!Mediengruppe Bitnik
!Mediengruppe Bitnik (read - the not mediengruppe bitnik) is a contemporary artist group working on and with the Internet. Carmen Weisskopf's (*1976, Zurich) and Domagoj Smoljo's (*1979, island Vis) practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms.!Mediengruppe Bitnik's works formulate fundamental questions concerning contemporary issues.
In the past they have been known to subvert surveillance cameras, bug an opera house to broadcast its performances outside, send a parcel containing a camera to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and physically glitch a building. In 2014, they sent a bot called "Random Darknet Shopper" on a three-month shopping spree in the Darknets, where it randomly bought items like keys, cigarettes, trainers and Ecstasy and had them sent directly to the gallery space.
Their works have been shown internationally, most recently in exhibitions at House of Electronic Arts Basel, Eigen + Art Lab Berlin, Super Dakota Brussels, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris, Aksioma Ljubljana, Kunsthaus Zurich, FACT Liverpool, Onassis Cultural Center Athens, Public Access Gallery Chicago, Kunstverein Hannover, Nam June Paik Art Center South Korea, Fondazione Prada Milano, Shanghai Minsheng 21st Century Museum, The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Moscow, Cabaret Voltaire Zurich, Beijing Contemporary Art Biennial and the Tehran Roaming Biennial.
