STEFANOS TSIVOPOULOS – Lost Monument

2009
Video, HD transferred on DVD. 27′
Courtesy the artist
22 b&w archival photographs on archival paper, 21 x 21
7 b&w archival photographs on archival paper, various dimensions
Archival film, color, Digibeta transferred on DVD, 4′
Archival film, b&w, 16mm transferred on DVD, 45”

 
Lost Monument, the work of Greek artist Stefanos Tsivopoulos expound the political circumstances of the installation and the removal of the monumental figurative plastic in its local context. Video follows the story of the controversial and now demolished monument to Harry S. Truman, former President of the United States, located next to the Athenian Acropolis and Parliament, a favourite place for civic protests against the hegemony of American political/imperial interests in Greece. Tsivopoulos’ video work outlines the collective social amnesia through the journey of Truman’s lost monument, which, in a kind of odyssey, passes through all classes of Greek society (farmers, fishermen, migrants, the bourgeoisie).

Stefanos Tsivopoulos(1973, CZ) articulates the role of collective memory and the subjective interpretation of history. Research into mass media, archival images and found footage often form the basis for his films with poetic and allegoric undertones. Concurrent with the artist’s continued investigation into how collective memory is shaped by mediated reality, runs a fascination with the fine line between reality and its fictional reconstruction, as well as with the boundaries between the authentic and the scripted, the staged and the improvised. He is the recipient of the Golden Cube Award for the best video installation at the 25th Kasseler Documentary Film Festival in Kassel, Germany. His work is included in shows at the Manifesta 8 Murcia, 1st Athens Biennial, Witte de With Rotterdam, BFI Southbank London, Friedericianum Kunstverein Kassel, ev+a Biennial Limerick, Centre Pompidou Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, and others. He lives and works in Amsterdam, NL.