Darko Fritz
http://darkofritz.net
VideoChannel – Videoart from Croatia
curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne
Darko Fritz Fritz is artist and independent curator and researcher. He was born in 1966, in Croatia, and currently he lives and works in Amsterdam, Zagreb and KorÄula. He studied architecture at the University of Zagreb [1986 – 1989] and art at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam [1990 – 1992].
He has worked with video since 1988, creating TV Virus and his first computer generated environment in 1988. He presents his art in different environments: galleries/museums, Internet, architectural and organic.
Fritz was a founding member of the artist collectives Cathedral (1988), The Imitation of Life Studio (1987 – 1990), Young Croatian Electronic Films (1991) and The Future State of Balkania (1998). He participate within the networks of new media culture [Syndicate, Spectre, Mama, CultureNet]. He curated the exhibitions “Culture of graphic design in the Netherlands” (Zagreb, 1999), “I am Still Alive” (Internet art and computer art from the sixties, Zagreb, 2000), CLUB.NL (art and art networks from the Netherlands, Dubrovnik, 2000), “Lights from Zagreb” (interactive light installations, Amsterdam, 2001) and
His work fills the gap between contemporary art practices and media art culture. He has worked with video since 1988 and created his first computer-generated environment in 1988 [Cathedral]. He is using the Internet as artistic medium since 1994. He presents his works in different contexts and environments: galleries / museums, Internet, broadcast media and public spaces. Recently he has been developing horticultural units [flower/organic installations] in public spaces, transgressing the contents from the digital domain.
His research on histories of international computer-generated art resulted in several publications and exhibitons that went public since 2000, when he curated the world’s first historic retrospective exhibition of the field. He has curated numerous exhibitions and edited companion exhibition catalogues for print and web publication, including I am Still Alive (early computer-generated art and recent low-tech and internet art), Zagreb, 2000; CLUB.NL – contemporary art and art networks from the Netherlands, Dubrovnik, 2000; Bit International – Computers and Visual Research, [New] Tendencies, Zagreb 1961—1973, Neue Galerie, Graz, 2007 and ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008; Reconstruction: private=public=private=public=, Belgrade, 2009 and Angles and Intersections (co-curated with Christiane Paul, Nina Czegledy, Ellena Rosi and Peter Dobrila), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, 2009.
As editor for media art at net portal Culturenet (since 2002), he edited related database and published “A Brief Overview of Media Art in Croatia (Since the 1960s)”. In 2010 he start the research on the beginning of computer-generated art in the Netherlands, awarded by the grant by the Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam.
Fritz is founder and programmer of the grey) (area – space of contemporary and media art since 2006. He is member of AICA -International Association of Art Critics,
Darko Fritz participates in
Edition II
curated by Melody Parker-Carter
RRF v.1 curated by Agricola de Cologne