EVENT

Event: Eva & Franco Mattes: "I'm Not There" (3 October - 15 November 2009, Brescia, Italy)

Matteo

Matteo

— 2 min read

"I'm Not Here" (Exhibition) Opening: Saturday 3 October, 6 pm - midnight3 October - 15 November 2009Spazio Contemporanea, Corsetto Sant’Agata 22 – Brescia - link, (The gallery in via Monti 13 will be closed for the duration of the exhibition)The opening will see the presentation of the book “Eva and Franco Mattes 0100101110101101.ORG” (Edizioni Charta 2009)On the occasion of the ‘Notte Bianca’ all-night event in Brescia, the Fabio Paris Art Gallery is proud to present the exhibition “I'm Not Here”, the first opportunity to see ten years of works by Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG, many of which have never been shown in Italy. This major anthological exhibition documents the multifarious activities of one of the most controversial entities in Italian and international contemporary art, from the first media hoaxes to the most recent works. Among the pioneers of the Net Art movement, Eva and Franco Mattes are renowned for their masterful subversion of the media, constantly shifting between real and virtual space. After snagging the website Vaticano.org(1998) they launched a Jubilee dedicated to the free spirit, diverting worshippers to rather more unorthodox views. They convinced the art world of the existence of a fictitious artist, who was even featured in the Venice Biennale (Darko Maver, 1999), then, when they themselves were invited to the Biennale, they used the event to roll out a computer virus (Biennale.py, 2001). They have copied, remixed and redistributed the works of other artists, challenging the notions of uniqueness and ownership of works of art. They staged a fake advertising campaign convincing the inhabitants of Vienna that Nike was about to get its hands on one of the city’s most famous squares (Nike Ground, 2003), and they promoted a non-existent “Eurollywood” blockbuster, revealing the spurious nature of the notion of European unity (United We Stand, 2005).  They have restaged the performances of Marina Abramovic and other artists in a videogame (Synthetic Performances,2007), transformed the avatars of Second Life into pop stars (Portraits, 2006), forced Mickey Mouse to live out the ultimate head trip (It's Always Six O'Clock, 2008) and routed out Edward Hopper in a shoot ‘em up videogame (Traveling by Telephone, 2009). Their art has garnered them various lawsuits, but it has also taken them to events and venues such as the Venice Biennale (2001), the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001), Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt (2002), the New Museum in New York (2005), Collection Lambert in Avignon (2006) and Performa, New York (2007 and 2009). “I'm Not Here” highlights the constants that run through their varied and apparently disconnected oeuvre: appropriation (of the works and identities of others); falsification and simulation; orchestrating performances in which the artist is absent, hidden behind an interface; and their desire to use art to infiltrate our collective imagination.The opening of the exhibition will also see the presentation of the first monograph on the artists, published by Charta, and including, among others, contributions by Domenico Quaranta, Fabio Cavallucci, RoseLee Goldberg, Bruce Sterling, Wu Ming and Maurizio Cattelan.Link: "I'm not there"

Read more

© GameScenes. All rights reserved.
Image credit: bady abbas
Don't ask if games are art · Ask if art can be a game