Syndicate: eastern hacker steals documenta X web site

["Vuk Cosic" <vuk@kud-fp.si>]

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Eastern European Hacker Steals Documenta X Web Site


A Slovenian hacker Vuk Cosic, who calls himself a 'net.artist', is
identifyed as the person behind the major international art theft that
is creating waves of shock among surfers on the net, as well as in the
art circles. What this young man did to create such a confusion is
that he has created a complete copy of a web site of Documenta X, a
major international art show held every five years in German village
of Kassel. His gesture, announced only hours before the closing of the
official web site of Documenta X, has by now not been denounced
officialy as an infringement of material copyright, but it is surely
suspicious when the "author" speaks of "net critique through positive
engagement".

About the Documenta X web site

The artistic directorof Documenta X, Catherine David, asked Simon
LamuniŽre, curator of new media at Switzerland's St. Gervais GenŽve
museum, to curate a Web site that would accompany the physical
exhibition of Documenta X, hoping to enhance Documenta's established
reputation as a showcase for the most daring and innovative artists
working.
 LamuniŽre was recruited only six months before the prototype went
 live on 21 March. His approach was to commission original projects
 that addressed issues relevant to the Internet. "To my knowledge,
 there had never been before a series of commissioned Internet
 artworks created specifically for a major exhibition like Documenta,"
 says LamuniŽre. That the site not be "just a second-hand information
 service" was foremost of his concerns. States LamuniŽre, "Documenta
 itself is much too big a physical exhibition to be grasped even
 through a catalog-type site. The site that I've created, gives the
 viewer their own perception of the exhibition." The Documenta site,
 now copied in Slovenia, in both German and English versions, featured
 sleek graphic interfaces in a bold red, white, and black color
 scheme, designed by LamuniŽre himself.

The stolen version is available at the following internet adress:
http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/dx/

Keiko Suzuki

Ljubljana, September 29th