UMD :: Utopia Manifestation Daemon is a guest curated exhibition of philosophical and new media art

How does one relocate the Unique?

The origins of this project are located at an Artist Residency done by group members Ian Breidenbach, Caroline Turner-Anderson, and Ian Anderson (Solar Noon Collective)  in June 2023 at 33OfficinaCreativa in Toffia, Italy; housed in a 13th century deconsecrated church complex. The purpose of the residency was the translation of that sacred/secular space into a digital gallery to act as the setting for a Pavilion for the Wrong Biennale, a digital art fair which is decentralized by its being hosted solely on the internet. This digital recreation of the sacred/secular space of the residency allowed us to utilize the unique architecture of the church, while also populating it with works from artists around the world.  The curation of the Pavilion was focused on its para-real existence: as a non-space situated somewhere between physical and digital.  The translation from material to immaterial allowed for a non-place to imagine impossibilities, to explore the unexplored and allow the work to remain unsullied by the dominant forces of the (art) world. This project became known as UID (Unique Identifier::Utopian Inspirational Daemon)

Can you relocate through the para-real?

The church became an abstracted space when digitized, its elements re-presented to point to the original forms.  However, what we find in the para-real space is a represented symbolic, signifying both to the representation and the interpretation, but also to the blindingly clear impossibility of itself. In the Pavilion, the viewer can never access the level of inseparability provided by the digitality of the container and the work it contains; its feeling of oneness. For this current translation of the exhibition here  within the Vinegar gallery space, we can only manifest these “Utopian Insprations” in physical form by separating the singularity of the Pavilion back into its parts, relocating them as temporary holders of space.

The UMD problematizes the ability of the UID to escape its para-real boundaries. Can we legitimately represent the potential for Utopia created in the para-real?  Or are we only creating  signs which point through it?

Exhibition opening reception:
Saturday, September 16, 5-8pm at Vinegar
Exhibition dates:
September 16 – October 28, 2023
Gallery hours 12-4 on Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment