The National Museum of Contemporary Art presents from October 23rd, 2009 until January 3rd, 2010, for the first time in Greece, a retrospective exhibition of the American artist and pioneer in the media arts field, Mark Amerika. The first presentation of his work in Greece took place in the framework of EMST’s online exhibition titlted e-critures (2008).

Amerika can be described as a “network artist” as his work looks into the ways our experience in the digital space changes and evolves a new mentality and new Life Style practice. From 1997 when he became famous with GRAMMATRON and was considered as one of the pioneers of the net art until today, Amerika perceives the networked and interconnected digital space as an inventive remix machine, a multimedia network publishing platform, an exhibition space, a performance venue, a conceptual art canvas, a computer supported collaborative research lab and an an experiential design playground. With GRAMMATRON, as well as with PHON:E:ME (1999) and FILMTEXT (2002) that followed, the artist formed works that not only refer to the multiple possibilities that opened up with the internet regarding the communication, collaboration and interaction among users but also predicted the conditions of the new digital reality regarding our perception about space, time and our identity within it.

Describing himself as a “thoughtographer”, an “artist-medium”, a “fictional philosopher”, a “remixologist” , a “network conductor”, as a wonderer who constantly changes identities and roles, Amerika moves within the digital sphere making use of the technological platforms and the media offered, developing networks of collaboration. Beyond the net art projects Amerika first became famous with, in the midst of the current decade he focused on the audiovisal possibilities offered by the DJ/ VJ platforms and developed performances and installations that comment on issues, data and incidents of our current reality and everyday life. With CHROMO HACK (2005), a work on the “spectacle” of 9/11 and its realitme broadcast, as well as with the SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE (A Digital Remix, 2004) that describes the transformations of the contemporary “spectacle” in the Network Society, Amerika critisizes the role played by the media and the politics in today`s society. A distinctive feature of his work are the practices of postproduction and remix, of the interference and reformation of material, which do not refer only to a technical process of audio and sound, but principally to a conceptual and notional process that aims to leave a field open to interpretation by the audience.

The last few years, following the developments of technology and its influence on people`s lives, Amerika started working on mobile phone video projects, focusing on the new practices and aesthetics that are being formed. MOBILE PHONE VIDEO ART CLASSICS (2007) and IMMOBILITE (2009) provoke our thought regarding the role of today`s technology in tomorrow`s artistic creation, which might highly depend on the DIY practices and the possibilities offered by the social platforms of the Web 2.0.

The exhibition Unrealtime, hosting the representative works by Mark Amerika that are mentioned above, aims to present the work of an artist that works on the digital space and continuously examines its features, offering new opportunities for dialogue on the elements and the expressions of our everyday experience. Having been characterized as a "Time Magazine 100 Innovator" between the most influential artists, scientists, entertainers and philosophers of the 21st century, and having been acknowledged by museums, art-centers and festivals with solo exhibitions and presentations around the world, Amerika is an example not only of an important artist but of a multi dimensional personality. This becomes apparent not only from his work but also from his lifestyle, which is directly interwoven with digital culture.