I used to build my feelings, now I watch them leave

a selection of works by Andreas Angelidakis

Drawing on two main sources of inspiration – the city of Athens and the Internet –, the work of Andreas Angelidakis deals with ruins and antiquities, whether they be ancient or modern; real or virtual. His animated videos and 3D-printed ornaments generally rely on existing buildings and digital arti-facts that often look dated or disposable, and which operate as allegories of architectural and historical conditions. In films like Vessel, Domesticated Mountain, and TROLL or the Voluntary Ruin, Angelidakis gives buildings a voice, treating them as if they were anthropomorphic creatures driven by their own internal desires. Though forms of repression (financial, technolog-ical, social, or sexual) and the structural shock of the Greek government debt crisis have rendered these edifices silent and obsolete, Angelidakis presents them as ruins, nature, or specters – half building, half something else. Far from being inert, these ‘living’ buildings have emancipated them-selves as they transition into a state of timelessness. Ultimately, they will overcome the false cult of progress and futurity.

The narrative strategies employed in the exhibition (streams of conscious-ness and melodramatic scores, to name but a few) are the same Angelidakis might have used to analyse the buildings and cities appearing in and out the exhibition. Esoteric and generous at once, the show excavates the subcon-scious aspects embedded in the work, and offer a glimpse into the artist’s psyche. Angelidakis’ proposal not only unearths processes of fantasy and construction but also offers room for his personal memories and references to guide the work.

Curated by Anne-Claire Schmitz

Exhibition text