Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent: Doron Golan and Michael Szpakowski

Collaboration is working together. Can two people work together without ever having met?

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent demonstrates that they can. The exhibition takes its title from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by the philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein. It explores a collaboration between two artists across geographical distance through the ineffable language of image. Israeli video artist and filmmaker Doron Golan and British artist, composer and educator Michael Szpakowski both make digital films, which they share through websites and email lists, exploring the mystery of everyday life and of being a human in this place and time. Over the years, the two artists have developed a dialogue and friendship by exchanging their work. Since 2005 they have collaborated to found and curate DVblog.org, a groundbreaking early platform for art films on the Internet. And yet they’ve never met face to face.

HTTP Gallery in North London is pleased to host the first meeting between Golan and Szpakowski and their art in real space. Making their online collaborative process physical, the central installation has three elements: a new silent film by each artist and a new musical composition by Szpakowski. Bearing their shared sympathies in mind, the artists have independently determined the length and subjects of their films. As a result, the correspondences and resonances between the works are as yet unknown and will change constantly. The collaborative installation will be accompanied by elements of their independent practices, including a new installation by Szpakowski utilising video and silver birch branches and a selection of Golan’s recent videos, engaging with elements of life in the Middle East and his native Israel to which he has returned after many years in New York City.

Doron Golan lives and works in Tel Aviv. He works primarily with digital video and computer animation. Golan has shown extensively internationally, including recently at the Haifa Museum of Art, Israel, ART BASEL – Miami Beach, USA, Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brasil, and The Academy of Electronic Arts, New Dehli, India. He is the founder of computerfinearts.com, an online collection of Internet art. Christiane Paul of the Whitney Museum of American Art wrote, “the ‘holdings’ of the Computer Fine Arts collection are a microcosm of Net art that perfectly illustrates the breadth of artistic practice on the Web.”

Michael Szpakowski has exhibited in galleries in Europe, the US and Australia, and his short videos have been screened worldwide. His music has been performed in Russia, the United States and the UK at venues including the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank and Birmingham Symphony Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and the World Service. Szpakowski’s work in diverse educational and community contexts helps participants to engage with human and social content through tools, techniques and processes of media arts, often resulting in accessible and genuinely enjoyable works co-created by all participants.

For more information about the artists, please visit:
http://dvblog.org
Doron Golan: http://www.the9th.com, http://computerfinearts.com
Michael Szpakowski: http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com