Franco Mattes | People Disguised as Algorithms

Free and Open to the Public

Eva and Franco Mattes are an artist duo originally from Italy, living in New York. They have continually made work that responds to and dissects the contemporary networked condition, always approaching the ethics and politics of life online with a darkly humorous edge.

Their latest body of work, Dark Content, sheds light on the largely anonymous labour force of content moderators that has emerged with the rise of social media. Throughout the discussion, they will explore how what is concealed is often what matters most.

Group exhibition highlights include SFMOMA (2019); Athens Biennale (2018); Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2018); Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, 2018); Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie (2017); Yokohama Triennale (2017); Biennale of Sydney (2016) and Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2016). In 2001 they were among the youngest artists ever included in the Venice Biennale.

They are part of the collective Don’t Follow the Wind, a collaborative project that organized an inaccessible exhibition in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone (2015-present).

They are faculty members at the MFA Fine Arts Department and the MFA Photography Department of the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Respondent:

Gary Zhexi Zhang (SMACT ’19) is an artist and writer interested in socio-technical objects. His current work explores decentralised organisations such as swarms, mycelia and markets within the context of aesthetics, cryptography and work. He works with film, installation and software.

For further reading:

Articles:

Illuminating the ‘Dark’ Web and Content Monitoring, The New York Times (2016)
Eva and Franco Mattes, Carroll / Fletcher, Artforum (2016)
Eva and Franco Mattes, Frieze (2012)

Interviews:

Merging with the Network, Rhizome (2017)
Newsmakers: Italian Artist Couple Eva and Franco Mattes, Modern Painters (2016)
Eva and Franco Mattes’ virtual world, Phaidon (2012)

Part of the Spring 2019 Lecture Series: The Digital Hum of the Long, Slow Now

This lecture series is made possible with the generous support of The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT)