Aliens on Blazing Earth
8 EIGHT - Critical Institute for Arts and Politics
Zissis Kotionis “ALIENS IN BLAZING EARTH”
How does a text turn into images, sculptural figures and sounds? In the space of EIGHT / ΤΟ ΟΧΤΩ, Zissis Kotionis presents the virtual metaphor of his book “Aliens in Blazing Earth”, in drawings-images, models and a video. The question of the project remains: How can we revisit the great environmental crisis both on a planetary scale and in reference to the personal practices of contemporary life? For this question, the discourse and life practices of six “outsiders” of the universal culture are discussed. In Kotionis's visual project, Empedocles, Diogenes the Dog, Christ, Don Quixote, the poet Issa and Nietzsche are presented as potential protagonists of a subversive, environmentally virtuous, impoverished life against the impending destruction of the planet. Kotionis's visual production are thoughtful, ironic and paradoxical depictions upon texts of the Western canon viewed through the oblique lens of a radical environmental ethic.
Sound installation, music: Stathis Gourgouris
Exhibition design: Marianthi Efthymiou, architect, photographer
Video images_edited by: Maria Liapi, student of architecture at the University of Thessaly
Reading performance 18 June 21:00 : Phoebe Giannisi, Stathis Gourgouris, Katerina Zacharopoulou, Katerina Iliopoulou, Zissis Kotionis, Vassilis Noulas, Kostas Tzimoulis
Opening: Wednesday 18 June, 20:00 Duration of the exhibition: 18 June - 29 June Opening hours: Every day 18:00-21:00 EIGHT / ΤΟ ΟΧΤΩ , Polytechniou 8, 104 33, Athens