etoy.TANKS: invading reality, hosting the agents, shipping and storing culture, locating art outside the museum space.

"It’s no exaggeration to say that in the years 1997 and 1998, etoy elevated the potentials of globalization to an art form." Dr. Reinhold Grether in „MUTATIONS“ by Rem Koolhaas, ACTAR, 2001

017-etoy-AGENTS_operate_crane
000-etoy-AGENTS_protect_cargo
024-daycare_2004
011-etoy-APPLICANT

Since 1998 etoy uses and artistically reflects the standardized cargo container transportation network that covers more than 80% of all freight forwarding activities on planet earth. The legendary orange etoy.TANKS are customized cargo containers - the icon of global trade and modern logistics. During the last years the multifunctional etoy.TANKS became a crucial factor in the etoy.GESAMTKUNSTWERK: as independent showrooms, offices, studios, walk-in-web-servers and sculptural elements they were part of international exhibitions, festivals and gallery shows. They host the etoy.ART-COLLECTION, the etoy.SOUND-STUDIO or serve as sleeping capsules for the crew during production.

etoy.TANKS are modular shells that travel the physical world in the same way data packages travel the internet: every etoy.TANK is a TCP/IP-PACKAGE traveling trough space and time according an elaborate global transmission protocol to produce and mediate communication technology based art.

With the TANK-SYSTEM etoy.AGENTS (the members of etoy) are able to explore the space between the digital and the physical in order to discover new playgrounds for contemporary art - inside and outside the traditional frame of museums and institutions. etoy profits from the high mobility, from the world wide infrastructure to handle containers and from the fact that the TANKS can be installed everywhere within a few hours without bureaucratic effort.

<- 1998 –> LA JOLLA/SAN DIEGO –> SAN FRANCISCO -> ROTTERDAM -> RUESCHLIKON -> BASEL -> ROTTERDAM -> MANHATTAN/NEW YORK –> NEW JERSEY -> ROTTERDAM -> BASEL -> NIEDERGLATT -> ROTTERDAM -> TOKYO –> ROTTERDAM -> FRENKENDORF -> TURIN –> ZURICH -> MADRID –> BASEL -> AMSTERDAM –> ZURICH –> ERLEN -> BERLIN -> FRENKENDORF -> ZUERICH -> OAKLAND -> SAN JOSE -> BLACK ROCK DESERT/NEVADA <- 2006 -> BOZEN <- 2008 -> BEIJING <- 2008 -> BERN <- 2009 -> HEILIGKREUZ -> LINZ -> ZUERICH -> <- 2010 -> BUSAN -> GWANGJU <- 2011 -> ZUERICH