Franco and Eva Mattes

About Face

In Freedom, Eva Mattes enters the popular video game, Counter Strike with the intention of performing there as an artist. Her purpose is to survive in that virtual battle ground without killing and without being killed. But refusing to comply with the rules of the combative game is not easy: her fellow players barely listen to Eva’s explanation that she is a performing artist. She attempts to engage her adversaries in short conversations describing her presence there, but she gets stabbed or brutally killed, again and again. Eva Mattes’ online performance is one of the artist couple’s attempts to interact with audiences beyond institutional walls, audiences who are not used to and do not expect to be confronted with artistic interventions.