Jean-Claude Marquette: Fugue Opus 1 in Black, White, and Grey
Wi-Fi Gallery grey) (area, St. Mark’s Square, Korčula
Open: 0–24 h, access with personal mobile device
On view from 28 February to 30 April 2026
Curator: Darko Fritz
Fugue Opus 1 in Black, White, and Grey (A Tribute to Hans Richter, Viking
Eggeling, and Norman McLaren) is a digital animation conceived as a
contemporary reactivation of a seminal moment in the history of visual and
computer-based art. Created for the Wi-Fi Gallery Grey Area in 2026, the work
revisits and extends the conceptual and formal investigations initiated in the
early 1970s through the series Hommages à Khlebnikov.
The series, begun in 1971, consists of thirty original prints on listing paper
conceived as scores, both visual and procedural. These works functioned as
generative documents, serving as the basis for compositions realised across
various media between 1972 and 1985, characterised by sharply contrasting
chromatic structures and systematic variation.
Central to the animation is the reconstruction of a graphic produced in 1972
using the silkscreen technique, widely regarded as one of the earliest visual
artefacts derived from the transformation of literary text into digital binary
code. The original paper-based record consists exclusively of ones and zeros,
black squares on a white ground, arranged in a 36 × 44 grid corresponding to a
6-bit digital structure. This matrix translates language into a modular visual
system, positioning the poetic text as both source material and algorithmic
substrate.
The work draws on the poem Conjuration by Laughter by the Russian Cubo-Futurist
poet and theorist Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922), inventor of the Zaum
transrational language, here mediated through the 1967 French translation by
Luda Schnitzer. By subjecting Khlebnikov’s linguistic experimentation to early
computational logic, the work establishes a dialogue between avant-garde
poetics, postwar abstraction, and the emergence of digital aesthetics.
The Hommages à Khlebnikov series was exhibited in 1973 at Tendencies 5 in
Zagreb, within the section Computers and Visual Research, situating it firmly
within the critical framework of the New Tendencies network. Fugue Opus 1 in
Black, White, and Grey rearticulates this historical lineage in the present,
foregrounding questions of notation, translation, and temporal displacement,
while reaffirming the enduring relevance of early experiments at the
intersection of art, language, and computation.
The exhibition can be accessed through personal mobile devices at Korčula’s St.
Mark's Square. This digital art presentation format is organised by the grey)
(area and realised in cooperation with the Korčula Town Museum and Format C.
The Wi-Fi Gallery grey) (area has been set up on Pivilion
<https://us8.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpivilion.net&xid=a6ec6eb2db&uid=30817315&iid=dcc0a654db&pool=cts&v=2&c=1771941463&h=402954f14cbb689816c50e0e8079c2dba6cd2df2703a254b6123f27bafd38557>,
a free and open operating system developed by Dina and Vedran Gligo of Format
C. The wireless local area network (WLAN) is publicly accessible and
automatically displays digital artwork to anyone connecting to the Wi-Fi
network, without a password or further action.
more info: https://sivazona.hr/events/fuga-opus-1
<https://us8.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsivazona.hr%2Fevents%2Ffuga-opus-1&xid=a6ec6eb2db&uid=30817315&iid=dcc0a654db&pool=cts&v=2&c=1771941463&h=11911a8e99890e64f5b03ca78c892e10cad8e3bb16079e44a8809977e8f377dc>
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