Cesare Pietroiusti and Juraj Carný - Evolution De l’Art :: April 2, 2008; 7:00 pm :: 16 Beaver Group, 16 Beaver Street, 4th / 5th fl., New York, NY :: Free and Open to all.

This Wednesday night you are all invited to join us for an evening with Cesare Pietroiusti, Juraj Carný, Shelly Silver, Alex Villar to discuss and think together Evolution De L’Art. What is Evolution De L’Art? An idea, a gallery that Cesare and Juraj will talk about how it started; the kind of art projects that it presents and its relation with the artists. They will also introduce the idea of “immaterial” art in the age of the explosion of contemporary art fair on one side and the relevance of phenomena such as youtube or myspace as new media for art on the other.

And more artists (I, you, she, he, we) who are or would like to be involved, will present their contributions and will be part of the discussion. The list of names is below but it is incomplete and will be updated… . So think about it! We are looking forward to hear more from everyone.

Maybe we forgot to mention, that Cesare is in Rome, but he will discuss and present through Skype.

The gallery Evolution de l’Art arises from a collaboration between SPACE (Juraj Carny, Diana Majdakova and Lydia Pribisova) and Cesare Pietroiusti. Evolution de l’Art is a gallery for contemporary art which only sells artworks that are immaterial, with no physical residue, and it does not release certificates of authenticity, nor statements or receipts. EdlA will represent, on a non-exclusive basis, artists whose artwork is, at least in the case of some specific projects, alien from any physical-material component. Beyond this condition, there will not be any other limitation or requisite for represented artists in terms of medium or technique.

EdlA offers the possibility of becoming contemporary art collectors to the widest possible audience. Therefore the gallery will offer artworks at a range of very different prices, including some that can be purchased for a few Euros. Purchases can be made at the headquarters of the gallery (Stefanikova 21, Bratislava) or through the website.

Nowadays the gallery presents projects of about 100 artists from all over the world. All the projects can be seen online.

Evolution de l’Art recently opened a new branch of the gallery in Amsterdam, in collaboration with “The Blue House” project, promoted by the artist Jeanne Van Heeswijck and curated by Yasser Ballemans.

Some questions regarding immaterial art and the relation between art, money, and meaning
- How much of the essence of an artwork is in its material form, rather than in its meaning?
- What does it mean to “own” an artwork? what does it mean to “create meaning”?
- Is this production necessarily a process that involves individual authorship?
- Can we say that a buyer at an art fair really owns an artwork - having exchanged his money with it?
- Is the trade money vs. physical object the only way, or could we imagine something different, such as an artfair where artworks are accessible not to the ones who can exchange money but to those who can exchange meaning?

Open Call: Evolution de l’Art is open to new proposals by artists: artworks, either already existing or conceived for the occasion, can be put on sale through the gallery Evolution de l’Art. These artworks can be realised in whatever medium or technique, with the only condition that such work will be immaterial and no physical residue of it exists. Therefore their buyers will not receive any physical object in exchange for payment. Financial agreements with the artists who sell their work through EdlA can vary according to circumstances and the cost of production of the artwork. In general, the gallery and the artist will each share 50% of the purchase price.

Cesare Pietroiusti’s art practice focuses on problematic and paradoxical situations that are hidden in common relationships and in ordinary acts - thoughts that come to mind without a reason, small worries, quasi-obsessions that are usually considered too insignificant to become a matter of discussion, or of self-representation. The artist explores choices and intentions formulated by subjectivities other than his own, and the ways in which to make these choices become his own choices. He has been one of the coordinators of the “Oreste” projects (1997-2001), and co-founder of “Nomads & Residents” (New York, 2000). Since 2004 he has been teaching “Laboratorio di arti visive” at the IUAV University in Venice. Cesare lives in Roma

Juraj Carný is a curator, gallerist and art critic based in Bratislava, Slovakia, He iniciated SPACE Gallery, Billboart Gallery Europe, Crazycurators Biennale, Crazycurators award, SPACE Residency Lab, wandering gallery/nomadSPACE, projectSPACE and together with Cesare Pietroiusti Gallery Evolution de Lart. Since 2006 he is managing editor of Czech and Slovak edition of Flash Art.

Excerpts from Yves Klein’s conference “L’évolution de l’art vers l’immatériel”

“At Antwerp, barely two months ago. Invited to exhibit with a group of artists comprising Bury, Tinguely, Roth, Breer, Mack, Munari, Spoerri, Piene, and Soto, I travelled to Antwerp and, on the occasion of the opening, instead of installing a painting or whatever tangible and visible object in the space that had been reserved for me in the Hessenhuis exhibition hall, I loudly pronounced to the public these words borrowed from Gaston Bachelard: “First there is nothing, then there is a deep nothing, then there is a blue depth”.

The Belgian organiser of this exhibition then asked me where my work might be. I replied: “There, there where I am speaking at this moment.” “And what is the price of this work?” “A kilo of gold, a kilo ingot of pure gold will suffice me”. Why these fanciful conditions instead of a normal price simply represented by a sum of money? Because, for pictorial sensibility in raw material state, in a space that I had specialized and stabilized by pronouncing these few words upon my arrival, which made the blood of this spatial sensibility flow, one cannot ask for money. “The blood of sensibility is blue,” says Shelley and that is exactly what I think. The price of blue blood cannot in any instance be measured in money. It must be measured in gold.

The pictorial space that I have already managed to stabilize before and around my monochrome paintings of earlier years will now be well established in the gallery space. My active presence in the given space will create the climate and the radiant pictorial ambiance that usually reigns in the studio of any artist gifted with real power. A sensible density that is abstract yet real will exist and will live by and for itself in places that are empty in appearance only.” (Excerpts from Yves Klein’s conference “L’évolution de l’art vers l’immatériel”, Paris, La Sorbonne, June 3, 1959, as published in: Ives Klein, Vers l’immatériel, Editions Dilecta, Paris 2006, pagg. 118 and 126. Translation Charles Penwarden)