Art21 is thrilled to announce the launch of our guest blog on Monday, February 18, featuring new media artists Eva and Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG. They will be blogging about The Influencers festival at CCCB Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (February 27-March 1). As the festival’s curators, they will write about the seven participating artists whose work they find inspiring, funny, irritating, thought-provoking, and always interesting.
One of the Mattes’ most recent projects is Synthetic Performances, a series of reenactments of historical performances inside the synthetic world of Second Life, beginning in January 2007. From Chris Burden’s Shoot to Vito Acconci’s Seedbed and Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks, all the actions are performed by the Mattes in real time through their avatars, the customizable personas that people inhabit in online virtual worlds. People from all over the world can attend and interact with the live performances by experiencing them in Second Life.
Since 2006, the Mattes have created portraits of avatars. Addressing new online environments as places to socialize, nurture celebrity, and perhaps leave one’s real self behind, these images capture members of Second Life, combining the traditions of glamour photography with the brilliant colors and hard-line aesthetics of the game-world. The Mattes’ work questions both the traditional role of portraiture and the nature of the morphing relationship between identity and public presentation in virtual worlds.
Excerpted from the Gameworld exhibition catalogue, Laboral Art Center, Spain 2007
Read more about Eva and Franco Mattes’ projects and view lots of artwork images on their extensive website, https://0100101110101101.org.
