GRAND THEFT SAMO (COLL.EO, 2014)

Our latest body of work, GRAND THEFT SAMO, is now live:

A modded version of Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games, 2008), GRAND THEFT SAMO is an in-game performance, a series of videos (machinima), screengrabs, and digital prints.

GRAND THEFT SAMO  is part of COLL.EO's ongoing Grand Theft Auto's interventions, a series of performances and artworks set within the virtual spaces of Liberty City, created in collaboration with Iranian modder Iranian modder Amir Ghoreyshi. The series includes Grand Theft Vito and Following Bit, both developed in 2013.

In Grand Theft Samo, the player wanders through the streets of an erszat New York under the guise of Jean-Michel Basquiat. COLL.EO has faithfully reproduced several SAMO's graffiti and embedded them onto the walls of the urban landscape.

The graffiti can be seen here.

Photographic documentation of SAMO's interventions is available here.

A series of video excerpts of SAMO's performance is available here.

COLL.EO is Colleen Flaherty and Matteo Bittanti

San Francisco, June 9, 2014