From 23 March to 30 March 2003, the Center moves to the land of Google and Yahoo! to present: "the Center of Attention Search Engine" at Spanganga Gallery, 3376 19th Street, San Francisco, CA. Some people have already described the 'Center of Attention Search Engine' as the contemporary art bastard child of 'Antiques Roadshow' and 'American Idol'.
The Center of Attention is a non-commercial independent contemporary art gallery based in London, UK. In the past year, it has shown a mix of established artists such as Sylvie Fleury, Jenny Holzer, Ken Friedman (Fluxus West) and Genesis P-Orridge, as well as many young emerging European and American artists.
Through its programme of exhibitions such as 'Email Art', 'The Centre of Attention Art Prize', its annual Magazine or its film screening events, the Center constantly tries to redefine what makes a contemporary art gallery.
To the more highbrow cultural observer however, this forthcoming San Francisco exhibition will underline the contemporary art gallery as a non space-specific organisation and address the activity of a gallery as a search engine, namely through its selection and curatorial process.
No work will be transported over from Europe and the exhibition launches with an empty gallery space. During gallery hours, starting the 23rd March, an open submission operation will be in process, with artists bringing in work to be discussed with them before being accepted or rejected for the show. Outside gallery hours, the Center's curators will scour the city, its artists' studios, art colleges, talking to people in cafes and cultural spaces with a view to finding the most interesting work.
The exhibition is at once a performance as well as a survey of work to be found in the City: with the unique quality that visitors see the making of the exhibition; they can come back daily to check the progress; they can follow the curator's visits; they can make suggestions.
The end of the show will paradoxically mark the completion of the process i.e. the achievement of a satisfying exhibition to present to the public.
The completed show although seen by few in reality will be documented for publication on the website, while overseas observers can follow the day-to-day progress on the Blogger.
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