Press release

THE INFLUENCERS
Festival of media action and radical entertainment

Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona
April 7th, 8th & 9th, 2005

Free admission

From the 7th to the 9th of April at Barcelona’s CCCB,
d-i-n-a presents THE INFLUENCERS, a festival dedicated to ground-breaking examples of short circuits between art and communication in a public sphere shaped by the media.

The festival is part of a research project that began in Bologna, Italy, in 2000 under the name ‘Digital is not analog’ and has gradually focused on exploring controversial strategies for radical intervention in mass communication. They may make use of revolutionary technological tools such as the internet or p2p networks, act by breaking into popular culture (mainstream media, pop music, advertising), or twist marketing strategies and show no mercy in taking over the imagery of the most out-of-control consumerism.

The artists participating in The Influencers 2005 choose the ingredients for their recipes from worlds as diverse as history of art, political discourse, shameless marketing techniques, communication technologies, even videogames or theater. The result is the direct disruption of everyday flows of information, meanings and emotions, not just in the mass media but also in the culture of consumption and entertainment. That is, in all areas and production systems that are involved in creating collective images and desires, defining social priorities, and spreading or manipulating shared feelings.

The Influencers often take advantage of favorable situations for their actions and for a moment, without asking permission, they take over the codes used in art, politics or business. It’s not about new forms of counter information, or art or technology with political content. These projects are just a seductive and often surrealistic reaffirmation of ideas that are already in everybody’s minds. But be warned: if you are only concerned with content you may be disappointed, because their skill involves devising a frame that is almost invisible, almost, within mass culture.

The Influencers play with your attention, provoke curiosity and appear ambiguously seductive. But by using strategies like cultural remix, camouflage and over identification they are really generating a new kind of entertainment, politically incorrect and radical in its aims. They reappropriate cynicism and wrap it up in new contexts and mottoes. They take it to extremes, blow it up, and, finally, throw it back to the public.

Direction:
d-i-n-a

Organized by:
d-i-n-a y CCCB

With support from:
· Institut per a la Creació Artística i el Pensament Contemporani (Generalitat de Catalunya)
· Centro Checo de Madrid
· Embajada de Canadà
· El Tinter

More information:
· d-i-n-a / www.d-i-n-a.net
· CCCB / Montalegre, 5, 08001 Barcelona / www.cccb.org

Press office:
Irene Ruiz
Tel.: 93 306 41 00 / 660 63 13 15
iruiz@cccb.org