The Artist is Typing
Guido Segni

The Artist is Typing by Guido Segni presents his latest reflections on the artistic activity at the time of forced multitasking. Focusing on the need to concentrate on non-artistic duties, whilst continuing to think about his theoretical research, Segni will release a website which will be accessible to everyone who can check in real time if he’s typing on his keyboard.

One of the most debated and controversial matters about artists’ activity is how most of them have to cope with a double-faced life. On one hand, they release art projects, getting involved in exhibitions and public speeches, while on the other they have to be employed in non-creative jobs in order to be financially supported.

Rather than being a sterile critique to this system, The Artist is Typing recalls one of the most famous art projects held in recent years, The Artist is Present (2010) by Marina Abramović. The auras of these larger than life artists lead to fetishise their personas, while the audience increasingly wants to get involved in their activities and projects – a need that museums and institutions are happy to fulfill. There’s a certain voyeurism in aiming to discover special and unique traits about these super artists and The Artist is Typing reflects especially on this question, on how the audience wants to know more and more about an artist’s life. This is linked to the flatness of computers and other electronic devices; artists use the same tools to create artworks, to write private emails, to keep accounts of their activities and workloads. The artists are always present, even when they’re writing a report for their normal jobs or e-mail to their employers.

Text by Filippo Lorenzin

This work was part of arebyte Gallery’s Storage Un.it.

Storage Uni.It was a small project space located in a storage unit in arebyte Gallery’s previous Hackney Wick location. The space featured a series of projects which took place online and investigated the relationship between the URL & IRL.