Antoni Abad

Trained as a sculpter, his minimalist use of information technology.

His installations, like the websites he has developed, tell us about man directly or through two faithful companions that are so unwelcome: the rat and the fly. The Rattus Norvegicus colonised the entire planet in the holds of the ships of the European conquerors. The fly, on the other hand, has always occupied the whole world. His EGO installation explores the self. Flies, whose behaviour is simulated by a computer, wander around a screen and multiply very quickly (Antoni's bugs copulate a lot). Attracted by invisible food, in the version presented in January 2000 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, they write two series of words interweaving the English and Spanish languages in a kind of 'Spanglish' that sometimes becomes intelligible. There are also versions of EGO in many written languages. In LOVE STORY, a continuous video projection, a colony of rats devours the word 'LOVE' decorating a heart-shaped pie. The love quickly disappears while the heart resists. Antoni's work on the Internet can be seen at www.yOyO.com (note that this is the number zero, not the letter 0). For him, the network is not a disembodied world, the domain of pure thought. The hand that greets us as it tirelessly measures the screen (a sculptor's hand?) is a veritable manifesto for a media network, through which people talk to us about human problems. The man walking naked on his wire is clumsy and a little frightened. He is not a virtual, indestructible 'avatar', but is clearly putting his body in danger. Sisyphus is desperately pulling at his rope, and if you look closely you'll see that he has no antagonist other than himself. Z's fly quickly becomes as irritating as the real thing, while you'll soon realise that you'll never get the better of the insects that proliferate in Phylloxera on your own.

Michel Porchet