Kostis Velonis
14 Jan - 29 Feb 2008
KOSTIS VELONIS
Opening January 14th, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.
Until February 29, 2008
Monitor is pleased to present the works of Greek artist Kostis Velonis (b. 1968, lives in Athens), on display for the first time in Italy.
Kostis Velonis's sculptures combine the materiality of natural elements such as wood and paint with industrial products, which the artist masterly combines in a play of only seemingly fragile and precarious equilibriums. Whether about solitary cowboys, Pinocchio, or a scornful criticism of rationalist architecture (Bauhaus is not our house), his work vibrates with a force that brings to mind totemic constructions of ancient memory.
It is impossible with these works not to assume a sense of storytelling and history, often suggested by the works' titles, which touch upon aspects of contemporary collective consciousness through an anti-monumental construction that makes the approach to the works simple and immediate.
The title of the series presented in his solo show at Monitor, Craft Boy, refers to the artist's most recent investigation of the Bauhaus Manifesto, written by Walter Gropius on the tales of the nineteenth century studies conducted by Englishmen Ruskin and Morris of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
For example one of the new sculptures in the show, Bauhaus Cathedral DYI, references Lyonel Feininger's Cathedral, a wood-cut for the Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919.
What interests Velonis most is the romantic aspect of the Movement in its start, which differentiates itself from the typical notion of the Bauhaus school that usually displays structural austerity and functional perfection. The roots of failure constitute the key element for this new series. In one of the key pieces, Craft Makes the Universe, the artist investigates the representation of the universe as the stage for a "craft experience".
As Velonis suggests, "modernity and its international collective utopias are represented by ideological mistakes. For this reason the recent pieces maintain the aspect of a grandiose architecture that, through a minimal human, simultaneously unites the comic and the tragic, place and downfall, futuristic flavour with folklore".
Kostis Velonis, 1968, lives in Athens.
Solo Shows:
2007 BQ Gallery, European Kunsthalle, "...was einmal über heute gesagt werden wird: KölnShow2", curated by N. Schafhausen, F. Waldvogel Cologne;
2005 "Blind Date" Kamm Gallery, (with Katharina Jahnke), Berlin; The Breeder Gallery, (with Katharina Jahnke), Athens;
2004 "Bauhaus is not our House", The Breeder Gallery, Athens.
Group Shows:
2007 9e Biennale de Lyon, "The History of a Decade that Has not Been Yet Named", curated by S. Moisdon & H.U. Obrist;
2006 "Don Quixote", Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, curated by N. Schafhausen, Sophie von Olfers, Rotterdam;
2006 "Crossing the Borders", State Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by T. Moutsopoulos, Salonica;
2006 "The Grand Promenade", National Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by A. Kafetsi, Athens;
2006 "Give(a)way", EV+A Biennial, curated by K. Gregos Limerick, Ireland;
2006 "Poetry in the backyard", Art-Concept Gallery, Paris.
The exhibition will be accompanied with an interview edited by Cecilia Canziani and Sotirios Bahtsetzis.
Opening January 14th, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.
Until February 29, 2008
Monitor is pleased to present the works of Greek artist Kostis Velonis (b. 1968, lives in Athens), on display for the first time in Italy.
Kostis Velonis's sculptures combine the materiality of natural elements such as wood and paint with industrial products, which the artist masterly combines in a play of only seemingly fragile and precarious equilibriums. Whether about solitary cowboys, Pinocchio, or a scornful criticism of rationalist architecture (Bauhaus is not our house), his work vibrates with a force that brings to mind totemic constructions of ancient memory.
It is impossible with these works not to assume a sense of storytelling and history, often suggested by the works' titles, which touch upon aspects of contemporary collective consciousness through an anti-monumental construction that makes the approach to the works simple and immediate.
The title of the series presented in his solo show at Monitor, Craft Boy, refers to the artist's most recent investigation of the Bauhaus Manifesto, written by Walter Gropius on the tales of the nineteenth century studies conducted by Englishmen Ruskin and Morris of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
For example one of the new sculptures in the show, Bauhaus Cathedral DYI, references Lyonel Feininger's Cathedral, a wood-cut for the Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919.
What interests Velonis most is the romantic aspect of the Movement in its start, which differentiates itself from the typical notion of the Bauhaus school that usually displays structural austerity and functional perfection. The roots of failure constitute the key element for this new series. In one of the key pieces, Craft Makes the Universe, the artist investigates the representation of the universe as the stage for a "craft experience".
As Velonis suggests, "modernity and its international collective utopias are represented by ideological mistakes. For this reason the recent pieces maintain the aspect of a grandiose architecture that, through a minimal human, simultaneously unites the comic and the tragic, place and downfall, futuristic flavour with folklore".
Kostis Velonis, 1968, lives in Athens.
Solo Shows:
2007 BQ Gallery, European Kunsthalle, "...was einmal über heute gesagt werden wird: KölnShow2", curated by N. Schafhausen, F. Waldvogel Cologne;
2005 "Blind Date" Kamm Gallery, (with Katharina Jahnke), Berlin; The Breeder Gallery, (with Katharina Jahnke), Athens;
2004 "Bauhaus is not our House", The Breeder Gallery, Athens.
Group Shows:
2007 9e Biennale de Lyon, "The History of a Decade that Has not Been Yet Named", curated by S. Moisdon & H.U. Obrist;
2006 "Don Quixote", Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, curated by N. Schafhausen, Sophie von Olfers, Rotterdam;
2006 "Crossing the Borders", State Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by T. Moutsopoulos, Salonica;
2006 "The Grand Promenade", National Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by A. Kafetsi, Athens;
2006 "Give(a)way", EV+A Biennial, curated by K. Gregos Limerick, Ireland;
2006 "Poetry in the backyard", Art-Concept Gallery, Paris.
The exhibition will be accompanied with an interview edited by Cecilia Canziani and Sotirios Bahtsetzis.