Wandering Peaks (Moving Through the Mountains)

Wandering Peaks (Moving Through the Mountains) 2023 

Iron, cement, wood, gesso 

22 x 8 x 13 cm 

Windows Opened

Windows Opened, 2021

Wood, acrylic paint, string

22 x 18 x 14 cm

 

#facade #building #kostisvelonis #sculpture #models #scaffolding #weight #debate #masonry #escape 

Thread Suns

 

Thread Suns, 2019
Wood, plywood, cement, acrylic, oil

#threads #sun #sculpture# #boat#roofed #shed #fadensonnen #threadsuns

cité-sur-fil-

Guy Rottier, Cité sur fil, 1965
(maquette en balsa, soie, carton)

https://razekite.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/cite-sur-fil/

Εξαίσια πτώματα και πως να εξηγήσεις σ’ενα νεκρό λαγό τις εικόνες

Cadavres Exquises and  How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare

Εξαίσια πτώματα και πως να εξηγήσεις σ’ενα νεκρό λαγό τις εικόνες

  

Βιβλιογραφία /Bibliography 
REF/ Works Cited / films

Freud, Sigmund, Ο πολιτισμός πηγή δυστυχίας, μτφρ. Βαμβαλής Γιώργος,  Αθήνα : Επίκουρος , 1974

Douglas, Mary, Καθαρότητα και κίνδυνος, Μια ανάλυση των εννοιών της μιαρότητας και των ταμπού, μτφρ. Αίγλη  Χατζούλη, Αθηνα : Πολύτροπον, 2007  

https://monoskop.org/images/7/7d/Douglas_Mary_Purity_and_Danger_An_Analysis_of_Concepts_of_Pollution_and_Taboo_2001.pdf

Schwenger, Peter.  The Tears of Things: Melancholy and Physical Objects. 

 University of Minnesota Press, 2005

Walker, Ian ‘As if one’s eyelids had been cut away’ Frederick Sommer’s Arizona Landscapes , Journal of Surrealism and the Americas 2:2 (2008), 180-208 

https://repository.asu.edu/attachments/108264/content/JSA_VOL2_NO2_Pages180-208_Walker.pdf

Αθανασίου, Αθηνά, Αναζητώντας την «σημειωτική χώρα»: Ετερότητα, αποστροφή και τρόμος του εκ-τοπισμένου υποκειμένου»,  Εκ των υστέρων, τεύχος 14 , ( 2006) 106-135

Gotthardt, Alexxa, Explaining Exquisite Corpse, the Surrealist Drawing Game That Just Won’t Die

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-explaining-exquisite-corpse-surrealist-drawing-game-die

Rodari, Gianni,  Γραμματική́ της φαντασίας, Εισαγωγή́ στην τέχνη να επινοείς ιστορίες, μτφρ. Κασαπίδης Γιώργος  Μεταίχμιο, 2001. 

Johnston,  Michael ,  Organizing the ZOO: Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two Noughts, Mise-en-scène: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration (MSJ)

https://journals.sfu.ca/msq/index.php/msq/article/view/81

A Zed & Two Noughts, an introduction by Peter Greenaway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnSnmx3BaT4

Χατζηπαρασκευαΐδης, Απόστολος, Σημειώσεις για το λούμπεν προλεταριάτο,  Θέσεις - τριμηνιαία επιθεώρηση Τεύχος 18, περίοδος: Ιανουάριος - Μάρτιος 1987

http://www.theseis.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=481

Kristeva, Julia, Pouvoirs de l'horreur : essai sur l'abjection Paris : Édition Seuil, Collection : Tel Quel,1980. 

http://users.clas.ufl.edu/burt/touchyfeelingsmaliciousobjects/Kristevapowersofhorrorabjection.pdf

 

Joseph Beuys, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo47lqk_QH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HVOCay10m8

Πρώιμος, Κωνσταντίνος, Το πρόβλημα της ριζικής ετερότητας στη δράση του Joseph Beuys: "Πώς να εξηγήσεις τις εικόνες της έκθεσης σε ένα νεκρό λαγό" στην γκαλερί Schmela του Dusseldorf το 1965, Γ’ Συνέδριο ιστορίας της Τέχνης , Θεσσαλονίκη, 2009  

 

Interview: Joel-Peter Witkin, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU-dE8GmqhI

Foster, Hal,  Obscene, Abject, Traumatic, October 78, fall 1996 , pp. 107-24 , 1996

https://www.jstor.org/stable/778908?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Gotthardt, Alexxa, Explaining Exquisite Corpse, the Surrealist Drawing Game That Just Won’t Die

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-explaining-exquisite-corpse-surrealist-drawing-game-die

Toy Story 4 | Official Trailer

 Dir. by Joshua Cooley 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmiIUN-7qhE

 Marmo,  Jennifer, Using Humor to Move Away From Abjection, Qualitative Inquiry 16(7):588-595 · August 2010

Baudelaire,  Charles, Τα άνθη του κακού, μτφρ. Σημηριώτης, Γιώργης, Αθήνα :Γράμματα, 2013https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Το_ψοφίμι

Παπαδιαμάντης, Αλέξανδρος,  το Ψοφίμι ( 1906) 

http://papadiamantis.net/Διηγήματα/Τὸ-Ψοφίμι-1906

 Eco, Umberto, Ιστορία της ασχήμιας, μτφρ. Δότση Δήμητρα, Αθήνα : Καστανιώτης, 2007 

Marx, Karl, H 18 μπρυμαίρ του Λουδοβίκου Βοναπάρτη, Αθήνα : Σύγχρονη εποχή , 2012 

Αδεξιότητα και νεωτερικότητα  (We Are All Clowns)

Τέχνη στο συγκείμενο  ( Art in context )

ΑΣΚΤ -Εαρινό εξάμηνο

Αμφιθέατρο νέας βιβλιοθήκης,  Πειραιώς 256

The Building Game Remains Still, yet Still It Sails

Kostis Velonis, The Building Game Remains Still, yet Still It Sails, 2019

700 x 110 x 138 cm

Acrylic, plywood 

24      August – 3 November  “Crossing Lines”, cur. by Christian Oxenius, Jan Tichy Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück

Crossing Lines

László Moholy-Nagy, Right Hand in Green, May 20th 1926
Courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus School in Weimar Kunsthalle Osnabrück will present Crossing Lines, an exhibition developed by artist and educator Jan Tichy and curator Christian Oxenius.

The concept for the exhibition, opening August 24^th, takes its initial inspiration from an unusual find in LászlóMoholy-Nagy’s estate: a series of life-size print of his hand, as well as of other „Bauhäusler“, taken in May 1926 by the great Hungarian artist and leading figure of the Bauhaus. While probably the result of Moholy-Nagy’s interest in palmistry and spiritual practices, not at all uncommon within the Bauhaus, we cannot be certain about the precise reason that lead a group of thirteen individuals (among which Kandisky, Brauer, Brandt and Moholy-Nagy himself) to produce these documents never exhibited before collectively. The handprints in this context contain a future prediction, told at a time in which modernism, as product of the Positivism of the 19th century, was both at its peak and yet was already showing signs of the fundamental flaws that led to its crisis, visible to this day. Their aura of mystery and mysticism, as well as the sense of community they express, makes the setting of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, as former monastery, an ideal space in which to unfold a series of questions present in the many histories of the Bauhaus but too often missing from its public image.

These documents served as inspiring elements for a dialogue between Tichy and Oxenius leading to a selection of contemporary artists that with their practice and through the narratives they develop crossed the lines separating the complexity of the Bauhaus as a place for “experimentation (line of the introduction)” with its common narrative as a site of production of rationalist modernism. The contribution of Heba Y. Amin, Jakob Gautel, Olaf Holzapfel, Reuven Israel, Kostis Velonis and Tichy himself although developed independently entail a form of collective thinking and action, reflected in the spatial arrangements taken in the Kunsthalle and in the conceptual underpinning of the works.

The title Crossing Linessuggests this interplay between positions and narratives in the works presented in Osnabrück but serves also as an opening to the collaboration with the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Chicago. The renown Chicago based institution, founded by Moholy-Nagy in 1937, will see a parallel exhibition to Crossing Linesheld in the Carr Chapel designed by "Bauhäusler" Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the United States, and opening in September as an extension and expansion of the dialogue with the hand-prints as well as a publication, the first occasion in which these objects are extensively discussed in literature.

The works on display will include both previously exhibited artworks as well as new productions designed specifically for the occasion.

https://kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de

Alma Buscher : “Ship” Building Toy

Alma Buscher 

“Ship” Building Toy, 1923 

 Text by Christine Meuring

https://books.google.gr/books?id=VEmZRkK2aDoC&pg=PT157&lpg=PT157&dq=Alma+Buscher:+%27Ship%27+Building+Toy.+1923,%22+in+Bauhaus+1919-1933:+Workshops+in+Modernity&source=bl&ots=az9Idb9JfE&sig=ACfU3U0b0Lne3x_PbaSP0YKg7B4Pk-xXyA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijqNeevfjjAhWQ6aQKHal1C0YQ6AEwBHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Alma%20Buscher%3A%20'Ship'%20Building%20Toy.%201923%2C%22%20in%20Bauhaus%201919-1933%3A%20Workshops%20in%20Modernity&f=false

Thinking on Your Feet (Partial Reconstruction of Joaquin Torres Garcia Toy Figures as an Instrument of Research for Politics)

Kostis Velonis, Thinking on Your Feet (Partial Reconstruction of Joaquin Torres Garcia Toy Figures

as an Instrument of Research for Politics), 2017

Wood, acrylic, stucco, cement 

172 x 30 x 47 cm 

Assembling the Self (Model)

Assembling the Self (Model) 2018 

Wood, concrete and acrylic 

60 x 29 x 20 cm 

Your Concern is My Defense

Your Concern is My Defense, 2018 

Wood, cement, rocks 

85 x 60 x 10 cm 

Η Μνήμη της Επανάστασης

Memorial to Collective Utopia, 2010

#kostisvelonis#sculpture#memorial#collectiveconsciousness#collective#utopia#dystopia #domesticity#furniture#statemuseumofcontemporaryart#colorstudy#gustavklucis #gustavklutsis#colortheory

Την εκδοχή 70 σύγχρονων Ελλήνων εικαστικών δημιουργών για τα σύμβολα, τις εικόνες και τους πρωταγωνιστές της Οκτωβριανής Επανάστασης, τα μηνύματα, τα συνθήματα, το πνεύμα, την ορμή και τον δυναμισμό της, τις διαστάσεις ενός από τα ιστορικά γεγονότα που «συγκλόνισαν» τον κόσμο και καθόρισαν την ιστορία του 20ού αιώνα φιλοξενεί η έκθεση «Η Μνήμη της Επανάστασης – Σύγχρονοι Έλληνες Εικαστικοί», σε συνδιοργάνωση του Κρατικού Μουσείου Σύγχρονης Τέχνης της Θεσσαλονίκης Κρατικό Μουσείο Σύγχρονης Τέχνης / State Museum of Contemporary Artκαι της Ανωτάτης Σχολής Καλών Τεχνών / Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών.

Η έκθεση διοργανώθηκε και πρωτοπαρουσιάστηκε με μεγάλη επιτυχία στο ΚΜΣΤ στη Θεσσαλονίκη την άνοιξη του 2017, όπου είχαν την ευκαιρία να τη δουν χιλιάδες επισκέπτες. Η έκθεση παρουσιάζεται στην Αθήνα εμπλουτισμένη με έργα περισσότερων καλλιτεχνών. Συνοδεύεται από αναπαραγωγές έργων της συλλογής Κωστάκη του ΚΜΣΤ που σκιαγραφούν το σκηνικό της εποχής της ρωσικής πρωτοπορίας. Η τέχνη της ρωσικής πρωτοπορίας αποτελεί, εξάλλου, μέχρι σήμερα για τους καλλιτέχνες μια ανεξάντλητη πηγή έμπνευσης, προβληματισμού και ερεθισμάτων, οδηγεί σε θετικούς ιστορικούς και πολιτισμικούς συνειρμούς, αφού υλοποιεί εξαιρετικά και υποδειγματικά ριζοσπαστικές καλλιτεχνικές και κοινωνικοπολιτικές ουτοπίες.

Η έκθεση «Η Μνήμη της Επανάστασης – Σύγχρονοι Έλληνες εικαστικοί» δεν στοχεύει να υποκαταστήσει την αυστηρή ιστορική μελέτη, τις διαφορετικές αναγνώσεις, αντικρουόμενες ερμηνείες και αποτιμήσεις των ιστορικών. Αντίθετα, επικεντρώνεται σ' έναν ξεχωριστό προβληματισμό με τις έννοιες της Ουτοπίας και της Επανάστασης, αλλά και τους πειραματισμούς των Ρώσων πρωτοπόρων καλλιτεχνών, να βρίσκονται στον πυρήνα της και να συγκροτούν το νοηματικό της άξονα. Οι καλλιτέχνες της έκθεσης μέσα από διαφορετικές προσεγγίσεις "μεταφέρουν" την έννοια της Επανάστασης δυναμικά στο παρόν, έρχονται να μιλήσουν για τη δυναμική και την αντοχή της στον χρόνο, σε μια κρίσιμη περίοδο μετάβασης, κρίσης και αναμονής, αμφισβήτησης και έκπτωσης των ιδεολογιών.

Την έκθεση πλαισιώνουν επίσης αντικείμενα (αφίσες και προτομές με τους ηγέτες της Οκτωβριανής Επανάστασης, φωτογραφίες, ζωγραφικοί πίνακες σοσιαλιστικού ρεαλισμού, κ.ά.) της συλλογής του Βασίλη Κωνσταντίνου, την οποία έχει παραχωρήσει στο ΚΜΣΤ. Η συλλογή έχει συγκροτηθεί μέσα από πολυάριθμα ταξίδια και πεισματικές αναζητήσεις του συλλέκτη στη μεγάλη γεωγραφική περιοχή των Βαλκανίων και λειτουργεί αναμνηστικά, αλλά και ως υπόμνηση μιας μεγάλης πολιτικής ιστορίας και ταυτόχρονα πιο προσωπικά, αφού αποκαλύπτει πολλές κρυφές ιστορίες της ατομικής διαχείρισης της ιστορίας.

Συμμετέχοντες καλλιτέχνες: Γιώργος Αλεξανδρίδης, Άγγελος Αντωνόπουλος, Νίκος Αρβανίτης, Αννίτα Αργυροηλιοπούλου, Μιχάλης Αρφαράς, Βασίλειος Βασιλακάκης, Κωστής Βελώνης, Μπάμπης Βενετόπουλος, Ανδρέας Βούσουρας, Βασίλης Γεροδήμος, Δημήτρης Γεωργακόπουλος, Μανώλης Γιανναδάκης, Λεωνίδας Γιαννακόπουλος, Κορνήλιος Γραμμένος, Λυδία Δαμπασίνα, Γιώργος Διβάρης, Στέφανος Επιτρόπου, Θεόδωρος Ζαφειρόπουλος, Δημήτρης Ζουρούδης, Βασίλης Ζωγράφος, Αντιγόνη Καββαθά, Στέφανος Καμάρης, Δημήτρης Καρλαφτόπουλος, Γιάννης Καστρίτσης, Θεόφιλος Κατσιπάνος, Θοδωρής Λάλος, Γιάννης Λασηθιωτάκης, Ανδρέας Λυμπεράτος, Αλέξανδρος Μαγκανιώτης, Μιχάλης Μανουσάκης, Πάνος Ματθαίου, Ειρήνη Ματσούκη, Δημήτρης Μεράντζας, Τάσος Μισούρας, Μανώλης Μπαμπούσης, Εμμανουήλ Μπιτσάκης, Ξενοφών Μπήτσικας, Νικόλας Μπλιάτκας, Άλκης Μπούτλης, Νίκος Παπαδημητρίου, Αντώνης Παπαδόπουλος, Λήδα Παπακωνσταντίνου, Αιμιλία Παπαφιλίππου, Λίλα Παπούλα, Αλίκη Παππά, Κωνσταντίνος Πάτσιος, Νατάσσα Πουλαντζά, Γεωργία Σαγρή, Ξενής Σαχίνης, Χριστίνα Σγουρομύτη, Νίκος Σεπετζόγλου, Δήμητρα Σιατερλή, Γιάννης Σκαλτσάς, Άγγελος Σκούρτης, Μάριος Σπηλιόπουλος, Στεφανία Στρούζα, Δημήτρης Τάταρης, Νίκος Τρανός, Βίκυ Τσαλαματά, Γιώργος Τσεριώνης, Κώστας Τσώλης, Πάνος Χαραλάμπους, Γιώργος Χαρβαλιάς, Μανώλης Χάρος, Θάλεια Χιώτη, Κώστας Χριστόπουλος, Διονύσης Χριστοφιλογιάννης, Έλλη Χρυσίδου, Θοδωρής Χρυσικός, Γιάννης Ψυχοπαίδης

Επιμέλεια έκθεσης: Γιάννης Μπόλης, Ιστορικός της τέχνης - Επιμελητής του ΚΜΣΤ

Ανώτατη σχολή καλών τεχνών 

12.02 -14.04 

http://www.greekstatemuseum.com/kmst/exhibitions/article/1313.html 

Thinking on Your Feet

Thinking on Your Feet (Partial Reconstruction of Joaquin Garcia Torres Toy Figures

as an Instrument of Research for Politics), 2017

Wood, acrylic, stucco, cement

172 x 30 x 47 cm

Between the Private and the Public, the Intimate and the Political

Kostis Velonis’s sculptural work often refers to historical events and art historical movements, while his markedly political work has at the same time a very personal aspect. He creates narratives characterized by the linking of personal stories with the reworking of past happenings. His personal experiences and reference points inflect his theoretical pursuits, and historical leaders and literary heroes often play a leading part in his newly invented scenarios. Velonis’s sculptures have a modest character, and they are usually made of wood, cardboard, small objects, and materials from the natural environment, which the artist finds and reuses in a process of bricolage. His works often transmit emotions such us loneliness, failure, melancholy, and uncertainty.

Kostis Velonis’s solo exhibition A Puppet Sun is organized by NEON and curated by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos. It is on view through January 14, 2018. It features twenty-five new works that the artist conceived for 11 Kaplanon Street in central Athens, responding to the history and architecture of the building. This neoclassical residence has a remarkable history. It was constructed in 1891 and first occupied by Pavlos Kountouriotis, the first president of the Second Hellenic Republic (1924–35, the second period in modern Greek history where Greece was not headed by a king). At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Zouzoula family acquired the residence, and the ground floor became the office of the politician Apostolos Zouzoulas, one of the founders of the People’s Party. Between the 1910s and the 1920s the building served as party headquarters. Later, during the authoritarian Metaxas Regime (1936–41), it was transformed into a residence for female students.

Kostis Velonis and Daphne Vitali in conversation

Mousse Magazine. Between the Private and the Public, the Intimate and the Political : Kostis Velonis

http://moussemagazine.it/private-public-intimate-political-kostis-velonis/

This Modern House for Sale

Within the history of modern architecture in México, collaboration is a recurring theme. Urban planners, architects and artists praised collaborative actions as a way to integrate new buildings into the city in a coherent manner as well as to achieve a synthesis of the arts with architecture. Through these collaborative efforts, outstanding works of architecture were raised, such as the modern campus of the National University (1953) and the Housing Complex of Nonoalco-Tlatelolco (1964), just to mention a pair. Nevertheless, there were some projects that, with time, ended up contradicting the original spirit of collaboration through intense debates concerning authorship. The Towers of Satellite City, built by Luis Barragán and Mathias Goeritz between 1957-58 are infamous in this regard. The dispute around authorship for this monumental sculpture broke any sort of relationship between the architect and the sculptor from the late 1960s until Barragán’s death. Even today, followers and fanatics of Barragán’s or Goeritz’s production continue arguing about this dynamic.

In contrast, the history of modern architecture in Mexico is full of examples of fruitful collaborations. A case in point is the exemplary collaboration between Juan O’Gorman and Max Cetto, sustained in great part by their close friendship. O’Gorman, credited as the first architect to construct a modern building in Mexico, met Cetto shortly after he arrived to the country in 1939 as refugee escaping from Nazi Germany. Friendship between the two developed rapidly; they shared, among other things, progressive ideas regarding art, architecture and politics. No one knows with certainty the extent of their collaborations, dialogues and mutual influences; however, their use of stone and other natural materials in the process of construction in an almost expressionist fashion, the stair as a sculptural element, and their respectful and close attention to the relationship between architecture and the landscape are some of the interests and defining characteristics that their architectural practices share.

Collaboration between Cetto and O’Gorman has not yielded any sort of polemics, even though the Mexican architect signed and registered the work of his friend until he became a national citizen. This absence of disputes can be understood, partly, if the nature of their relationship beyond their professional practices and dialogues it is taken in consideration. Juan Guzmán’s (Hans Gutmann) series of color photographs from the 1950s in O ́Gorman’s well known residence/studio at Avenida San Jerónimo, features images of what appears to be Cetto playing chess with O ́Gorman, an activity that they practiced habitually. In other photographs, the daughters of the German architect play and lounge around the property, as if it were their own house.

In 2005, Anuar Maauad found an architectural drawing of Rufino Tamayo ́s house and studio located in the Anzures neighborhood. The building, completed in 1949, is part of Cetto ́s production, although Maauadńs finding is signed by O ́Gorman and the drawing showcases some architectural features that easily relate to his functionalist period. There are differences between the drawing and the final buildings, like the stair in the studio, but the general concept of the construction is very similar. Intrigued by the history of this project, Maauad began researching the work of O’Gorman and Cetto, and also included the presence of Tamayo who commissioned the construction. Without finding any reliable information about this house’s history, Mauuad’s speculation began: Is this drawing a preliminary study of the construction signed by O’Gorman shortly before Cetto became a Mexican citizen in 1947? How much discussion existed between the architects, as the project demonstrates s shared interests and solutions between the two? Did Tamayo play any part in this story, since his confrontational stance against figures such as O’Gorman increased during the 1940s?

For this exhibition Anuar Maauad has built three models of Tamayo’s house and studio--as it appears in the drawing that he found, as it was constructed in 1947, and as it appears today after decades of unfortunate interventions and modifications. Each structure represents a point in the history of this building that, miraculously, is still standing. He also gives a physical presence to Cetto, O’Gorman, and Tamayo who were involved in the mythology of this house. The large-scale plaques made of stretched canvas with their signatures rendered in bronze serve as an index of identity and authorship. The artist has collected and displays photographs and documents that serve as fragments from which to speculate about the house’s history and the three characters involved with it. In one of these images, it is possible to see the functionalist houses built by O’Gorman for his family and Diego Rivera in San Angel between 1929 and 1932. In the photograph, a sign on his family’s house reads “This Modern House for Rent.”

It is from this document that Maauad borrows the title of this exhibition. If in this case, the title announces This Modern House for Sale it is because this project aims to be an open invitation for someone to acquire Tamayo’s former residence and workplace. As part of his initiative, the artist seeks to find a buyer for the house, in order to restore it and redefine its history. As such, This Modern House for Sale is an invitation to collaborate with the artist, in the spirit of O’Gorman and Cetto, in order to preserve an example of modern architecture and launch a platform to advance research and programs on this matter.

- Daniel Garza-Usabiaga

Anuar Maauad
This Modern House for Sale
November 18 - December 10

Efrain Lopez Gallery

http://www.efrainlopezgallery.com/anuar-maauad