VANGELIS VLAHOS AT THE 11TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL

Vangelis Vlahos
Grey Zones
2009

The project consists of two sets of photographs, which have reference to two cases of Greek initiatives of utilization of the Aegean Sea in the 1970s. The first set of images involves the “Wodeco” ship, an American drill-ship that was used for the exploitation of Greece’s oil fields in the Aegean Sea in the mid 1970s while the second involves the “Koyda” ship, a soviet auxiliary vessel that inaugurated the bilateral agreement between Greece and the Soviet Union in late 1970s in order for the Soviet vessels to use the Greek shipyards in Syros Island for repairs. Both sets include only images depicting the actual ships and details of them without any other information related to their actual context. For example the photo set of Koyda includes images of the ship in front of Syros Island, inside the port surrounded by curious locals, in the shipyards, as well as interiors of the ship and snapshots of the crew’s daily routine. The images were found in newspaper photo archives and magazines. The photographs of each set are displayed in a line on a wooden shelf on the wall.

The general title of both series is “Grey Zones”.
Literally the title describes the visual effect of the photograph sets’ presentation. All the photographs are in grey tones and they are displayed one next to the other in a straight line producing a kind of frieze. Conceptually the term “Grey Zones” has a political impact mostly related to issues that deal with the delimitation of Greece and Turkey’s zones of influence in the Aegean Sea. The concept was first introduced by the Turkish authorities after the Imia/Kardak crisis in early 1996, in order to describe the undetermined sovereignty, i.e. of islets in Eastern Aegean the legal status of which it disputes.

Several of the Aegean issues deal with the delimitation of both countries' zones of influence in the air and on the sea around their respective territories. These issues owe their controversy to a geographical peculiarity of the Aegean Sea and its territories. The decades since the 1970s have seen a repeated heightening and abating of political and military tensions over the Aegean. Thus, the “Hora” crisis* of 1976 (after oil was discovered off the island of Thassos) was followed by the Bern Protocol, which provided that negotiations aimed at achieving a delimitation of the continental shelf should continue in a good faith, while the "Sismik I" crisis** of 1987 was followed by a series of negotiations and agreements in Davos and Brussels in 1988. Again, after the Imia/Kardak crisis*** of 1996, there came an agreement over peaceful neighbourly relations reached at a meeting in Madrid in 1997. The period since about 1999 has been marked by a steady improvement of bilateral relations.

About Wodeco: In the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis, Greece, like many other countries at the time, embarked on a systematic effort to discover and exploit its local energy resources. In the mid 1970s the “Wodeco” drillship of the US oil company Oceanic made its first successful offshore oil strike in the Prinos location a few miles southeast of Thassos at the Northern part of Aegean sea. In the early 1980s local oil production had managed to cover almost 13 percent of the country’s petroleum needs. By the late of 1980s production started to drop without being able to explore for new deposits. Today it seems to be a problematic utility without a prosper future.

About Koyda: In September 1979 Moscow signs an agreement with Greece for repairs of Soviet merchant and naval auxiliary vessels at the Greek-owned Neorion Shipyards on the Aegean island of Syros. “Koyda” was the first Soviet ship that arrived for repairs in the shipyards.

In the late 1960s and 1970s the Soviet naval forces had greatly expanded its presence in the Mediterranean. During this period the Aegean Sea was of vital importance to the Soviets as a passageway for their ships sailing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Neorion Shipyards is strategically located on the island of Syros, in the heart of the Aegean Sea. For the Soviets, the need for a naval presence in this area was an issue of military as well as political importance related to NATO’s policy toward the Mediterranean, Middle East and Northern Africa at that time. Taking also into account the Soviet Union's lack of bases in the region, the agreement of Neorion was considered important for establishing its political influence in the region. The issue provoked the reaction of the United States, NATO and Turkey arguing that this agreement disrupts the military balance in the area. This Soviet Union’s effort to improve its position in the area could be seen as part of the U.S.-Soviet strategic rivalry in the Middle East and Africa. Also one can interpret Greece’s relations with the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of an effort to diversify Greek foreign policy and reduce Greek dependence on the United States. In the following decades Neorion shipyards faced many challenges (competition from Southeast Asian companies) that almost led it into going out of business, but managed to survive, diversifying into new fields like the construction of luxury mega-yachts.


*In July 1976 the Turkish research vessel Hora entered the Aegean beyond the Turkish territorial waters. Andreas Papandreou, the leader of the opposition Socialist party at the time, called to sink the vessel (“sink the Hora”). The vessel “Hora” was later renamed Sismik 1.

**In late March 1987, when a Greek-based international consortium, announced that it would start searching oil in international waters east of Thasos Island, Turkey sent the survey ship Sismik 1 into the Aegean, lanked by warships. The Greek Prime Minister of the time, Andreas Papandreou gave the orders to sink the ship, if found within Greek waters. This incident nearly started a war between Greece and Turkey.

***Imia in Greek, or Kardak in Turkish is a set of two small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, situated between the Greek island chain of the Dodecanese and the southwestern mainland coast of Turkey. Imia/Kardak was the object of a military crisis and subsequent dispute over sovereignty between Greece and Turkey in 1996.

http://www.iksv.org/bienal11/giris_en.html

VANGELIS VLAHOS AT DESTE PRIZE, ATHENS

The differences between the parts are the subject of the composition, 2009
6 scale models 1:150 on a base 210x135x15cm, photographic archive on shelf




Kostas Kostakis (The differences between the parts are the subject of the composition), 2009
frame 70x50cm with 49 photographs each 6.5x9.5 cm


Three models of the U.S. embassy in Athens in three different scales, 2003







Vangelis Vlahos employs the methodology of research and collects archival material to compose a series of open-ended narratives on recent historical experience, which re-examine official versions of history, or encourage a new approach of its dominant narrative. His recent work focuses on different experiences in modern history, mainly through archival material culled from various sources. It seems to be concerned with the extent to which such material may be used as a tool in our attempt to rethink notions of the past that continue to influence and shape our perception of the present. An equally important aspect of his research is the juxtaposition of the language of architecture and that of political and economic power and the comparisons drawn between them.

http://www.deste.gr

VANGELIS VLAHOS AND YORGOS SAPOUNTZIS NOMINATED FOR THE DESTE PRIZE

DESTE Prize 2009
Museum of Cycladic Art
14th May – 30th September 2009


The DESTE Prize was established in 1999 and is awarded every two years to a Greek artist living in Greece or abroad. The Prize aims to showcase the work of a new and emerging generation of artists and it is an integral part of the Foundation’s policy for supporting and promoting contemporary art in Greece.

The six shortlisted artists for the DESTE Prize 2009 – Athanasios Argianas, Eirene Efstathiou, Haris Epaminonda, Rallou Panagiotou, Yorgos Sapountzis and Vangelis Vlachos – will show their work in an exhibition that is to be presented this year in the spaces of the Museum of Cycladic Art and is scheduled to run from 14th March until 30th September 2009. This collaboration between the DESTE Foundation and the Museum of Cycladic Art is part of the latter’s “Young Views” program, which aims at launching a dialogue with a younger generation, at keeping the public up to date with the latest developments in contemporary cultural production and at ensuring the dynamic presence of a space for the exchange of ideas.

An international jury of five will select and announce the winner of this year’s DESTE Prize on 14th September 2009. The Prize is accompanied by a grant of €10.000.

http://www.deste.gr/

'THIS IS NOT AMERICA!' AN EXHIBITION BY PABLO LEON DE LA BARRA AT BETA-LOCAL IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

exhibition views of 'This is not America!' curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra at Beta Local


information table


Tony Cruz's 'Ley Organica Jones', Puerto Rico Constitution supported by scaffolding structure


Matthieu Laurette 'The Louisiana Repo Purchase'


Jeremy Deller 'Memory Bucket'


Carla Zaccagnini's 'Esto No Es America'


Susanne Bürner 'Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace'


Cristobal Lehyt 'Drawings'



Runo Lagomarsino's ‘The Denial’


Vangelis Vlahos work and Carolina Caycedo's IrakAmerica flag



Vangelis Vlahos ‘John Brady Kiesling’s Letter of Resignation’


Fernando Bryce ‘Juan Pablo Chang y Ernesto Che Guevara. Bolivia 1967’
Poster and take away photocopies


Julieta Aranda, 'No, You Can't', grafitti on paper



Aleksandra Mir, 'The End', digital reproduction of drawing with sharpies

Alfredo Jaar, 'This is Not America'/'A Logo for America', Times Square New York, 1987
digital images found on the internet and video on youtube

Carla Zaccagnini


Tony Cruz and Carmela


Maria Ines Rodriguez and Bronx Museum director Holly Block


Gloria and Hector Madera


Carla Zaccagnini, Runo Lagomarsino and David Waddington


Julieta Aranda


Maria Ines Rodriguez next to Aleksandra Mir's 'The End'


Mima Reyes and Carolina Caycedo's flag

Beta-Local's Critical Corner/El Descanso del Guerrero and the Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution present:

THIS IS NOT AMERICA an assemblage of works by Pablo Leon de la Barra with the participation of  Aleksandra Mir, Alfredo Jaar, Carla Zaccagnini, Carolina Caycedo, Cristobal Lehyt, Fernando Bryce, Javier Tellez, Jeremy Deller, Julieta Aranda, Matthieu Laurette, Runo Lagomarsino, Sean Snyder, Susanne Bürner, Tony Cruz, Vangelis Vlahos

Opening Friday April 17, 2009, 10am to 8pm.
Coffee at 11, Beers at 6pm.
Beta-Local, Calle Luna 208, corner with San Justo, Viejo San Juan, in the Free Associated State of Puerto Rico
Open during April and May, Wednesday and Saturdays and by appointment.
http://www.betalocal.org/

List of Works:

Aleksandra Mir
‘The End’
From the ‘Church of Sharpie’ series
Digital reproduction of drawing done with sharpie on paper.
Original drawing 482.6cm x 558.8cm
‘In May 2005, I gathered 16 assistants for a Sharpie-drawing marathon in a large temporary studio in the East Village, New York. We produced twenty huge (190" by 120") drawings outlining the map of the USA, each with commentary on subjects such as the Civil War, space shuttles, state flowers, the American bicentennial, the draft, road-tripping, love, God and the baby boom. Typically I would outline the drawings overnight, and the assistants would come in and ink my outlines during the day and evening, so there were always three shifts running. Over the course of the month, as we listened to the different music everyone brought in and shared lunches and stories, we also invented a language and developed a cult around this magnificent household marker. Words such as ‘Sharpologist’ were invented. A range of up to twelve Sharpie middle-tones was achieved with the fading marker, while ‘black’ took on a different meaning. My assistants, students and graduates from various New York art schools bore titles such as ‘The Supervisor of Paper Cutting and Protector of Fingertips’, ‘Manager of Middle-tones’ and ‘Secretary of Finesse’.’
Courtesy of the artist.

Alfredo Jaar,
'This is Not America'/'A Logo for America',
Times Square New York
1987

Carla Zaccagnini in collaboration with Chiara Merino and Olga Casellas
‘Esto No Es America’
Translation of David Bowie’s song to Spanish
CD/Sound
2009
Courtesy of the artist.

Carolina Caycedo
‘Irakamerika’
Flag
2007
Courtesy Espacio 1414/Berezdivin Collection, Puerto Rico

Cristobal Lehyt
‘Drawings’
Chalk on blackboard
2001-ongoing
‘Todos los dibujos son de las noticias Estadounidenses, son hechos para que gente en otras partes los re-hagan. Una traduccion de las noticias de EEUU... En principio no se explica cual es la foto original, se entienden pedazos - o no... Al final la gracia es lo de re-dibujar un dibujo de una foto. Son como reglas conceptuales criticas... un sin sentido de como relacionarse con las noticias... mostrar los filtros que hay entre el hecho y el espectador. Son como fantasmas conceptuales de algun vestigio de critica a la politica Estadounidense.
dibujo1: en el sur de eeuu la gente celebra en las autopistas la bandera de la confederacion
dibujo2: ninos en Centroamerica haciendo banderitas para mostrarle a la comitiva de bush cuando visito el pais (Guatemala)"
Courtesy of the artist.

Fernando Bryce
‘Juan Pablo Chang y Ernest Che Guevara. Bolivia 1967’
Poster and take away photocopies
2004-2009
“La imágen del Che y Juan Pablo Chang es la lucha política en acción y es ambivalente como imágen ya que representa en por un lado la derrota de una idea política específica por razones internas y externas, aunque más internas en mi opinión, es una imágen del heroismo perdido, en el sentido en el que lo analiza Badiou, y al mismo tiempo está ligada a la actualidad, como referente lejano en las formas pero actual en los contenidos si se piensa, como lo pienso, que los problemas básicamente siguen siendo los mismos que hace 40 años, en un contexto geopolítico distinto y en un mundo cambiado, ciertamente. Básicamente los mismos problemas también en Cuba por supuesto donde , en mi opinión, se ha demostrado que es imposible desarrollar cualquier proyecto emancipador sin empezar por garantizar libertades democráticas básicas que son necesarias como el aire para poder vivir.”
Courtesy of the artist.

Javier Tellez
‘One Flew over the Void’
DVD
2004
Javier Téllez's project One Flew Over the Void involved a sustained engagement with psychiatric patients from the Baja California Mental Health Center in Mexicali to co- create a public event and to document its evolution and final performance. Inspired by the traditional human cannonball circus performer, Tellez explored the notion of spatial and mental borders in the context of Tijuana and San Diego and developed an event that involves sending a human cannonball across the border between Mexico and the United States. Through successive creative workshops and exchanges the world's most famous human cannonball, Dave Smith, the psychiatric patients and Tellez collectively devised the backdrop, music, costumes, print advertising, radio and television announcements and advertising for the event. The performance will occur on August 27 at the site where the Mexico/US international border fence disappears into the sea between Playas de Tijuana and Border Field State Park.
Courtesy of Arratia-Beer, Berlin

Jeremy Deller
‘Memory Bucket’
DVD
2003
Memory Bucket 2003 uses documentary techniques to explore the state of Texas, focusing on two politically charged locations: the site of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco and President Bush’s home town of Crawford. Archive news footage is collaged with interviews, juxtaposing official reports with personal narratives.
Originally commissioned by Art Pace San Antonio
Courtesy The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow

Julieta Aranda
'No You Can't'
Grafitti
2009
Courtesy of the artist.

Matthieu Laurette
‘The Louisiana Repo-Purchase’
Video installation. DVD, duration: 17 min. looped.
2003-2004
Made with a team from NOATV, the local cable access network in New Orleans, The Louisiana Repo-Purchase, 2003-2004, shows passersby being asked to sign a petition to keep France from buying back the Louisiana territories: "That's ridiculous!" "We don't like Louisiana, so sell it!" "Yes, I want to sign that. We live here now, and we're here to stay."
Courtesy of the artist.

Runo Lagomarsino
‘The Denial’
Computer print
2009
‘The Denial’ is four pages printed out from the US State Department website regarding a myth apparently perpetuated by some Brazilians that the US and UN are now the owners and administrators of the Amazon rainforest.
Courtesy of the artist.

Sean Snyder
‘Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars’
Colour video transferred on DVD, sound
14 min 47
2004 - 2005
Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars (2004-05), involves material of a more recent date, incorporating as it does footage and still images deriving from the American-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the subjects of this work is the role of corporations within the colonisation of the two countries: as is made clear by the artist’s voiceover, which tracks a long history of brand involvement in the conflict zones. However, the last two decades have also seen the exponential development of communications
technology, and the video also explores journalistic conventions, and the staging and manipulation of images, in the era of consumer digital electronics. This powerful work, which combines material from amateur, government and journalistic sources, updates Snyder’s analysis of our image wars to the age of Abu Ghraib.
Courtesy Chantal Crousel, Paris

Susanne Bürner
'Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace'
Revolver/Toastink Press, 2006
“There are many good reasons to disappear from society. There are many bad reasons to want to. There are many good ways to disappear from society and there are many bad ways to disappear. While I won’t delve too deeply into the whys of disappearing, I will cover my opinions on how to disappear successfully. This essay covers what I consider to be most salient points on how to disappear and remain successfully hidden in American society.”
Courtesy Toastink Press, Paris

Tony Cruz
‘Ley Organica Jones’
Puerto Rico Constitution on wood structure
2009
Courtesy of the artist.

Vangelis Vlahos
‘John Brady Kiesling’s Letter of Resignation’
Two posters
from the ‘Brady Kiesling Archive with three scale models of the US Embassy of Athens’
2003
US diplomat John Brady Kiesling’s letter of resignation from his post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell in March 2003 in open dispute with American policy in Iraq.
Courtesy Luis Augusto Teixeira de Freitas Collection, Portugal

*****
About Beta-Local's El Descanso del Guerrero Critical Corner

INDEX CARD #1
Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless impatient continuing hopeful enquiry ( we) pursue in the world, and with each other. (1)

THE CORNER - A PHYSICAL HUB

THE CORNER will be an attempt to propel the interaction of individuals who, by their restless and impatient inquiry, are in the need/search of a social engineering structure that can empower self-organizing, generating subjective spaces of production that promote the creation, sharing, and dissemination of ideas around the subtleties of vernacular culture, such as concepts regarding new structures for the common good, and appropriation of past structures (re-interpreted for the present time; rethinking the commons).

Today, more than ever, hubs of creative activity can happen in non-physical space ( the Internet). THE CORNER searches for ways in which physical connections can occur, where experiments in an opinionated place can flourish, and where the actions of input/output can function as instrumentalizations of local needs.

THE CORNER dreams of the “What ifs” and their concretization. It dreams of the need to look for alternatives for different issues facing humanity: the need to look for democratic means of production; the need to look for responsibly throughout; and the need to sort out developments that solve local problems and foster local reality.

THE CORNER believes that introducing creative critical tools into otherwise lay noncreative processes can pull out of the box tired rutinary thinking, providing a new energy for optimism toward reality through alternative solutions. THE CORNER believes that bodies need to displace themselves, connecting isolated points, complimenting cerebral information-gathering with physical nonverbal presence, in terms of the human need to be together, generating permanent and temporary communities.

(1) Freiere, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Bergman Ramos, New York, The Continuing International Publishing Group Inc, 1970, p.52 ( Quote found in the book of Lucy & Jorge Orta, patterned book.

INDEX CARD #2
..."Tampoco se cambia una organización o una asociación empezando a influir sobre sus miembros. Si se quiere cambiar una institución, una organización, cualquier corporación pública mundana, sólo puede renovar su constitución, sus leyes, sus estatutos y esperar que todo lo demás se dé por sí mismo."(1)

- mission - an agent of change
- tarea/homework - knowledge distribution
- job description for employees - facilitators of &/or for transitions ocurring in society
- construcción de un diccionario de palabras claves : ejemplo : corresponsabilidad
- mantain an archive of specific situations of individuals and create an added value by synthetizing them as a way to disperse the pulse of the moment
- mantener una bibliografía actualizada
- arquitecture to the service of the flow - mantener espacios para input / output de ideas
- search, adopt and foster random ideas floating in the system without host
- experimentation, fail and reconstruction are part of the evaluation system and should be engage in

..."Si esperar milagros es un rasgo del callejón sin salida que ha ido a parar nuestro mundo, de ninguna manera esta esperanza nos saca del ámbito poítico originario... No por que creamos en ellos sino por que los hombres, en la medida en que pueden actuar, son capaces de llevar a cabo lo improbable e imprevisible y de llevarlo a cabo continuamente, lo sepan o no."  (2)

(1) (2) excerpts from Hannah Arendt ? Qué es política?

VANGELIS VLAHOS 'BETWEEN FACTS AND POLITICS'

Vangelis Vlahos - BETWEEN FACTS AND POLITICS - curated by Marco Scotini Opening: tuesday December 16,2008 - 7 pm
Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani via Ventura 3, Milano
Through: January 28, 2009 - tue. to sat. 11-1 pm /3-7 pm

Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani is pleased to announce the opening of the Between Facts and Politics exhibition, with works by one of the most renowned Greek artists, Vangelis Vlahos. For his second show in Italy, Vlahos has installed a generous selection of his recent works in the gallery, most of which have never been shown before.

Internationally acclaimed for his work on social-history archives, on the symbolic value of architecture and on public memory, Vangelis Vlahos is bringing to Milan a broad-ranging work of 22 paintings/displays with an arrangement of photographic material and newspaper cuttings referring to about one year of Greek history, under the title 1981 (Allagi). Both this work and the second in the show, which is a sequence of 42 photographs under glass, entitled Images to Influence the Reading of Greece’s Interests in Eastern Europe and the Balkans Today, take their original documents from the archives of Eleftheros Cosmos (“Free World”), which was the official newspaper of the military junta of the Colonels in Greece. The last work, which is also dedicated to the influence of Greece’s current role in the Balkans, consists of two architectural scale models, The National Bank of Greece (NBG) 1961-2006.

The ruins that Vangelis Vlahos brings to light are not exactly “classical”, even though the remains that emerge from his excavations are often fragments of urban architecture.

The immediate impression is that the relationship between the safety and vulnerability of power is at the heart of Vangelis Vlahos’s works, irrespective of the type of power (military, political, economic, etc.) involved at that particular time. Indeed, it is precisely the most significant transitional periods and moments of change – such as the fall of the Greek military junta or the end of the Berlin Wall – that best reveal the resilience or fragility of power behind the means it uses to show or conceal itself.

Even so, what Vlahos’s works show us is in any case a representation of power which is always caught precisely when its supposed integrity is threatened or tarnished. Traumatic political incidents that put power at risk or that challenge it acquire the same significance as the objectives it fails to achieve, the projects that are never realised, or the ruins of a reality that does not fully come to fruition.

On the one hand we find in Vlahos’s works a 1:150 scale model of the American Embassy in Athens, which was built to a design by Walter Gropius in the late 1950s. This cardboard model is shown perfectly intact next to a curved metal wire that indicates the trajectory of the anti-tank rocket that was to have hit the diplomatic mission but that fell outside its walls. On the other hand we find a scale model of the Tower of Piraeus. This was a 25-floor building commissioned by the military junta as a monumental business and trade centre for the most important port in Greece. It was never completed or entirely used before the regime of the colonels fell in 1974 and was thus a failed utopian dream.

But this representation of power acquires full meaning in the work of Vangelis Vlahos only when compared with another principle of authority, which is the fundamental principle of history, and of the discursive formation that we refer to as “history”. It is here that the true importance of Vlahos’s work comes out in its entirety – when what is being investigated is not so much the deeds and data of power as such, but the knowledge that they define, and the influence they exert. In other words, the ways in which these data are recorded and accumulated. Or better, the strategies they adopt to create a memory or bring about a deletion of history to create permanent or temporary amnesia.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published for the occasion by prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, with essays by Marco Scotini and Aristide Antonas.

The work of Vangelis Vlahos (Athens, Greece, 1971) is celebrated around the world. His participation at the Prague Biennale (2007), the Sao Paulo Biennale (2006), the Berlin Biennale (2994) and Manifesta 5 (San Sebastian, 2004) have all been most significant.