
Aspects of artistic production and culture
Place: New Retorts
Photo's Copyrights © Tasos Vrettos
Curators
The cultural processes of the 80s are prevalent throughout the exhibition. Art Dynamics, however, still existent from two decades prior, will be critically examined. They will be compared and contrasted with the public aesthetics of the time as well as the increased infiltration of 'legitimate' modern art in the Greek household.
Kostas Stafylakis is an arts theorist and artist. He graduated from the National School of Fine Arts. He holds a Master’s degree in History of Modern Art (University of Essex) and in European Philosophy (University of Essex). He acquired a PhD from the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University. His research was about “The political phrasing used in international arts exhibitions in the 21st century, with a focus on Documenta11”. He co-edited the anthology “Politics in modern art” (in Greek, Ekkremes 2008), alongside Yiannis Stavrakis. He was also a Post-Doc researcher at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2011-2012). From 2012 to 2015, he taught a class on Research Based Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts, within its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit, where he continues to work as a collaborator and a teacher. He also teaches a module in Art and Visual Communication at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras. He has collaborated with many arts institutions in Greece and abroad. He was co-editor of “AGORA” at the 4th Athens Biennale and the sole editor of numerous socio-politically focused exhibitions around the world. He co-found KavecS (www.kavecs.com), an initiative for critical artistic activism alongside Vana Kostayola. Some of their most recent work includes: their participation at the 1st NSK Biennial of Folk Art (2014), Hell as Pavilion, Palais de Tokyo (2013), Truth is Concrete, Graz (2012), the 3d Athens Biennale and the Media Impact Presentation at the 4th Moscow Biennale in 2011. His published work sheds light on the relation between the “political element” and modern art, and attempts to analyse public art, artistic activism and the link between radical art, social movements and the ambiguities on the political field.
Vasilis Vlastaras is an artist and Senior Lecturer at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He was born and raised in Argos. He currently lives and works in Athens. He took architecture courses at the Instituto Universitario di Architectura di Venezia and photography courses at AKTO school of art and design. He studied Graphic Design with a specialization in cartoon drawing at the Technological institute of Athens, Directing at E. Chatzikou’s Film School and Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He holds a Master’s degree in IPPS “Architectural Design – Space - Culture” from the National Technical University of Athens and an M.Sc. in Interactive Multimedia from Westminster University. His work consists mostly of large scale installations, paintings created with modern tools and the experimental use of sound and images moving in real time. The creation of dynamic archives, documentaries, the personal appropriation of publicity mechanisms, interviews, statistics and a strong web presence, are just some of numerous pieces that form his artistic identity. He was a member and co-founder of the arts group “Platforms” from 2002 through 2007. From 2006 onwards, he is the Utopia Project’s (Athens National School of Art’s annual workshop that takes place in Rethymno, Crete) scientific director and curator. As Utopia Project’s scientific director and curator, he ran an international intercultural artistic exploration of the meaning of utopia in relation to everyday life, social requests, history and scientific research. Since 2015, he is also the creative director of the international ASFA BBQ Performing Arts Festival. He has participated in many exhibitions and artistic happenings in Greece and abroad.