[Reader-list] #exstrange: view artworks-as-auctions, ask questions, join in

[Marialaura Ghidini]

Dear List,

We would like to introduce you to #exstrange, a live exhibition project that showcases artworks conceived by contemporary artists to be encountered as auctions by passersby on eBay, http://exstrange.com/

As a project parasitic to the commercial platform, #exstrange explores the unexpected forms of encounter and exchange that can take place in the realm of agglomerated commodities online. 

//While browsing through the variety of categories offered by one of the pioneering online marketplaces in search for something to buy, a stranger might stumble across an artwork and pause her search. Who will this stranger be? And what are the relationships that can take place in such a space beyond the seller-to-buyer transaction, the fundraiser-to-backer association, or the peer-to-peer swap?//
 
#exstrange artworks use the eBay auction as the medium. Artists and designers treat the auction title, images, text, category and price as the materials with which to make the work. Exhibited for 7 days each, the artwork-as-auctions are available for purchase across the various ‘national’ eBay sites to then be archived on on our website.

Started as Ghidini and Modrak’s curatorial invitation to 21 artists, the project, which began on the 15t January 2017, expands its scope through interventions by guest curators and submissions by joiner artists and designers. Along with the #exstrange website, a catalogue with contributions by Padma Chirumamilla, Mark Dery, Lawrence Liang and Rob Walker will be published at the end of the exhibition.

>>Featured Artists + Guest Curators and Auctions Dates<<
IOCOSE (15 January) / Tara Kelton (16 January) / Maeve O Neill guest curated by Nora O' Murchu (16 January) / Lloyd Corporation (17 January) / John D. Freyer (18 January) / Sreshta Rit Premnath (19 January) / Matt Kenyon  (20 January) / Linda Kronman & Andreas Zingerle — KairUs Art+Research (21 January) / Archana Hande (22 January) / Megan Hildebrandt (22 January) / Fieldfaring — Susanne Cockrell & Ted Purves (23 January) / Geraldine Juárez (24 January) / Silvio Lorusso (25 January) / Yogesh Barve (26 January) / Kathleen Meaney + Taekyeom Lee (27 January) / Sophia Brueckner (28 January) / Renuka Rajiv (29 January) / Beat Officer — with Lucy Pawlak (30 January) / Abhishek Hazra (31 January) / Lanfranco Aceti (31 January) / Tyler Denmead (1 February) / Masimba Hwati (2 February) / Norie Neumark and Maria Miranda — Out-of-Sync (3 February) / Regin Igloria (4 February) / Joey Holder, Nicolás Lamas, Sarah Schönfeld guest-curated by João Laia (5-6-7 February) / Isabella Streffen, Breda Lynch, Maeve O'Neill, Laura Yuile guest curated by Nora O' Murchu (8-9-10 February) / Eryn Foster, Natalie Boterman, Angela Glanzmann guest curated by Peter Dykhuis (11-12-13 February) / Ann Bartges (13 February) / Aysha Al Moayyed (aka Asia Fuse), Nasser Al Zayani, Jenine Sharabi guest curated by Latifa Al Khalifa (14-15-16 February) / artists guest curated by Bani Brusadin (17-18-19 February) / Anupam Singh, Anke Schuettler, Xi Jie Ng guest curated by Harrell Fletcher (20-21-22 February) / Niko Princen, Eva and Franco Mattes, Garrett Lynch guest curated by Gaia Tedone (23-24-25 February) / artists guest curated by Yidi Tsao (1-2-3 March) / artists guest curated by Tamara Ibarra / intervention by Fred Feinberg + Lu Zhang (10-17 March) / Elisa Giardina Papa, Kamilia Kard, Carlo Zanni, Guido Segni selected by Domenico Quaranta (18-19-20-21 March) / and more.

Questions to the artists can be asked through eBay during the time of their auction, and if you would like to participate, as artists and/or curators, please refer to How to Create your Artwork-as-Auction in the Join section of the website, http://exstrange.com/join/

//What would you offer to the eBay passerby? How would you talk to her?//

Happy browsing and bidding,
Marialaura + Rebekah
(curators of #exstrange)

P.S.: We are compiling a list of artworks and exhibition projects that have utilized online commerce as a tool for interconnection, shared interests, social responsibility and exchange, http://exstrange.com/relatives/ 
If you have suggestions please send an email to curators at exstrange.com