ART COMMISSIONS [ha] CALL FOR POSALS

[anna balint]

>> who is competent or qualified in your opinion to judge net.art proposals?
dze homeless roomz - !.e. netochka nezvanova
>> greetings,
schhhhhh

http://www.NNet-art.org of course !

In the 70's the whole art world was excited by concept art. Not only 'conceptual',
but a lot of alternative terms were developed to denote a very large, democratic and
poetic  movement: idea art, software, art and language, minimal art,
arte povera, earth art, land art, social art, social sculpture, soziale plastik,
happening. For becoming a concept artist, there was need only of a piece of paper and a
pen.  Not only magicians, selected artist, but anybody, any cultural worker, 
writer, student,designer, photographer, librarian, anybody could  be artist. 
Creativity was not an just an individual privilege anymore, but a common good.
Even utopia stopped pursuing a geographical place or a political system, and aimed to
" the other" people. Artists started to orientate themselves towards
the criteria of mass culture. But museums and galleries, managers could not switch from elite art to
mass culture models. The elite art distributed in priviligised social environment brought
more money, since visual arts were not relying on such mass support as the film or the pop music did.
Only few initiators and pioneers of concept art were accepted by the art institutions - concept now
looks like one of the most aristocrate artistic movements of the last century. However, 
a world wide alternative art scene grew on ground of sensibilty built by concept art.
Now the net.art seems to be at the same crossroad where concept art was in the mid-seventies.
This time it will be impossible that art institutions block or restrict net art and net culture by selection.
Maybe it is a vicious strategy to jury, comission and accept a few works. It would be crucial instead
the understanding of information overload, and the elaboration of ways to deal with it.