Not Random Art | Page 63

cannot claim that I am a naif artist, although very often i feel around my art childlike, never childish. I am a trained fine artist and performer, as you see in my CV, but recently I prefer venues of expression that I don't have much ease, in order to avoid taking anything for granted. It's like feeling at the beginning or alert again and again. Its like not knowing what to expect, being unpredictable, and thus every time I start something I am entering an intriguing, for me the artist, procedure.

On the other hand I make sure I complete what I set out to do, I don't like the feeling of leaving things half done, although that has happened a lot inevidably.

For instance now I am working on a theme called 'bureaucracy,', which will take seven canvases to be completed, (I have worked on five of them). it's not easy to insist on the project, but I do despite other projects that pop in the way. As for the matter of rules and constraints, it depends to some extent on the subject, if for instance you want to talk about the ruthless and ruleless actions of the Isis can that be done holding optical rules of the 19th century? What I mean is that I am in constant search of new aesthetic rules in order to be able to express what holds my interest.

On aesthetics, I quote two recent videos, ‘:commenting on 5a and 5b’, lately uploaded on my website :www. myartinaction.yolasite. com

How do you see the relationship between emotional and intellectual perception of your work? In particular, how much do you consider the immersive nature of the viewing experience?

Some works get overloaded by the emotional part of the work, some hold on a more intellectual weight.

I am not sure that when these two are in balance and merged well together in a piece of work, that would signify a more successful result. Sometimes the lack of completion, either way, is more inviting to the viewer, leaves him space to interact. It would be interesting though to hear from a spectator which piece of work appeals to him most and to distinguish between works of mine, then we could have an overall picture.

Multidisciplinarity seems to be a crucial aspct of your approach and it`s remarkable the way you are capable of creating such effective symbiosis between elements from different techniques, manipulating language and recontextualizing images and concepts. While crossing the borders of different disciplines and materials is the only way to acheive some results, to express some concepts?

It is important as I mentioned before to try and create new aesthetics. The crossing of disciplines and the adding of ways of expression helps me move into that direction, For, when combining media, what strengthens is the actual thing you want to emphasize on, and when the means of ‘how’, merge more and more together, couldn't that lead to a new aesthetic finally? Only,,one would have to repeat the process all over again, on and on…. to get some result.

Before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

I might discuss with audience a certain art project, and then mold it having the influence of the audience play a role in the process. I have done that with performances, especially at a time when I would give performances in a more private space, on a regular base. On the other hand, often I find myself pursuing my art with an intense grade of secrecy, so, in that case, if any audience is made part of it, it wiĺl be the imaginary ones.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing thoughts, Athina. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I feel I want to make projects on large scale involving hplumans. (For example, I admired the performance held at Hull, by naked people painted blue aĺl over their bodies, initiated by artist photographer Spencer Tunick).

Weĺl, I am more of a materials constructor- artist, lets say. I have recently applied to a Japanese festival for a project that will operate on a such a dimension, and I am in search of similar opportunities.

(One may see previous attempts at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5Qou4jS2nmZIehO4t0daNlZwvYAR9dey

Yet, I don't see me abandoning my paintings, which keep me in a personal dialog with the world out there along with my activity on YouTube and my blog, both reachable through my website.

I believe that my ‘performance' faze is over, but you never know…

Thank you for your questionnaire, it was very helpful for stirring up my thoughts around my art and in general. I hope that my input was somehow helpful to you as well.

Thank you for your interest in my work, I think my artistic practice is closely related to the continually evolving post-digital culture, its evolving hybridity, forms and articulations. In my work, I question the cultural condition after digital technology revolutions. I tend to involve the experiential side of digitally created art to a conceptual level. For me, the conceptual logic is a part as important as the experiential side of an artwork. If every artwork produces some kind of aesthetic experience, only a part of them integrated a conceptual signification. That’s why I find fascinating the work of contemporary artists such as Philippe Parreno and Carsten Höller. They (among others) are able to retreat behind the idea of restoring experiential and intersubjective capacities of art and by the same time encouraging reflection. I’m also inspired by the work of artists from 1960/70s like (among others) Otto Piene, Gianni Colombo or Lucio Fontana. I believe you can find in my work the influence of Fontana’s idea to consider the flat surface as a three-dimensional work that records the passage of time and its interaction with light. Such a situated dimension of experience I’ve represented in my work BEHIND THE SCREEN through the line-cut of light that suggests the moment of suspended interaction but also the existence of another dimension and possibilities realities.

Would you like to tell us something about your artistical as well as life background?

I am an interdisciplinary artist born in Poland and I live and work in Paris. In the past years I was working as an architect, designer and researcher. I’ve studied architect

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Before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a qhas been useful in some way for exploring and refining my ideas. Now in my capacity as film director, I'm able to cork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race

and ethnic identity in visual culture?

“Revolted by the Thought of Known Places… Sweeney Astray” by Joan Jonas was one of the first performance installations that really made a huge impact on me. I was living in Paris during this time, in the early 90s, with a lot of influences from different cultures. It became the starting point of my own work. Joan Jonas practice has explored ways of seeing, the rhythms of ritual, and the authority of objects and gestures. Jonas continues to find new layers of meanings in themes and questions of gender and identity that have fueled her art for over thirty years. She is a great inspiration still today.

It is impossible to avoid the topic of body consciousness, embodied emotions and the image of body and personal identity that we see in your practice. What is the function of the identity appearing in your artworks – is it a canvas used to present your ideas or rather the subject of the art? What inspired you to use this as a theme in your practice?

I have been developing my visual imagery since I began studying art and film - from conceptual thinking, composition, using light and colour in different ways, through all the different techniques I've utilised over the years in my work and in my collaborations with stage artists such as dancers, musicians and actors. My approach is always developing through exploring these things. Visual imagery in essence is your way of experiencing what you see and transforming it. This is my world that I want to share and express through my art. The body consciousness, embodied emotions and the image of body and personal identity is part of this visual imagery, the emotional essence in my practice. Always present and always developing in different themes and projects.

Marina Abramovic stated: You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of

which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.'Can you relate anyhow to these words?

de-identify myself, by losing my roots, my culture, I would be very happy. Unfortunately the human being does'nt choose the place where he is born. He grows up in a society that automatically identifies, through education, culture, family... More than ever I think it's more important to go on a way of self-knowledge with the aim to meet “the other”.. This other without which we can not exist. It's the same for the artist. It is more important for me to be focused on my practice than to try to define it according to esthetic criteria of identification. It's probably the reason i like to remember the painter Matisse who said or wrote that an artist must never be prisoner of himself, prisoner of a style, prisoner of a reputation.

Would you like to tell us something about your background? Could you talk a little about experiences that has influence the way you currently relate yourself to your artworks?

All my way is influenced by encounterings.

It began by the meeting with my professor of literature at school. More than giving French or Literature classes, she brought us to discover texts, movies, plays, visual artworks and to think about on what we saw or read.. Thanks to her that I met Pierre Vincke, a theatredirector who was worjink in the tradition of Grotowski ... Both of them have led me to go to theater school. In this school I had meetings. Meetings with artists but also and especially human beings that made me discover. I always need o discover rather than to master a practice. It's probably the reason my encounter with Monica Klingler and Boris Nieslony was decisive for me and led me on the path of Performance Art which is a form still difficult to define. Each performance artist has a different definition of what it is...

Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about race and ethnic identity in visual culture?

No I don't have a specific artwork that has influenced my artistic practise but many.

I'm influenced by some philsophers as well as poets or musicians or dancers or visual artists but also by some places or landscapes or atmospheres ... For some years, I was used for example to go to India where I was used to follow some traditionnal muscians or to learn bharatanatyam and practice vipassana meditation... Of course this experience has impacted my art work.... This brought me to think and work differently... My experience in India brought me to discover traditionnal strong art and paradoxally to the way of Performance Art. But there I see one common point: to make no separation between art and life and to be here and now, without projection on the future.

It's difficult for me to speak about race and ethnic identity. But I can say that today we miss more and more this notion of “to be here and now” which is more present in some cultures ... By practising Performance Art, it's my way to be connected to this way of thinking. And even in this field actually it's more and more difficult. The society and the art world brings us more and more to plan in advance, to define our work, more than to do. Just to do. To do what we deeply need.

And of course, my encountering with Black Market International and later the notion of Open Source or Open session via PAErsche have also a big impact on my work. When we go on that, each of us perform by sharing time and space but without trying to convince each other on some common way. This is for me a wonderfull way how we can meet each other, regardless of our origin, our race or our “identity”...

Many of your works carry an autobiographical message. Since you transform your experiences into your artwork, we are curious, what is the role of memory in your artistic productions? We are particularly interested if you try to achieve a faithful translation of your previous experiences or if you rather use memory as starting point to create.

My memory is clearly a starting point to create. I don't have any autobiographical message. I use my personnal experience ( what I feel , what I see, what I learn, what I ear...) to work. It's a motor or a material. I'm not able to paint, so I can't do something with red or white or yellow or black colors. All I have is life, a body alive. And I need to do something with that...

My sensation about life sometimes is too intense then I need to transform this intensity in some action. Some artistic action... If people can take something from this action this is great... but I don't want to give them “a specific message” or to control the translation of my experience.