(image by Hrag Vartanian for Hyperallergic)
Starting today, Hyperallergic will be publishing an online catalogue for Hypersalon, a weeklong series of salon-style exhibitions, artist talks, and conversations on the conditions of networked culture in contemporary art. Organized by TRANSFER and XPO Gallery with the support of Hyperallergic, Hypersalon is taking place in Miami Beach, while the catalogue, #hypersalon, will extend the discussions taking place all week by featuring works by exhibition artists, essays by curators, and other contributions that highlight the issues being explored. For a complete schedule of events, please visit: http://hypersalon.net.
XPO Gallery
XPO Gallery prioritizes art made after the arrival of the internet. We are interested in how digital is changing the curatorial process.
When I created the gallery in Paris, two and a half years ago, I didn’t want to reproduce the 20th-century model. In my opinion, in the networked culture we’re living in, the gallery has become a transitional place rather than a destination. I still believe very much in the white cube, but as a filter, a three-dimensional informational structure.
We don’t want to forget the exhibition, but we do want to turn it into a flow rather than a thing — because it is information, not things, that is endowed with value; it is information, not things, that produces meaning in this context. We have decided, with TRANSFER gallery, to found an intimate salon-style exhibition to discuss and present the work of artists who comment on these topics. The world “salon” has been chosen in reference to the 19th-century salons, where artists, intellectuals, and mecenes (patrons) met in their living rooms to discuss and debate cultural questions. Hypersalon is the first initiative in this collaboration between the two galleries, and it is also our first collaboration with Hyperallergic.
—Philippe Riss, director, XPO Gallery
TRANSFER
TRANSFER is focused on supporting artists with computer-based practices, primarily those addressing issues of networked culture. Our approach is highly collaborative as we work with a distributed web of international contemporary artists.
For me, Hypersalon has always been an artist-first project — I feel that certain aspects of the contemporary art market are anti-artist, and this makes for some very predictable results. Our partnership with Hyperallergic reflects this sentiment, as they often write about artists’ struggles for fair wages and foreground art and artists’ voices before the market. Their digital catalogue will be a crucial record of the conversations that come out of the salons, and we’re thrilled to partner with their editorial team on creating this additional context.
At Hypersalon, daily artist studio salons will allow curators, collectors, and gallerists to directly engage with and better understand the themes these selected artists are exploring (often highly conceptual and/or technical in nature) in a comfortable, laid-back format. This simultaneous openness and intimacy is a reflection of the network itself, and also serves as a distinctive chance to slow down amid the hustle and bustle of the fairs.
We hope to create a personal conversation as we welcome viewers into the hypersuite of moving images on view, chosen by an invited group of curators. It has been an honor to collaborate with some of the best and brightest minds looking at contemporary moving-image work; the result is nearly a dozen selections of leading contemporary artists working in this field.
TRANSFER and XPO have also installed individual exhibitions of artwork in dedicated suites upstairs, while our collaborator galleries, Postmasters and American Medium, will have artworks on view in the exterior and salon suites.
Our program runs the entire week, but our capacity is limited to those who care to take the time to immerse themselves in networked culture by participating in the conversation. RSVPs are required to attend — please contact directors@hypersalon.net or enter your email at hypersalon.net to receive an invitation.
—Kelani Nichole, director, TRANSFER
