FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tadej Pogačar & The P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art
Agent of Change - Documents I

International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tivoli Castle, Pod turnom 3, 1000 Ljubljana
December 13th 2001 - February 3rd 2002
Opening view: December 13th 2001, 8 PM

Agent of Change - Documents I is the first of two exhibitions comprehensively presenting the activities (research, cultural interactions, installations, interventions) of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art. The first part of the presentation introduces documents and works that critically explore subjects such as parallel communication networks, subjective topographies of urban surroundings, art systems, global influence of the media in the construction of cultural and sexual identities, parallel economies and so on. The project intertwines virtual and real environments, fiction and reality, and problematises the role of the document in historical narrative.

It all started in the early 1990s, when Tadej Pogaèar founded the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the first virtual museum institutions in the world. Information on the Museum given to both the lay and the professional public gave the impression that this was a highly organised, constantly growing and excellently adapting art institution with a clearly defined programme of operation.

When the second manifesto of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art was published it became clear, however, that this was a special virtual institution, which establishes inter-specific relations with institutions, social groups and symbolic networks. It does not have its own premises, nor personnel; only sporadically does it occupy specific locations, institutions (museums, schools and private apartments), the media, and services.

Even a fleeting look into the history of the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art
proves that flexibility and adaptability have been its basic characteristics.
An institution that reflects artistic, cultural, social and political changes with a convenient swiftness and precision represents a 'danger' affecting (also inwards) all existing and entrenched centres of power and interpretation.