested in developing rudiments for interdisciplinary practices based on cooperation between international artists.
WRO INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ART BIENNALE presents directions of development and changes in contemporary art created with the use of contemporary communication tools, including video art, computer animation, interactive art, art CD-ROMs, performances, net art, concerts, multimedia spectacles and other artistic net projects.
The fulcrum of the event is an international competition for works made using electronic media techniques, presenting the complexity of works of contemporary art which takes into account different formats and media; works by both recognized and debuting artists are featured.
An important aspect of the event is presentations by world-famous authors in the fields of video art, animation, media performance and installation, such as: Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Norman McLaren, Jaron Lanier, Stelarc, Robert Cahen, Irit Batsry, David Larcher, Antonio Muntadas, Douglas Davis, Józef Robakowski, Paul Sermon, Jill Scott, Jeffrey Shaw, as well as retrospectives and screenings of program units prepared by media art centers. Starting in 1993 the international edition takes place every two years. Between the events, WRO Monitor Polski [Polish Monitor] was organized twice a Polish version and in 2000 a special millennium edition including an exhibition and conference in whichthe following personalities, among others, took part: Derrick de Kerckhove, Siegfried Zielinski, Machiko Kusahara, Errki Huhtamo, Andreas Broeckmann, Monika Fleischmann, Roy Ascott, Nina Czegledy, Marek Ho?ynski, Herbert W. Franke, Yoshiyuki Abe, Gerfried Stocker, Jill Scott, Perry Hoberman.
In line with the audio-visual concept, Biennale shows new strategies and territories of digital artistic communication. It poses questions about the artist?s role in the face of high culture‘s permeation with popular culture; global with local culture; commercial with independent culture. It accentuates the role of individual artistic attitudes in the midst of global tendencies, and the metamorphosis of the artistic experiment in the light of a spectacle society culture.
In between editions of Biennale, numerous screenings take place in artistic centers, museums and galleries in Poland and abroad, among them retrospective programs, WRO on Tour, and special projects and presentations such as Gary Hill Mind On the Line (2004) and Balaklava Odyssey(2006).
The Foundation is also a regional expert center in the domain of cultural policy, offering training in the field of art management and creating an action strategy for non-government, non profit cultural organizations; in the Looking Inside program it hosted trainees from Serbia and Ukraine. In November 1998 at the Cultural Competence European congress, the WRO Center was included among the European centers of cultural innovation. It is a founding member of the ECB European Cultural Backbone, the coalition of European institutions for participatory culture, founded under the auspices of UNESCO in Vienna, March 1999.
wrocenter.pl/biennale/index.php
Open Studio/WRO is an independent formation which came into existence in 1988, at the dawn of the transition period which had a crucial significance for Poland. It is the first in Poland, and the largest and oldest according to the Central-East Europe survey of media art, taking up issues of contemporary art in the perspective of culture and communication. Initially an international festival of media art, WRO (the first edition of which took place in 1989, under the name WRO being an acronym standing for Polish Wizualne Realizacje Okolomuzyczne - International Sound Basis Visual Art Festival, starting from 1993 in a two-year cycle as an International Media Art Biennale) has surpassed its role of just a cyclical event, operating since 1998 as the WRO Center for Media Art Foundation and initiating a number of innovative artistic projects. The WRO Center for Media Art Foundation(wrocenter.pl) is currently an independent cultural institution that has the status of a public utility foundation, operating in the area of new media art in its broad sense. Starting from 2007 the main location for organizing Biennale, regularly showcasing and rendering accessible the collection along with documenting media art works is the WRO Art Center; a new gallery and cultural institution of exhibitory and workshop character, recently brought into existence by funds of the Municipality of Wroclaw, located at Teatralny Square 5, Wroclaw, in the attics of the former Stiebler’s coffee roasting plant.
From an international perspective the WRO Center for Media Art Foundationis the only Polish organization operating on such a large scale, bringing together recognized artists, curators, theoreticians, art managers and activists from all over the world, simultaneously promoting artists from Central and East Europe and creating a framework for cultural and intellectual exchange, preparing numerous experimental events, carrying out interactive installations, internet performances, multimedia concerts, exhibitions as well as documentation of artistic activity. WRO, being directly involved in the creation, production and implementation of projects in the area of media art is particularly interested in developing rudiments for interdisciplinary practices based on cooperation between international artists.
WRO INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ART BIENNALE presents directions of development and changes in contemporary art created with the use of contemporary communication tools, including video art, computer animation, interactive art, art CD-ROMs, performances, net art, concerts, multimedia spectacles and other artistic net projects.
The fulcrum of the event is an international competition for works made using electronic media techniques, presenting the complexity of works of contemporary art which takes into account different formats and media; works by both recognized and debuting artists are featured.
An important aspect of the event is presentations by world-famous authors in the fields of video art, animation, media performance and installation, such as: Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Norman McLaren, Jaron Lanier, Stelarc, Robert Cahen, Irit Batsry, David Larcher, Antonio Muntadas, Douglas Davis, Józef Robakowski, Paul Sermon, Jill Scott, Jeffrey Shaw, as well as retrospectives and screenings of program units prepared by media art centers. Starting in 1993 the international edition takes place every two years. Between the events, WRO Monitor Polski [Polish Monitor] was organized twice a Polish version and in 2000 a special millennium edition including an exhibition and conference in whichthe following personalities, among others, took part: Derrick de Kerckhove, Siegfried Zielinski, Machiko Kusahara, Errki Huhtamo, Andreas Broeckmann, Monika Fleischmann, Roy Ascott, Nina Czegledy, Marek Ho?ynski, Herbert W. Franke, Yoshiyuki Abe, Gerfried Stocker, Jill Scott, Perry Hoberman.
In line with the audio-visual concept, Biennale shows new strategies and territories of digital artistic communication. It poses questions about the artist?s role in the face of high culture‘s permeation with popular culture; global with local culture; commercial with independent culture. It accentuates the role of individual artistic attitudes in the midst of global tendencies, and the metamorphosis of the artistic experiment in the light of a spectacle society culture.
In between editions of Biennale, numerous screenings take place in artistic centers, museums and galleries in Poland and abroad, among them retrospective programs, WRO on Tour, and special projects and presentations such as Gary Hill Mind On the Line (2004) and Balaklava Odyssey(2006).
The Foundation is also a regional expert center in the domain of cultural policy, offering training in the field of art management and creating an action strategy for non-government, non profit cultural organizations; in the Looking Inside program it hosted trainees from Serbia and Ukraine. In November 1998 at the Cultural Competence European congress, the WRO Center was included among the European centers of cultural innovation. It is a founding member of the ECB European Cultural Backbone, the coalition of European institutions for participatory culture, founded under the auspices of UNESCO in Vienna, March 1999.
wrocenter.pl/biennale/index.php