KICKING OFF A NEW ERA

“The 1st Annual METAVERSE Art @ Venice”

gEnki

Curated by Angelo Maggi e Fu Sen

27.04. > 23.11.2022

Spazio Thetis – Arsenale Nord, Venice

“The 1st Annual METAVERSE Art @VENICE”, the exhibition conceived by Victoria Lu, one of the most famous female art critic and curator of the Chinese artistic world, with the virtual singer Autumn and the Artist CryptoZR, hosted at the Spazio Thetis in Venice at the Arsenale Nord, consists of two sections: the collective exhibition gEnki, curated by Angelo Maggi and Fu Sen, in Tesa 106 and in the Lamierini building, and the personal exhibition “CryptoZR: COOKIE COOKIE 2.0” curated by Li Zhenhua at the Lamierini Workshop.

gEnki, is an interactive exhibition that exploits the potential of the internet and virtual reality, and interacts in real time with every part of the world from Venice.

The exhibition, self-financed through crowdfunding, was spontaneously organized by a group of artists with their supporters, the curators were selected by the artists themselves, as well as the contents were curated independently.

gEnki offers a new model of “decentralized autonomous curatorship”, exploring various innovative and always different exhibition methods and will continue in the future in the cloud version, through a web platform.

The exhibition makes the most of all the main features of the “DAO” (short for Distributed Autonomous Organization): therefore crowdfunding, co-construction, interconnection of platforms, high level of decentralization, all adapted to the curatorial concept.

Although this is not a completely virtual cloud-based exhibition, it is nonetheless founded on an interactive virtual-real interaction model. During the seven months of the exhibition, the number of artists present both online and offline will reach over 300 and there will be events between different artists in connection on the cloud.

The exhibition project aims to involve Generation Z, or Generation of the Internet, i.e. all those who were born between 1995 and 2009 and who have been influenced since birth by technology, instant messaging devices, smartphones and online games and are, therefore, also known as “Digital Indigenous”.

With the continuous updating of various hardware and software devices such as 5G, AI, cloud computing, big data, digital twin, blockchain, AR technology, VR, MR, xR (Extented Reality), new multimedia arts and new visual elements have developed, whose transformative and interactive contents can be found anywhere on the Net.

Users through virtual life on the Net can overcome the limits of physical space, crossing the barrier between brain cognition, mental imagination and the real world. It is the so-called “METAVERSE” that has become a hot topic not only among creatives but also among investors worldwide.

Genki is an ancient philosophical concept in China and Japan, which refers to the origin of the world, and represents the vital energy that generates everything, justifying the phenomena of formation, development, change and end. Being Genki is about giving your best and connecting with people in a positive way. Genki’s study refers to the human perception of nature and the world, can it therefore help to understand the link between the physical world and the virtual world? Can various modes of immersive interaction between people, things and the environment in the Metaverse create value and suggest an interpretation of the meaning of existence?

Through experimentation we arrive at a new thought, this is the motto.

The Metaverse develops in the digital world, its material in fact consists of data and information and is the result of various technological elements including video, virtual reality and augmented reality, but it is also in close correlation with the physical universe, as it shares the same space-time structure. The Metaverse is accessed via some devices such as computers or smartphones, an internet connection and, to make the experience more immersive, even with augmented reality viewers. Users in the Metaverse can live virtual experiences, create realistic avatars, meet other users, create objects, participate in digital events, such as conferences or concerts.

The avatar transports what we want to represent into a new dimension, fueling a reflection on the theme of identity in another reality that is not only digital, but also global.

The metaverse will be the reference for carrying out experiments in cross cooperation, technological enhancement, openness and tolerance, equality and freedom, taking care of the future, protecting the environment, embracing the whole world, stimulating intellectual interactions and the imagination.

Selfish and racist discrimination rages in today’s world, while gEnki wants to indicate a change, a new model of mutual help and sharing in which an art without borders of nationality, gender or age through beauty can give hope.

The artists of gEnki declare themselves as a group of new human beings willing to exist in the parallel universe of the Metaverse through virtual imagination and outside physical space.

gEnki is a research path developed jointly by professors, students and artists from universities from different parts of the world, led by the IUAV University of Venice and the Doctoral School of History of the Arts of the Cà Foscari University of Venice. Companies such as Qingdao Wanmei Shengshi Technology Information Co., Ltd. and Huahan International Culture Development Company participated with the scientific / organizational committee formed by Angelo Maggi, Fei Jun, Xue Lei, Popil and Chen Xu; The curatorship is by Prof. Angelo Maggi, Vice Rector for International Relations at the IUAV University of Venice and by the PhD student and curator Sen Fu. Rick Juang is the technical curator. The staging project was handled by the andreanalesso architectural firm of Padua.

The future has arrived, let’s fly beyond the future!

Spazio Thetis represents the cultural and artistic part of Thetis spa, an engineering company that develops projects and technological applications for the environment and the territory and which boasts an important permanent collection of contemporary art. Spazio Thetis’s artistic activity focuses on some themes: land art, environmental art, art and science by promoting and supporting contemporary art through various initiatives at its headquarters in the ancient Venetian Arsenal with the garden park dotted with works of art. In many years of activity it has collaborated with important institutions such as museums, galleries and foundations for the realization of temporary exhibitions, Biennale collateral events and national Pavilions, but also as a promoter and organizer himself.

SEN FU (1987) was born in Qingdao, China. He holds a Bachelor Degree on New Media and Master for Painting from Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. He is currently PhD candidate at Ca’Foscari University of Venice where he is working on a thesis regarding the History of Chinese Biennale Pavilions.

He has had the following working experience at La Biennale di Venezia: Documentary director of “Future Pass” for Collateral Event 2011; Assistant curator of “Cracked Culture” and “Eastern Border”, Collateral Event 2011; Assistant curator “The voice of unseen” for Collateral Event, La Biennale 2013; Curator of “A light year”, special invitational exhibition for Collateral Event, in 2015; Producer of “Modus” for Collateral Event in 2017. Curator and producer of “Chinese Medicine” at Ierimonti Gallery in New York in 2018.He is currently acting as the coordinator of the Biennale Collateral event Hakka Earthen Houses on variation – Co-operative Living, Art and Migration Architecture in China in Forte Marghera (July—November 2021).