Dry Dreams on the Sea Floor, 2024
Plastic, polysterene, polypropylene, rope, iron, fabric, acrylic, oil
“All Things Become Islands Before My Senses”
#kostisvelonis #sea #seafloor #dry #dreams #precarious #dwelling
Showing posts with label Slapstick Sculpture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slapstick Sculpture. Show all posts
Monday, August 12, 2024
Damfino (Chorus of the Breezes)
Damfino (Chorus of the Breezes), 2024
Wood, marine plywood, rusty iron, acrylic, oil
“Things Become Islands Before My Senses” presented by @perasmaistanbul
#kostisvelonis #sculpture #vagabondobjects #breezes #slapstick #damnifiknow #environmentalslapstick
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The World Turned Upside Down Buster Keaton, Sculpture and the Absurd
Still from One Week, 1920. Courtesy Park Circus
In 1920, Buster Keaton released his first solo film, One Week, at around the same time as Duchamp was working on The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by her Batchelors, Even). One Week uses beautifully executed visual jokes to tell the story of a man’s doomed attempts to build a flat-pack house—the utopian modernist readymade—for his bride. Keaton not only performed his own stunts; he also designed the mechanics by which the scenes were created, along the way inventing shots and editing sequences that have now become the accepted syntax of cinema. Viewed shot by shot, these scenes undermine certainties about the world we inhabit and represent the inevitability of failure when we try to exert control.
Curated by Simon Faithfull and Ben Roberts, The World Turned Upside Down, places the work of over twenty international artists working in film, sculpture, installation art and performance in direct relation to Buster Keaton’s films to track a lineage from the melancholic and at times anarchic comedy of Keaton to the dry wit of conceptual practice. By examining Keaton’s approach to art through making—the processes of repetition, failure and risk—the exhibition also establishes a nuanced presentation of the developmental relationship between slapstick film, sculpture and performance and highlights parallels within modern and contemporary sculptural practice which continue to resonate today.
The exhibition features work of conceptual artists working in film, photography, sculpture, installation art and performance; by historical and contemporary, established and emerging artists. These include Bas Jan Ader, Marcel Broodthaers, Alexandre da Cunha, Simon Faithfull, Fischli Weiss, Brian Griffiths, Emma Hart, Jeppe Hein, Sofia Hultén, Tehching Hsieh, Gordon Matta-Clark, Hayley Newman, Miranda Pennell, Ruth Proctor, Roman Signer, William Wegman, Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Ben Woodeson and Erwin Wurm. The associated events programme features performances by Angus Braithwaite, Andy Holden, Jefford Horrigan, Ruth Proctor and William Hunt.
The World Turned Upside Down places the work of these artists in direct relation to three of Keaton’s early films: The Boat, The Cameraman and One Week, which will be continuously played throughout the exhibition. Through the plotting of these connections, the exhibition establishes a nuanced presentation of slapstick and the developmental relationship between sculpture and performance.
The World Turned Upside Down is a Mead Gallery exhibition which has been supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.
Warwick Arts Centre
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
Alongside the exhibition there are a number of events running throughout the season. Events include:
Exhibition tours
Join Fiona Venables, Assistant Curator, for a 30-minute introduction to The World Turned Upside Down. The exhibition tours are free but places are limited so please book ahead by calling the Box Office.
Fail Better – Deconstructing Buster Keaton
Warwick Arts Centre hosts a packed two days of artists’ performances, film screenings and talks to coincide with The World Turned Upside Down. Contributors include Angus Braithwaite, Simon Faithfull, Andy Holden, Jefford Horrigan, William Hunt and Ruth Proctor.
The Clumsy Boat
"The Boat" is a classic silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton, released in 1921. The film follows Keaton's character and his family's escapades aboard a small homemade boat. Drawing inspiration from themes and motifs in Keaton's silent short film, Kostis Velonis' "Fragile Ship Adrift" series informs his work across sculpture, installations, drawings, and ephemeral events, serving as a metaphor for the human condition. It explores individuals' navigation of life's unpredictable seas, often feeling vulnerable and adrift. The juxtaposition of the ship's precarious situation with moments of humor and slapstick underscores the irony and absurdity inherent in human existence. In "The Boat," Keaton navigates a series of comedic mishaps and perilous situations aboard a small vessel, highlighting the fragility of human endeavor against nature's vast and unpredictable forces. Similarly, the "Fragile Ship Adrift" series delves into themes of resilience, determination, and the absurdity of human striving in the face of adversity. The second body of works, "Fair Winds and Following Seas," features a 2024 sculpture crafted from marine plywood. This piece embodies the essence of the nautical phrase 'Fair Winds and Following Seas, which originates from two distinct sources and is universally embraced as a maritime blessing, wishing travelers a safe and fortunate voyage. 'Fair winds' symbolize the blessing of favorable breezes guiding one's journey homeward, while 'following seas' signifies the supportive currents propelling one toward their intended destination. This sculpture encapsulates the optimism and hope inherent in these phrases, celebrating the guidance and support we seek in our life's journeys.
callirrhoe_BLOOM
Courtesy the artist and Kalfayan Gallery Collaboration with Callirrhoë Commissioned by OCEANIC PRO #KostisVelonis #BLOOM #callirrhoeathens
Sea Voyeurism (Buster Keaton’s Boat)
Sea Voyeurism (Buster Keaton’s Boat) 2024
Marine plywood, fiberglass, iron putty, polyester spray filler, wood
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Low Suns
Rubber Ray, 2024
420 x 0,19 x 2 m
Polyethylene, soil, plastic
Marble, Labour and the Sun, 2024
0,22 x 0,23 x 019 cm
Marble, nylon wire
Low Sun, 2024
1,4 x 0,60 x 18 cm
Polyethylene, metal
Everything Ι touch turns into me
Archaeology of Gesture
Group Show @space.52
Curated by Evagoria Dapola
@scale_appropriate
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Persephone stumbled
Persephone stumbled
Persephone stumbled, 2022
Wood, concrete, lighting
Variable Dimensions
The site of Persephone’s abduction by Pluto is located in a crude wooden oblong
building—part of the Olive Mill’s factory zone—a section of which protrudes into the void. At this point, the association of the myth with the cycle of the land’s fertility within the industrial ruins is reshaped and reformulated. The imprint of the gesture of the ascent and descent of Demeter’s daughter finds correspondences with the storage of industrial products and the cycle of production.
Organised by 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture & Aeschylia Festival 2022
A production of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture
Old Olive Mill, Elefsina
28/8 - 23/10
Friday, August 26, 2022
Straw falling on concrete floors
2023 Εleusis European Capital of Culture, in collaboration with the Aeschylia Festival 2022, presents the in situ visual arts installation “Straw falling on concrete floors” by internationally renowned visual artist Kostis Velonis, at the courtyard behind the open theater of the Old Olive Mill.The installation will be exhibited from Sunday, August 28 to Sunday, October 23,while its official opening will take place on Thursday, September 8, at 20.30. The installation draws inspiration from the myth of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, and her daughter, Persephone. With a strict geometric delimitation that functions as a mechanism of gestation and harvesting, agricultural activities are linked to the erotic act. However, the erotic narrative in this monumental sculptural installation is not only underlined by the triangular shape of its structure, but is also found in the functionality of the construction. The “thighs of Demeter” function as an insect shelter with floors consisting of different recyclable materials and plants, which “seduce” all kinds of insects that assist in the pollination process.
With regards to the exhibition, visual artist Kostis Velonis states:
The starting point for the sculptural installation “Straw falling on concrete floors” is the mythological and historical tradition of Elefsina and it is part of a larger study on the tectonic composition of animism. The goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, offer the ideal narrative for the merging of the inorganic with the organic element and how seemingly different entities and physical phenomena, defined by movement or immobility, animate and inanimate matter, flourishing and withering, can overlap and not work in opposition.The architectural scale of the construction connects the notion of moira as protractor measurement unit with the notion of moira as destiny and luck. The stakes of this upright and vertical anthropomorphic field do not only concern the surface of the earth and the height of a “wind-friendly”( Anemophily ) structure, but also address a reverse course, where height can be understood as an ultimate depth. All the agricultural activities that Demeter (earth mother) takes care of by ploughing, sowing and harvesting, also involve the chthonic element. Persephone and her stay in Hades for some months of the year reflect the continuation of a permanent existential narrative with the natural life cycle of plants as a symbol of birth, death and rebirth.
The history of Installation Art at Aeschylia Festival
In 2004, moving past the boundaries of its initial, purely performative, character, Aeschylia Festival included Installation Art as a structural element in its annual artistic programming, a fact that was embraced by the city and its inhabitants. The first visual arts installation that took place as part of the Festival was the work by Vana Xenou, entitled “Elefsis – Pass,” which was presented in the “Kronos” industrial complex. Since then, Elefsina has hosted various internationally renowned visual artists, such as Kalliopi Lemos, Marios Spiliopoulos, Leda Papaconstantinou, Diohante, Stephen Antonakos, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Nikos Navridis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Tarek Atoui, Emilia Bouriti, Eleni Panouklia, Danae Stratou, Aspasia Stavropoulou and Andreas Lolis. Building on this tradition, and highlighting Elefsina as an international meeting point for site-specific and site-sensitive artistic creation, the goal of 2023 ΕΛΕVΣΙΣ European Capital of Culture is to curate the visual installation of the Aeschylia Festival on an annual basis. This year, we are honored to collaborate with the distinguished visual artist Kostis Velonis.
A few words about Kostis Velonis
Kostis Velonis was born in Athens. He holds an MRes in humanities and cultural studies from the London Consortium – Birkbeck College, ICA, AA (MRES) and he studies Arts Plastiques/ Esthétique at Université Paris 8 (D.E.A). He earned his PhD from the Department of Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and is an Associate Professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts.Velonis’ sculptures explore the comic and awkward condition of the object as a projection of an anthropocentric narrative with allegories of everyday life. Throughout his work, emphasis is placed on the moral implications of error and clumsiness, as well as the gap between dreaming and the reality that thwarts it. The context of this reading is equally articulated in the “common hearth” of the public forum with a systematized vocabulary of forms and materials, suggesting modernist writing in a range of architectural typologies; from the main parts of the ancient Greek theater (stage, stands, orchestra) to the political steps and propaganda pavilions of the European avant-garde.
Exhibition duration: August 28 – October 23 Opening: Thursday, September 8, at 20.30 Old Olive Mill, Elefsina
Information
Organization: 2023 Εleusis European Capital of Culture & Aeschylia Festival
Exhibition Curation: Directorate of Contemporary Art – Zoi Moutsokou
2023 Εleusis European Capital of Culture
Associate curator: Ioanna Gerakidi
Architectural curation: A Whale’s architects & Diogenis Verigakis
Production: opbo studio
Venue: Old Olive Mill, Elefsina
Duration: 28/8 – 23/10
Opening: Thursday 8/9, at 20.30
Opening Hours: 28/8-19/9 Monday-Sunday 19:00-23:00 (on days with performances at 19:00- 20:30) & 20/9-23/10 Wednesday-Sunday 17:00-21:00
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Slapstick και η κωμική σύνταξη των αντικειμένων
Slapstick και η κωμική σύνταξη των αντικειμένων
Τέχνη στο συγκείμενο (Art in context )
Η σχολή του Slapstick/ Slapstick School
ΑΣΚΤ -Χειμερινό εξάμηνο/ Εαρινό εξάμηνο
Αμφιθέατρο νέας βιβλιοθήκης, Πειραιώς 256
Κωστής Βελώνης
Βιβλιογραφία, σημειώσεις
Bibliography / REF/ Works Cited / Films / Performances
Βελώνης, Κωστής. «Slapstick και γλυπτική. Σκέψεις για την κωμική σύνταξη των αντικειμένων.» ΑΥΓΗ της Κυριακής, 4 Ιουλίου, 2021.
https://www.avgi.gr/entheta/anagnoseis/391657_slapstick-kai-glyptiki
Benjamin, Walter. Tο έργο τέχνης στην εποχή της τεχνικής αναπαραγωγιμότητάς του: Συνοπτική ιστορία της φωτογραφίας: Εντ. Φουξ, ο συλλέκτης και ο ιστορικός, μτφρ. Δημοσθένης Κούρτοβικ, Αθήνα : Κάλβος, 1978.
Brimfield, Mel. This Is Performance. London : Black Dog Press, 2011.
Hoffmann, Jens, Jonas, Joan. Perform. London : Thames & Hudson, 2005.
Keaton, Buster & Samuels Charles. My Wonderful World of Slapstick , New York : Doubleday, 1960.https://archive.org/details/mywonderfulworld00bust/mode/2up
Cresswell, Tim, Merriman, Peter (επιμ)., Geographies of Mobilities: Practices, Spaces, Subjects,London : Ashgate, 2011.
Eisenstein, Sergei.
Film Essays and a Lecture. (ed) Leyda, Jay, Princeton University Press, 2014. https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1319372/pdf
Greeley, Robin Adele. “The Logic of Disorder: The Sculptural Materialism of Abraham Cruzvillegas.”, October151, (Winter 2015): 78–107.
Ward, Peter. “Intra-City Migration to Squatter Settlements in Mexico City,” Geoforum 7 (1976).
Hall, David. “Reviving a Forgotten Pyrotechnical Art Form: Pyrotechnics and Twentieth-Century Performance Art.”
Leonardo Vol. 24, No. 5 (1991) : 531-534.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1575655
Hatherley, Owen. The Chaplin Machine: Slapstick, Fordism and the International Communist Avant- Garde. London : Pluto press , 2016
https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/comic-anti-humanism-the-chaplin-machine/
Kant, Immanuel. Κριτική της κριτικής ικανότητας, μτφρ. Χάρης Τασάκος
Αθήνα :Printa, 2000.
Kerr, Walter. The Silent Clowns, New York: Knopf, 1980.
Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947.
Kracauer, Siegfried. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960.
Kracauer, Siegfried. The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Morgan, Tiernan. “In Search of Bas Jan Ader, the Artist Who Disappeared at Sea.” Hyperallergic, November 30, 2016.
https://hyperallergic.com/336146/in-search-of-bas-jan-ader-the-artist-who-disappeared-at-sea/
Solomon, William. “On Comic Modernism: Impersonality in Eliot and Keaton.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 50, no. 2, University of Manitoba, 2017, 205–22, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45158936.
Turvey, Malcolm. “Comedic Modernism.”, October 2017, No.160, 5-29.
https://doi.org/10.1162/OCTO_a_00289
Verrone William. “Humor and the Avant‐Garde.”, The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 47, Issue 4, 2014.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12157
Weil, Simone. Η βαρύτητα και η χάρη, μτφρ. Αντιγόνη Βρυώνη, Αστρολάβος/Ευθύνη, Αθήνα 1989.
Unknown Writer, “Things Fall Apart, Modernity, violence, narrative, repetition: slapstick shares as much with contemporary art as it does comedy.” Frieze, issue 110, Oct 2007.
https://www.frieze.com/article/things-fall-apart
Unknown writer. Bas Jan Ader, “Slapstick.”
https://basjanader.omeka.net/exhibits/show/bas-jan-ader/-slapstick-/-slapstick-
The Marriage of Buster Keaton
https://www.busterkeaton.org/pop-culture/art-el-casamiento-de-buster-keaton-by-salvador-dali
https://bustermylove.tumblr.com/post/10588323352/this-is-interesting-and-kind-of-weird-i-shall
Films / performances / Έργα
Un Chien Andalou, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (1929)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB7gd_t6WMQ
Buster Keaton 's The Electric House (1922)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6j5502
Charlie Chaplin. A day’s pleasure, 1919
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v5bsOInIDI
Charlie Chaplin - Factory Scene - Modern Times (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n9ESFJTnHs
'Explosive' Swiss artist Roman Signer turns 80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FuH0yL29Z4
Installations by Roman Signer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk8125jdXoY
Roman Signer .... Tombés du ciel (fin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6rM1n699T8
Roman Signer - Tracks ARTE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIEoyQZku6U
Le Ballet Mecanique 1924, Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi53TfeqgWM
Smashing, by Jimmie Durham @ Parasol Unit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SOj9vumZOY
Mon Oncle de Jacques Tati : Bande annonce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRjtIg1NM84
Jacques Tati Mon Oncle 1958
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6mf28a
Jaques Tati - Mon Oncle (Kitchen Scene)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9t98Gox60
David Lynch and Tati on Mon Oncle
Hans Richter, Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast) 1927-28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=523oJgWxJME
Martin Kersels: Tumble Room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKJs0yigFLo
Peter Fischli and David Weiss ,Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go,) 1987.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXo7YUP-J3w
An Introduction to Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7tpMk44otU
David le Viseur and Michael Pfitzner, Der aufhaltsame Lauf der Dinge, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_ZY_cM1t4
“Equilibrios” de Peter Fischli y David Weiss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSsFIjaylI
ENTR'ACTE | René Clair (1924)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kGOIysVl8I&list=RD2kGOIysVl8I&start_radio=1&t=626
Le Ballet Mecanique 1924, Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi53TfeqgWM
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in The Land of The Bolsheviks, dir. Lev Kuleshov. 1924
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVeg8shVTiQ
Bruce Nauman, Bouncing in the Corner, No. 1, 1968
https://vimeopro.com/user3539702/ubuweb/video/121815710
Gary Stevens, Ape, live performance (2007)
http://garystevens.org/portfolio/ape
Francis Alys, Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes making something leads to nothing)
https://francisalys.com/sometimes-making-something-leads-to-nothing/
Francis Alys, The Collector (The Collector) Mexico City, Mexico, 1990-1992; 8:56 min
https://francisalys.com/the-collector/
Francis Alys, The Leak, Paris 2002. 14:41 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQy6Ih1x4jc
Jimmie Durham - Smashing (2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dFd5iNBj_c
Christine Macel, Gabriel Orozco, "Cats and Watermelons", 1992
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/media/3daWAxy
Vito Acconci on how poetry led him to performance art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6LZ3HsnHM
Michael Landy,The Inventory,2001
https://www.artangel.org.uk/break-down/the-inventory/
Michael Landy, Break Down, 2002
https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/break-down/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)