Gallery

Igor Stromajer

(Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Igor Stromajer is an mobile intimate communicator. He researches tactical emotional states and traumatic low-tech strategies. He has shown his work at more than a hundred exhibitions in forty-two countries and received a number of awards. As artist-in-residence he lectures at universities and contemporary art institutes in Europe, USA and Canada. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia; Computerfinearts Gallery -net and media art collection, New York, USA; and permanently exhibited at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany.

Stromajer has presented his work worldwide in more than one houndred exhibitions and festivals, among them, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (Curator: Christine Van Assche); Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (Curator: Remeidos Zafra); Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (Curator: Brugge DeMoll); P-10 Gallery, Singapore (Curator: Tien Wei Woon); Titanik Gallery, Turku, Finland (Curators: Sanna Syvänen); Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, Canada (Curator: Valerie Lamontagne); FILE Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil; SIGGRAPH, USA; Impakt Festival, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Curator: Arjon Dunnewind); European Media Art Festival - Osnabrueck, Germany (Curator: Alfred Rotert); Serralves Museum; Porto, Portugal (Curator: Maria Teresa Cruz); Banff New Media Institute, Canada; NICA Gallery 2001, BellaCenter, Copenhagen, Danmark (Curators: Anna Kindvall, Lars Gustav Midboe); Transmediale Festival, Berlin, Germany (Curators: Anke Hoffmann, Susanne Jaschko).

Since 1996 he runs Intima Virtual Base, a contemporary arts institute (www.intima.org). Intima Virtual Base is an artistic mark for low-tech tactical emotional communication art, contemporary arts actions and sound research. Basic substance: the intimate, ascetic and interactive aesthetics. The key words for all activities are seclusion and ascetics. These imply intimacy, which after all is emphasized in the name of the artistic mark.

website: http://www.intima.org

Brane Zorman is a composer and sound manipulator. Between 1982 and 1986 he was frontman for the Slovene punk group O!KULT. He is a pioneer of Slovene techno scene. Since 1987 he has been composing music for both Slovene and international theatre, dance and multimedia performances and projects. and has made guest appearances throughout Europe.

website: http://www.ljudmila.org/beitthron

The Work (exhibited on Thursday, December 1, Victoria Studios)

Ballettikka Internettikka [ internet ballet ] by Igor Stromajer and Brane Zorman

http://www.intima.org/bi

Ballettikka Internettikka is a serial of tactical art projects which began in 2001 with the exploration of internet ballet. It explores wireless internet ballet performances combined with guerrilla tactics and mobile live internet broadcasting strategies.

From 2001 to 2005 seven different Ballettikka Internettikka actions were performed:

* Internet, 2001

* The Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia, 2002

* Lab 03, Bergen International Theatre, Bergen, Norway, 2003

* Television Slovenia - Cultural Program, 2003

* Ljubljana Motorway Beltway, Slovenia, 2003

* Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy, 2004

* National Ballet, Belgrade, Serbia, 2005

Authors: Igor Stromajer and Brane Zorman (in collaboration with Davide Grassi) Theoretical Adviser: Bojana Kunst Produced by Intima Virtual Base - Institute for Contemporary Arts (www.intima.org), Slovenia, 2001-2005; and Aksioma (www.aksioma.org), 2003 - - - - -

"...The eleven minutes of live webcasting were watched by more then 400 people. An amazing amount, which even the artist did not expect. Not only did they see Igor Stromajer dancing, but they also saw the conductor of the 'mp3 orchestra' - as Stromajer calls MC Brane - who ironically conducted the mp3's on his laptop like a true Herbert von Karajan. The video of the whole event catches the excitement of the event well. Shot in black and white it leaves one a bit with the feeling of watching an avant-garde performance straight from the early twentieth century, if it weren't for the laptops and mobile phones of course. Both dancer and conductor wear a kind of miners light on their heads. The movements of the light, the speed and accuracy of the operation, the bare abandoned basement and the concentrated moves by Stromajer and MC Brane create a sense of conspiracy that replaces the so called interactivity of on line art without it being missed. In a way it is still there, in the intimacy of the small circle of people who watch this event live, while the management of the Bolshoi theatre watches a classical ballet."

# written by Josephine Bosma, published in The Cream, Amsterdam (April 25th 2002) - - - - -

"... It all started in 1999 when Igor Stromajer earned the peculiar nickname, the Pavarotti of the Internet for singing his Oppera Teorettikka Internettikka, a transcoding of the HTML into song. After the incantation of the code, two years later he delivers another surprising creation: Ballettikka Internettikka.

... net.art's fifteen minutes of glory on the theater's premises ...

... With this project Stromajer and Zorman also demythologize net.art and express its potential for vitality by showing in pantomime and music, the involvement of passions and dramas, trials and tribulations in the its creative process. One can hardly say that Stromajer is a military man or a stripper for that matter, yet, his expression is at times shocking bordering on the flamboyant as it abounds on subversive methods and references to military strategies for intimacy on the Net. For this artist the Net is an emotional, vibrant matter which only remains to be uncovered ..." # written by Rossitza Daskalova, published by CIAC Electronic Art Magazine, Montreal (N.15, August 2002)

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Ballettikka Internettikka was presented in numerous galleries and museums of contemporary art worldwide (from 2002 to 2005) including Le Centre national d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou - Musee national d'art moderne in Paris, 15. Stuttgarter Filmwinter in Stuttgart, Centro em Movimento in Lisbon, FILE 03 - electronic language international festival in Sao Paulo, Titanik Gallery in Turku (Finland), P-10 Gallery in Singapour, IMPAKT festival in Utrecht (The Netherlands), Thailand 3rd New Media Arts Festival in Bangkok, Cork Vision Centre - Cork Cultural Capital of Europe 2005 (Ireland) and CEC ArtsLink and New York University in New York.