<nettime> Fuck the Systsem by Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG in Ljubljana

[Aksioma <aksioma4@siol.net>]

Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, and Vz(igalica 
gallerykindly invite you to theopening of the exhibition:

*
Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG *
/*Fuck the Systsem*/
www.aksioma.org/systsem <http://www.aksioma.org/systsem>
*

**Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana,*
*Vz(igalica gallery*, Trg francoske revolucije 7, Ljubljana, Slovenia
August 18^th -- September 9^th 2011

*Opening: Thursday, August 18^th 2011 at 8pm*

*New publication: *Aksioma brochure #11 
<http://www.aksioma.org/systsem/pdf/aks_brochure_11_fuck_the_systsem.pdf>, 
Ljubljana 2011

"Fuck the systsem! And the illiterate! Vuk C'osic' talks to Eva and
Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG"


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.

*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.

*Download the full text by Ida Hirs(enfelder here 
<http://www.aksioma.org/systsem/pdf/ida_hirsenfelder_fuck_the_systsem_eng.pdf>.
*

*
*

*Production: *Aksioma -- Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011
_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_

Artistic director: Janez Jans(a
Executive producer: Marcela Okretic(
Public relations: Mojca Zupanic(
Technical support: Atila Bos(tjanc(ic(

*Co-production:* Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

*Supported by* the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and 
the Municipality of Ljubljana/*
*//Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o./


*Contact:*
Marcela Okretic(, 041 250 830, aksioma4@siol.net <mailto:aksioma4@siol.net>
*Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana*
Neubergerjeva 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
tel.: + 386 -- (0)590 - 54360
_www.aksioma.org <http://www.aksioma.org/>_




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org