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The raised floor returns in the critical and aesthetic research of Eva & Franco Mattes, the pioneers of Net Art who have made media manipulation their global language. To coincide with the 2026 Biennale, the Italian duo presents ‘RAGE BAIT’, a new and provocative exhibition commissioned by the Autotelic Foundation and curated by Nadim Samman and Luisa Haustein, which opens on 6 May in Venice.
Provocation as a digital standard
The exhibition’s title, RAGE BAIT, borrows from internet slang to describe content specifically designed to generate outrage, divert attention and force a visceral emotional reaction.
The exposition unfolds across the historic spaces of Palazzo Franchetti and the private swimming pool Le Cabanon on Giudecca, analysing how these dynamics have become the inevitable goal of digital platforms, optimised to maximise user engagement through conflict.
The raised floor between physical space and the digital network
The bond between the Mattes’ vision and technical architectural solutions finds a new, radical evolution in Venice. Whilst in the previous exhibition Most to least viewed in Modena the raised floor physically materialised a social media ‘timeline’, in RAGE BAIT the installation becomes an even more explicit tool of critique.
Within the 16th-century halls of Palazzo Franchetti, the artists enact an ‘architectural trivialisation’ of the classical space. The installation is a scenography of prefabricated components where the floor system interacts with cable trays and walkways, recreating the raw aesthetic of data centres and cryptocurrency mining infrastructure.
In this context, the raised floor becomes the physical expression of the gigantic invisible network, revealing the brutal materiality that underpins the cloud.
RAGE BAIT – the artworks
Through the physical interface of the raised floor system, the Mattes present two monumental installations that question our relationship with automation:
// Cursed Cat (in the Dataset): an artificial intelligence (LLM) trained exclusively on images of a stuffed black cat. The work generates distorted versions of the ‘cursed cat’, feeding them into the network to ‘corrupt’ future AI datasets, whilst a robotic arm monitors visitors.
//Are You Still There?: a series of AI-generated videos in which iconic figures of Italian ‘brainrot’ act out real conversations from a suicide prevention helpline, exploring the disturbing human tendency to attribute empathy to algorithmic systems.
The exhibition concludes at Le Cabanon with the video installation ‘But I Love Human’, a reflection on the automation of the self through TikTok’s Non-Player Characters (NPCs), suspended evocatively above the waters of the lagoon.
Useful Information
Venue 1: Palazzo Franchetti
Dates: 6 May to 30 June 2026 | Opening hours: 11am– 7pm
Venue 2: Le Cabanon (Giudecca)
Dates: 6–31 May 2026 | Opening hours: 12am–6pm
Admission: by prior registration via email to registration@autotelic-foundation.org
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