| Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG Fuck the Systsem Solo exhibition Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana Vžigalica gallery Trg francoske revolucije 7 Ljubljana, Slovenia August 18th – September 9th 2011 Opening: THU, August 18th 2011 at 8pm ENTRANCE FREE! |
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Net art, online performances, pranks and false identities by Eva and Franco Mattes, aka
0100101110101101.ORG, reveal the hidden and repressed characteristics of the individual
hidden behind a computer. In virtual worlds and parallel realities, in the cyborg [human +
computer], at the very end, they discover a ghost, which runs the symbiotic machine and
which is, after all, (nothing but) a primate = irritable, competitive, egocentric and many
other things. In the present exhibition entitled Fuck the Systsem, we will be presented with
four provocative online and public actions, whose mutual interest is the “game” as a
civilisational and cultural achievement. The artistic pair has played all types of games (following Roger Caillois: competition, gambling, mimicry, excitement). In the project Plan C (2010), the couple and their collaborators set up an action in three acts: arrival in Ukraine, investigation of Chernobyl, and transfer of material to Manchester. The game Plan C was ostensibly a prank; however, it was actually perfectly serious and full of adrenalin. In the video and photo documentation of the second part of the action, the artists wearing white protective clothing investigated the abandoned remains of an amusement park with merry-go-rounds and electric cars. According to Caillois, circuses belong to the type of games that anticipate risk, which always entails the decisive punishment for the acrobat – death. In the last part of the project Plan C, the artists transferred a merry-go-round from Ukraine to Great Britain; however, nobody took the potential risk of the object seriously. The works My Generation (2010) and Freedom (2010) explore the deterioration of the game, caused by the breaking of the rules of the game or the player’s digressions. Freedom is an online performance, in which the Mattes entered a shoot-out videogame to engage other players in establishing a discourse about another reality – contemporary art. Their attempt was a complete failure. Heavily armed commandos had erased them from the game even before the performance could have started. This raised the question of the identity of the people on the other side of the screen, who control the avatars. Therefore, using found footage from the internet, the Mattes compiled a shocking video work My Generation, which shows people during fits of rage after they have lost a game. They take games too seriously. They have lost all sense of an “extra-game” reality, and their obsession harms intimate and familial relationships, it leads to keyboards being broken, monitors being spat on, etc. In the video work No Fun (2010), Franco Mattes dangled from the ceiling as a suicide victim to register the reactions of casual visitors to the website Chatroulette, that is otherwise being used for video chats between (often coincidental) visitors. Many interlocutors were shocked; however, the most shocking reactions were those of the people who were totally indifferent. For in the field of virtual reality, there is very little awareness of death, which is a natural and inevitable part of digital life. Death, not only as a political protest against corporate web environments (YouTube banned the screening of the video), but also as a consequence of a defect in the vital functions of a human organism or a hard drive. |
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| Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG |
Eva and Franco Mattes are the Italian artist behind the website 0100101110101101.org. They work together since 1994, living a nomadic life throughout Europe and the US. Among the pioneers of the Net Art movement, they are renowned for their masterful subversion of public media. Over the last fifteen years, the Mattes have manipulated video games, Internet technologies, feature films and street advertising to reveal truths concealed by contemporary society.
Their art has been featured at the Venice Biennale (2001), the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001), Manifesta, Frankfurt (2002) and in various venues worldwide, including the New Museum, New York (2005), Collection Lambert, Avignon (2006), Performa, New York (2007 and 2009) and PS1, New York (2010).
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Credits:
Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG
Fuck the Systsem
| Plan C is a project by Ryan C Doyle, Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG with the collaboration of film makers Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark, photographer Tod Seelie and fabricator Steve Valdez. Plan C was originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices and Dispari&Dispari Project. |
Production of the exhibition: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011
Artistic Director: Janez Janša
Executive Producer: Marcela Okretič
Public relations: Mojca Zupanič
Technical support: Atila Boštjančič
Supported by The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana - Department of Culture
Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o.
Contacts:
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
