(Art) Basel diary #9

Swiss Art Awards. Wednesday 15 June, 2011
detail of
UBS Lies by !MEDIENGRUPPE BITNICK
image © WFW

!MEDIENGRUPPE BITNICK is an artist collective based in Zürich, Switzerland with the main focus to investigate digital and analogue media and the impacts they have on society. This exploratory work is put into practice in artistic exhibitions, interventions in public space and in the development of social software and interfaces.

In one of their works, !MEDIENGRUPPE BITNICK re-enacted Polizei lügt (Police lies) by PETER WEIBEL from 1971, in which an investment banker, who was walking by spontaneously, participated. The image of his quiet protest in front of a branch of the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in Zurich became UBS Lies: Attacks 1971/2009. During the opening reception of the exhibition Too Big To Fail / Too Small To Succeed in London in September 2010, UBS London had the image removed from a billboard outside the exhibition space and threatened to sue if the image was to be used further.

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