Two years ago, in the Fall of 1995, Centro Multimedia was celebrating its first anniversary. I thought the best way to commemorate it was to organize an art exhibition focussed on new media art. So, I invited some of my friends of Toronto, who have been helping me to found a net to promote cultural exchanges and art exhibitions between Mexico and Canada. This net is NAFAA, the North American Free Artists Association. The idea was to bring some specific artworks on new media art that could start a discussion in Centro Multimedia about the nature of electronic art. Net@Works, curated by Steev Norman and brought to Mexico by Eleni Mokas, was the final result of this effort.
Two years later, in the Fall of 1997, we are back again. On this occasion, more than sharing or celebrating, we are inviting all spectators to "live" and "participate" in an artistic experience where the artworks will be the subjects and the public the objects. So, we are inviting all to observe a new concept of techno-art: one which deals with emergent behavior. Once again, to make A Life Of Its Own possible (the title of this new challenge), I needed again the understanding, the efforts and the patience from all my Canadian friends, as well as my Mexican. Here again, I got the support of Steev Morgan and Norman White (the current curators) and Eleni Mokas, our NAFAA director. And I also got the commitment and trust of Andrea di Castro, who added the support of the Centro Multimedia Staff for this project (Alejandra Gilling, Itziar Ortega, Humberto Jard÷n and a long list of old and new friends).
So, I should be happy to work with lot of people to make, build and open a concrete window: the window of art which in two years has been able to show us its importance as a medium to close and join different ideas, goals, dreams and utopias of such different countries and cultures. The impacts, teachings and experiences of Ne@Works and A Life Of Its Own belong to the people who assisted in its exhibition. This is the best reward for all of us who made possible these events. The only thing which is missing here is the recognition of the Universidad Aut÷noma Metropolitana - Azcapotzalco and its permission and support to work not only in the exhibition by themselves, but also in NAFAA projects and all its events that Eleni and I have organized in the last four years. As is usual in Mexico, the universities are the spaces where it is possible to cohabitate the hope with illusions, the future with the dreams, the arts with knowledge.