© right to copy

April 19 —May 13, 2003
Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea, Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna)

    The exhibition was conceived as the visual compendium of a small publication about the controversial (and still current) argument of copyright. With William S. Burroughs as a spiritual guide (“Look, listen and transcribe and forget about being original”), the curatorial project focused on copyright laws as intrinsically antithetic to any artistic production. For centuries painters and sculptors have copied and reinterpreted the works and styles of previous masters; musicians have constantly reformulated existing melodies (today also by employing the sampling technique), fashion designers have kept reinventing traditional silhouettes and in all artistic domains to copy and reinvent has always been (and still is) the norm, the standard methodology for creating new cultural contents. So why have the laws that regulate copyright become increasingly stringent to the extent that someone has even proposed that they should be extended to last forever?

    To illustrate such complex and mostly immaterial issues, I decided to make an exhibition that would only include low-resolution printed images of works by Andy Warhol downloaded from the Internet created by artist Norma Jeane. For most of his iconic works, Warhol used, without permission, already-existing artworks or industrial products protected by copyright. However, these works are now themselves protected by copyright; thus, they perfectly embody the contradiction copy free vs. copyright.

    Andy Warhol, Double Mona Lisa, 1978. Low-resolution printed image downloaded from the Internet (detail).
    © The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Printed matters
    © right to copy
    Installation view
    Galleria Comunale di Castel San Pietro (Bologna), April 19, 2003

    Andy Warhol, One-Dollar Bill, 1962. Low-resolution printed image downloaded from the Internet (detail).
    © The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    In every country forging currency has always been severely sanctioned. In England, in the 18th century, to be found in possession of a forged banknote was a crime punishable by hanging.

    Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1967. Low-resolution printed image downloaded from the Internet (detail).
    © The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Warhol used an image of Marilyn Monroe protected by copyright — © The Estate of Marilyn Monroe.

    Andy Warhol, Mickey Mouse, 1981. Low-resolution printed image downloaded from the Internet (detail).
    © The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    Installation view
    Galleria Comunale di Castel San Pietro (Bologna), April 19, 2003

    All images of Mickey Mouse are protected by copyright — © Disney. All Rights Reserved. Mickey Mouse was supposed to fall out of copyright protection in 2004. Then on October 27, 1998 — just weeks before works from 1923 were scheduled to fall into the public domain — President Bill Clinton signed retroactively the Digital Millennium Copyright Act extending the term of older works to 95 years, locking up works published in 1923 or later for another 20 years.