FRANCO MATTES What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen March 20, 2014 Mary Harris Auditorium on the campus of Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design About the Lecture Franco Mattes’ lecture What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen presents and discusses a selection of the collaborative works by Eva and Franco Mattes. These works often elicit complex conversations about the ethics of detachment in digital interactions and the murky differentiation between reality and simulation. Utilizing the Internet’s global and digital space to create many of their artworks, Eva and Franco Mattes subvert assumed conceptions of identity, truth, and the knowing engagement and participation of the viewer. As a creative provocateur, Franco Mattes engages the audience in common conversations in art discourse, addresses reality and authenticity, and then problematizes and obscures any and all of those expectations. The space between revealing and concealing is present in many of the Mattes’ works, including their frequent adoption of pseudonyms and the misattribution of their own work to another artist. For example, in the sculpture Catt (2010), the duo created a work inspired by a cat Internet meme and attributed the work to artist Maurizio Cattelan, an artist similarly conversant in humor and artistic mischief. Catt commences a conversation about what is exposed and what is hidden in an art object. The Mattes’ more subversive works can be quite disconcerting, using a violent jolt to shake up accepted notions, especially in relation to our interactions on, and use of, the Internet. Users of the controversial Chatroulette, a website that randomizes pairings of “private” chat room conservations and known for its often shocking and explicit content, came across a staged, yet very convincing, suicide by hanging of Franco Mattes. Chatroulette viewers unknowingly became part of the artwork titled No Fun (2010), as their reaction to the disturbing scene was recorded. The raw impact of this and other Mattes works triggers the examination of our daily lives as we easily slip between real and simulated realms with "friends" on social media and as we rely on emoticons to convey genuine sentiment. Engaging both our daily habits and political and public debate, the Mattes are creating work that incites deliberation about what is real and what is not, and where privacy begins and ends. About the Lecturer Franco Mattes is one-half of the artist duo Eva and Franco Mattes. Originally from Italy, the artists work collaboratively in Brooklyn, NY. They create artworks in a combination of mediums including performance, video, and the Internet. The Mattes’ artworks present falsities and misinformation, deliberately misrepresent and obfuscate, and often require their unwitting viewer’s reactions to complete the pieces. The artists’ works are exhibited nationally and internationally. Some past exhibition locations include the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Site Santa Fe, the Sundance Film Festival, MoMA PS1, Performa, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, The New Museum in New York, Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt, and the 2001 Venice Bienniale, in which they created a computer virus titled Biennale.py. Eva and Franco Mattes are the founders and co-directors of the international festival The Influencers held at the CCCB, Barcelona, Spain. In 2006 the Mattes’ works were awarded the New York Prize from the Italian Academy at Columbia University. Interventions Lecture Series Franco Mattes is the forth and final visitor for the VASD Program Interventions lecture series. This series examines the possibilities and types of interventions existing in the cultural realm today. Interventions are ruptures in systems or moments of directional change that often create new perspectives – like a New Year’s resolution or a political revolt. Historically, art and design interventions have run concurrently with, and sometimes led, new ways of seeing the world. VASD Program The Visiting Artist, Scholar, and Designer Program explores critical, diverse, and creative inquiry. This interdisciplinary initiative enriches the academic experience at RMCAD and serves the greater Denver-metro community. For more information please go to vasd.rmcad.edu Gretchen Marie Schaefer - VASD Program Director

• published: 11 Aug 2014
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