The story is built on Seferis’ verse: “The statues are no longer debris, we are”, from Seferis’ poem “The voluptuous Elpinor”.
Eleftherostypos.gr was at the Kakogiannis Foundation and spoke with the creator Dimitris Kotsis regarding his inspired conception:
“The basic idea is the bridge of modern Hellenism with its historical past,” Dimitris Kotsis tells us. “Our identity also includes the identity of our ancestors. Seferis’s verse condenses in a few words volumes of analysis on the relationship of the Modern Greeks with their distant past. Moreover, it signifies the perpetual cycle of life, which despite its transformations, is fed by the same underground currents.
This eternal cycle of life is important to us. We do not stand in another verse, in the same poem by Seferis, who identifies the wreckage with us today. This eternal cycle, going from decay and death to rebirth, from ancient statues and their remains to a new modern life, has led us to the whole composition.
What do viewers of the installation see?
They follow the transition of an ancient statue (the “spreader”) through its fragmentation, to a modern new one, which following some steps, will be slowly and ritualistically immersed in a water element, until it is transformed back into a statue. The whole process is reminiscent of rites of passage, such as baptism.
The transformations of the statue into a modern new one, as well as vice versa of the new one into a statue, go parallel to the transition from the sketch to the painting composition and from there to realistic depictions through digital graphics. Thus the combination of paintings and digital images gives a feeling of hand-made, which escapes from the usual coldness of a screen.
What is the goal of this proposal?
This event took place in the context of a wider animation project of visual works. The purpose of this proposal is to give movement and action to still images, but on a specific story-scenario. The idea is to “come alive” through digital applications painting and sculptural works.
Digital technology can make many arts work together: acting, visual arts, music, cinema. From a very young age, I was involved with both theater and visual arts. In the new technologies I found unlimited possibilities of their synthesis.
How did you want to connect modern Greece with ancient Greece with the help of modern technology?
The idea of connecting modern Greece with its ancient civilization, but through deeper underground routes, (without the touristy stuff), occupied me from a very young age, when I was a student in Paris, I met French people who might recite Homer (man He was a multi-faceted muse…). Then, in Greece now, in 1987, as a director I staged for the first time in Greece “Phaedra” by Yannis Ritsos, set by Yannis Tsarouchis. My association with these two emblematic personalities made me delve deeper into this subject, to which I have since returned periodically.
Our subject in the present installation is: us in relation to our references to the past. With the “living” of a specific ancient statue, as well as specific painted images of modern buildings, we have a continuous transition from the present to the historical memory and from the past to the present, through the transformations of the statue-human and the painted matiera, into digital graphics.
During the action we pass, with realistic cinematographic action, from the pictorial representation of buildings to their realistic photographic representation, and from the sculptural representation of man to its transformation into a living contemporary youth. Here digital technology does not stand alone for the sake of sensationalism. On the contrary, it becomes part of the whole composition, complementing the poetic discourse and visual creations.
COEFFICIENTS
Conception-Script-Direction: Dimitris Kotsis
Director of digital applications: Ilias Hatzichristodoulou
Animation- Video editing by Alexandra Papagianni
Music-sound environment: Fanis Sakellariou
Actor: Yiannis Korres
Camera: Leonidas Kehagias
Paintings: Dimitris Kotsis
Production direction: Ilias Hatzichristodoulou
Production: META-POSITIONS / INTERACTIONS and
ATHENS DIGITAL ARTS FESTIVAL
The action is sponsored by the MINISTRY OF CULTURE
Info: Michalis Kakogianni Foundation Address: Piraeus 206, Tavros
Teaser
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