0100101110101101.org

Eva and Franco Mattes are the Italian artist-provocateurs behind the infamous website 0100101110101101.ORG. Since meeting in Madrid in 1994 they have never separated, living a nomadic life throughout Europe and the US. Neither of them received a proper art education. Among the pioneers of the Net Art movement, they are renowned for their masterful subversion of public media.

0100101110101101.org (IT), No Fun, 2010, on line performance, video documentazione (courtesy di Fabio Paris Art Gallery)

know what chat-roulette is? think of a chat site. can you play roulette? combine the two and you get random on-line encounters where you meet up and talk to a complete stranger. Throw in this duo of prankster activists and what you get is the shock of your life, caught on video – people crying, screaming, shouting hysterically, laughing, urging encouragement. Only one person calls the police. no fun is the latest performance and blood-curdling provocation by eva and franco mattes, in which one of them simulates suicide on chatroulette, hanging stiff from the ceiling for hours. the performance was seen by hundreds of people simultaneously, people who took their chances to connect with complete Strangers. the chats were recorded and the resulting video ended up on Youtube, which censured it. The serendipity of chance encounters can sometimes play horrible jokes.