Fred Forest Second Life

Virtual artist but also a true artist of communication, Fre Forest is wordly known, but not so much in his own country, France, where he nevertheless creats a world event on the 28th of febuary, in Nice...
No one is a prophet in his own country, Fred Forest the iconoclast and pioneer of the “Video art” (1967) and of the “Net art” (1995), confirms it regularly. He is at the origin of two important contemporary artistic movements, the sociological art and the esthetics of communication. Free electron of the medias and networks. A rebel against the arbitrary , favouritism and the war against “the Establishment ». that is why his exhibition the “Way of the cross” in Nice in 2005 was found banned by the town hall and the Depardieu gallery, which represented him, excluded from the “Night of the galleries”, situation which consists since. Paradoxically he is accomodated as hero in Sao Paulo in 2006 because he was emprisoned by the military for his ideas, in 1973 during the XII Biennal in Sao Paulo!

For his new exhibiton « Fred Forest Second Life » at the Depardieu Gallery, the artist chose to realise a performance and creat a world event, in association with fifty or so organisations, including Le Laboratoire d'art of Toronto and the Contemporary museum of Sao Paulo, by virtually opening the Centre Expérimental du Territoire and the social laboratory in Nice. In full municipal campaign, he invited politians to come and discuss on sustainable development, and some answered favorably. Fred Forest is a visionary, whose intuitions have revealed themselves to be correct. He could be an incontrolable provocator if he is deprived of his freedom of speech.

Fred Forest

From September 9 through October 28, 2005, at Galerie Christian Depardieu in Nice, artist Fred Forest will present his latest online multimedia work, Images-Mémoire (Memory-Pictures). Created in partnership with INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel), this work was originally exhibited in March of this year in the lobby of the French Ministry of Culture, where it was presented to members of the press by Minister of Culture and Communication Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. The work will be presented in the form of an all-new installation specifically conceived for the exhibition at Galerie Christian Depardieu. Forest’s new work is the fruit of an ongoing reflection on the philosophical and aesthetic ramifications of the Internet, translated into a form that is both interactive and fun. For Forest, the Web is to be considered a global memory bank, the memory of all memories! An inexhaustible reservoir of colors, forms, and representations, all placed at our fingertips; a bountiful harvest of images methodically reaped by the search engine incorporated in Forest’s new work.

A singularly atypical and ingenious artist, Fred Forest has made a reputation for himself over the years while maintaining complete intellectual and critical independence with respect to the art market and institutions of the art world. An emblematic figure in the history of contemporary art, he is doubly recognized as a pioneer of both video art (1970) and, a quarter century later, Net Art (1995). His entire life’s work was officially made part of the French national cultural heritage —a rare honor for a living artist—through its addition to the collections of INA in July 2004. Forest is also known as the co-founder of two major avant-garde movements: Sociological Art and the Aesthetics of Communication, with Mario Costa. In 1973, he won the Grand Prize for Communication at the Sao Paulo Biennial. He was later invited by Pierre Restany, commissioner of the French pavilion, to represent France at the Venice Biennial, and did so again at Documenta in Kassel… More recently, he has been a regular participant in the French “Festival of the Internet” since its inception, in which he played a leading role. People are still talking about some of his most memorable web-based actions, such as “Time Out,” at Le Pub Renault on the Champs-Elysées in Paris; “The Center of the World,” at L’Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris; and his very own “Techno-Marriage,” celebrated at the town hall of Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris.

Much of this true maverick’s current work traces its intellectual origins to the city of Nice, where Forest held a joint appointment as professor at the University of Nice and director of a prestigious international seminar at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMAC) that attracted the most prominent artists and theorists in the international field digital art, the Internet, and new technologies. And then there is his decades-long friendship with Pierre Restany, and the unforgettable reception that the two accomplices held at the Westminster Hotel on the Promenade des Anglais: an act of pure provocation… Fred Forest feels a deep attachment to the city of Nice, which he adores, and which clearly loves him back. His artistic involvement in and around the city has been so intense that it was once proposed that he be considered a member of the School of Nice! A passionate debate ensued with some artists staunchly in favor of the idea while others were vehemently opposed to it…

Fred Forest is no novice when it comes to creating memorable artistic events. We can count on him to surprise us again at his new exhibition in Nice. In anticipation of his first major retrospective, to be organized abroad, don’t miss his installation “Memory-Pictures” at Galerie Depardieu ! The vernissage is planned for Friday, November 9, 2005—the ideal occasion to rediscover the caustic wit and human warmth of this unforgettable artist.

http://www.fredforest.org/Ina

Administrative and technical support for the project provided by Gérard Diaconesco de Diacocyber

Translations and critical perspectives on Forest’s work for the English-speaking world provided by Michael F. Leruth, Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia & North American Correspondent for webnetmuseum.org, mfleru@wm.edu