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CURATORIAL STATEMENT

In the age of social media, we are all "spectauthors"—content creators and consumers at the same time. The widespread popularity of AI text-to-image software has further blurred the lines of authorship, allowing users to generate images without needing artistic gifts or skills. This ease of creation raises complex questions about who—or what—can be considered the true author when algorithms play such a significant role in the creative process. Andrea Meregalli’s You Are Making Art is an image maker micro-world activated by the mere presence of exhibition visitors in front of a video camera the moment they press the “take a picture” button. A capture device records this ‘snapshot’ of artistic creation and sends it to an online server. Custom-made software autonomously transforms the original image, layering new elements according to an algorithm designed by the artist in collaboration with a team of programmers. This program, the result of several weeks of feeding the machine with more than 500 paintings, drawings, and photos created by Meregalli, aims to replicate the artist's style, turning the machine into a dedicated disciple that can create art, mirroring its master. In its essence, this project pays tribute to the late 1950s, a pivotal period in Art History when Modern Art transitioned into Contemporary with its emphasis on performative and immaterial aspects of art and the active participation of the audience. Here, the final product is pure process. Over the course of several months, within the historic walls of the Scoletta dell’arte in Venice—a 17th-century building that once served as the headquarters for the League of Gold Thread Makers—the astonishing 10,000 images were created. From this vast collection, the artist meticulously selected 350 works, organising them into 14 distinct sub-categories, each reflecting the way in which the artist’s relationship with AI evolved during their collaboration. This process of selection was not merely about choosing aesthetically pleasing images; it was a deliberate attempt to capture and categorise the complex interactions between human creativity and machine intelligence. Ultimately, each image represents a moment frozen in time, a snapshot of the dynamic creative processes at play when art is being brought to life.