Tadej Pogacar - P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E.: Agent of Change - Documents I

[anna balint]

Tadej Pogacar &  The P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art present
Agent of Change - Documents I
International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tivoli Castle, Pod turnom 3, 1000 Ljubljana
December 13th 2001 - February 23rd 2002
Opening view: December 13th 2001, 8 PM

Agent of Change - Documents I  is the first of two exhibitions
comprehensively presenting the activities (research, cultural interactions,
installations, interventions) of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of
Contemporary Art. The first part of the presentation introduces documents
and works that critically explore subjects such as parallel communication
networks, subjective topographies of urban surroundings, art systems,
global influence of the media in the construction of cultural and sexual
identities, parallel economies and so on. The project intertwines virtual
and real environments, fiction and reality, and problematises the role of
the document in historical narrative.
It all started in the early 1990s, when Tadej Pogaèar founded the
P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the first virtual
museum institutions in the world. Information on the Museum given to both
the lay and the professional public gave the impression that this was a
highly organised, constantly growing and excellently adapting art
institution with a clearly defined programme of operation.
When the second manifesto of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary
Art was published it became clear, however, that this was a special virtual
institution, which establishes inter-specific relations with institutions,
social groups and symbolic networks. It does not have its own premises, nor
personnel; only sporadically does it occupy specific locations,
institutions (museums, schools and private apartments), the media, and
services.
Even a fleeting look into the history of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of
Contemporary Art  proves that flexibility and adaptability have been its
basic characteristics.  An institution that reflects artistic, cultural,
social and political changes with a convenient swiftness and precision
represents a ‘danger’ affecting (also inwards) all existing and entrenched
centres of power and interpretation.