INTERNET SAGA

The Internet Saga is an online and offline platform aiming to find an alternative genealogy of the narratives that inform the age of connectivity. Founded by the curatorial team Francesco Urbano Ragazzi in 2015, the platform started with a solo show by the Lithuanian-born artist and filmmaker Jonas Mekas. Its research path has crossed unusual art spaces such as a Burger King restaurant in Venice, the main Auditorium at CERN – European Organization for Nuclear Research in Genève, the Missoni flagship store in New York, as much as prominent institutions such as MMCA – National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), Maraya Art Center (Sharjah) and Centre d’Art Contemporain (Genève).

The Internet Saga and its curators come back to Venice in 2019 on the occasion of the Biennale of Visual Arts with HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails, an exhibition by Kenneth Goldsmith taking place at Despar  Teatro Italia from May 9th to November 24th.

EXHIBITION

Despar Teatro Italia opens the door to HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails, a solo exhibition by the artist and poet Kenneth Goldsmith organized by the curatorial team Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.

With the support of Despar Aspiag Service, the project will be inaugurated on 9th May 2019 in conjunction with the 58th Biennale of Visual Arts in Venice thanks to the combined commitment of The Internet Saga and Zuecca Projects, with the collaboration of Circuitozero, The Bauers, NERO. The exhibition will be held in the Cinema Teatro Italia which, at the beginning of the last century, was the second and largest cinema on the island. Following a meticulous restoration of its frescoes and a careful structural renovation, the building was converted into a supermarket by Despar in 2016. In this spectacular environment with its stratified history, Kenneth Goldsmith reflects on the intermingling between the private and public spaces in the age of mass digitalization. His starting point is the case which, exactly ten years ago, changed irrevocably the notions of privacy and transparency, propaganda and democracy in Western politics.

It was in 2009 when the first doubts arose regarding a private server that Hillary Clinton was using for sending e-mails during her term as Secretary of State. Although the American senator has never been incriminated or convicted for any crime, the episode certainly contributed to her defeat – and the consequent victory of Donald Trump – during the Presidential Elections in 2016.
Using the techniques of appropriation and collage theorized in his book Uncreative Writing, Kenneth Goldsmith makes public for the first time in printed format all the e-mails which, according to WikiLeaks, were sent from the domain clintonemail.com between 2009 and 2013. The almost 60,000 pages of documentation are printed in double copy and are on display in the gallery and in the lobby on the second floor of Despar Teatro Italia. The pile of papers is rather unimpressive, rebutting Trump’s efforts to make them monumental. In this way, Goldsmith creates the greatest poem of the 21st century, an anti-monument to the folly of Trump’s heinous smear campaign against Clinton.

HILLARY also has the aim of recreating the original function of the Despar Teatro Italia. The big cinema screen which today is above the gastronomic counter of the supermarket, will be used to project videos and films. The programming of this temporary cinema will include a selection of works from UbuWeb, the famous portal which Kenneth Goldsmith founded in 1996 to diffuse avant-garde films and poems online. In the programmes—which will be transmitted every day from 6 to
7pm and which will be changed weekly—there will be, among others, works by Peggy Ahwesh, Sophia Al-Maria, Johanna Bruckner, Alex Da Corte, Cheryl Donegan, Shadi Habib Allah, Bek Hyunjin, Lev Manovich, Alix Pearlstein, People Like Us, Christine Rebet, Sabrina Röthlisberger, Sara Sackner, Leah Singer, Stan VanDerBeek, Jennifer West, Jordan Wolfson.

 

OPENING NIGHT

During the inauguration of HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails at Despar Teatro Italia on 9th May, the catalogue of the exhibition published by NERO with texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and the philosopher Emanuele Coccia will be made available. Furthermore, the publishing house will present the first translation in the Italian language of Uncreative Writing and will host an opening event at Despar Teatro Italia.

The opening reception of the show will start at 7,30pm. At 9:30pm the Italian premiere of THE MIRROR, a new live performance by People Like Us, will be presented.

In Autumn there will be a seminar starting from I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness, a
book by Goldsmith made up of the author’s notes to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The seminar will be organised under the scientific direction of professors Luigi Perissinotto and Roberta Dreon of the Ca’ Foscari University.

 

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Thursday, September 26^th, 2019. 15:30 – 17:30 | Despar Teatro Italia
Michael Lüthy, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Introduced by Diego Mantoan and Stefania Portinari, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia.

Friday, September 27^th, 2019. 15:30 – 17:30 | Ca’ Dolfin, Aula Magna Silvio Trentin
Wolfgang Huemer, Università degli Studi di Parma.
Micaela Latini, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria.
Introduced by Roberta Dreon and Luigi Perissinotto, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia.

Saturday, October 12^th, 2019. 17:30 – 19:30 | Despar Teatro Italia
Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, curators of HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails.
Paul B. Preciado, curator of the Taiwan Pavilion at the 58th Biennale di Venezia.
Organized by Donatella Bernardi and Nicola Genovese, ZHdK; Introduced by Francesco Tenaglia, Mousse Magazine.

Wednesday, November 27^th, 2019. 18:30 – 21:30 | Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
Kenneth Goldsmith, University of Pennsylvania.
Introduced by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi with the participation of Roberta Dreon and Luigi Perissinotto.
Following, a selection of films by Stan VanDerBeek.

 

The educational program, free and open to the public, has been made possible by the Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, the Zurich University of the Arts, Zuecca Projects and thanks to the precious contributions of Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana.

PRESS

> Exhibition Views 

 

>> Hillary Clinton meets HILLARY: Documentation

 

>>> Selected Press Review

 

For further inquiries: info@internetsaga.com

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Title: HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails.
Artist: Kenneth Goldsmith.
Curators: Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.
Opening Hours: 11 am – 7 pm, closed on Monday.
Venue: Despar Teatro Italia, Campiello de l’Anconeta 1944, Cannaregio, 30121 Venezia.
From May 9th to November 24th, 2019.

Opening Reception: May 9th, 2019. From 7:30 pm to 11 pm.
Live performance by People Like Us from 9:30 pm.

Cinema program: every day from 6 pm to 7 pm, closed on Monday
Works by: Peggy Ahwesh, Sophia Al-Maria, Johanna Bruckner, Alex Da Corte, Cheryl Donegan, Shadi Habib Allah, Bek Hyunjin, Lev Manovich, Alix Pearlstein, People Like Us, Christine Rebet, Sabrina Röthlisberger, Sara Sackner, Leah Singer, Stan VanDerBeek, Jennifer West, Jordan Wolfson.

The catalogue is published by NERO
Texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, Emanuele Coccia.

HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails is a project by The Internet Saga and Zuecca Projects
Main sponsor: Despar Aspiag Service
With the collaboration of Circuitozero, The Bauers, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali – Università Ca’ Foscari.
Media partner: My Art Guides, Le Confort Moderne.
Website by M-J-STUDIO