ABOUT
ERROR PROJECT – VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
Galleria l’Affiche presents the first step in Milan of the exhibition-website project by Mathia Pagani, an original concept in which art and virtual content come together. Invented, created, and executed by Pagani, his concept encompasses a novel way in which to enjoy art.
A website as an interactive and virtual exhibition, and a piece of art itself.
Error project is an innovative web content hub, the first of its kind to invite the user on a journey in search of error, by playing on the ambiguity between computer, artistic, and conceptual error.
The involvement of the user is experienced through an active and digital journey in which we are able to directly interact with images and videos. The content is unveiled progressively, which must be ‘erased’ by our finger to be seen. Retro games take us back to the dawn of the videogame and a surreal chatbot prompts a meeting with the artist. We return to the bare bones of basic communication, our primary vocabulary has progressively broken down, boundless in cybernetic virtuality.
Pagani’s work not only uses technology as a means to show and convey his work, but simultaneously uses technology to impose the same language of the web and errors as an object of artistic investigation in itself. The gamification of the exhibition, which presents elements of game design in non-playful contexts, brings the artistic experience back to a game dimension, desecrating the traditional idea of art as ‘sacred’ or ‘serious’.
The work first started as illustrated pieces, which were then merged and fused with photographic fragments of empty squares where minimal interference in the image reveals an error. A disturbance, a movement – sometimes almost invisible- contrasts with the unusual lack of human presence in these places, transfigured and metaphysical.
The photos are mainly screenshots of webcam videos scattered around the world and collected by the artist at random using the internet. The video time-lapse “404 NOT FOUND” shows life unfolding in 16 places around the world at the same time during the 24 hours of April 25, 2020, Liberation Day in Italy.
The online exhibition is the first part of a series of work to be showcased in galleries spaces in the future. The work is part of the limited edition fine art curated by Galleria l’Affiche.
Mathia Pagani created Error project during lockdown while reflecting on artistic proposals and stimuli, and their relationship with the digital world. His work highlights that the immediacy of digital tools is one of the few ways in which to access cultural content during this time.
3D exhibitions of art galleries have tried to mirror real-life on the virtual screen during lockdown, yet are often unnecessarily complicated and cold to navigate, creating a distance between ourselves and the artwork. Contrastingly, Pagani’s work preserves art in its new digital habitat, creating a relationship with art that is comprised of interaction, discovery, and the unexpected.
Mathia Pagani. Born in 1981 in Milan, Italian artist Pagani now lives in Paris.
Having worked in the creative sphere for more than 15 years, including museums, publishing houses, galleries, and theatres, he continued to nurture his creative flair. Alongside day-to-day life, Pagani worked on his artistic research, using his expertise to design and manage web and IT projects for multiple institutions and companies.
He contributed to a project in New York, that aimed to convert one of the oldest ferries that carried migrants between Ellis Island and Manhattan into a cultural hub.