RAGE Art Collective, on site experience of Che Fare, 2022

RAGE Collective has developed this new commission for the University of Bologna with the collective, Into The Black Box, which traces methods of resistance over the last thirty years, looking at how digital platforms have been adopted as the primary means of organising and protesting. This new exhibition combines both chapters: Chapter One, 404: Resistance in the Digital Age (commissioned by the Centre of Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester in 2019) and Chapter Two, 404: Surveillance is Surveying. The research project focuses on the use of archival footage alongside new contemporary visual symbols. Together they explore the dynamics of online power relationships and the ways resistance movements such as hacktivist movements, revolutions organised through social media and the widespread use of memes now use the internet to counter restrictions. Inspired by the censorship method of oversaturation of information online, this new work is an immersive split-screen video and sound installation. It is combined with 17 QR codes inviting the viewer to scan them onsite and transport them into a deeper experience, to reflect on the parallels between 1989 and today. A website (www.rage404project.com) was created as an online version of the exhibition, which lasted for a month since the show opened. The exhibition was part of the art festival, Arte Fiera.