Gianni Motti

A versatile artist and activist, his actions and performances take place outside the framework of art and its audience. He does not produce works of art or images because his interventions are picked up by the media. In the mid-80s, his actions questioned the notion of author, by appropriating current events and transforming them into a work of art. He claimed responsibility for disasters that were beyond his control, becoming an artistic demiurge who triggered earthquakes in California or blew up the Challenger shuttle. Other actions have a more political orientation, infiltrating international institutions and questioning social, political, economic or religious dogmas. In 1997, Motti appeared at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva taking the place of the absent Indonesian delegate, Motti proceeded to speak on behalf of ethnic minorities. In 1995, he managed to infiltrate a Neuchâtel Xamax match. In 2005, Motti appeared in the VIP stands of the Roland Garros semi-final, placing a paper bag on his head to denounce the torture of Abu Ghraib prisoners. His exhibitions always take a strange turn. At the CCA in Geneva, for the opening performance, he hijacked a bus full of Japanese tourists and took them to the opening of his exhibition. At La Ferme du Buisson he held an exhibition made up of one-dollar bills, the sum of which is the budget of the exhibition. At the same time that he reveals the financial mechanisms underlying artistic creation, he is also producing an ephemeral installation whose investment has no value. He presents the video installation Shock and Awe (2003) at Medialab Madrid, which reflects on the content control that dominates public and private television and video surveillance.