Web Art Movement

0100101110101101.ORG

0100101110101101.ORG

Austria Vienna

Austria, Vienna
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).

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