The research project "Technological Arts Preservation" initiated by Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) in collaboration with Sabancı University continues in 2021 with a new program. The program will open with an online talk by professor Peter Weibel, the chairperson and CEO of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in Germany, on Jan. 22.
As part of the project’s aim of contributing to the global efforts to carry today’s digital art and culture into the future, as well as bringing together media theorists, curators, digital art conservators, computer scientists, researchers and artists to build collective fields of study, the 2021 program of the research project will feature conferences, talks and workshops on the topics of "The Future of the Museums," "The Preservation of Virtual Reality Artworks," "The Future of Internet Art" and "New Horizons in the Preservation of Internet Art" throughout the year.
The opening talk of the program "The Non-local Museum" by Weibel will focus on the future of museums. Weibel will explore the accelerated inclusion of museums within digital expansion due to the global pandemic crisis of 2020 and their pertinent function as platforms for nonlocal visitors as well as the local ones.
The online event will take place at 4 p.m. local time in Turkey and provide an interactive experience where the viewers will be encouraged to share their questions on the strategies that museums and art institutions require to survive during the new normal, a period on the verge of an uncertain future. It will be conducted in English and is free of charge for all participants who register on Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s website.
Born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1944, Weibel studied literature, medicine, logic, philosophy and film in Paris and Vienna. He became a central figure in European media art on account of his various activities as an artist, media theorist, curator and as a nomad between art and science.
From 1984 to 2017, he was a professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. From 1984 to 1989, he was the head of the digital arts laboratory at the Media Department of New York State University in Buffalo, and in 1989 he founded the Institute of New Media at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, which he directed until 1995. He commissioned the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale from 1993 to 1999. He was the artistic director of the Seville Biennial (BIACS3) in 2008 and of the 4th Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, in 2011.
Weibel was awarded the French distinction "Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" in 2008. The following year he was appointed a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts Munich, and he was awarded the Europäischer Kultur-Projektpreis (European Cultural Project Award) of the European Foundation for Culture.
Since 1999, Weibel has served as the chairperson and CEO of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and as director of the Peter Weibel Research Institute for Digital Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 2017.