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50
INSTALLATION / WEB SITE
THE
NETWORKED TERRITORY
IMAGINA
96, GALERIE PIERRE NOUVION, MONACO
JANUARY 1996
http://www.monaco.mc/exhib/territories
The
inauguration of an online version of the artist’s “Territory
of the Square Meter” (i.e., its digital deterritorialzation)
forms the pretext for two public participation initiatives
occurring at the Nouvion gallery. In the first, a digital
picture is made of each visitor upon entering the gallery
and is instantly relocated to a specific square meter parcel
of the now worldwide cyber-territory. In the second, the “Universal
Foot Project,” visitors to both the gallery and the
website are invited to have an outline of one of their feet
traced, scanned, and uploaded to an online database—an
effort to lay claim to networked space by literally/virtually
setting foot upon it just like the astronauts who first set
foot on the surface of the moon. The web site—also a
“site of memory” for the artist—featured
a series of linked texts and images. The ironic texts offered
a semi-fictionalized history of the “Territory.”
The accompanying imagery included photos of the interior and
grounds of the Territorial “seat of government”
(the artist’s country home in Anserville, France), private
snapshots, and archival material from the artist’s many
projects. Visitors had the option of taking a guided tour
by clicking on “Forward? and “Back” buttons
or could err about the labyrinthine site by clicking on the
links in random order, thereby creating their own version
of the artist’s (e)state/life/career.
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