Outset Greece supported Alexandros Tzannis’s solo exhibition "Blue black layers over the white city" and curated byIliana Fokianaki,presented atState of Concept.Alexandros Tzannis, one of the most interesting voices in the contemporary greek art landscape, presented a new body of works that were in reference to, an inspiration from and an address to the city he was born in and lives: Athens.
Tzannis has been working for the last decade with sculpture and drawing, creating environments that challenge the frontiers of his life in the city. His artistic process involves collecting the forms of fragments of the city today and the found objects that create the assemblage of what is currently giving Athens its character or what has at times defined or altered it. All these elements are gathered partly in order for the artist to re-construct what he calls a stage that wishes to articulate the mysteries of Athens, but also to evoke the feeling of living in a city that since its creation has witnessed severe transformations.
In many of his sculptures Tzannis literally depicts these elements by using raw concrete and wood, in formations that one would find in construction sites. He is fascinated by the city’s silent mundane corners: the entrance steps of the blocks of flats that constitute its centre, the dirty in-betweens of yards and the hidden underground forgotten bars and their stages, that have kept their initial designs and architecture but also their clientele, that seems unphased by the passage of time.
Alexandros Tzanniswas born in Athens in 1979. He studied in the Athens School of Fine Arts. His work combines figurative and abstract elements, idealistic and symbolic characteristics, decorative and allegorical connotations, whilst it references hieroglyphics and science fiction iconography. His work operates on one basic axon: that our contemporary historical situation demands archaeologies for the future and not prophesies of the past.
ON VIEW:10th February — 22nd March 2017
