This week we speak with Philippe Riss, another gallery owner and curator to set up shop on rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth in Paris. He is the founder of XPO Studio as well as an artistic director and consultant specializing in post-digital issues in contemporary arts.
How did you become interested in postinternet art and the new iconographies and aesthetics?
I no longer use the term postinternet, even though I have a deep admiration for Artie Vierkant and his visionary intelligence.
I prefer to use the term #postdigital, or #vibration, since it is more inclusive, and, in my opinion, better conveys the impact of digital technologies on the world we live in.
The boundaries between the virtual and the physical are constantly shifting, and there’s no reason why everything shouldn’t one day become humanely virtual.
What issues have you faced when you decided to launch a space in the Haut Marais that’s not a “white cube,” but a think tank, a laboratory for experimentation, and an art studio?
The gallery has been a space for research from the very start; I created it back in 2012 with research and experimentation in mind. In addition, I speak a lot outside the gallery, in workshops and at conferences. I’m also a board member of an international think tank that brings together creative minds from various startups.
The white cube is still necessary, but it has now become a transitional space, a space adapted to reflecting on postcurating, rather than curating.
Why has the American scene been decisive in embracing the postinternet genre?
Well, the US is ahead when it comes to fabricating new worlds; nevertheless, I think that it is European artists who most actively discuss the implications of the #postdigital. The American scene has had a tendency to re-materialize the postdigital in order to please the public, which is why the term #postinternet was very quickly appropriated by the traditional contemporary art market.
Reconceptualization came back from across the Atlantic, but it should be noted that the artist’s location no longer matters as much, and I wonder if the phrase “local scene” has any relevance at all. There are #postdigital exhibitions around the world. We’ve been to Mexico, and it struck me that the exhibition MATERIA could have made the same statement in Brooklyn, Bogota, Montréal, Liverpool, or on rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth…
Why create an XPO award?
The idea of collaborating with YOUNG CREATORS emerged as part of the same mindset: we want to support young creativity which in turn helps us to better understand the #postdigital world.
We are preparing an exhibition in 2017 with the latest award winner, Yann Vanderme, which will decode this famed world of art in order to better re-encode it.
INFOS PRATIQUES
Actuellement : Drawing after digital
commissaire : Klaus Speidel
jusqu’au 17 juin 2016
XPO
17, rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth
75003 Paris
France
[email protected]
http://xpo.studio
