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                                                                                   Unicum I
                                                                                   ... The 'unique' relationship between artwork and individual.
                                                                                   Their performance of one year later (1978, Galleria Civica, Modena;
                                                                                   also in Venice), stresses the unique relationship they wish
                                                                                   to establish with individuals rather than anonymous viewers.
                                                                                   The UNICUM of communication they seek goes beyond
                                                                                   the mere confirmation of the need to communicate. The nature
                                                                                   of communication must be specified from their own point of view.
                                                                                   This could be watched by one person at a time through a small
                                                                                   hole. The rapport was unique and secret each time and its duration
                                                                                   was unforeseeable, determined not only by the scheduled
                                                                                   performance but also by the viewer's will to communicate.
                                                                                   The motif of the action was an incessant nearing and retreating,
                                                                                   like two conditions independent of the space and size of the image,
                                                                                   whose span could shrink or expand with the aid of a mechanism.
                                                                                   This work posed an essential question. What is more significant
                                                                                   in the method to be adopted today-the reworking of the concepts
                                                                                   of image or space, their reduction or enlargement, their easily
                                                                                   legible or symbolic or conceptual form? The proposal that came out
                                                                                   of that question was their conviction that the problem
                                                                                   may not have rested solely on this question; that the most important
                                                                                   element was the crucial presence of the artist in the real
                                                                                   and the imaginary world in which he acts.
                                                                                   The conclusion from their experience was that the crucial time
                                                                                   of contact with the external world began with their action. Moreover,
                                                                                   this action did not stop at the end of the performance. Still images
                                                                                   from the forms of their action remained engraved in the viewer
                                                                                   because they were things he had experienced. They became
                                                                                   memories of live moments through images he had retained.
                                                                                   In a reverse process, the retrieval of those static images led again
                                                                                   to memories of action. This reciprocating function of their work
                                                                                   is also central to their latest project...
                                                                                   Efi Strousa
                                                                                   Athens, June 1980
              SAD '85 Paris 1985         Pegasus 1984  STUDIO METAPLASI  Unicum I  Unicum I   Unicum II  Magazzini del Sale, Venice 1978
              Le SAD de bronze           Table and chairs   showroom,   Galleria Civica,   Essay  View of Installation - Performance
              Prize awarded to STUDIO METAPLASI   Wood structure   Maroussi Athens 1984  Modena 1978  by Efi Strousa  Tubular iron frame, polyethylene sheeting, rope,
              for outstanding quality in creative design   covered   Interior view  View of Installation -  Athens, June 1980  wood structure, black fabric, stretched white latex,
                                         in plastic laminate       Performance                electric light, audio collage
              Exhibition view
              With Pegasus 1984  Table and chairs  and blue lacquered legs   With Titsa Grekou
                                         Table 180x90 h75 cm       Wood structure,
                                         Chair 45x42 h106 cm       stretched white latex,
                                                                   black fabric,
                                                                   electric light,
                                                                   audio collage
                                                                   Performance was
                                                                   viewed through hole
                                      45                        47                         49                        51
                                                                       Bold Constructions
                                                                       The formation of an applied aesthetics through artistic intervention  process which can lead to many different paths. The need
                                                                       is an idea which concerns a great many artists today. Starting   to expand their expressive media leads them constantly towards
                                                                       from the teachings of Bauhaus about an art inextricably tied   new solutions as they try materials, techniques and processes
                                                                       with life and up to the current view of an open process   which abolish all barriers. Their passage from the experiential
                                                                       which extends the limits of creativity beyond the established fields  actions in space to the configuration of everyday spaces involves
                                                                       of art, artistic activity today touches on many areas.  a clear focus on renewing our experience of everyday reality.
                                                                                   Their old preoccupation with the two-way relationship between art
                                                                       Overcoming the inhibitions of an obsolete approach to art
                                                                       as "complete in itself", many famous artists have long contributed   and practicality has now found a new balance. Nikos Zouboulis
                                                                       to the applied arts and thus expressed their opposition   began to explore this dual relationship in his work from as early as
                                                                       to the alienating uniformity brought about by consumerism.   1972, when he designed a modular sculpture whose parts could
                                                                       And if most of these proposals by artists such as Dali, Picasso,  also function as a seat and a table. The multiple combinations
                                                                       Calder, Vasarely or Matta never made it to mass production   and practical uses of their bold and inventive creations, the use
                                                                       but remained as quaint industrial designs produced in limited   of disparate materials and the multifaceted impressions generated
                                                                       numbers, it is mostly due to the absence of the appropriate   by them are all traits of a non-conformity in tune with the precepts
                                                                       industrial infrastructure.  of post-modern design.
                                                                                   So in 1983 they set up Studio Metaplasis, joining forces with other
                                                                       Bringing together all these experiences from the past, the attempt
                                                                       for a harmonious co-operation between art and technology   artists with the same ideas, such as architects Thanassis Tzivelos
                                                                       is now taken up once again, this time on a new basis. Next   and Panayotis Hatzinas and ceramist Anneta Mylonoyanni,
                                                                       to the mainstream industry which is always cautious in adopting   all of them working together as a team. What has Studio Metaplasis
                                                                       new trends, smaller industrial concerns are set up by groups   achieved so far? Many important things, which have earned it
                                                                       of artists and architects whose work promotes an unconventional  a well-deserved position in the international movement: it was
                                                                       aesthetic. It is no accident that the post-modern art movement   invited to participate in "Linea '85", the major exhibition of visual
                                                                       went immediately into the familiar environment of daily life   and applied arts in Ghent, Belgium; it has been reported
                                                                       and found its practical expression in today's furniture, lighting   in prestigious foreign magazines; and it was awarded the third prize
                                                                                   in the exhibition "SAD '85" at the Parisian Grand Palais. The team
                                                                       and utility objects and, most importantly, in a whole new approach
                                                                       to interior design. It is also no accident that post-modern design  of are now preparing for their first transatlantic appearance
                                                                       emerged almost at the same time in all European countries:  at the international exhibition of artistic design in Chicago in May.
                                                                       in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, with the famous Memphis   At the same time there are always plans for new projects
                                                                       and Nova Alchimia groups, but also in Greece with Studio  concerning the purely artistic work of Zouboulis and Grekou,
                                                                       Metaplasis. The main aim of all these groups, which are organised  without any conflicts or incompatibility between the two activities.
                                                                       on a contemporary industrial basis, is to break down the aesthetic  In other words, artistic concerns and applied art are complementary
                                                                       monopolies and expand the artistic consciousness.   elements of their work, constituting the two poles in a two-way
                                                                       Promoting ideas whose associations lead to bold combinations   course which steadfastly declines the security of standardisation.
                                                                                   The words of Camus come to my mind: "I have the loftiest idea,
                                                                       of different art codes, post-modern design represents today
                                                                       the most advanced approach to decoration, linking the history   and the most passionate one, of art. Much too lofty to agree
                                                                       of yesterday and the visions of tomorrow in imaginative   to subject it to anything. Much too passionate to want to divorce it
                                                                       constructions. One might well wonder how Greece, with   from anything". This comes close, I think, to what these two young
                                                                       its non-existent infrastructure in contemporary design, finds itself  people must feel about art.
                                                                       abreast of countries with a huge tradition in this area.
                                                                       The answer comes from the two founders of Studio Metaplasis,  Maria Kotzamani
                                                                       Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou, whose artistic work had always
                                                                       involved space, constructions and the technological exploration   Athens, 19 March 1986
                                                                       of various materials.
                                                                       Artists with a long track record in the fields of sculpture,
                                                                       performance and experimental research, Nikos Zouboulis
                                                                       and Titsa Grekou have always treated their work as an open
              Unicum II  Magazzini del Sale, Venice 1978  Unicum II  Magazzini del Sale, Venice 1978  Bold Constructions  Athens 1989
              Titsa Grekou in performance  Spectators watching performance through hole  Article   Bookcase with adjustable shelves, cabinet,
                                                                   by Maria Kotzamani         drawers
              Spectators watching performance through hole  Preparing the Installation - Performance
                                                                   EIKONES magazine, no 72, Athens, 19 March 1986  MDF frame in natural finish and black lacquer
                                                                                              226x38 h216 cm
                                      53                        55                         57                        59
              Athens 1989  Bookcase      Athens 1989               Athens 1994                Manhattan 1986
              Computer generated drawings  Bookcase with adjustable shelves, cabinet,   Bookcase with desk, cabinets, drawers  Storage unit with glass cases, cabinets, drawers
              Interior and exterior views of men's clothing store,  drawers  MDF frame in white and pink lacquer  MDF frame in black lacquer, glass, mirrors
              Athens 1992                MDF frame in natural finish and grey lacquer  230x60 h216 cm  400x45 h240 cm
                                         226x38 h216 cm                                       Limited edition
              Athens 1989  Bookcase
              Detail                     Athens 1989
                                         Bookcase with adjustable shelves, cabinet,
                                         drawers
                                         MDF frame veneered in bubinga
                                         and black lacquer
                                         45x38 h216 cm
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                In the Language of Performance
                Last week we watched an advanced form   In the third space these forms are buried
                of the work of Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou  in the sand of the bottom beneath a membrane
                as part of the Goethe Institut's programme   which suggests a water surface, while all this
                of modern music. As always, the performance   material participates in the dramatic act, abiding
                of the two artists included music as a major,  by the discipline imposed by the sound of music.
                dynamic element, composed by Gunther Becker.  The clear references to ancient Greek culture
                The roots of performance go back to the early   are reflected in the shapes of the columns,
                20th century -long before the Dada   the folds formed on the fabric by the moving
                and its subversion of the disciplines of art-   bodies, the slides from Delos, the symbolism
                in the Russian cubists/futurists of 1913.  of the glorious civilisation which lies buried
                Mayakovsky, Larionov, Goncharova   and the wish for - and acceptance of - (through
                and Burliuk,magical names in Russian poetry   the intensity of the music) a new era.
                and painting in the years of that great Spring   We must say that the ambitious project of the two
                     artists has arrived at a plastic language capable
                of the arts, paraded in the streets of Moscow
                with painted faces. In the 1920s Kurt Schwitters  of expressing fundamental concepts
                gave 'lectures' which escalated from a mumbling   in a clear way.
                to loud barks and the screeching of a siren.   In comparison with earlier performances we had
                In 1947 Artaud introduced the theatre of cruelty;   seen, this time they expand in space and add
                "in the theatre we do not play, we act.   the images from colour slides. The spectacle thus
                The theatre is the genesis of creation".   becomes more complex and acquires a more
                Of course, already since the Renaissance artists  descriptive-analytical emphasis instead
                were the protagonists of public life, and the   of becoming simpler and more basic, as the work
                     of the same artists attempted in the spring of 1980.
                imaginative events they organised are not at all
                far from today's performance, as for example   Moreover, the three phases which open like
                the "Car of Death" presented by Piero di Cosimo  theatre stages in three different spaces and times
                at the Florentine carnival of 1511. The early   confuse the viewers who cannot follow everything
                origins of all these contemporary ideas can be  at once - a not very happy situation
                traced back to primitive societies, to the very  in a performance whose functioning requires
                sources of art, to religious and magical rites.  and encourages the viewers' attention
                The work "Reciprocalness III" by Zouboulis   and participation.
                and Grekou builds on the artists' views on time
                and history, the concept of the everlasting   Beatrice Spiliadis
                and the changeable, the contrast between   Athens, 15 November 1982
                inactivity and action. Using as main material
                their 'trademark' elastic fabric they form three
                distinct spaces which open up to the audience
                at three different times. On this occasion, music
                and lighting are aided by slides projected
                on reliefs made with the elastic cloth using
                the casting technique.
                The forms of these reliefs capture one movement
                of the live body behind the flexible material.
              In the Language   Palindrome II  Palindrome II  Goethe Institut, Athens 1982  Palindrome II  Goethe Institut, Athens 1982  Palindrome II  Goethe Institut, Athens 1982
              of Performance  Goethe Institut,   Views and stills from Installation - Performance  Stills of Installation - Performance rehearsal  View of Installation - Performance
              Review       Athens 1982   With Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou  Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou   Detail
              by Beatrice Spiliadis  Still   Wood structure, stretched and pleated white latex  Titsa Grekou in performance  On wall slide projection on fiberglass sculpture
              ELEFTHEROTYPIA  from Installation -  columns and surfaces, fiberglass sculpture,   Spectators at Installation - Performance  On floor horizontal surface of stretched
              newspaper,   Performance   white lacquer, slide projection, electric light      polyethylene on wood frame over three plaster
              Athens,      With Titsa Grekou  Music, Gunther Becker  Participation of         sculptures wrapped in white latex sheeting
              15 November 1982                                                                and covered with sand
                                                                   Kostas Daskalakis and George Karkas
                                                                                              Generator blew sand and revealed sculptures
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