Big update: WHITE PAGE GALLERY’S LIST (A NETWORK) This is the directory we are building which will list all of the White Page Gallery/s online at this link
White Page Gallery — Art Curating and Human Values on Medium
We need positive stories and counter-narratives. Art can inspire new models, new practices, and stronger and healthier cultures within the art industry and beyond if we make art about real life. The people getting involved in the White Page Gallery believe in this. We got to offer symbolic reasons to tackle and stand against political agendas and propaganda based on “insularity and parochialism” and the failure of communication, we are very aware of this and we will work against it, but also we know that we need practical and real stories about the values and potentialities of cooperation based on networks and teamwork. This is what the WPG is about. People part of the WPG network believe in sharing, collaboration and participation among artists, art curators and art professionals. Our aim is that of creating positive, and critical, (counter) narratives to the present state of online and offline curation and influencing it for the best and inspire new stories, scenarios, communities and art methodologies. WPG is not only about curatorial practices and real opportunities in online art. It is about culture, the culture of establishing connections where there are barriers and nurturing positive mutual values such as respect, generosity, and inclusivity. Art influence the world in its practices.
The White Page Gallery is a new culture for art curatorial practices based on the values of sharing, collaboration and openness. The White Page Gallery is a decentralized network made of independent galleries run by people, such as artists and curators but not limited to those art professional figures, on their very own websites. The White Page Gallery is a concept happening every time someone or a group of people opens a WPG on their/her/his website dedicating a webpage for others’ exhibitions and art projects. The White Page Gallery happens every time a connection and collaboration are established between a host and a guest. The WPG’s host offers space and the setting up. The WPG’s guest offers the contents. Every host of the WPG has their/her/his own rules for their gallery.
If you are tired of chasing algorithms, updates and timetables and you wish to be in total control of what you do, who you do it with and when, this project is for you.
We have been online on social media for at least 10+ years experimenting with social media and going through all of the struggles that come with those private data trading services that become gold for a few and pain for others. Is it possible to create collaborations and opportunities without enslaving ourselves to social media extortion demands and requests that require on our behalf huge efforts, almost a full-time job, that too often turn out to be just a waste of time and causes many a lot of stress and illusions? Let's start building a common space starting from our own space, our websites. And let's start with art and experiment with new practices for curatorial projects and collaborations. Let's inspire new networking scenarios. With this map (please scroll down to find the map) I introduce you to the in-progress developments of the White Page Gallery, a project that aims to push forward research, experiments and new practices for establishing connections, collaborations, productive opportunities and real visibility. , please take a look at this mindmap and get involved in creating a new space on your terms with your own space.
There is a Facebook group if you would like to join in and find out more at this link
We should not withdraw into the dark corners of the internet and avoid every mainstream space of networking but we should start to consider other ways to be online beyond and outside social media. The best place to start with websites and build networks based on the possibilities and qualities of web pages. It is scary to think that places like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are a bond for life, or that there is no other way but social media. Reclaim your web space, get yourself a website, and start a White Page Gallery!
Extended and enriched concept description:
The international political scene is getting shaped by governments supporting the building of walls, and new borders and increasing the margin of separation between people, especially between those of different races, ethnicity, culture and wealth. If the parties of opposition can not manage to intervene in this critical context with credible and productive alternatives, we must work to create and propose positive models as a counternarrative to the present state of politics. Art practices and methodologies could play a positive role in this problematic situation. The #WhitePageGallery is a call for #artists to join a new way of establishing, supporting and creating new models of #collaboration, rethinking the concept of private and personal space, enriching the act of sharing with actual value, work for inclusion and accessibility. Collaboration as an opportunity. Private space as common space. Sharing as distributing capitals, (eg, attention capital). An experimental field for #curatorialprojects but also as a ground for supporting human values, and professional strategies without sacrificing generosity contrasting the toxic ideologies of bias and competition. It is about building bridges, a good way for imagining new occasions for human relationships. #Webpage, much more than a page.