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source: goethede

Kunstnikepaari Eva ja Franco Mattese, keda tuntakse ka pseudonüümi 0100101110101101.ORG all, seeriasse Portraits kuuluvad portreed virtuaalse 3-D-maailma Second Life avataridest, mille väikest valikut saab näha gateways-näitusel. Fotod tuginevad mõlema kunstniku kohtumisele indidividuaalselt kujundatud avataridega Second Life’is, digitaalses universumis, mida alates selle rajamisest 2003. aastal külastab praeguseks rohkem kui 20 miljonit kasutajat kogu maailmast. Kunstnike ja portreteeritute vastastikusel kokkuleppel leidis aset arvuti loodud isikute pildistamine. Tulemuseks on segu kõrgläikelistest fotodest, nagu teame neid moeajakirjadest, ning arvutimängude kirevast särast ja esteetikast.

Töö problematiseerib portreefotograafia traditsioonilist rolli nagu ka kasvavalt muutuvat vahekorda reaalse identsuse ja avaliku esinemise vahel virtuaalsetes maailmades. Mõlemad kunstnikud arvavad, et nende portreesid tuleb õigupoolest nimetada „autoportreedeks“, sest need näitavad, milline mõni isik tahaks meeleldi olla, ja mitte seda, milline ja kes ta tegelikult on. Nende fotod Second Life’i kujudest reflekteerivad uusi online-elumaailmu kui sotsiaalse rollivahetuse paiku, kuid ennekõike võimalusena alternatiivsete identsuste loomiseks teispool sotsiaalseid kitsendusi, seal, kus „minale“ võib anda kuju vastavalt omaenda soovidele ja igatsustele.
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source: goethede

Die Serie Portraits des Künstlerpaars Eva und Franco Mattes, auch bekannt unter dem Pseudonym 0100101110101101.ORG, umfasst Porträts von Avataren aus der virtuellen 3-D-Welt Second Life, von denen eine kleine Auswahl in der gateways-Ausstellung gezeigt wird. Die Fotografien basieren auf Begegnungen der beiden Künstler mit individuell gestalteten Avataren in Second Life, einem digitalen Universum, welches seit seiner Gründung 2003 inzwischen von mehr als 20 Millionen Usern weltweit frequentiert wird. Mit beiderseitigem Einverständnis zwischen Künstlern und Porträtierten fand ein Fotoshooting der computergenerierten Personas statt. Das Ergebnis ist eine Mischung aus Hochglanzfotografie, wie man sie aus Modemagazinen kennt, und der farbigen Brillanz und Ästhetik von Computerspielen.

Die Arbeit hinterfragt die traditionelle Rolle der Porträtfotografie ebenso wie die sich zunehmend wandelnde Beziehung zwischen realer Identität und öffentlicher Repräsentation in virtuellen Welten. Die beiden Künstler meinen, dass ihre Portaits eigentlich als »Selbstporträts« bezeichnet werden sollten, da sie zeigen, wie eine Person gerne sein möchte und nicht, wie und wer sie eigentlich ist. Ihre Fotografien von Second-Life-Mitgliedern reflektieren die neuen Onlinelebenswelten als Orte für sozialen Austausch, aber vor allem als Möglichkeit für die Kreation alternativer Identitäten jenseits sozialer Restriktionen, wo das Ich nach den eigenen Wünschen und Sehnsüchten geformt werden kann.
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source: goethede

The Portraits series by the artist couple Eva and Franco Mattes, also known under the pseudonym 0100101110101101.ORG, includes portraits of avatars from the virtual 3-D world Second Life, a few of which will be shown in the gateways exhibition. The photographs are based on encounters between the two artists and customized avatars in Second Life, a digital universe that has drawn more than twenty million users since its founding in 2003. Photo-shoots of the computer-generated personas were arranged by mutual agreement between artists and sitters. The result is a mix of glossy photography familiar from fashion magazines and the colorful brilliance and aesthetic of computer games.

The Mattes’s work raises questions about the traditional role of portrait photography as well as about the increasingly changing relationship between true identity and public representation through virtual worlds. Both artists believe their Portraits should actually be considered “self portraits,” because they show how each person would like to be, but not how and who he or she really is. These photographs of Second-Life members reveal the new online worlds as places for social exchange, but especially as places that enable the creation of alternative identities without the restraints of social restrictions; places where the self can be formed according one’s own needs and desires.
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source: blogart21org

The Italian “artist-provocateurs” Eva and Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.org, throughout their practice, seek to make the invisible visible, under rather clandestine circumstances. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, they operated under the name Luther Blissett (1994-99) with a collective of other artists. Notorious during this time was the figure of Darko Maver (1998-99), an imaginary Serbian artist they invented only to “murder” him soon after. The Mattes then became known for their culture-jamming projects like Nike Ground (2003), in which they convinced Vienna residents that a public square would be renamed “Nikeplatz”; Vaticano.org, their hacking of the Vatican’s website; and Life Sharing (2000-2003), a net art project that allowed anyone in the world to log on to their computer and access their personal files.

Significant in the context of this column is the Mattes’s involvement with Second Life. 13 Most Beautiful Avatars (part of their larger Portraits project from 2006-7) is a photographic series of “celebrity” avatars exhibited in a contemporary art gallery in Second Life. Directly referencing Warhol’s 13 Most Beautiful Women and 13 Most Beautiful Boys (both 1964), these images transpose the banality of celebrity and human desire onto the two-dimensional avatar. Around this same time, the Mattes began an ongoing series called Synthetic Performances (2006-present), in which their avatars reenacted seminal performance artworks in Second Life, including Marina Abramovic’s and Ulay’s Imponderabilia (1977), Joseph Beuys’s 7000 Oaks (1982-87), Gilbert & George’s The Singing Sculpture (1968), Valie Export’s Tapp und Tastkino (1968), Vito Acconci’s Seedbed (1972), and Chris Burden’s Shoot (1971).

While the Mattes continue their Second Life explorations, they have since turned away from reenactments and appropriations to produce original artworks in this virtual world. At the same time, their real-life practice thrives. With a solo exhibition of mostly new work, Reality is Overrated, currently on view at Postmasters Gallery in New York, the Mattes continue to create their provocative art with the distinctly twenty-first century variable that is the Internet. In doing so, they effectually sew the gap between art and life with the thread of the programming code.