Eva Mattes

2006-2007: Fall

Eva and Franco Mattes, a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG, are a couple of restless Italian artists who use non-conventional communication tactics to obtain the largest visibility with the minimum effort. Born in 1976, they live between Barcelona, New York and Bologna, and work throughout the world. They have been pioneers in the net.art movement; remixing famous digital art pieces and performing Life Sharing: a real-time digital self portrait, during which they even submitted to satellite surveillance for an entire year.

In the last decade they have focused on creating unpredictable mass-scale performances staged outside art spaces, involving an unaware audience, where truth and falsehood mix to the point of being indistinguishable.

Among other wonderfully twisted things, they've erected fake architectural heritage signs, run media campaigns for non-existent action movies, and even convinced the entire populace of Vienna that Nike had purchased the city's historic Karlsplatz and was about to rename it “Nikeplatz.” Their controversial performances, which have often bordered on illegality, have been discussed in countless television shows, art magazines and newspapers, earning them the name the “Bonnie and Clyde of Contemporary Art.” Their works have been shown internationally at numerous institutions including: Collection Lambert, Avignon; Fondazione Pitti Discovery, Florence, Postmasters Gallery, New York; Lentos Museum of Modern Art, Linz; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; ICC, Tokyo; Manifesta 4, Frankfurt.

In 2006 they won the Premio New York. In 2000 they received the Jerome Commission from the Walker Art Center. They are among the youngest artists ever to participate in the Venice Biennale.

The Mattes' works are part of several private and public collections such as the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; MEIAC, Spain; MAK, Vienna. They are artistic directors of the international cult-status festival “The Influencers.”