BIO
The group IOCOSE has been working in Italy and Europe since 2006. It organizes actions in order to subvert ideologies, practices and processes of identification and production of meanings. It uses pranks and hoaxes as tactical means, as joyful and sound tools. IOCOSE thinks about the streets, internet and word of mouth as a battlefield. Tactics such as mimesis and trickery are used to lead and delude the audience into a semantic pitfall.
In 2011 IOCOSE makes Game Arthritis, a photographic documentation of video games induced diseases. Game Arthritis is based on the idea that the hypotheses of video games induced diseases to the body (and to the mind), even if not scientifically proved, are factual. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2011 and made in collaboration with Matteo Bittanti, Game Arthritis is an ongoing project.
On the 29th of January 2011 IOCOSE exhibited 'Sunflower Seeds on Sunflower Seeds' at Tate Modern in London, UK. The artist group has thrown several real sunflower seeds on Ai Weiwei's porcelain 'Sunflower Seeds'. The new artwork looks exactly the same as the previous one, as the natural seeds and those made of porcelain are indistinguishable from each other.
In 2010 IOCOSE released "In the Long Run", a reconstruction of a possible future high profile media event. The death of pop star Madonna is described in a BBC News special edition, with a journalist and studio guest who go over the details of the fatal car accident, the statements of the VIPs and the reactions of fans around the world.
Among other works, in 2006 it established a (fake) society - "ThirDog", to adopt Third World dogs - in order to ridicule the conception of poverty and its politically correct remedies.
In 2007 it organized "Win Nothing Day", a competition in European supermarkets with no final prize; an hoax against the strategies of instinctive consumption.
The same year it established "NextQuery" - a society for selling the next top keywords; a useful consultancy in the age of online marketing delirium.
In 2008, during the Italian national elections, IOCOSE set up a propaganda campaign for the new Democratic Party sending out thousands of spam emails. The rhetoric of the electoral campaign was pushed to its limits, but yet resulted in a realistic action, as hundreds of spammed voters overreacted and sent hate mails back to the group. When revealed as a hoax, it showed how close the electoral rhetoric is to a Viagra sale.
In 2009 IOCOSE invented the "Empathy Box", a new machine designed by the Bureau of United Religions. The Empathy Box tries to appeal to new generations providing a technological tool for introducing religious life in the daily habits. If the hi-tech market needs consumers constantly worshipping their products, then there is no reason for religions not to do the same.
Also in 2009, IOCOSE and other artist groups from Italy built an IKEA-style guillotine and put it up at the IKEA store. Mixing together personal freedom debates, punishment with no jury trial and industrial design, the project ironically realized the dream for a do-it-yourself justice.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012
My Name is... IOCOSE, [.BOX] Videoart Project Space, Milan - Italy
2011
Game Arthritis, Fabio Paris Art Gallery, Brescia – Italy
Domestic Standing Ovation, Aksioma Project Space, Ljubljana – Slovenia
Sunflower Seeds on Sunflower Seeds, Tate Modern, London – UK
2010
In the Long Run, HTTP Gallery, London, UK
The Gallery at Goldsmiths, London – UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012
Augmented Place. L'arte aumenta la realta', Galleria Cavour, Padua - Italy
GAME, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
FOTOGRAFIA. Festival internazionale di Roma, MACRO, Rome - Italy
Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester - UK
Invisible Forces, Furtherfield Gallery, London - UK
BYOB Milano, Museo Pecci, Milan - Italy
2011
Cops & Robbers, Share Prize, Turin - IT
Truth, Or-bits online programm - UK
Abandon Normal Device, FACT, Liverpool - UK
My Personal Crime – Drodesera 2011, Centrale Fies, Dro (TN) – Italy
BYOB Venezia, Padiglione Internet, Isola di San Servolo, Venice – Italy
The Invisible Pavillion, Giardini, Venice – Italy
Italians do it better!!, 54. Biennale di Venezia, Sala dei Laneri, Venice – Italy
MicroReel, LPM – Forte Fanfulla, Roma – Italy
Raise Your Flag!, Speed Show – Bornet Internet Cafè, Barcelona – Spain
5° Premio Arte Laguna, Nappe dell'Arsenale, Venice – Italy
Info Bomb, Festival Nrmal, Monterrey – Mexico
Identités précaires, Jeu de Paume, Paris – France
2010
Shift Festival, Basel – Switzerland
RE:akt!, Rotovž Exhibition Salon, Maribor, Slovenia
International Academic Network for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid – Spain
NodeFest, CSOA Forte Prenestino, Roma (Italy); Machine Club, Istanbul (Turkey)
2009
E-Volution, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan – Italy
ParkArt, Temporary Expositive Space, Milan – Italy
Once Upon a Time in the West, Pixxelpoint 2009, Nova Gorica – Slovenia
Explor-Art, Galleria AreaOdeon, Monza – Italy
Feel the Machine, GUMstudio, Carrara – Italy
2008
For God's Sake!, Pixxelpoint 2008, Nova Gorica – Slovenia
Milano in Digitale III, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan – Italy
Tutto quello che diciamo è falso, Betty&Books, Bologna – Italy
MAM, Museo di Arte moderna di Mantova, Gazoldo degli Ippoliti (MN) – Italy
2007
Milano in Digitale II, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan – Italy
CONFERENCES AND LECTURES
2011
Domestic Standing Ovation, MMC Pina, Koper/Capodistria – Slovenia
Lies inc. (opening), Site Gallery, Sheffield – UK
The Future is a Reconstruction, IED, Milan – Italia
The Future is a Reconstruction, Center for 21 Century Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwuakee – USA
Amusing Ourselves to Death, NABA, Milan – Italia
2010
Always Already New, Mediateca Santa Teresa, Milan – Italy
Shift Festival, Basel – Switzerland
Confronti, Libera Università/ Freie Universität, Bolzano/Bozen – Italy
The Influencers 2010, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
GRANTS
5th Internationa Art Prize - Arte Laguna, 2011
Milano in Digitale, 2008
WORKSHOPS AND TEACHING
Art and the medium of the television, Undergraduate module, NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts), Milan - Italy
Net Art, postgraduate module, NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts), Milan - Italy
Autoformazione, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan - Italy
Explor-Art, Galleria Area Odeon, Monza - Italy