Armed with nothing but thrift store suits, the Yes Men impersonate big-time corporate criminals in order to draw attention to their crimes against humanity and the environment. Their outrageous satirical interventions at business events, on the internet, television, and in the streets form the basis of two award-winning feature documentaries, The Yes Men and The Yes Men Fix the World; festival favorites in Toronto, Berlin, SXSW and others. A third film, The Yes Men are Revolting, just had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The Yes Men have been described as "The Jonathan Swift of the Jackass generation" by author Naomi Klein. They describe what they do as Identity Correction. Unlike Identity Theft, which criminals practice with dishonest intent, Identity Correction is the art of impersonating a powerful criminal to humiliate them for conspiring against the public good. Their targets have included big bad bureaucracies like the World Trade Organization, nasty world leaders such as George Bush, ugly right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and heartless corporations such as Dow Chemical.
Their work has been shown in art exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale, and ARS Electronica. They are the recipients of many awards, including Creative Time's first Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, and are the authors of numerous books and articles, and lecture internationally on art and social change.
They founded the Yes Lab, which facilitates creative activist projects and the development of creative activism worldwide. This year, they launched the Action Switchboard, an online platform for generating and organizing direct action in the service of social movements.
The primary members of the Yes Men are Mike Bonanno (Igor Vamos) and Andy Bichlbaum (Jacques Servin). Igor also serves as an Associate Professor of Media Art at Renssealear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In addition to his work with the Yes Men, he is on the board of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, and he directs RPI's Tactical Media Lab. Jacques is currently Visiting Professor at New York University’s Department of Performance Studies. He is the author of six books, including two award-winning collections of short stories, and numerous articles for international publications. His software art pieces have been featured in exhibitions throughout the world.
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İkinci el dükkânlarından aldıkları takım elbiseleri dışında başka bir silahı olmayan the Yes Men, büyük şirketler adına suç işleyenlerin kılığına girerek insanlığa ve çevreye karşı işlenen suçlara dikkat çekiyor. İş etkinlikleri, internet, televizyon ve sokaklarda gerçekleştirdikleri şok edici ve hicivli eylemleri ödüllü iki uzun metraj belgeselin temelini oluşturuyor. The Yes Men ve The Yes Men Fix the World isimli filmler Toronto, Berlin, SXSW ve diğer festivallerin favorilerinden. The Yes Men are Revolting isimli üçüncü filmin galası ise Toronto Film Festivali’nde gerçekleştirildi.
Naomi Klein tarafından “Jackass neslinin Jonathan Swift’i” olarak nitelendirilen The Yes Men, yaptıkları işi Kimlik Düzeltmesi olarak tanımlıyor. Suçlular tarafından kötü niyetli olarak icra edilen Kimlik Hırsızlığının aksine Kimlik Düzeltmesi, kamu yararına karşı komplo kuran güç sahibi suçluların taklit edilerek küçük düşürülmesi sanatıdır. The Yes Men’in hedefleri arasında Dünya Ticaret Örgütü gibi büyük ve kötü bürokrasiler, George Bush gibi kirli işlere bulaşmış dünya liderleri, Heritage Foundation gibi çirkin sağ-kanat düşünce kuruluşları ve Dow Chemical gibi acımasız kurumlar bulunuyor.
Çalışmaları aralarında Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennale ve ARS Electronica’nın da bulunduğu sanat sergilerinde gösterildi. Creative Time tarafından dağıtılan ilk Leonore Annenberg Ödülleri’nde Sanat ve Toplumsal Değişim ödülü dahil birçok ödül alan The Yes Men birçok kitap ve makale yazmıştır ve ayrıca sanat ve toplumsal değişim ile ilgili uluslararası camia’da konferanslar vermektedir.
The Yes Men, yaratıcı aktivist projeleri ve dünya çapında aktivist projelerin gelişimini destekleyen The Yes Lab’i kurmuştur. Bu yıl toplumsal hareketler için doğrudan eylem oluşturmak ve düzenlemek için kurulan Action Switchboard isimli online platformu hayata geçirdiler.
Mike Bonanno (Igor Vamos) ve Andy Bichlbaum (Jacques Servin) The Yes Men’in asıl üyeleridir. Igor ayrıca Troy, New York’ta bulunan Renssealear Politeknik Enstitüsü’nde Medya Sanatı dalında doçent olarak çalışmaktadır. The Yes Men bünyesindeki çalışmalarının yanısıra Center for Land Use Interpretation isimli araştırma kurumunun kurul üyesi olan Igor, Renssealear Politeknik Enstitüsü’nün Taktiksel Medya Laboratuvar’ını yönetmektedir. Jacques New York Üniversitesi’nin Performans Çalışmaları Departmanı’nda misafir öğretim görevlisidir. Aralarında ödüllü iki kısa öykü derlemesi de bulunan toplam altı kitap ve uluslararası yayınlar içerisindeki birçok makalenin yazarı olan Jacques’ın yazılım sanatı eserleri dünya çapında sergilerde yer bulmuştur.
THE YES MEN FILMS
Anti-corporate activists travel from conference to conference, impersonating member of the World Trade Organization. With poker-faced impersonation as their weapon, and World Trade Organization officials as their target, the Yes Men pull off one bold prank after another in an effort to raise political consciousness. And when their outrageous stunts are actually swallowed, hook, line and sinker the Yes Men must up the satirical ante and push the art of public spectacle to hilarious new heights!
The Yes Man Fix the World is a second documentary of troublemaking duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, posing as their industrious alter-egos, expose the people profiting from Hurricane Katrina, the faces behind the environmental disaster in Bhopal, and other shocking events.
THE YES MEN BOOKS
Like the movie, this full-color Yes Men book (called The Yes Men) follows the Yes Men's attempts to get experts to notice that they aren't WTO representatives. Designed as a full-color scrapbook, with ephemera bursting off every page, The Yes Men tracks Andy and Mike's cautious (but disgusting) first efforts in Salzburg and on CNBC, through their substantially more repugnant behaviors in Finland and Plattsburgh, and on to their stab at total sincerity in Sydney. Finish digesting your meal, then sit spellbound as the Yes Men describe their fears, hopes, successes and failures in chilling (and graphic) detail.
Keep It Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism with The Yes Men. The publication features essays, an interview, a poster, projects, full-color illustrations, and activity items including Build Your Own SurvivaBall, Make Your Own Press Passes, How Identity Correction Works, and How To Be A Yes Man. Contributors include John Byrne, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, Mack McFarland, Laura Sillars, Astria Suparak, and The Yes Men. Keep It Slick (2009), was created in connection with the touring survey exhibition and is published by Columbia College Chicago, Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, and Feldman Gallery at Pacific Northwest College of Art.
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