Pages

First Internet Pavilion, 53rd Biennale di Venezia 2009

Canvas, Homasote (recycled newspaper), wooden dowels, silk screen prints Rhombus panels 43cm edge length, 99° / 81° angles

"Pages" was developed parallel to "Excess is More", both are experiments with hyperbolic geometry. Except silk screened browser windows - inviting visitors to write or draw - the panels are the same; set-up and meaning are different.

A hyperbolic structure has no defined inside or outside, it has many openings and exits, is the spatial equivalent of the Internet. When we look for information today, we no longer have limited sources and a linear path to get there, often we have to trust our intuition where to go next. Reading a hypertext eventually leads us to something we originally were not looking for but it ultimately gives us a broader understanding. Like brainstorming, also learning is often based on free association with a loose mind; we consider more aspects, connect dots and build our own worlds. The time of the secluded specialists is over, to master the 21st century we have to look at the whole picture, consider everything, think holistic, team-up and exchange.

The Internet Pavilion leaves no physical trace unlike most pavilions at the Venice Biennale, which is very much in the spirit of the end of the essay "Pavilions of the Future" written by Beatrize Colomina: "Etymologically, "pavilion" comes from "papillon", the French for butterfly; the sides of an open lightweight nomadic tent were associated with the wings of a butterfly. The pavilion, classically a royal tent in a park, arrives, fluttering in from an unknown place, a pure image in flight hovering for a moment, touching down and standing there with its image fully exposed, before fluttering away again, leaving everything changed in its wake"

Project team: Eugene Tsai, Hannah Hunt, Sean Gordon, Somya Singh, Veronika Bjarsch
Started by Miltos Manetas; Curated by Jan Aman; Produced by Art Production Fund
www.biennale.net