Vuk Ćosić to Show 1998 ASCII Works at Art Basel Zero10 After 30 Years of net.art
Updated
Updated · sleek-mag.com · May 21
Vuk Ćosić to Show 1998 ASCII Works at Art Basel Zero10 After 30 Years of net.art
1 articles · Updated · sleek-mag.com · May 21
Zero10 by Art Basel will feature Vuk Ćosić’s late-1998 ASCII pieces in June 2026, including his 15-minute “Deep Throat” conversion and five short videos from the 4+2 series.
Ćosić said the selection returns to some of his earliest net.art experiments, made as he explored what computer graphics could be without vectors or raster images and turned to ASCII’s “ugly and useless” visual language.
The show brings a onetime self-described “refugee from the art system” into a “Digital Masterpieces” booth, underscoring how a movement that once rejected curators and galleries has since been institutionalized.
Marking 30 years since a 1996 Trieste meeting he organized around the term net.art, Ćosić said today’s AI and crypto rhetoric echoes the internet utopianism his generation both embraced and criticized.
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Vuk Ćosić at Art Basel Zero10 (2026): Net.art’s Journey from Digital Frontier to Institutional Recognition
Overview
Vuk Ćosić, a pioneer of early net.art, will present his foundational ASCII works at Art Basel Zero10 in June 2026. This marks a significant shift for Ćosić, highlighting a crucial moment of recognition for net.art’s historical importance. Zero10, making its Swiss premiere, is a global initiative dedicated to digital art and features the theme 'The Condition,' which explores life shaped by algorithms and artificial intelligence. By focusing on this theme, Zero10 aims to bridge the gap between pioneering digital artists and contemporary practitioners, fostering a vital intergenerational dialogue within the art world.