source: arshake

Breaking Banality: The Dysfunction of Remediation, an exhibit of works by Eva and Franco Mattes AKA 01.org. This «anonymous» duo of artists are renowned on an international scale for their activist work in which they delve into and examine issues regarding the identity and social impact of the media and the art circuit.

Eva and Franco Mattes have raised these arguments, penetrating and wielding the media system thoroughly – from the Internet to the press. They have chosen a distinct, modern use of the performing arts with efforts that are genuinely rebellious.
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From the perspective of modular operations that can always be taken apart and put together again within an abundant network of references and cross-references, Eva and Franco Mattes use the title of the exhibition, Breaking Banality: The Dysfunction of Remediation, as a point of departure for the operations originating from generative software obtained on line. And so the curtain rises on an exhibit that presents ten reiterations of a performance of BEFNOED – By Everyone, For No One, Every Day, for which they had used online crowdsourcing services to commission anonymous users to create webcam performances. The people involved were requested to perform in front of a camera and under direction. The artists provided programmed instructions similar to those used for the Fluxus method, an art movement founded in the 1960s that went against «the system». This method has now taken its rightful place among tradition and today’s market. The videos were later distributed to a wide variety and lesser-known social networks throughout the world. The performances have now become an object of observation while spectators – unbeknownst to them – take on the role of new performers as soon as they start watching the videos and are forced into awkward, almost ridiculous positions. Other objects on exhibit have an image printed on them resulting from an internet search for the words «worn out» commissioned to an online service and delivered to the exhibit without being viewed by curators or artists.

What follows is an exploration that the two artists undertook by getting involved in a project that playfully exposes the mechanisms of the capitalistic world, revealing what goes on backstage in the art world by operating within it. Known around the world by a variety of pseudonyms with which they have used to fit their features, familiar to the public and reproduced during virtual performances, they have identified themselves through different characters. One example is Darko Maver, whose presence had become so real that was invited (after his presumed death) to the Venice Biennale. Another example is the fake Nike campaign (Nike…Ground) in which the artists had announced the intention of the company to change the names all of the main squares in European capital cities into Nike Square. From the internet to the modern technologies of communication and associative systems, Eva and Franco have been able to dismantle the scaffolding of the media at the service of the powers that be to record its evolution and define it in a different manner time after time – provoking astonishment and disorientation. This has called for the formulation of broad social criticism in order to restore some awareness of the new associative culture of the network and of the systemic structure of the world of art and of its resulting society, subordinates of the media world.
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source: goethede

Eva and Franco Mattes, born 1976, are the Brooklyn based artist-provocateurs behind the infamous Web site 0100101110101101.org. Since meeting in Madrid in 1994 they have never separated, living a nomadic life throughout Europe and the United States. 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 works create a permanent state of insecurity by blurring borders between reality and fiction, art and offence, intention and action. Their off-the-wall performances—which have involved them in several lawsuits—include stealing dozens of fragments from art masterpieces (Stolen Pieces, 1995), rolling out a media campaign for a non-existent action movie (United We Stand, 2005) and even convincing the people of Vienna that Nike had purchased the city’s historic Karlsplatz and was about to rename it Nikeplatz (Nike Ground, 2003).
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source: goethede

Eva und Franco Mattes, geboren 1976, leben in Brooklyn, New York. Sie stecken als Künstlerprovokateure hinter der berüchtigten Internetseite 0100101110101101.org. Seitdem sie sich 1994 in Madrid kennenlernten, sind sie zusammengeblieben und leben ein Nomadenleben in ganz Europa und den USA. Als Pioniere der Net-Art-Bewegung sind sie für ihre meisterhafte Subversion öffentlicher Medien bestens bekannt. Im Laufe der vergangenen fünfzehn Jahre haben die Mattes’ Videospiele, Internettechnologien, Spielfilme und Werbung im öffentlichen Raum manipuliert, um Wahrheiten zu enthüllen, die die zeitgenössische Gesellschaft verschleiert. Ihre Arbeiten schaffen einen dauerhaften Zustand der Unsicherheit, indem sie die Grenzen zwischen Realität und Fiktion, Kunst und Straftat, Intention und Handeln verwischen. In ihren verrückten Performances – aufgrund derer sie in mehrere Gerichtsverfahren verwickelt wurden – haben sie Dutzende Fragmente von Meisterwerken der Kunst gestohlen (Stolen Pieces, 1995), eine Medienkampagne für einen nicht existenten Actionfilm durchgeführt (United We Stand, 2005) und sogar die Bevölkerung Wiens davon überzeugt, dass Nike den historischen Karlsplatz gekauft habe und ihn in Nikeplatz umbenennen wolle (Nike Ground, 2003).
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source: goethede

Eva ja Franco Mattes, sünd. 1976, elavad Brooklynis New Yorgis. Kunstnik-provokaatoritena on nemad kurikuulsa internetilehekülje 0100101110101101.org. taga. Pärast tutvumist Madridis 1994 jäid nad kokku ja elavad nomaadielu kogu Euroopas ja Ameerikas. Net-art-liikumise pioneeridena tuntakse neid ülihästi kui avaliku meedia õõnestajaid. Viimase viieteistkümne aasta jooksul on nad manipuleerinud avalikus ruumis videomänge, internetitehnoloogiaid, mängufilme ja reklaame, et paljastada tõdesid, mida tänapäeva ühiskond varjab. Nende tööd loovad püsiva ebakindlusseisundi, hägustades piire tegelikkuse ja fiktsiooni, kunsti ja kuriteo, kavatsuse ja teo vahel. Oma hullumeelsetes performance’ides – mille pärast neil oli mitu kohtuprotsessi – varastasid nad tosinakaupa kunstišedöövrite fragmente (Stolen Pieces, 1995), viisid läbi meediakampaania olematu action-filmi jaoks (United We Stand, 2005) ja koguni veensid Viini elanikke, et Nike on ostnud ajaloolise Karli väljaku ja tahab selle ümber nimetada Nike väljakuks (Nike Ground, 2003).