The Mercury Theatre is an illustrative project that started on Instagram, involving about thirty international artists who gathered under an anonymous account, receiving votes from users as if in a reality show. The pieces, consisting of snapshots with autonomous themes, were posted from the first of February to the 8th of February: the ten artists who received the most Instagram "likes" then created a new anonymous account, and will continue competing until June 16.
The game was designed by Elsa Philippe, a French artist based in London, who reserves the right to "change the rules at any time”. The participants, who are presented on the instagram account anonymously, are Serafín Álvarez, Benjamin Blaquart, Arvida Byström, Marielle Chabal, Curt Cloninger, Jeremy Couillard, Valentin Dommanget, Taylor Ervin, Mike Fleming, Mathilde Ganancia, Hélène Garcia, Emilie Gervais, Julia Gorostidi, Steven Guermeur, Alice Guittard, Halina Kliem, Rafaela Lopez, Benjamin Magot, Antoine Mathieu, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, Danner Milliken, Momu & No Es, Porpentine, Ryan Rivadeneyra, Cecilia Salama, Kevin Senant, Valentine Siboni, Molly Soda, Liv Thurley and Rafal Zajko.
As Elsa explained, "they were chosen based on their work closely related to the digital field, web identity and to the fact of acting under anonymity but also related to their inspiration and aesthetic sense."
"I wanted to bring together in one format -Elsa emphasized- people who work with different media and new approaches to the world of art." The idea of “The Mercury Theatre" (the name which is inspired by a theater company founded by Orson Welles in the '30s) came precisely from the similarities found between our attitude towards social media (Instagram in the first place) and reality TV participants. "Social media is the new digital version - the conviction of the performer- I wanted to convert “i like” into something grotesque and very fun."