The Greek-Canadian artist Constantine Ferreo (57), already for many years living in Antwerp, has in association with the online art platform Anina, set up a virtual internetparcours with animations. The animations are mostly inspired by poetry, politics and Europe, items that during is long-time career constantly are reappearing. The virtual internetparcours will be presented on October 15th, at 8 p.m. in the new ‘Theater aan de Stroom’ (TAS) at the Ijzerenwaag 6 in Antwerp.

Already as a teenager, Constantine Ferreo left Greece, disgusted and terrorised by the notorious and repressive colonel’s regime. This was the start of a journey that would bring him through many Europeon countries and led him eventually to Canada, where he graduated at the Ontario College of Art. At that moment he already started his artistic career, with exibitions in the Canadian gallery-circuit. Most of his work had a background of and was inspired by the mental scars that had been left by het impact of the Greek dictatorship.

Twenty years ago, Constantine Ferreo decided to move from Canada for Antwerp, one of the European cities that had left a big impression on the artist. Also in Antwerp and other Belgian cities, the Greek-Canadian became a well known member of the art scene, with a vast series of exhibitions. In Antwerp, he took part in projects such as ‘Stad aan de Stroom’, the ‘Zomer van de Fotografie’ and the ‘Steenfestival’. Constantine Ferreo was also one of the first that began experimenting with digital forms of art, because he’s not someone who let put boundaries to him by one medium. In line with this open approach of art, he started also a collaboration with the online art platform Anina.

In this collaboration, Constantine Ferreo brings a virtual internetparcours with six animations. Again, he uses some of his favorite items and inspiration sources, such as politics, poetry and the European idea. Doing this, the artist stresses also in his virtual art that the content and the message is the key element of his work. Constantine Ferreo considers this project also as a art-in-proces, with adding and replacing content. He even doesn’t exclude that he will create with this online content a cross-over to the domain of the offline art.

After the opening in the ‘Theater aan de Stroom’, the virtual internetparcours can be seen on the website www.anina.be. In the archive, one can also visit the former projects of Anina.be.

Virtual Internetparcours

On June, 28th at 20 o’clock, the Glober-project of the Antwerp artist Koen Huysmans will be presented in the International Press Centre Flanders at the Grote Markt 40 in Antwerp. The Glober-project forms a part of the two-monthly exhibition cycle of the online art platform Anina.be (Antwerp Internet Art). Glober is the subject of the fifth edition of Anina.

For his project, artist Koen Huysmans created a Glober-figure, a plastic puppet which his creator hopes during the next months will be wandering through the whole world. Glober is a figure in synthetic material, of which different copies in several colours were produced. The intention is tourists will take a copy along on their holiday and take a picture of Glober on the road or at the holiday destination.

The pictures will forwarded and placed on the internet by the artist. In this way the next months an online exposition will be created. The exhibition runs simultaneously at the internet sites www.anina.be and www.glober.be. At the opening of the exhibition in the International Press Centre Flanders, the Glober-family will be presented to the
world.

Each Glober-figure get also his own passport, as a result of which each copy becomes unique, with also its own colour and its own christian name. On a forum the artist collects also travel tales and funny hints. In the past, Koen Huysmans was especially active as an
art painter and started with Bart Bourdiaudhy the collective Antwerp artstudio Coat03. Koen Huysmans is an autodidact, but starts in the near feature a training at the Antwerp academy.

The music on the website www.glober.be was provided by the Antwerp band Nudex. At the official presentation of the Glober-family, one of the bandmembers will perfom an acoustic version of this music. A Glober-figure, especially created for the band, will accompany Nudex also on his next tour.

Anina.be (Antwerp Internet Art) is an online art platform that every two months offers an artist the possibility to develop a digital art project. In the past, Anina worked with different artistic expressions such as computergraphics, photography, video, sound art and
interactive media. The projects must, however, created especially for the internet. Anina collaborates with Belgian and foreign artists.

Glober-project

XXX

On Friday May 4th at 8 p.m., the Antwerp International Press Centre Flanders shows the virtual exhibition ‘Life Cycle’ by the artists Laure-Anne Jacobs (imaging) and Missfit (sound design). ‘Life Cycle’ is the fourth edition of a virtual exhibition series of the online art project Anina.be. The new exhibition presents the life cycle of people in digital imaging and sounds.

The exhibition ‘Life Cycle’ contains two parts. The first part – In The City – shows the visitor the confrontation between the daily live in the city with contemporary or recent world events. All these images are digitally mastered. The second part – Flash Greetings – shows the life cycle of the human being with ten portraits, also digitally mastered.

The models who are showed in Flash Greetings get also the possibility to spread their portraits as virtual greeting-cards into their online communities and the internet. Flash Greetings has an obvious interactive undertone, with online visitors getting the opportunity to pick up images from a moving screen, puzzling together a portrait and explore the virtual installation, following his own route. As a result, the exhibition becomes a personal experience for each visitor.

Anina.be is an initiative of Laure-Anne Jacobs. For the first time, she shows her own work on the virtual platform. Anina.be wants to create an interaction between artists from different disciplines, but also an interaction between the art and the public. For this edition, Laure-Anne Jacobs created a cooperation with sound artist Missfit (pseudonym for Aernoudt Jacobs), who created sound-effects for the images.

Missfit works with sounds from the world. For this exhibition, the artist choose for sounds from the surroundings of the daily world. Other examples from his work can be found on the website www.tmrx.org. Anina (Antwerp Internet Art) started as a ditigtal platform to offer artists a virtual Antwerp gallery and does not have the intention to focus only on local work.

The exhibition ‘Life Cycle’ starts with an introduction by Koen Betsens from the concept bureau OneDotOnly. He will comment some recent and future developments in the field of the interactivity of the internet and digital technology. From May, 4 th, the exhibition ‘Life Cycle’ is shown on the website www.anina.be, where one also can discover the previous projects.

Part I: In the City

Part II: Flash Greetings

XXX