FRED FOREST: ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH BASS MUSEUM

"DIGITAL STREET CORNER" BY FRED FOREST, ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2005

artistic copyright SDGL 2005.10.0349

www.fredforest.com

BASS MUSEUM, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

FRED FOREST AND THE BASS MUSEUM

PRESS RELEASE

"THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER"

In partnership with FRANCE TELECOM


Is it possible to surf around in cyberspace and hang out on the street corner at same time (global + local = glocal)? French artist Fred Forest will show us how at a world premiere event that will take place November 30–December 4 in the prestigious context of Art Basel Miami Beach 2005. Forest invites the Internet users of the world to meet him down in the street outside the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach for a memorable cyber-happening. There’s no need to reserve a plane ticket because the setting will actually be a “corner” of virtual reality, specially created with the help of a new open source peer-to-peer software program developed by Joachin Keller Gonzalez of France Télécom R&D. On the dates indicated, Forest aims to make art history by creating a unique real-time digital work of art with the help of online participants near and far. This work will consummate the official (esthetic and economic) recognition of a new model of art whose content and format bear no comparison to those of the past, an art for the wired societies of the information age.

Forest is no neophyte in the field of new media. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of video art in Europe and co-founded two major avant-garde movements with a focus on interactive media hybrids, Sociological Art and the Esthetics of Communication. In reference to his hacker-like tactics, Vilem Flusser called him “the artist who pokes holes in the media.” Forest is also a Net Art pioneer. He won the City of Locarno Grand Prize at the Locarno Festival of Electronic Art in 1995 for his work “From Casablanca to Locarno.” People are still talking about his virtual reality-enhanced “Cyber-marriage,” which took place live online in 1999 (his best man was none other than the “father of the Internet,” Vinton Cerf).


The “DIGITAL STREET CORNER” Web site, www.fredforest.com, will open on November 15, 2005 in order to give members of the public a chance to upload their free “ticket” to Miami Beach and carve out their very own niche in cyberspace. Don’t miss your chance to strut your stuff in Miami Beach in the company of your new digital friends. A wealthy art collector from the world of high finance has already paid a fortune to be the first in line!

On November 30, 2005, a special cyber-happening is scheduled to take place at “THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER” between 9 PM and 11 PM (local time). Forest himself will be the DJ, at the commands of his four computers, his console, and his turntable.

To participate in the happening, visit target=_new>http://www.fredforest.com



Everything that happens at “THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER” will be projected live onto the exterior walls of the Bass Museum in Miami Beach throughout the four-day duration of the event. And the festivities of the cyber-happening will be webcasted live for millions to see on the “DIGITAL STREET CORNER” Web site. Don’t miss your chance to meet and party with people from around the world on this virtual street corner, located for a short time only in “real” space at 2121 Park Avenue in Miami Beach.

At very moment that certain tortured souls rail against the lamentable position of French artists on the international scene and the Prime Minister is promising series of measures designed to fix the problem*, Fred Forest and his partners at France Télécom R&D will show the world that the French are still capable of being in the forefront in the fields of art, culture, industry, and technology.

*Remarks made by Dominique de Villepin at the opening ceremonies of FIAC 2005

Project Sponsors:
France Télécom
Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
Cultural Service of the French Embassy in New York
French Consulate General in Miami

Contact: forest@unice.fr

AN AERIAL VIEW OF " DIGITAL STREET CORNER " BY FRED FOREST

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN GET A FREE PASS TO HANG OUT WITH ALL YOUR PALS ON FRED FOREST’S DIGITAL STREET CORNER

www.fredforest.com

In this view, we see the Bass Museum, located on Park Avenue in Miami Beach. Please note the terrace, a perfect target for Internet users willing to parachute in.

After you’ve land, just take the service elevator or back stairs (by leaps and bounds) down to the ground floor, where you can meet up with all your friends just outside the main entrance!

Beginning on November 11, 2005, you can get outfitted and start training for your big jump with the help of some simulation exercises by visiting www.fredforest.com. Don’t forget to secure your harness and don’t forget to bring your laptop!

D-Day is November 30 between 9 pm and 11 pm (U.S. Eastern Time)—one small step for man and one giant leap out of cyberspace onto the Digital Street Corner. Net surfers of the world don’t miss this historic event! People will be talking about a hundred years from now, curled up in front of fireplaces.

www.fredforest.com

VINTON CERF/FRED FOREST

www.fredforest.com


Vint and Fred go way back. Vinton Cerf made a special trip to France to take part in Fred’s online marriage to fellow virtual pioneer Sophie Lavaud on March 18, 1999. The world’s first wedding created as major work of Net Art, which a number of collectors were offering to buy for incredible sums … all to no avail because, as everyone knows, money is never the artist’s primary concern. It’s quite possible that Vinton Cerf will once again be at Fred’s side in front of the Bass Museum as a VIP participant in Forest’s interactive artwork THE DIGITAL STREET CORNER! A work produced in collaboration with a research engineer from FRANCE TELECOM, the Venezuelan Joaquin Keller Gonzalez, the developer of the computer program in the project. A work that already promises to go down in history, recognized by leading experts as a symbol of the elitist art market’s acceptance of immaterial works that are representative of the information-based societies of our age.