Eva & Franco Mattes: RAGE BAIT

Autotelic Foundation is pleased to present RAGE BAIT, an exhibition by the Italian artists Eva & Franco Mattes. Curated by Nadim Samman and Luisa Haustein, the show explores generative systems, digital empathy, and automated labour within algorithmic feedback loops designed to provoke. About Staged across two iconic venues in Venice, RAGE BAIT will be on view at the Palazzo Franchetti overlooking the Grand Canal, and Le Cabanon—a private swimming pool on Giudecca. Concurrent to La Biennale Arte 2026, RAGE BAIT will be open to the public from 6 May. Eva & Franco Mattes are among today's foremost artists of networked culture. This exhibition continues their recent investigation into the gap between online culture's polished surface and its murky ethical depths. The exhibition title is derived from the internet slang term ‘rage bait’: content engineered to provoke a visceral emotional response before reason can intervene. Spanning installation, video, and generative AI, the show explores how rage bait is the logical — often inevitable — endpoint of platforms optimised for user engagement. RAGE BAIT arrives at a moment when provocation is no longer fringe but is instead native to digital infrastructures. Under these conditions, the strange is the new normal — a feedback loop in which platforms, users, and algorithms train one another into ever more reactive configurations. Read more Toggle Digital Installation Audio / Sound Mixed media Film / Video Sculpture