Miltos Manetas

Pirate Manifesto by Miltos Manetas, Design by Experimental Jetset, Swedish-English, 2009

Miltos Manetas (born October 6, 1964 in Athens) is a Greek painter and multimedia artist. He currently lives and works in Highgate^[1]

Manetas has created Internet Art as well as paintings of cables, computers, video games and Internet websites. His work has been collected by Charles Saatchi.^[2][3] He is also the founder of "Neen", an Internet-based art movement.^[4]

Manetas presented the Whitneybiennial.com, an online exhibition that challenged the 2002 Whitney Biennial show.^[5][6][7]

Career

Born in Athens, Greece, Miltos Manetas moved to Milan at the age of 20.^[8] In 1995 he was included in Traffic, the survey exhibition curated by Nicolas Bourriaud that helped to launch the Relational Aesthetics art movement.

Manetas was categorized as one of artists of that movement in the catalogue of the Traffic show,^[9] and later, in Bourriaud's book Relational Aesthetics.^[10] But at this time, Manetas decided to change his approach to art, abandoning performance, objects and site specific installations, and he began making paintings about computer technology, exploring the possibilities of creating art by using video games and the Internet.^[11]

In 1996, Manetas moved to New York City and began working on a series of video game-related artworks, using Lara Croft and Mario as "ready-made" characters. In SuperMario Sleeping, a video from 1998, Mario sleeps under a tree, while in Flames, a 1997 video, Lara Croft is constantly getting hurt. Both works were exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in the exhibition entitled Made in Italy. It was at that occasion that The Guardian published an article on Manetas calling him the El Greco of the Geeks.^[12]

In subsequent years, Manetas displayed exhibitions throughout the world. Another important show was Elysian Fields at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris,^[13] curated by the Purple Institute.

Manetas then commissioned a California branding agency to come up with a new term that would bring a radical change to his work. In spring of 2000, Manetas presented the new name, Neen, to an exhibition-performance held at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City.^[14]

Following this presentation, Manetas moved to Los Angeles, where he started his ElectronicOrphanage enterprise. He hired young people with experience in contemporary art and/or design, asking them to abandon what they were doing to test ideas for the Internet. In 2002, Manetas presented the Whitneybiennial.com, an online exhibition which challenged the 2002 Whitney Biennial show.^[15][16]

In 2007, London's Hayward Gallery commissioned Manetas to do a special project around the idea of Existential Computing, a new term he was using for his practice.^[17] During this show, Manetas met Malcolm McLaren and they participated together in a show that artist Stefan Bruggemann curated at the I-20 gallery in New York City in September 2007.^[18] Manetas' work for this exhibition was a piece commissioned previously by Newcastle's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the British magazine Dazed & Confused for the Dazed & Confused versus Andy Warhol exhibition. It consisted solely of a URL written on the wall: "http://www.ThankYouAndyWarhol.com.

In 2009, Manetas together with curator Jan Aman, created the first ever "Internet Pavilion" for the Venice Biennale. As a part of this work, they invited ThePirateBay and the Piratbyrån activists to participate and make their first "Embassy of Piracy."^[19]

Exhibitions

Selected Exhibitions

2010 SEVEN RESOLUTIONS, La Central, Bogota, Colombia (SOLO SHOW) PIRATE PAINTINGS, GloriaMaria Gallery, Milan, Italy (SOLO SHOW) NETinSPACE, MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXi secolo, Rome, Italy 2009 UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Collateral Events, Arsenale Novissimo, Venice, Italy[20] PADIGLIONE INTERNET, 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Collateral Events, Venice, Italy THANKYOUANDYWARHOL.COM, Galería Casado Santapau, Madrid (SOLO SHOW) 2008 Kunstmaschinen Maschinenkunst (ART MACHINES MACHINE ART), Tinguely Museum, Basel, CH and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, German THE ALLIANCE, Hyundai Galleries, Beijing, China , Seoul, Korea ON TIME, EAST WING COLLECTION 8, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK 2007 THE INTERNET PAINTINGS, Blow de la Barra Gallery, London (SOLO SHOW) SHALLOW, Curated by Stefan Bruggemann, I-20 Gallery, NY ON FAIT LE MUR, Curated by Jean-Marc Avrilla,Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans Sartoux, France HER(HIS)STORY, Curated by Marina Fokidis at the Cycladic Museum in Athens DAZED AND CONFUSED VERSUS ANDY WARHOL, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK GAMEWORLD, Laboral, Gijon, Spain 2006 DOGS AND CABLES, Yvon Lambert Gallery , NY, USA (SOLO SHOW) MIND GAMES, The Art of Videogames, Prince Charles Cinema, London THE LONG WALK, Contemporary Art Museum, Athens, Greece UNTITLED EXHIBITION, Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens AN OUTING, Leonidas Beltsios Collection, Trikala, Greece SUPERNEEN, Galleria Pack, Milan 2005 VALENCIA BIENNIAL, Valencia, SPAIN PRAGUE BIENNIAL II, Prague ELECTROSCAPE, Zendai Museum, Shanghai, China FROM NEEN TO SONAR, Sonar Festival, Barcelona NEEN DAY, Sketch, London COHABITATS, Ghislaine Hussenot Gallery, Paris EXISTENTIAL COMPUTING, Hayward Gallery, London , UK ABSTRACT SUPERMARIO PERFORMANCE 2004 MEMOIRS OF THE DEVIL, Cosmic Gallery, Paris , France (SOLO SHOW) MEDIACITY SEOUL, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea DIGITAL SUBLIME, New Masters of Universe”, MoCA Taipei, Taiwan CURIOUS WISHES, Palais De Tokyo, Paris 2003 TIRANA BIENNIAL, Tirana, Albania 2002 JESUSSWIMMING, Moca, Tucson, Arizona (SOLO SHOW) WHITNEYBIENNIAL.COM NY ,USA (Link) URGENT PAINTING, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, FR MEDIACITY SEOUL, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea AFTERNEEN, Casco, Utrecht, Holland 2001 BIENNALE.NET BY THE ELECTRONICORPHANAGE, Deitch projects. NY, USA MY REALITY: The Culture of Anime and Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY 2000 NEEN, a new Art Movement, Gagosian Gallery, NY 2000 (SOLO SHOW) PRESUMED INNOCENT, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR ELYSIAN FIELDS, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR 1999 AFTER VIDEOGAMES, Lux Gallery, London 1999 (SOLO SHOW) EIGHT PERFECT PAINTINGS, Lawing Gallery, Houston, Texas (SOLO SHOW) LE CAPITAL, Contemporary Art Center of Sete, FR Active Worlds, CHELSEA, ARCO ART FAIR -Galleria New Santandrea Synopsis 1, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, GR 1998 MIRRORSITES 98, Postmasters Gallery , New York, Philippe Rizzo, Paris, Dan Bernier, Los Angeles (SOLO SHOWS) 1997 FATTO IN ITALIA – Contemporary Art from Italy, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva MADE IN ITALY, ICA, London. 1996 SELECTED OBJECTS, Le Consortium Centre d’Art Contemporain, Dijon.(SOLO SHOW) SHOPPING, Deitch projects, Guggenheim Museum Soho, NYC TRAFFIC, CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, FR BEIGE, Curated by Purple Magazine, Olivier Zahm and Elein Fleiss, Saga Basement, Copenhagen

Bibliography

100 Years after Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Essays by Miltos Manetas (London 2006, soft cover, 97 pages published by ElectronicOrphanage press)
MILTOS MANETAS, Paintings from Contemporary Life. (by Lev Manovich and Franck Gautherot, Published by Johan & Levi Editore Feb 2009
NEEN (by Miltos Manetas et al.; Italy, Charta, 2006, ISBN 88-8158-601-0)

References

1. ^ Miltos Manetas - ponytailmagazine.com
2. ^ Miltos Manetas - Artwork - The Saatchi Gallery
3. ^ Museum Raiders - New York Times
4. ^ [http://dir.salon.com/story/people/conv/2002/03/21/manetas/ The man from Neen - Salon.com
5. ^ Web watch | Technology | The Guardian
6. ^ The man from Neen - Salon.com
7. ^ PULSE; And Now, a Word From Outer Space - New York Times
8. ^ IDEAL OFFICE N°5 - Outcasts Incorporated
9. ^ Bourriaud, Nicolas Traffic, Catalogue Capc Bordeaux, 1996
10. ^ Bourriaud, Nicolas Relational Aesthetics pp.46-48
11. ^ Interview: Miltos Manetas, the first machinima-maker - GameScenes
12. ^ Steve Shipside:" El Greco Of Geekdom", The Guardian, 23 Oct 1997, Gb 1996
13. ^ Frieze Magazine | Archive | Elysian Fields
14. ^ HAYT, ELIZABETH And Now, a Word From Outer Space The New York Times, June 18, 2000
15. ^ Web watch | Technology | The Guardian
16. ^ The man from Neen - Salon.com
17. ^ Hayward Projects: EXISTENTIAL COMPUTING
18. ^ Artnews.org: Shallow at I-20 Gallery New York
19. ^ "In at the Deep End", Dazed & Confused, Sept 2009
20. ^ [1]

External links

• Official Miltos Manetas website
• Art website created by Manetas
• Neen website
• Mark Glaser's article in the NYT, Aug. 9, 2001
• Matthew Mirapaul's article in the NYT, Mar. 4, 2002
• Elizabeth Hayt's article in the NYT, Jun. 18, 2000.
• The man from Neen - Salon.com, Mar. 21, 2002
• Web watch, Sean Dodson, The Guardian, 21 March 2002

References

1. ^ Miltos Manetas - ponytailmagazine.com
2. ^ Miltos Manetas - Artwork - The Saatchi Gallery
3. ^ Museum Raiders - New York Times
4. ^ [http://dir.salon.com/story/people/conv/2002/03/21/manetas/ The man from Neen - Salon.com
5. ^ Web watch | Technology | The Guardian
6. ^ The man from Neen - Salon.com
7. ^ PULSE; And Now, a Word From Outer Space - New York Times
8. ^ IDEAL OFFICE N°5 - Outcasts Incorporated
9. ^ Bourriaud, Nicolas Traffic, Catalogue Capc Bordeaux, 1996
10. ^ Bourriaud, Nicolas Relational Aesthetics pp.46-48
11. ^ Interview: Miltos Manetas, the first machinima-maker - GameScenes
12. ^ Steve Shipside:" El Greco Of Geekdom", The Guardian, 23 Oct 1997, Gb 1996
13. ^ Frieze Magazine | Archive | Elysian Fields
14. ^ HAYT, ELIZABETH And Now, a Word From Outer Space The New York Times, June 18, 2000
15. ^ Web watch | Technology | The Guardian
16. ^ The man from Neen - Salon.com
17. ^ Hayward Projects: EXISTENTIAL COMPUTING
18. ^ Artnews.org: Shallow at I-20 Gallery New York
19. ^ "In at the Deep End", Dazed & Confused, Sept 2009
20. ^ [1]

Persondata
Name	Manetas, Miltos
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Date of birth	October 6, 1964
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