Press Release

Reception for the Artist: Thursday, June 19, 2008, 5 to 7pm

Gebert Contemporary is honored to announce an exhibition of interactive installations, data visualization works, and photography by Argentina physicist/artist Mariano Sardón. Emerging Connections presents a variety of visual components that make the unseen activity of electronic technology visible. Sardón speaks of his fascination with scientific paradigms such as artificial intelligence, cybernetics and chaos: “Electronic technology is all around us, energy runs through cables, and information is transmitted by nets that connect countless computers and telecommunications systems. Daily, we navigate vast webs as we stay connected to people around the globe. Immeasurable events take place simultaneously; time and space unfold into intangible phenomena that both bind and elude us.” Sardón’s components consist of the seminal work Book of Sand, an interactive installation that shows the relationship of the movement of hands in the sand as projected hypertexts retrieve codes or parsers from the Web, expressing the poetry of famed Argentine modernist Jorge Luis Borges; Mice on Books, a web navigation of a complex of mouse activity that builds an abstract visualization of the activity in real time; as well as a new work in progress and a series of related photographs. “Through the exhibition pieces, I propose to make visible the invisible by giving shape, color, and sound to what we cannot touch or even perceive,” says Sardón from his Buenos Aires studio.

Sardón studied Physical Science at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a specialization in plasma physics. He studied art in the Internationale Akademie Für Bildende Kunst Salzburg, Austria, where he worked in painting and installations involving analogical and digital technologies. Sardón’s work in media environments using contemporary scientific paradigms brought him to work with the Hypermedia Studio in the School of Theater, Film, and TV of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His work in painting, video, installations, and interactive installations brought him numerous awards, and is a part of museums and private collections in Argentina and abroad. Mariano Sardón is a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero in Electronic Arts and is in charge of the Interactive Program for the Telefonica Foundation of Argentina.