Page 27 - Fundação MEO - Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas

1. I recognise an expression Despite Portugal’s historically unfavourable conditions
of this interest in the for the creation and appreciation of net art, the current
support that this exhibition
proposal received when it landscape appears to be shifting. Not only do artists
was submitted for funding
through the Dgartes/Ministry engage with computing and the Internet with unprece-
of Culture programme in dented confidence, but some cultural institutions are
2022, under the Programming
category. This interest is also beginning to exhibit greater curiosity and interest
also evident in the three
1
editions of the Sonae Media in recent techno-artistic activities . Since the Internet
Art Prize/National Museum of became stable in Portugal in 1995, various artistic
Contemporary Art (2015–2020),
2
the recent establishment of projects of significant cultural value have emerged,
the Norberto Fernandes Prize
by the MEO Foundation (2024), yet they remain largely unrecognised and unexperienced
and in various creation grants within the realm of contemporary art. Several factors
that connect art, technology,
and science – such as those contribute to this marginalisation. On the one hand,
promoted by Museu Zero, the
Lisbon City Council, the the inherently unstable nature of the medium means
Champalimaud Foundation, that technology becomes obsolete at an alarming pace,
the Institute of Art and
Technology at NOVA University leading to the inevitable loss of projects. On the other
of Lisbon, and the artist
residencies at gnration, hand, the sporadic commissioning of net art by cultural
among others.
institutions has hindered its broader recognition and,
2. This expression is used in the long term, its musealisation . While this pheno-
3
in this publication instead
of “work of art” as it allows menon is observed worldwide, the structural complexi-
for the inclusion of artistic
practices that do not conform ties of cultural policies dedicated to contemporary art
to a conventional conceptual in Portugal, coupled with the absence of conservation
and material framework.
plans for new media, have further impeded the integra-
3. In Ponte (2024), I analyse
4
the creation and disappearance tion of digital art into art collections .
of the online gallery Site-
-Specific, established by Net art is a fascinating and diverse phenomenon
the Museu Nacional de Arte that intertwines art, computational technology, and
Contemporânea (MNAC).
the Internet. It encompasses artistic practices that
4. See Barranha (2019).
prioritise interactivity and are subject to the epheme-
5. From September 7 to
November 2, 2024. rality of Internet-dependent technology. The exhibition
Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas: contri-
butions to a reflection on art and the Internet
in Portugal was hosted at CAAA Centro para os Assuntos da
Arte e Arquitectura , a non-profit cultural association in Guimarães.
5
The primary aim of the study that resulted in this exhibition was to
characterise net art in Portugal, offering insight into its techno-artistic
context through a mapping and systematisation of artistic and cultural
events related to the Internet. The study also sought to foster debate
among specialists in the field regarding the challenges of heritage
preservation in this domain. Unlike other cultural contexts where
extensive research on the curation, exhibition, collection, and conser-
vation of net art has already been conducted, systematic studies on
these matters remain scarce in Portugal.
The exhibition Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas
emerged from the convergence of two individuals with a shared interest

27
Sofia Ponte
Sofia Ponte