Exhibition
29/ 10 - 19/ 11/ 2021 @ Filodrammatica Gallery
Online talk
Thursday, 28/ 10/ 2021, 6:30 p. m. @ Facebook Live
Gallery opening hours
Mon – Sat 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. (contact us to arrange another time of your visit)
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
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Cultural aspects of memes is a field of research of the interdisciplinary collective Clusterduck, whose exhibition #MEMEMANIFESTO we present at Filodrammatica Gallery (Korzo 28/1, Rijeka).
After the opening on Friday, October 29 at 6 p.m., you can visit the exhibition until November 19, every day – except Sundays and holidays – from 4 to 8 pm.
The day before the opening – on Thursday, October 28 at 6.30 p.m. – join us live on Facebook for an online conversation with members of the collective, led by Marcell Mars.
#MEMEMANIFESTO is transmedia project that explores the occult meanings and communicative potential of memetic symbology, investigating different aspects of internet meme culture through various media: an art book, an interactive website, a physical installation, and a series of participatory workshops.
Based on the aesthetics of online conspiracy theorists, ancient grimoires, and cutting-edge contemporary digital design, the project strives to be a manual for memetic production, a refined documentation of the contemporary memetic landscape, and an art book about the hidden sides of the internet.
The project aims to describe the personal experiences of someone approaching meme culture, to affirm the importance and power of memes, and to offer everyone the tools to harness this power. Understanding the power of memes opens up access to the uncertain grounds on which our common social world is constructed. The project is the result of an ongoing, collective, and participatory research.
Since its founding, interdisciplinary collective Clusterduck has been increasingly concentrating its research efforts on memes, resulting in the creation of several transnational chats on various online platforms, and leading to a thorough investigation of the processes and actors behind the creation of Internet-related content.
While their online exhibition #MEMEPROPAGANDA explored the potential of memes for political activism, the transmedia project #MEMEMANIFESTO (2020–ongoing) explores different aspects of meme culture through various media: a website installation and a participative archive called “Safari”, the physical installation “Detective Wall”, the book and catalogue to the exhibition “The Detective Wall Guide” and a series of workshops entitled “The Meme Manifesto Protocols” where participants are called on to contribute content, images and discussions to the implementation of #MEMEMANIFESTO.
The opening of the exhibition, a video report by Moja Rijeka internet portal
The project was implemented during the Emap/Emare residency 2020 at Impakt and is now starting to travel the world.
During its visit to Drugo More, Clusterduck is focussing on the “Detective Wall” installation. Taking inspiration from Aby Warburg’s famous “Bilderatlas Mnemosyne” and with a nod to the so-called “Crazy Wall” shown in the “Pepe Silvia” meme, the ten panels composing “Detective Wall” are an investigation around ten different themes and moments of memecultural history, spanning the period from 2006 to the present day. The visitor is invited to explore the crazy wall – and the research behind it – with the help of “The Detective Wall Guide”, a book co-published by Aksioma and Impakt. By offering a closer look at the digital version of the panels, Clusterduck is inviting visitors to go down an almost infinite series of rabbit holes, navigating through a series of attributions and links. In doing so, Clusterduck recommends caution and to proceed at your own risk.
A meme
As Marc Tuters points out in the introductory text of the Guide:
„Seen through the parallax perspective of totality (Jameson) and of [the] micropolitical (Deleuze and Guattarri), Clusterduck’s impossible project to map meme culture has something of the qualities of subcultural vaccine, inoculating ourselves through controlled exposure. Like the Coronavirus we know that chan culture will never go away — no matter how much some might wish it would. As per the Accelerationists, there is thus no way out but through. The cleverness of Clusterduck lies in the seriousness with which they approach an object that refuses to be taken seriously. It is this attitude that has permitted them to stare into the abyss on our behalf, and not to become monsters themselves.”
ONLINE TALK
Clusterduck presents #TheDetectiveWall
In an online talk with Marcell Mars, Clusterduck will focus on their installation “The Detective Wall”, and outline how it connects with the other elements composing the transmedia work #MEMEMANIFESTO, a participative project about Internet Memes, exploring the occult meanings and communicative potentials of memetic symbology.
Follow the conversation live on Facebook via this link, on Thursday, October 28 from 6:30 p.m.
CLUSTERDUCK
Clusterduck is an interdisciplinary collective working in the fields of new media studies, design and transmedia, investigating processes and actors behind the creation of Internet-based content. It curated the online exhibition #MEMEPROPAGANDA, hosted by Greencube Gallery, which was presented at The Influencers Festival (Barcelona), Tentacular Festival (Madrid), IFFR (Rotterdam), Urgent Publishing (Amsterdam, Arnheim), Radical Networks (Berlin) and others. Clusterduck is currently developing Meme Manifesto, a transmedia project that collectively explores the occult meanings and communicative potentials of memetic symbology. The first stage of the project has been developed at IMPAKT (NL) during this year’s EMAP/EMARE residency programme and presented at ARS ELECTRONICA 2020. Clusterduck also created the participative exhibition #MEMERSFORFUTURE, investigating the role of memetics in the global climate justice movement. The exhibition has been shown at re:publica 2020 and IMPAKT FESTIVAL 2020.
