1999: TECHNOCULTURE(s)

Technoculture image
Flyer de l’exposition Technoculture, 1999.

1999: TECHNOCULTURE(s)

20th century art maintained a close relationship with technological developments. The use of the machine in The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo in 1913, the transition of the industrial gadget to an aesthetic object during the exhibition Machine Art at MoMA in New York in 1934, or the appearance of performing computers in the 1980s, all introduced technology into the artistic domain. This had the consequence of broadening the boundaries of art beyond the traditional framework of the exhibition.

As of Friart’s first exhibition in 1981, it included other art forms, notably video and experimental and alternative music and even architecture. In the 1990s, the art centre programmed video nights with the Aug’Avion collective, contemporary music nights with Frizième Siècle, workshops for children with the PAC collective, DJ afterparties for exhibition openings with the DTP collective. From 5 April to 21 June 1998, the TECHNOCULTURE [Computer World] exhibition instigated by Adrien Laubscher, represented the consecration of this openness to varied art forms and the arrival of a new generation of artists influenced by electronic music and the early days of the internet. The exhibition was held over two floors. The first included fixed installations and in particular computers. The ground floor was designed to host performances, electronic music and lectures.

Technoculture image
Affiche soirées de musique contemporaine avec Frizième Siècle
Technoculture image
Flyer soirées de musique contemporaine avec Frizième Siècle
Technoculture image

Laetitia Sonami’s performance for the opening explored the close links between art and technology. An electronic glove allowed the artist to generate sounds by moving parts of her body. This prosthetic tool evoked a cyborg future for a humanity equipped with artificial limbs.

Jörg Bosshard’s installation, Sound-Silence Box, a sort of sound-proof speaker, invited visitors to experience silence during concerts and broadcast these concerts at times during the exhibition. Live concerts and the performative dimension were central to this technological exhibition. Thus the theoretician Diedrich Diedrichsen’s lecture evoked “the temptation to replace museums with clubs”.

Text written in collaboration with Matthieu Galliker, presented as part of the exhibition Friart est né du vide. L’esprit d’une Kunsthalle, MAHF Museoscope, 27.08 – 17.10.2021.

Translation: Jack Sims