Montevideo

Yes, we're open

02 Jun - 19 Aug 2012

YES WE'RE OPEN
2 June - 19 August 2012

The perhaps cynical sounding title 'Yes, we're open' indirectly plays off the recent press releases about the Netherlands Media Art Institute putting up the shutters at the end of this year. With its approaching closing, the NIMk is seizing the chance to deal substantively with the subject of 'openness' in art. Openness 'as a theme, in form and as a quality' is central in 'Yes, we're open'. What can a term like openness mean in art today, and in an internet society? Currently people regard the internet as an 'open' and free medium for the distribution of massive quantities of information, but at the same time politics and commerce meddle with it to an unbelievable degree. The internet has its boundaries, literally and figuratively, and is not infinite. On the other hand, the internet has also contributed immensely to a more or less successful effort toward achieving the transparency and openness that the public wants to see on the part of businesses and organizations. The question of copyright, which is playing a more complex and prominent role in the present era, is also related to this. How does this issue influence art and artists?