Inspiration is… Truth & Falsehood

Eva and Franco Mattes a.k.a 0100101110101101.ORG

The group’s comically unwieldy name stands for the letter “K” in binary code, and the possible joke reference to the hero of Kafka’s The Trial (”K.”) is perfectly appropriate – the young artists behind the group, Italian-born Eva and Franco Mattes, make performances and web art that play on the inscrutable, Kafkaesque power of the corporate media.

Over the last 10 years, Eva and Franco Mattes have continually challenged convention, to shake up contemporary society’s beliefs, by staging orchestrated performances that, seemingly all true, intermix truth and falsehood to the point of being indistinguishable.

Given that our own company’s mission is to “defy perception” it will probably come as no surprise that our crew love this creative couple’s work and, with our penchant for art toys, their “It’s Always Six O’Clock” exhibition, where ordinary things become mysterious, is an eternal source of inspiration (featured above). Dark, original and humorous art – with toys(!) – at its very best.

Needless to say, we are chuffed to bits that they have brought out a book which brings together all these exploits, including the anecdotes, indictments and controversies that have always accompanied them. At the same time the book reveals the couple’s very first (and until now undisclosed) work: Stolen Pieces. Over two years, 1995-97, they toured the world’s most important museums and stole dozens of fragments from well-known works by artists such as Duchamp, Kandinsky, Beuys and Rauschenberg. This work, which has remained a secret for 14 years, is revealed and discussed here for the very first time.

Published by Charta, this unique book is a combination of history and fiction, criticism and plagiarism, jesting and journalism.

If you’re looking for the perfect prezzie for someone that has everything or is notoriously “difficult to please” then give the gift of inspiration, and this is it!

144 pages. 243 illustrations. Pint sized. Buy now.