The concept of the Web Biennial 2020 is APEIRON.

 

The term APEIRON is coined by the ancient philosopher Anaximander (610 – 546 BC), and carries meanings like “indefinite” but also “boundless” and “infinite”. Anaximander was from the Menderes River delta, located in Western Anatolia. We drank from the same waters and swam in the same  seas. Even though we have lived in different epochs, we feel that he is our fellow citizen.

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This year, we have selected the concept of APEIRON to bring hope to the artists within the current pessimistic atmosphere of the pandemic.  During these days in which a dystopia has turned into reality, we still choose to believe that, as Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) also said, that “everything is possible”, and thus to keep on creating art. To imagine and reflect upon the concept of boundlessness has actually become one of our biggest necessities during the lock down. In this period, the term APEIRON, and its potential for new possibilities, can also be interpreted as the contemporary promises of the new media and alternative communication technologies.

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, mobile applications had seriously challenged computer-based ones, and had even managed to push them to a secondary position in the short run. By constraining our mobility, the pandemic has–in a sense- made the situation even. The quarantine days have showed us that we do not need to choose between various electronic media. We still desperately need alternative and independent electronic exhibition models.

 

As they always say in Broadway, ‘the show must go on’. As the Web Biennial 2020 APEIRON team, our main purpose is to continue creating and sharing art and ideas to offer a sustainable platform for the presentation and documentation of contemporary conceptual experiments and electronic dreams. As viruses evolve, we need to evolve and to develop survival strategies for the future.

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