Page 28 - Fundação MEO - Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas

in curatorial studies. Understanding the transforma- 6. See Dekker (2023).
tion of specific digital artistic ideas and practices and 7. See Silva (2005).
translating that understanding into exhibition objects
presents stimulating questions for those engaged in curatorial study and
practice. As Annet Dekker has observed, defining what constitutes an
art project in a digital environment can be challenging, and even more
so within a physical exhibition space . Among the questions explored
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and rehearsed within this exhibition were the following: How can the
original meanings of an Internet-based artistic project be aligned with
the meanings of its experience within a physical exhibition space? How
does one distinguish an exhibition object from an artistic project or
documentation? How can direct relationships between artistic projects
and documentation be established and vice versa? – The primary goal
of this exhibition was to develop museographic approaches for the
reconstruction of net art projects: first, by devising strategies for doing
so and, second, in the longer term, by contributing to the safeguarding
of this underexplored field of contemporary art in Portugal.

EXHIBITIONS THAT RELATE ART AND THE INTERNET

Although initiatives to understand the phenomenon of net art within
its moments, dynamics and contexts have been sporadic, my outlook
remains optimistic. In 2005, curator Luís Silva and artist Sofia
Oliveira organised the exhibition Online Portuguese Netart
1997-2004, featuring approximately fifteen artistic projects which,
according to Silva, did not exhibit the “subversive, organised logic
equivalent to their international counterparts” nor did they emerge from
a cultural context characterised by “debate and artistic experimenta-
tion within this medium.” This exhibition stands as one of the few
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to acknowledge the existence of a community of artists and Internet
enthusiasts as a creative medium. Other exhibitions have explored
the relationship between art and the Internet, including Mediações
(Inter@ctividades 1997) at Palácio Galveias in Lisbon, Cyber 98 –
Criação na Era Digital (1998) at Centro Cultural de Belém
in Lisbon, Intervenção (2013) at Fundação Eugénio de Almeida
in Évora, Sob as Nuvens – da Paranóia ao Sublime
Digital (2015) at Museu de Serralves in Porto, and exhibitions such
as Electronic Superhighway (2017), Playmode (2019),
and Arte Cibernética (2022) at Museu de Arte, Arquitetura
e Tecnologia (MAAT) in Lisbon. The earliest exhibitions reflect the
novelty of the Internet, manifesting in various artistic experimentations,
whereas more recent ones engage critically with an Internet that has

The Study of Net Art in Portugal and the Exhibition
The Study of Net Art in Portugal and the Exhibition 28
Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas
Net Arte no Triângulo das Bermudas