For the second year in a row, Vooruit Arts Centre will host The game is up!, an international festival for artists that break or mock the codes and rules. In 2007, we operated under the catchphrase 'You are about to do something you shouldn't' and this year 'Art for sale' will be our motto from the 5th until the 15th of March 2008. The game is up! will take a closer look at the relationship between art and consumerism.
We have made a selection of very diverse artists, bound by a love for working with art and consumerism. Instead of choosing artists that radically condemn the establishment and capitalism in their strategy as well as in their subjects, or artists that embrace sales and marketing to make lots of money, we have picked artists that use the codes ambiguously. They acknowledge the effect growing consumerism is having on our lives and in their work they study this new reality.
FrictiesSalons / artist talks on media art, media activism, ... - festival week 1
Matthieu Laurette on Wednesday 5th March 20:00
OPENING NIGHT
By turning the laws of marketing and the mass media to his advantage, Matthieu Laurette incorporates his work within a strategy of infiltration and redistribution. Recent selected exhibitions and projects include Let's Make Lots of Money, Blow de la Barra, London (2006) [Solo]; Notre Histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006); Day Labor, PS1/MoMA, N.Y (2005). >> Laurette.net
 
etoy.CORPORATION on Thursday 3rd March 20:00
etoy.CORPORATION investigates afterlife, the most virtual of all worlds. Currently 1015 registered users build a community of the living and the dead that reconfigures the way information society deals with memory (conservation / loss), time (future / present / past) and death. >> etoy.com, missioneternity.org 
Heath Bunting on Friday 7th March 20:00
"Heath Bunting is both Britain's most important practising artist and The World's most famous computer artist. He aspires to be a skillful member of the public and is producing an expert system for identity mutation. Or alternately: Heath Bunting is Britain's most dangerous artist." Presenting his project BorderXing, a project examining borders and identity, to be shown at both the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate Modern London in 2008. >> irational.org, borderXing
 
FrictiesSalons / artist talks on media art, media activism, ... - festival week 2 
 
The Billboard Liberation Front on Saturday 8th March
Carlos Katastrofsky & Christophe Bruno on Tuesday 11th March 
Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping on Thursday 13th March 
Andrea Crews on Friday 14th March 
 
Tentoonstelling / exhibition
In the Art for sale exhibition 5th until 15th March, you'll find information on and work by the media artists discussing their work in the FrictiesSalons; all the participating artists sell (art) objects in an Art for sale arcade games trail running during the whole festival in the Vooruit building.