Paolo Cirio is researching into media, communication, politics and cultural anthropology,
as an environment that influences the perception of reality. Radically and ironically, he
controversially plays with semiotic vectors in order to involve the audience in thinking
about the meaning of representations of reality.
He has worked as media artist in various fields: net-art, street-art, video-art, public-art,
marketing-art, software-art and interaction-design, since 1995.
Paolo has studied cinema, theatre, electronics, telecommunication, philosophy, design
and visual communications. He graduated in 2005 in Drama, Art and Music Studies at
the University of Turin, with a dissertation on "Info-Space Performances, theatre's new
models and spaces".
Paolo was part of [epidemiC] collective and has collaborated with artists like The Yes Men, Stewart Home, Bruce
Sterling, Alessandro Ludovico, Electronic Disturbance Theater, Ubermorgen.com (among others). In street-art he
has collaborated with mainly Italian artists, such as Ozmo, Abominevole, Microbo, and Dface in the UK.
Professional practice:
Cultural-Viruses, Reality-Hacking, Culture Jamming, Convergence-Culture, Conceptual-Art and Neo-Situationism are
the main fields in which he works. These works, which are often of an illegal nature, possess political, social and
anthropological implications and have received international feedback.
The last two successful projects – created in conjunction with Alessandro Ludovico and Ubermorgen.com - have
been centered on net-art and conceptual art. Called “Amazon-Noir” and “GWEI” respectively, these art pieces have
received more than 10 prizes and have been exhibited at more than 15 exhibitions around the world. At the
beginning of 2008, Amazon-noir won second prize at the Transmediale festival in Berlin.
In the last few years he has been invited to several conferences to take part in and lead presentations, lectures and
workshops. Such conferences include; ‘Track my Poem’ at NABA university in Milan with Bruce Sterling; ‘Sex-Tree’
project presentation with Stewart Home in Bergen; a solo conference called ‘Manufacturing Consent’ in the Share
festival in Turin; and many other festivals and galleries in Germany, Serbia, Spain and Austria.
Recently he has been working on “Recombinant Fiction” - a multi-platform and cross-media storytelling in which
actors, screenwriters, and street artists combine in order to present a plot using several media and stages. This has
offered the opportunity to create an experimental new form of fiction.
He has been the solo organizer and fundraiser for illegal art exhibitions. During these exhibitions a street was
blocked and tens of artists converged and freely built their art pieces in the public urban environment. This kind of
exhibition has been set up in London, Milan, Berlin and Turin. Hundreds of artists were involved and several media
covered the events.
As an activist against NATO-militarism, He was the editor of a major international web portal, which concentrated
mainly on global campaigns against the expansion of NATO. He organized global cyber-strikes (NetStrike) to
protest against enlargements of NATO. In 2002 he was investigated by the Department of National Defense of both
the USA and Canada. This concerned the global campaign "Anti-NATO Day," an event that was covered by media
in Japan, Belarus and was studied by The Eisenhower Institute in the USA.
He has worked in Vjing, performing electronic music concerts. In addition, he has been the organizer of Vjing
exhibitions. During this experience He created video-art pieces and consolidated live visual manipulation shows.
He has been a freelance art-director for web-crafts for ten years, gaining international experience and clients. The
majority of this work has been as a consultant for advertising agencies. He has created web-based projects for the
Institute of Industrial Engineers of Hong Kong, Fiat Automobiles Group, Reanult, Iveco, the Ministry of Culture of Italy
and some important Italian contemporary art galleries. As a teacher, He is occupied with web design for high schools
and universities. Important projects include various Open Source software for web applications, which are developed
and shared with a wide community of developers and users.
younger than jesus in New York: New Museum organizes Youthie triennial in 2009.
European Media Artists in Residency Exchange 2009
Awards
2008
Second Prize, Transmediale Award, Berlin
2007
IBM Award, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgarter
Nominated for Transmediale Award, Berlin
Honorary Mention, Share Festival, Turin
2006
Honorary Mention, ibizagrafica, Ibiza,
Media Award, St. Gilgen International School, Graz
Stipendium, Edith-Ru?-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg
Nominated, Transmediale Award, Berlin
2005
Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, net Vision category, Linz
Nominated, VIPER Award, Basel
Comission, Rhizome, NewYork
Selected Exhibitions, Festivals
2008
Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System, HMKV, Dortmunt - Germany
Territories and Resources, CinemaCity, Novi Sad - Serbia
The Enterprise of Art, PAN, Naples - Italy
Revolutions – Forms That Turn, Biennale of Sydney Online Exhibition, Australia
Economy 0, Paris - France
Transmediale Festival, Berlin - Germany
2007
xxxxx, Pikesel Festival, Bergen - Norway
Plugin Festival, Basel - Switzerland
Zone V2, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Tapei - Taiwan
STRP, Eindhoven - Netherlands
My Own Private Reality, Edith-Ru?-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg - Germany
EMAF International Festival, Maribor - Slovenia
DEAF Festival, Rotterdam - Netherlands
LABcyberspaces, Laboral Art Center, Gijon - Spain
Share Festival, Turin - Italy
Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg - Germany
Israeli Center for digital Art, Holon - Israel
2006
Connected, Art Center Nabi, Seul - Korea
chico.art.net, Chico - California
Canarias Mediafest, Gran Canaria - Spain
D.I.Y. Do or Die, Oklahoma - USA
NTT ICC Museum, Tokyo - Japan
Peam Festival, Pescara - Italy
New Museum Online Exhibition, New York - USA
Theatre Paris-Villette, Connecting Worlds, Paris - France
Derivatives, new art financial visions, La Casa Encendida, Madrid - Spain
Struttura, Livorno - Italy
Share Festival, Turin - Italy
Viper Festival, Basel - Switzerland
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney - Australia
No-Parachute, artandgallery, Milan - Italy
Transmediale Festival, Berlin - Germany
2005
Hybrid, Ars Elctronica, Linz - Austria
Share Festival, Turin – Italy
2004
Quadriennale di Roma, Turin - Italy
EyeJam Festival, Turin - Italy
Banaram Festival, Ancona - Italy
2002
I love You - Digital Craft, Mak, Frankfurt - Germany
Dina Festival, Campobasso - Italy
Selected Bibliography
2008
I. Arns, F. Hunger, "Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System" Catalogue, Dortmunt, HMKV
I. M. Lalic, “CinemaCity Festival -Territory & Resources” Catalogue, Novi Sad, ISBN 9788686877109
C. Christov-Bakargiev, "Biennale of Sydney, Revolutions - Forms That Turn" Catalogue, Sydney, ISBN 9780500976845
J. Draganovic, “The Enterprise of Art” Catalogue, Naples, ISBN 9788851005313
Luca Barbeni, "Share Festival" Catalogue, Turin
S. Kovats, T. Munz, "Conspire - Tansmediale Festival" Catalogue, Berlin, ISBN 9783865884619
2007
Shiba, Oguchi, Yano, "InnerCommunication N°59" Magazine, Tokyo
Alex Adriaansens, "Zone V2" Catalogue, Tapei, ISBN 9789868321120
V2 Unstable Media, "DEAF" Catalogue, Rotterdam, ISBN 9789056625771
Alex Adriaansens , "Lab_Cyberspaces" Catalogue, Gijon, ISBN 9788461158805
2006
Suhjung Hur, Art Center Nabi "Connected" Catalogue, Seul, ISBN 804140638
Yukiko Shikata, ICC "Connecting Worlds" Catalogue, Tokyo, ISBN 757170335
Various Authors, "Struttura", Florence, ISBN 9788859601777
Andreas Broeckmann, "Transmediale - Reality Addicts” Catalogue, Berlin
Domenico Quaranta, "Share Festival" Catalogue, Turin
Chris Sauve, Andreas Ullrich, “Iternatial Sticker Award“ Catalogue, Berlin, ISBN 389955151
2005
Gerfried Stocker, Ars Electronica “Hybrid - Living in Paradox” Catalogue, Linz, ISBN 3775716572
Luca Lampo, "Connessioni Leggendarie" Catalogue, Milan, ISBN 9385851904372
2004
L.Barreca, F.Guida, M.Tonelli, "XIV Esposizione Quadriennale d’Arte" Catalogue, Rome, ISBN 8880165704
2003
The Eisenhower Istitute, "Space Security" Research, Toronto, ISBN 0920231365
Andreas Broeckmann, "Transmediale - Play Global” Catalogue, Berlin
2002
F.Nori, "I Love You" Catalogue, Frankfurt
Selected Conferences, workshops
2008
Territories and Resources, Novi Sad
Share Festival, Turin
Transmediale Festival, Berlin
2007
Track My Poem, NABA, Milan
xxxxx, Pikesel Festival, Bergen
2006
Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg
Peam, Pescara
Struttura, Livorno
Share Festival, Turin
Transmediale Festival, Berlin
2004
Banaram, Ancona
Selected Interviews
2008
Radio eins RBB, Berlin
Art? TV, France
HTV, Croatia
Transmediale Archive, Berlin
Tagr.Tv, Austria
Voices of Resistance from London, UK
2006
Furtherfield.org, UK
NTT ICC Magazine, Tokyo
Springerin, Austria
DE:BUG, Germany
Digicult, Italy
2005
Tecknemedia, Italy
Cosmopolitan , Italy
2004
Radio Flash, Indaco, Italy
Il Punto, Italy
Belorusskaya Gazeta, Belarus
Selected Press
2008
Frankfurter Allemagne, Germany
ExtrArt, Italy
UndoNet, Italy
E-Flux, online
ArtFact, online
2007
XL Repubblica, Italy
Blick, Swissinfo, Switzerland
Tages-Anzeiger, OE24, Switzerland
Der Standard, Limmatonline, Switzerland
ORF.at, Austria
Springerin, Austria
ElPais, Spain
2006
Die Zeit, Germany
Liberation Ecrans, France
Spiegel , Germany
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
The Guardian Art, UK
L'Unit?, Italy
MAzine, UK
Artforum News, week 28
Arte-Tv, France
Flash Art, Italy
Heise.de, Germany
De:Bug, Germany
Neural Magazine, Italy
2005
New York Art, USA
El Pais, Spain
Exibart, Italy
Liberation, Francia
Village Voice, USA
2004
Belorusskaya Gazeta, Belarus
La Stampa, Italy
Il Punto, Italy
drumnbass.it, Italy
Undo.net, Italy
Exibart, Italy
Basebog, Italy
2003
Space Security, Toronto
Flash Art, Italy
Liberation, France
2002
Il sole 24 Ore, Italy
Boiler, Italy
Spiegel online, Germany
Liberation, France
Wired, USA
Flash Art, Italy
Espresso online, Italy
La Stampa Web, Italy
Clarin, Spain
Cnn De, Germany
PragueNews, USA
NetSecurity, Japan
Daily Brief Number DOB02-071, Department of National Defence of Canada
IDEFENSE Intelligence Operations, Department of National Defence of USA
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