Two channel video installation, Full-HD, 16:9, sound, 10 min, loop
Screens, wooden backing, mini-computers, cabling.
Sound: Bit-Tuner. GPS-Glitches #1-3, photo print on paper, framed, 1350 x 980 mm
#1: Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, London
#2 Royal Mail Jubilee Mail Centre, Hounslow
#3: Ecuadorian embassy, London
Delivery for Mr. Assange is a 32-hour live mail art piece performed on 16 and 17 January 2013. On 16 January 2013 !Mediengruppe Bitnik posted a parcel addressed to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The parcel contained a camera which documented its journey through the Royal Mail postal system through a hole in the parcel. The images captured by the camera were transferred to a website and the Bitnik Twitter account in realtime. So, as the parcel was slowly making its way towards the Ecuadorian embassy in London, anyone online could follow the parcel’s status and witness physically the parcels extraordinary delivery.
Would the parcel reach its intended destination?
Or would it be removed from the postal system?
Would it be possible to break through the physical barrier surrounding Assagne?
The parcel was a REAL_WORLD_PING, a SYSTEM_TEST, inserted into a highly tense diplomatic crisis. Julian Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012. Although he was granted political asylum by Ecuador in August 2012, he is unable to leave the embassy premises for fear of being arrested by UK authorities.
After approximately 32 hours and a journey in various postal bags, vans and through delivery centers, the parcel was delivered to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in the afternoon of 17 January 2013. By that time several thousand people had gathered on Twitter to follow the tantalizing and intense journey. The experiment was crowned by Julian Assange’s live performance for the camera.