OVEREXPOSED - HD Stencils
Press Release. NYC, London, Berlin. May 6th 2015.

Stolen photos of U.S. intelligence officials became graffiti on public
walls.

Artist Paolo Cirio disseminates unauthorized pictures of high-ranking U.S.
intelligence officials throughout major cities. Cirio found snapshots of
NSA, CIA, and FBI officers through social media hacks. He then spray-paints
high-resolution reproductions of their misappropriated photos onto public
walls, using his HD Stencils graffiti technique.
Everything about the project here:
http://paolocirio.net/work/hd-stencils/overexposed/

Cirio is posting spray painted posters with interventions in New York City,
London, Berlin and Paris. See the pictures of the interventions here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/overexposed-public/

Full Press Kit here: https://goo.gl/G699tv
Critical texts by Nato Thompson and Bruce Sterling. Project produced and
presented by NOME on May 22nd in Berlin.

This artwork examines the Edward Snowden revelations and exposes some of
the officials responsible for programs of mass surveillance or for
misleading the public about them. The targeted intelligence officials in
the Overexposed series are Keith Alexander (NSA), John Brennan (CIA),
Michael Hayden (NSA), Michael Rogers (NSA), James Comey (FBI), James
Clapper (NSA), David Petraus (CIA), Caitlin Hayden (NSC), and Avril Haines
(CIA). Look at the stories and snapshots that Cirio assembled about the
last decade’s most controversial figures in the U.S. intelligence community:
http://paolocirio.net/work/hd-stencils/overexposed/officials.php

The unseemly photos exposed by Cirio were all taken in informal and private
contexts, such as selfies, family celebrations, and intimate situations,
and they were all taken by individuals external to the intelligence
agencies.

Cirio’s political satire reveals the extent to which political authorities’
public images can always be captured on camera by the same system they seek
to control. Overexposed derides the watchers through ridiculous pictures
that they lost control of, turning the tables on them and their advocacy of
mass surveillance and lax privacy practices.

Look at the theoretical essay concerning the conceptual artistic operation:
http://paolocirio.net/press/texts/text_overexposed.php

Overexposed also represents an historic moment of the unaccountability of
war crimes during decades of unjustified military occupations marked by
brutal extradition and torture programs, the employing of secretive drone
attacks, the militarization of the Internet, and the degradation of civil
liberties worldwide.

Overexposed will be on display starting May 22nd in Berlin at NOME. Paolo
Cirio’s solo show will include the nine subjects of the Overexposed series,
painted on canvas and photo paper as fine art crafts, on sale to support
the artist’s activity.
http://nomeproject.com


Other news about Paolo Cirio’s work

Another Paolo Cirio’s solo shows, After Transparency, took place in
Toulouse, France in April. The retrospective included four of the artist’s
major artworks that raised questions about the notions of privacy and
secrecy, as well as accountability and anonymity in the complexity of
global democracy and economy. More about the show After Transparency:
http://paolocirio.net/press/texts/after-transparency.php

About Daily Paywall
http://paolocirio.net/work/daily-paywall/
This recent controversial art intervention was just released in December.
The art performance, with 60,000 articles stolen from major financial
newspapers, was a great success, with a large audience participating in the
conceptual economic model that pays people to get informed. On Christmas
Day 2014, the DailyPaywall.com's ISP took down domain name, database, and
code of the online art project after receiving a complaint from Pearson
PLC, the owner of Financial Times & The Economist. The same day, The Wall
Street Journal terminated the subscription and banned the artist for
violating their Terms of Service agreement. The aggressive legal letter
from the British multinational, Pearson PLC, mentioned five international
copyright laws that the artist transgressed for making his artwork. Read
Pearson’s letter:
http://paolocirio.net/work/daily-paywall/DailyPaywall.com-PearsonPLC-vs-Cirio.pdf
This conceptual short circuit on new economies over the control of
information, knowledge, and education concluded the art performance, as
Pearson PLC is the largest educational and publishing company in the world,
monopolizing online degrees and educational testing in U.S. colleges and in
several other countries. Watch the video presentation at FutureEverything
festival: https://vimeo.com/122408886.

About Loophole for All
http://paolocirio.net/work/loophole-for-all/
The project is still a concern for the Cayman Islands and the global firms
navigating the offshore centers to avoid taxes and legal accountability,
often in total secrecy. The project also kept receiving a number of legal
threats, while last year it received the first prize of Ars Electronica,
the Golden Nica, in Linz in Austria. Pictures of the installation:
http://paolocirio.net/work/loophole-for-all/loophole-for-all-linz.php
Loophole for All will be displayed in Basel, Switzerland, at HeK from end
of May and it is currently shown at EMAF festival in Osnabruck and just
presented at Royal Anthropology Institute in London.

About Global Direct
http://paolocirio.net/work/global-direct/
This recent artwork also received several reviews and is featured with a
recent interview in the magazine, AfterImage:
http://paolocirio.net/press/interviews/interview_gd-dp_afterimage.php
The installation of Global Direct will be shown in Vancouver at ISEA this
August.

About Persecuting US
http://paolocirio.net/work/persecuting-us/
The project with 1 million American Twitter profiles, sorted by political
affiliation. This artwork becomes relevant again with  the upcoming
presidential election in the U.S. and the revelation of domestic spying by
the NSA. It was recently shown at Utah MoCA and it will be at Modelab in
New Zealand in June.

About Street Ghosts
http://paolocirio.net/work/street-ghosts/
The new Google Time Machine compromised some of the archive with over one
hundred interventions worldwide with this project, yet the new feature also
opens up new possibilities as now the Street Ghosts interventions
themselves are being captured by Google camera. These cases will be shown
at the installations at Apexart in NYC and CENART in Mexico City.

About Face to Facebook
http://paolocirio.net/work/face-to-facebook/
After four years it’s still in display in several exhibitions, as currently
at Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid and at Apexart in NYC in June.


Thanks for the attention.
http://PaoloCirio.net