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The Mercury Theatre final week, May 30 – Jun 5

30 May 2016

Instagram reality game show The Mercury Theatre is coming to a close in its final week commencing May 30 and ending on June 5.

The game —co-ordinated by Paris-based artist Elsa Philippe —has run since its launch on February 1 with contestants being eliminated every week according to the amount of likes each anonymous player receives for their posts on the mobile social networking site.

While the names of the participants involved were given before the game began, such as Emilie Gervais and Porpentine, the players played with anonymous Instagram accounts. Now on its final stretch, just two artists remain: @exoticos_paris and @erobotism.

The two finalists will be assigned a challenge by Marianne Derrien —one on Monday and one on Wednesday. There is an additional jury, composing some of the curators who already contributed, that will determine the winner, on top of the number of vote-via-likes from the public, with polls open until midnight Sunday June 5 @the_mercury_theatre.

See The Mercury Theatre’s facebook page for a moment-by-moment archive of the ins-and-outs of the challenges set, as well as each player, the strange elimination notifications, the shaming for posting late, and mini-announcements of ‘like’-awarding as the game has continued to unfold with a number of dedicated followers over the past few months.

Keep a close eye on The_Mercury_Theatre Instagram, where the action will take place this week.**

#challenge2 set by Lasse Høgenhof and Jonatan Spejlborg Jensen. Courtesy the artists and The Mercury Theatre.
#challenge2 set by Lasse Høgenhof and Jonatan Spejlborg Jensen. Courtesy the artists and The Mercury Theatre.

 

 

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The Mercury Theatre reality show, Feb 1 – 31

1 February 2016

The Mercury Theatre launched on February 1 with 30 artists adopting an anonymous group instagram account: The_Mercury_Theatre.

Images are uploaded until February 7 after which the 10 artists who receive the most likes across the Instagram board will each be invited to create an anonymous identity, and a new Instagram account. They will then continue to play for likes until June 16 according to rules and mini competitions and only known to Mercury.

Participating artists include the likes of Emilie Gervais, Molly Soda, Porpentine and Arvida Byström. 

Artist Elsa Philippe, organiser and producer of the show has also brought the images from the initial part of the project off-line into Paris’ Galerie Christophe Gaillard for a show that runs until February 6.

See the Mercury Theatre Instagram for details. **

Skin drawings, after game by Porpentine, image uploaded to tumblr. Courtesy Porpentine. 2016.
Skin drawings, after game by Porpentine, image uploaded to tumblr. Courtesy Porpentine. 2016.

 

 

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