Previous Next

Digital Natives

28 October – 28 Demeber, 2021

TBC Concept, 7 Marjanishvili str., Tbilisi, Georgia

Digital Natives brings together an international group of contemporary artists in the retrospective exhibition that examines the effects of digital technologies and the internet on the production, distribution, and reception of art. Probing the impact of rapid advancement in information, social media, immersive gaming, augmented reality and AI, artists are responding to new possibilities of experiencing the world. Specifically asking diverse questions such as: how has digital culture affected the human psyche and our understanding of the self? How has it reshaped socio-political contexts? What is its impact on contemporary aesthetics and image-making?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated global conversations around simulated reality and the digital divide that had already emerged before the crisis. The line between the physical and the online existence has never been further blurred. Avatars of ourselves circulate online and are defined by the information that we collect, download and upload. Oftentimes the vitality of these data bodies surpasses our biological lifespan - an everyday reminder of our corporeal vulnerability. This also raises questions such as what are the new ethical norms that should apply to these data bodies? And how are artists responding to this new reality?

The exhibition includes artists from four different continents, all of them creating work with the consciousness of network culture and the awareness of the paradigm shifts brought on by new technologies. Starting from web-based work to traditional mediums such as painting, the presence of technology in artistic practices is being investigated. By looking at artists from diverse regions, the notion of a global nature of the internet is being challenged and region-specific formations of digital culture are being put forward within their unique socio-political contexts. 

The title of the exhibition is drawn from a metaphor used by John Perry Barlow, a poet and internet activist, in his essay A Declaration of The Independence of Cyberspace. The term was later coined by writer Marc Prensky. Digital Native refers to a person who grew up in the information age under the ubiquitous influence of the internet and digital technologies. The opposite term would be Digital Immigrants - the generations who had to adapt to the rapid change brought on by the information age.

Artists in the exhibition: Jon Rafman (Canadian), Bogosi Sekhukhuni (South African), Anna KE (Georgian) and Florian Meisenberg (German), Nikoloz Kapanadze (Georgian), Total Refusal Collective (Austrian), Nima Bahrehmand (Iranian), Ramin Roshandel (Iranian), Tamar Gurgenidze (Georgian), Tamo Jugeli (Georgian), Qeu Meparishvili (Georgian), Tezi Gabunia (Georgian). 

Curated by Nina Kintsurashvili.