Jonas Mekas: Internet Saga
The Internet Saga is the only project dedicated to art on the web to be inaugurated on the 6th and 7th of May on the occasion of the 56th Venice Art Biennial.
This edition’s main protagonist is an independent cinema legend: Jonas Mekas (b.1922, Birzai).
Founder of the New American Cinema in 1960, this artist started experimenting new audiovisual languages online in 2006, thus becoming a contemporary art web-star before anyone else.
Curated by the Francesco Urbano Ragazzi duo and in collaboration with Zuecca Projects, the Internet Saga will have two official sites, opposed but also new in the city’s landscape: Palazzo Foscari Contarini, a sixteenth century noble residence overlooking the Grand Canal now a Burger King restaurant, and the Spazio Ridotto, a brand new project space for video art, just 100 meters from Piazza San Marco.
The Internet is always linked less to space and more to time. This is why, to represent Internet art during the Venice Biennial, a pavilion similar to those of other nations is no longer sufficient: a narrative form is needed.
It is from this premise that the The Internet Saga was created, the only project dedicated to digital culture on the occasion of this Venetian event.