Kostis Velonis
Brancusi was a Hippie Carpenter or the Physical Condition of Mockery Through Space.
2008
24 January - 28 February
Situated as an image in the forest, the sculpture of Kostis Velonis acquires a different meaning than originally conceived in 2008, without disregarding its reference to modern sculpture and its relationship to folklore traditions. The playful allusion to Brancusi relates to the forest’s landscape and its archaic associations to carving and sculpted wood, the totemic column, and the pagan conduct of the sculpture.
Dandilands is found in a location in the high forest of Troodos mountains whereby we welcome a circular trail walk of 7km through a rocky path overlooking wild trees with a view beyond the forest and over the island. A random audience walking along an existing path anticipates an almost unassuming ritual of treading. What is expected to happen seems to be prescribed by the particularity and the surrounding codes and functions of the space itself: follow the route - read the engraved signs - rest on a bench - stop for a drink of water. And perhaps doing all those things is also part of an experience in the woodlands; however, we would like to evoke moods that may lead to other experiences and potentialities.
Our understanding of urban and natural landscapes as sites of both intimate and destabilizing experiences through a token of perception materializes in what we propose to be a standing sign. This sign is both site and object; a place of intention and image; a setting of the social. Unlike signs steering elsewhere, this one betokens one’s intimacy to the body as experienced in pulsating landscapes with the sensual and sensible sharing in the present and public momentum embraced in breathing pine trees and boundless dandelions.
