Diego Tonus

Diego Tonus Altered Atlas Computer Generated Images reconstructed from memory Open series 2017 – Ongoing Altered Atlas is a series of Computer Generated Images (CGI) investigating modalities of production and manipulation of images nowadays and how they are structured in the language of advertisement to commodify objects, spaces, behaviors, and experiences: as a constructed panorama conceived to be quickly perceived and consumed by viewers every day. The work centers on the production of images completely realized using CGI 3D computer rendering techniques to entirely re-enact by memory existing advertisements that I have previously seen in city posters, magazines, and banners. In this process of remembrance, some elements are inevitably lost or transformed. The resulting images constitute a collection of altered digital photographic images filtered and modified by memory, whose non-intentional errors, omissions, and imperfections often let emerge elements of manipulation present in the original images. The ongoing series questions representational spaces (i.e., landscapes, skies, and architectures), goods (i.e., food, cosmetics, body treatments), technology, development, and economy of resources in the spatial practice of neo-capitalism and how they get used by specific companies (i.e., banks, airlines, telecommunication, food chains, fashion brands) to construct their corporate identities while influencing behavioral attitudes, modalities of time investment, announcing warnings and quality products. The different chapters of the ongoing series Altered Atlas will define a growing archive of altered digital images completely re-constructed with 3d sculptural and image-making processes. Altered Atlas and its concept are registered idea © Diego Tonus Studio 2021

Diego Tonus Altered Atlas Computer Generated Images reconstructed from memory Open series 2017 – Ongoing Altered Atlas is a series of Computer Generated Images (CGI) investigating modalities of production and manipulation of images nowadays and how they are structured in the language of advertisement to commodify objects, spaces, behaviors, and experiences: as a constructed panorama conceived to be quickly perceived and consumed by viewers every day. The work centers on the production of images completely realized using CGI 3D computer rendering techniques to entirely re-enact by memory existing advertisements that I have previously seen in city posters, magazines, and banners. In this process of remembrance, some elements are inevitably lost or transformed. The resulting images constitute a collection of altered digital photographic images filtered and modified by memory, whose non-intentional errors, omissions, and imperfections often let emerge elements of manipulation present in the original images. The ongoing series questions representational spaces (i.e., landscapes, skies, and architectures), goods (i.e., food, cosmetics, body treatments), technology, development, and economy of resources in the spatial practice of neo-capitalism and how they get used by specific companies (i.e., banks, airlines, telecommunication, food chains, fashion brands) to construct their corporate identities while influencing behavioral attitudes, modalities of time investment, announcing warnings and quality products. The different chapters of the ongoing series Altered Atlas will define a growing archive of altered digital images completely re-constructed with 3d sculptural and image-making processes. Altered Atlas and its concept are registered idea © Diego Tonus Studio 2021

Diego Tonus Altered Atlas Computer Generated Images reconstructed from memory Open series 2017 – Ongoing Altered Atlas is a series of Computer Generated Images (CGI) investigating modalities of production and manipulation of images nowadays and how they are structured in the language of advertisement to commodify objects, spaces, behaviors, and experiences: as a constructed panorama conceived to be quickly perceived and consumed by viewers every day. The work centers on the production of images completely realized using CGI 3D computer rendering techniques to entirely re-enact by memory existing advertisements that I have previously seen in city posters, magazines, and banners. In this process of remembrance, some elements are inevitably lost or transformed. The resulting images constitute a collection of altered digital photographic images filtered and modified by memory, whose non-intentional errors, omissions, and imperfections often let emerge elements of manipulation present in the original images. The ongoing series questions representational spaces (i.e., landscapes, skies, and architectures), goods (i.e., food, cosmetics, body treatments), technology, development, and economy of resources in the spatial practice of neo-capitalism and how they get used by specific companies (i.e., banks, airlines, telecommunication, food chains, fashion brands) to construct their corporate identities while influencing behavioral attitudes, modalities of time investment, announcing warnings and quality products. The different chapters of the ongoing series Altered Atlas will define a growing archive of altered digital images completely re-constructed with 3d sculptural and image-making processes. Altered Atlas and its concept are registered idea © Diego Tonus Studio 2021

From State To State, Installation views of the expanded archive, Abbey of Valserena, CSAC Parma Permanent Collection

From State To State, Installation views of the expanded archive, Abbey of Valserena, CSAC Parma Permanent Collection

From State To State Mobile Archive Collection of travel tickets, archival folders, transportation crates and a website Dimensions of each crate: 110 x 82 x 52 cm 2006-2023 (On-going) CSAC Parma Permanent Collection Supported by Mondriaan Fonds Amsterdam The project was awarded the “PAC2021 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea”, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture Since 2006, the artist has collected tickets from all his journeys, whether by plane, bus, tram, subway, taxi, train or ship, etc. While on the one hand these tickets are a reminder of all the nomadic movements and dynamic situations of thought in which new ideas were born and then shared with the artistic community, on the other hand they constitute an archive that provides a record of all his movements, including expense (€), ecological impact (CO2 emitted), distances travelled (km), time invested (h) in travelling and a testimony of how individual movement may influence the collective environment, both a physical / natural environment and one of thought. From State To State is a mobile archive conceived as a political portrait. It exists both as a digital archive, in the form of the website www.fromstatetostate.com, conceived as a publication in the making, and a physical archive – adaptable and expandable to the exhibition space – characterised by transport crates, in which the collection of tickets is organised chronologically in suspended filing folders. Along with all the tickets, there are empty spaces in these pouches that acquire as much relevance as the tickets themselves, as records of a series of significant yet not officially catalogueable journeys and wanderings. The mapping of the artist’s travels becomes a database that highlights geographical and political boundaries, the ‘legal’ nature of the tickets and the notion of limits they evoke. The work is both a visual testimony to the apparent freedom and possibility of movement across borders and a visualisation of the collective experience of constant surveillance exerted on individuals. The section 2006-2022 entered CSAC Parma permanent Collection and Archives thanks to the “PAC2021 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea”, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.

Detail physical archive, CRATE #1 (2006-2009)

Selected custom archival folder (2010)

Invited to take part to Helicotrema Recorded Audio Festival 2019, Diego Tonus (b.1984) decided to forward his invitation to artist and composer Rod Summers (b.1943), as an intervention. Met almost by chance in Maastricht (NL) in 2018, Rod Summers has revealed to be also a great collector of mail art – he has one of the biggest collection of messages both in hardcopy and digital form: a collection of more than 100000 pieces in the form of mail, email, conversations and an archive of Skype interventions set in the virtual landscape of the web. For this occasion, Summers accepted the ‘forwarding of the invitation’ proposed by Tonus and presents The Death of Bees (2018). This audio piece presents two overlaying soundtracks: a background audio landscape and a delayed voice of the artist describing an uncanny scene as it unravels in front of his eyes. The processed voice becomes enigmatic as the information is not immediately reachable, therefore it transforms into secret; the audio-filter conceal what potentially happened in this ‘still life’ while Summers is witnessing the event. Forwarding (Rod Summers) is the first intervention of a series by Diego Tonus, considering the act of ‘forwarding’ as artistic gesture thought as a practice of collaboration with other artists. For this occasion, the audio piece, forwarded via email after the invitation, is part of that virtual landscape created by Rod’s archive of interventions and his numerous collaborations.

Itinerant event 2019 A performer approaches a spectator and asks, “Excuse me, which is it the correct pronunciation of the word Euro? I, don’t know how to pronounce it and every time I understand a different word: Euro /jʊərəʊ/; Hero /hɪərəʊ/; Aura /ɔːrə/; Ego /ɛgəʊ/; Ero /ɛːro/; You’re /jʊ́r/; Her /hɜː/; Usury / ˈjuːʒəriː/; Hugo /hjuːgəʊ/; Ira /iːrə/; Ear /ɪə ɻ/; Oro /øːroː/; Eudora / juːˈdɔːrə/; Hera /hɛːra/; Ora /ɔːra/; Eur /ɛwr/; Hiuro /hɪʊro/; Ergo/ɛr.ɡoː/; Eurò /ɛuroː/.” (19 of 1074 variations) EURO is a roaming event focusing on the different pronunciations of the word Euro, marking the related layered, and possibly alternative, meanings of this word that was originally meant to create common ground for the different Nations. EURO is a performance that took place for the first time in Maastricht Plein 1992 (Square 1992, built to commemorate the Treaty of Maastricht, which laid the foundation for a single European currency in that year). The performance EURO is conceived as a parallel event to Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter: a project by the artist Diego Tonus, curated by Huib Haye van der Werf, and promoted by Van Eyck Maastricht and STROOM Den Haag, winner of the third edition of Italian Council (2018), a competition ideated by Directorate-General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries (DGAAP) – organ of Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, to promote Italian contemporary art in the world.

Installation view at Kasteel d'Aspremont Lynden, Oud-Rekem 2019

Installation view at Kasteel d'Aspremont Lynden, Oud-Rekem

Diego Tonus and Anonymous Business Related Strategy Performance Performers, microphones, LED display, customized PC programmed for mining cryptocurrency, documents of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property 2019 In collaboration with professors Stefano delle Monache and Maximiliano Romero, IUAV University Venice Business Related Strategy is a performance in which a series of unemployed workers – having agreed on being publicly recognised as such – enter the exhibition space at scheduled moments and begin to pronounce their names, trying to make them noticed and recognisable. A customized PC, installed in the selected room of the exhibition space, is programmed to research the names pronounced by the performers on the web. This data is then translated and used to mine an Altcoin, which will determine the actual (still fluctuating) monetary value they will be paid. The more often each performer pronounces his or her name – or the louder this is done -, the higher their wage will be, according to the stock value created. Business Related Strategy is part of Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter. The project contributes to a discussion about the transformation and transportation of value, questioning the valorization of time and space in time of crisis. The series of new works derives from an assumed conversation between Diego Tonus and a forger (anonymous for practical reasons) revealing controversial thoughts related to contemporary systems that deal with the definition of value. Each artwork is the visual translation by the artist of this conversation manifested through the act of presenting objects, actions and words experienced by the forger within his practice of reproduction of value and ways of transporting it, hacking system of controls and dealing with the definition of individuality. Each artwork is presented in co-authorship with the forger. Tonus approaches the thoughts of the counterfeiter as if they were his intellectual property, questioning the ‘counter’ of counterfeiting and appropriating his ideas. In order to share the appropriated forger’s ideas with the international audience, to activate and perform them, the artist has registered the works as trade secrets at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. The validity of the trade secret is international and lasts 10 years.

Diego Tonus and Anonymous The Added Value Installation Stainless steel, Toyobo Solar plates, documents of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property Size of each box: 60.9 x 68.6 x 15.6 cm 2019 The Added Value is an installation presenting a series of 10 stainless steel boxes mounted onto the wall at the same height. The installation is explicitly meant to resemble Donald Judd’s canonical work Stacks (1964-1969). The top plates of the objects are metallic typographical facsimiles of Euro banknotes that will supposedly be used by the forger to produce counterfeit money. The resemblance to such an iconic work of art is used to camouflage the forger’s instruments. Recognizing it as art, functions as a decoy and allows the hidden tools to be transported between countries. The Added Value is part of Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter. The project contributes to a discussion about the transformation and transportation of value, questioning the valorization of time and space in time of crisis. The series of new works derives from an assumed conversation between Diego Tonus and a forger (anonymous for practical reasons) revealing controversial thoughts related to contemporary systems that deal with the definition of value. Each artwork is the visual translation by the artist of this conversation manifested through the act of presenting objects, actions and words experienced by the forger within his practice of reproduction of value and ways of transporting it, hacking system of controls and dealing with the definition of individuality. Each artwork is presented in co-authorship with the forger. Tonus approaches the thoughts of the counterfeiter as if they were his intellectual property, questioning the ‘counter’ of counterfeiting and appropriating his ideas. In order to share the appropriated forger’s ideas with the international audience, to activate and perform them, the artist has registered the works as trade secrets at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. The validity of the trade secret is international and lasts 10 years.

Diego Tonus and Anonymous Private Conversations Installation Briefcases, security device, documents of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property 2019 Private Conversations is an installation consisting in a series of business briefcases presented as sculptures, installed on the floor of the exhibition space. The briefcases hide a device that alters radio frequencies, thereby preventing any type of audio recording (digital or analogue) within the exhibition space. This security device has the capacity to discretely prevent unauthorized recordings within a range of up to 10 meters. This installation characterizes the space of the exhibition as a very public and, at the same time, private space in which every kind of conversation is possible, creating a platform for potential speeches and discussions. Private Conversations is part of Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter. The project contributes to a discussion about the transformation and transportation of value, questioning the valorization of time and space in time of crisis. The series of new works derives from an assumed conversation between Diego Tonus and a forger (anonymous for practical reasons) revealing controversial thoughts related to contemporary systems that deal with the definition of value. Each artwork is the visual translation by the artist of this conversation manifested through the act of presenting objects, actions and words experienced by the forger within his practice of reproduction of value and ways of transporting it, hacking system of controls and dealing with the definition of individuality. Each artwork is presented in co-authorship with the forger. Tonus approaches the thoughts of the counterfeiter as if they were his intellectual property, questioning the ‘counter’ of counterfeiting and appropriating his ideas. In order to share the appropriated forger’s ideas with the international audience, to activate and perform them, the artist has registered the works as trade secrets at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. The validity of the trade secret is international and lasts 10 years.

Diego Tonus and Anonymous I Want Everyone’s Money Installation Neon sign, documents of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property 2019 I Want Everyone’s Money is a neon sign stating the personal motto of the forger and his business strategy. In an attempt to counter the counterfeiter’s action of handling and appropriating intellectual properties, this motto – handwritten by the forger – has been registered by the artist as a trade secret in the ‘Benelux Office for Intellectual Property’. I Want Everyone’s Money is part of Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter. The project contributes to a discussion about the transformation and transportation of value, questioning the valorization of time and space in time of crisis. The series of new works derives from an assumed conversation between Diego Tonus and a forger (anonymous for practical reasons) revealing controversial thoughts related to contemporary systems that deal with the definition of value. Each artwork is the visual translation by the artist of this conversation manifested through the act of presenting objects, actions and words experienced by the forger within his practice of reproduction of value and ways of transporting it, hacking system of controls and dealing with the definition of individuality. Each artwork is presented in co-authorship with the forger. Tonus approaches the thoughts of the counterfeiter as if they were his intellectual property, questioning the ‘counter’ of counterfeiting and appropriating his ideas. In order to share the appropriated forger’s ideas with the international audience, to activate and perform them, the artist has registered the works as trade secrets at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. The validity of the trade secret is international and lasts 10 years.

Diego Tonus and Anonymous A Moment of Darkness Sculpture Aluminum cement, Bitcoin, documents of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property 2019 A Moment of Darkness is an aluminum cement sculpture, life-cast and constructed to resemble the forger, who is posing without revealing his identity. Inside this anonymous sculpture of the forger, a metal sheet engraved with the key-code granting access to 1 Bitcoin, is hidden. The artistic value of the sculpture and the hidden value of the cryptocurrency are coexisting within this work. Each is susceptible to the floating valuation of specific markets, trade fluctuations and investment security. Both are held within their set form, and underline the notion of belief in relation to the creation of worth. And so, access to these values is either possible in the long run, or after a destructive action. A Moment of Darkness is part of Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter. The project contributes to a discussion about the transformation and transportation of value, questioning the valorization of time and space in time of crisis. The series of new works derives from an assumed conversation between Diego Tonus and a forger (anonymous for practical reasons) revealing controversial thoughts related to contemporary systems that deal with the definition of value. Each artwork is the visual translation by the artist of this conversation manifested through the act of presenting objects, actions and words experienced by the forger within his practice of reproduction of value and ways of transporting it, hacking system of controls and dealing with the definition of individuality. Each artwork is presented in co-authorship with the forger. Tonus approaches the thoughts of the counterfeiter as if they were his intellectual property, questioning the ‘counter’ of counterfeiting and appropriating his ideas. In order to share the appropriated forger’s ideas with the international audience, to activate and perform them, the artist has registered the works as trade secrets at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. The validity of the trade secret is international and lasts 10 years.

Exhibition view at Jan Van Eyck Academie

Exhibition view at the Jan Van Eyck Maastricht - as part of the solo exhibition Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter supported by the Italian Council Award

Installation View at STROOM Den Haag (2019) as part of the solo exhibition Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter supported by the Italian Council Award

A Moment of Darkness, Installation View at Dutch Ministry of Finance building The Hague (2019) as part of the solo exhibition Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter supported by the Italian Council Award

Processing Authorities 2013 – 2018 Mixed media In collaboration with the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (IISH), Stedelijk Museum Bureau (Amsterdam), WIELS Brussels, Mondriaan Fund and AFK Amsterdam Processing Authorities evolves around an anonymous and singular group of gavels owned by the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. These gavels belonged to chairmen and heads of commissions of revolutionary and emancipatory movements from Europe – labour movements, propaganda actions, agricultural organizations, religious groups, anti-alcoholism commissions, Esperanto movements, sport associations, feminist movements to name some of them. They were accidentally grouped over the years by the Institute, without full knowledge of their histories and derivations. In the attempt to show them for the first time to the public as a collection, the artist has made accurate replicas of the original objects, creating ‘new originals’ thought as a collection of voices ready to be thought, seen and discussed again in their paradoxical aspects of decision-making and visual representation of authorities – even in their silence.

Print on striped curtain Found picture – Anonymous author, Italy – 1930s The Cheater, title given by the artist to a found picture by anonymous author, is a curtain that defines the entrance of an exhibition space in which it is installed. The image, portraying a gambler in the act of gambling (hiding the cards on his leg), dervies from a negative that was developed for the first time in the form of this curtain and becomes an object dividing an indoor from an outdoor. Unique entrance to the exhibition space, The Cheater alludes to a deception. It affects everything standing behind it and everyone passing through it.

Self-Portrait as a Postman is a postcard thought as a self-portrait. It is a performative object constituted by a photograph, a message and their journey from Italy to Amsterdam. The postcard was conceived as response to letter 515 of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo (Nuenen, Tuesday, 14 July 1885) for the exhibition titled When I Give, I Give Myself in Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), featuring works by contemporary international artists in response to Van Gogh’s correspondences. The postcard presents an image portraying Diego Tonus while actually working as a postman and a letter which text refers to the relevance of that experience for his artistic practice. In collaboration with Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, and Artery Amsterdam

Chapter #1_Charlie Hebdo Every time I travel I recognize lookalikes of people I know or I’ve previously seen. I like the fact that we are also lookalikes of someone else and just by walking throughout a city we bring with us ideals we weren’t aware of. We are The Others is a performance that consists of the anonymous presence of a group of lookalikes of a specific person or a series of people, seeded within the audience of a selected event. For the first chapter of this series of performances, the lookalikes of all the agents linked to the recent event of Charlie Hebdo have been selected. The performance – which took place in the context of the ‘Performance Act Award (Trento)’ – was created on the basis of the suggestions of some archival displays featuring materials used during the recruitment of the lookalikes (ads in local and national newspapers, radio news scripts, leaflets, flyers posted in public spaces, public calls on websites and networks, etc.). The performance shifted from the archival materials to the audience’s gaze, and led to the act of scrutinizing the crowd, questioning the idea of spotting the other within a group. The work addresses the very moment of the encounter, by selecting a series of critical subjects through which personal story could be interrogated the projection of the idea of the ‘other’ into someone else nowadays, questioning the viewer’s gaze.

Photo documentation of the performance in Centrale Fies, Dro (Trento) Performance Act Award III, 2015 Photo Chiara Trevisin and Alessandro Sala for Centrale Fies

Exhibition view of the archival displays in Centrale Fies, Dro (Trento) for Performance Act Award III, 2015 Photo Gianluca Panareo for Centrale Fies

Exhibition view of the archival displays in Centrale Fies, Dro (Trento) for Performance Act Award III, 2015 Photo Gianluca Panareo for Centrale Fies

Exhibiton view, 9th Edition of Furla Award – ‘Add Fire’, Bologna (2013) photo Dario Lasagni, Courtesy Furla Foundation

Groups of non-professional performers enter public or private spaces, acting out laughter tracks that I have put together drawing on movies, television, online and amateur recordings. Acting as director and composer, I give each actor in the work instructions about the laughter they will perform along with stage directions on the position to adopt in public or private spaces. Each performer will only be aware of their own individual instructions, as the composition takes shape and is experienced both by performers and the audience alike for the first time during the action itself. In FILM, the fluctuating group of performers will move throughout the city, performing the compositions in visible and non-visible ways, depending on the type of instructions. The off-screen laughing choir from cinema and television here takes centre stage as the subject of the work, their laughter not only acting as a backing track to the unfolding scenarios but directly affecting them. The gesture of bringing the recorded element of laughter into everyday life, like a fragment of a film that comes back to reality, here taints everyday actions in a real-life context, producing a cinematographic experience in time and space. FILM is a fragmented scene of which the main subject is laughter, one that is at the same time ironic, tremendous, terrifying and aggressive. It’s an irreverent and conditioning form of power that may be used as a moment of interruption to question other forms of power.

On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol 2006 News on Daily Newspaper Work in progress In 2006 the artist found a peculiar symbol in the Army Museum of Belgrade (Kalemegdan), both engraved on the museum’s external walls as well as in the underground tunnels of the city. After asking several experts, including the museum director, about its possible meaning to no avail, he decided to invent a fake news item to be published in a newspaper in order to share this unknown symbol with the public. Pretending to be an Italian spelaeologist, he went to the head offices of some local daily newspapers, showing them fake documents such as certification from the Kalemegdan, modified books on the history of Belgrade and some photomontages of himself as a spelaeologist in the depths of the city.The Newspaper Novosti believed him and approved publication of the article.

Detail

Detail

Detail