Gazira Babeli

... "How's life in Microsoft Office?" ... "imitation is fun, but it's only the 'background color' of every possible behavior. I'm exploring that." ... "Get over your initial shyness, buy a pair of shoes and you will discover that you already have two friends who greet you as soon as you log in. One is an architect wearing a tie, the other is a Smurf, all blue: the first is probably a financial consultant from Texas, the second is a physicist who works at Cern." ... "the only thing I really can't stand in SL is going to the movies. I find it very disturbing for an avatar who is already living in a film-like environment." ... "For me net.art is like the wild Middle Ages of the Internet... Second Life seems to offer a Renaissance Perspective." ... "I've had to apologise in various languages." ... "My art consists in experimenting in an ironic and 'pop' way with the complementary and often contradictory aspects of a 'whole world' which, despite being inhabited by 'puppets', hosts at least a million people. Real people." ... "Linden Labs is a Fluxus corporation." ... "I tried to find the limit beyond which my imagination became unacceptable to that of others. Not finding it I continued with my experiments, at times recording them. Only later did I begin to call these experiences code performances, partly because some actions or events were programmed using a code of instructions, partly because they explored some 'imported' codes of human behaviour" ... "We still don't understand what 'life' is and yet, we are talking about a second one. One life at a time, please! Maybe these lives (RL and SL) are not so different: symbolic abstractions and virtuality are common attributes." ... "I kept away from official art venues because they just looked like scale models of the real ones. Perhaps due to an excess of curiosity, I preferred to be in conditions of cultural crisis, doing earthquake simulations, or dealing in gravitational weapons, in communities who see it as a 'convention' to take people round on a leash." ... "SL is an empty vase, but it is also the Living Theatre in Lego format." ... "The theories about future technology have had a dated feel about them for quite a while, and as for virtuality, I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what it's all about without gilding the red and blue pills." ... "Avatars ... will replace the bathroom mirror and bring down the cosmetics industry." ... "In SL gadgets cost more than works of art, which are dirt cheap. A good gun costs more than a painting." ... "The space in SL is always claustrophobic. It would suit Bruce Nauman" ... "Falling from a height of 21,987,987 meters is not so safe in RL." ... Gazira Babeli, interviews ...

Gazira Babeli has been living and working as an artist, performer and film-maker in Second Life since spring 2006. In September 2006 she published records of a number of "non authorized performances" on the web, capturing the attention of art critics and artists. Artists above all. She then became part of Second Front, a new international group of artists/performers dedicated to the formal, aesthetic, cultural and social exploration of a reality dubbed "virtual". She was involved in the launch of the first native artistic community in Second Life: Odyssey. In April 2007, after filming the movie/performance Gaz of The Desert, she staged an exhibition entitled [Collateral Damage]. The show, which gathered a year of work and experiences, was visited by over one thousand 'real' people. Gazira Babeli has taken part in various festivals and events outside Second Life, including: Peam2006 (Pescara), DEAF07 (Rotterdam), Fabio Paris Art Gallery (Brescia and art fairs), iMAL (Brussels), PERFORMA 07 NYC (with Second Front). Her work has attracted the attention of publications such as El Pais, La Stampa, Liberazione, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Exibart, Kunstzeitung, CIAC, Flash Art, eXtrart and FMR White Edition. Most of Gazira Babeli's works are currently archived in the Locusolus region of Second Life.