[aha] 01_Davis_Untitled_2010 at the MINI Museum

[Domenico Quaranta]

The MINI Museum of XXI Century Arts is proud to announce  
“01_Davis_Untitled_2010”, the first site-specific work commissioned  
for its revolutionary exhibition space to the London-based artist Paul  
B. Davis.

The first artist to be featured at the MINI Museum, Davis decided to  
exploit this extraordinary opportunity to turn his interest in circuit  
bending and hacking systems into a form of “institutional critique”.  
When you turn it on, if there is no memory card inserted, the MINI  
Museum displays a default screensaver featuring three kitschy  
landscape images set, for some mysterious reasons, somewhere in  
Greece. Davis opened the device to see if it was possible to get those  
images out of it; but when he realized that, beyond its glamorous  
surface, the MINI Museum is actually a piece of «ghetto chinese  
engineering», he decided to simply take photos of the Museum when it  
displayed those demo images. Then he made «a screwed and chopped remix  
of Manuel Göttsching's seminal proto-techno track E2-E4» (1984) and he  
copied both the track and the photos on the USB pen drive. The final  
result has been documented here: http://vimeo.com/19122996. According  
to Davis, «the behaviour of the device in its “default” state is  
almost identical to this except for some differences in the image  
quality which you can notice on close inspection, and of course Manuel  
Göttsching.»

«It is exactly what I was expecting from Paul, but still it's a  
surprise», Domenico Quaranta, the MINI Museum Director, declared. «He  
could have easily uploaded a version of his wonderful compression  
videos, but he decided to make a comment on the Museum as both an  
institution and a piece of crappy technology. With his minimal  
intervention, he turned the original screensaver - a beautiful example  
of the vernacular images displayed by default on consumer  
technologies, from computers to cell phones - into art, hinting back  
at appropriation art of the eighties in an absolutely modern, post  
internet fashion.» According to Quaranta, «“01_Davis_Untitled_2010”  
also works as a tip for the artists who will come next, on the way to  
approach the MINI Museum.»

Up to now, “01_Davis_Untitled_2010” has been shown in a private  
exhibition in Room 3148 of the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel in  
December 2010. A public show will be announced soon.

A founder member of the BEIGE Programming Ensemble together with Joe  
Beuckman, Cory Arcangel and Joseph Bonn, Paul B. Davis lives and works  
in London, UK. In the late 90s he pioneered the use of hacked video  
game cartridges as an art practice. According to Paul Pieroni, «while  
the materials utilised are ready-made, the use principle is entirely  
hand crafted; Davis altering the existing code while adding nothing  
new.» He has exhibited internationally and his work is represented by  
Seventeen Gallery, London. A recent interview for “The Creators  
Project” can be found here: http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/creators/paul-b-davis--2

The MINI Museum of XXI Century Arts (also known as MMAXXI) is a 7''  
digital photo frame bought on eBay equipped with a 4GB pen drive.  
Founded and directed by Domenico Quaranta, the MINI Museum will travel  
from node to node around a network of artists, and will host temporary  
solo shows by the artist owning it at the time.

Paul's MINI Museum tutorial: http://www.beigerecords.com/paul/minimuseum/
More informations: http://www.theminimuseum.org/
Stay updated: http://blog.theminimuseum.org/



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Domenico Quaranta

web. http://domenicoquaranta.com/
email. info at domenicoquaranta.com
mob. +39 340 2392478
skype. dom_40