Eva and Franco Mattes. 0100101110101101.org

Featuring previously unseen works, the book you are holding is the first official monograph on the artists Eva and Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG. Over the last ten years, the Mattes have manipulated video games, Internet technologies, feature films and street advertising to reveal truths concealed by contemporary society. They have created media facades believable enough to elicit embarrassing reactions from governments, the public and the art world, and they have orchestrated several unpredictable mass performances, staged outside art spaces and involved unwitting audiences in scenarios that mingle truth and falsehood to the point of being indistinguishable. This book brings together all these exploits, including the anecdotes, indictments and controversies that have always accompanied them. At the same time, the book goes beyond the scope of an official biography, revealing 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. This unique book is a combination of history and fiction, criticism and plagiarism, jesting and journalism.