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MuseuM OF electriciTY / casa da luz / Funchal; Museum of contemporARY ART oF Funchal , uma GALLERY - colégio dos jesuítas - 10 TO 20 SePtembEr 2003 McLuhan's statement that all technology gradually creates a totally new human environment and that such environment is not a passive container but an active process, could be seen with humor if put together with the pre-apocalyptic chaos generated by the simultaneous blackout that happened in several American and Canadian cities. The unexpected collapse of electrical network sent 50 million people back in time to 19th century in the middle of August 2003, is quite illustrative of our present interdependence to electrical powered technologies.
The poignant question we raise in tge name of this project assumes this interdependence and questions the increasing use of means of production and artistic diffusion attached to it. The speed with which we appropriate these new technologies today, quickly change our perception and relationship with reality, is turning technology itself in an artistic introspection instrument.
What is Watt? sets, under this perspective, as a project with the purpose to stimulate reflection, production and diffusion of works mediated through electricity. We start from the premise that different media exponentially materialize different responses, and that each response brings into existence an aesthetic identity through the artists' personal concepts and projects. This concurrence of objectives gave birth to the 1st edition of What is Watt? in August 2001 in the exhibition room in Museum of Electricity of Funchal, Casa da Luz.
This second edition, reproduces in a more encompassing perspective, and in three spaces, a project that continues to be as diverse in it's contents as the artists who make them. No matter what our interpersonal relationships are, and no matter the state of electrical power flow, between on and off, that is present in any of the works shown, we are all connected by a common question: What is Watt?
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