Opening: Thursday 25 April, 2024, 20:00
The English word rekt, an abbreviation and neologism of the word wrecked, is used among the online gaming community to represent defeat, failure. The same word is used by the visual artist Vasilis Alexandrou with its political implications, as a sarcastic, ironic pun in the title of his exhibition "Politically rekt", which will be presented at the MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts in Thessaloniki (Warehouse B1, Pier A', port) from 25 April to 12 May 2024.
Based on the practice-based doctoral thesis that the visual artist has started since March 2020 at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts of the Ionian University entitled "Political art in the digital age" and with the support of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI.), the exhibition captures the artist's personal process since then, which was largely accomplished during periods of confinement and loneliness.
The sometimes positive but mostly negative signs recorded during that period – solidarity, empowerment and resilience in the first case, the staggering prevalence of digital media, the mass surveillance, the psychological manipulation operations, the political inaction and the widespread complacency of citizens, among others, in the second – are reflected in the thematic axis of the artist's works.
Alexandrou "plays" with words, either in the title of his exhibition, or in the installations he presents and in which he requests/demands the attention and action on behalf of the visitor. Fame virus, Safe pace, Iconstasi, Clap me hard and social.gr are just some of these titles, which provoke and comment on the creeping socio-economic crisis of the time.
Curated by: Eirini Papakonstantinou, Art Historian-Museologist
Artist’s Talk / Guided tour by Vasilis Alexandrou (in Greek language)
Thursday 09 May, 2024, 18:00
With the entrance ticket in the exhibition.
Curriculum Vitae
Vasilis Alexandrou was born in 1990 in Thessaloniki Greece, where he lives and works. He graduated with honors from the School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2014. In 2019 he completed a Master Degree on Interactive Installation and New Media in art, at the School of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University. Since March 2020 he has been a PhD candidate at the School of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University pursuing a practice-based PhD research titled "Political Art in Digital Age" for which he has been awarded a scholarship by H.F.R.I., Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation.
Vasilis has created two permanent works for public space and has displayed his work in seven solo exhibitions and in more than 70 group shows. In 2020, he was awarded the ARTWORKS at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship Program. At the academic level, he has taught courses, seminars and workshops at Universities in Greece, such as the School of Sound and Visual Arts of the Ionian University, the Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries of the University of Thessaly and the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the School of Fine Arts Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
