Title: Vasilis Alexandrou
Date & Time: 06/05/2019 - 12/05/2019 12:00-18:00
Location: Old Fortress (Alevrapothikes)

Title: Vasilis Alexandrou, Bliss Machines
Opening: Monday, May 6, 20:30
Solo Exhibition
Curation Angelos Floros

Bliss machines
Changing History

This exhibition is a continuation of the artistic research of the late years of the artist, Vasilis Alexandros, attempting to extend the boundaries of sculpture. In the three installations random findings or other urban waste (according to others) are presented. They are activated with the help of new implements to create a conceptual framework that raises concerns about the power of human rights in modern societies.

In the first installation, a sharp marble dominates vertically invested with the reading of extracts of the Declaration of Human Rights, as first formulated during the French Revolution (1789). The inanimate, mechanistic digital voice of the computer transforms this manifesto of humanism into a deformed text without substance. A point that has been virtually emptied of its meaning and conveys the protection of the inalienable fundamental rights that every human being is entitled to right from the time of his birth.

In the second installation, a series of school chairs are presented in an array, referring to old patterns of school discipline. In this disciplined environment, sound also plays a key role here as it adds and essentially overturns the narrative of the project. Once a viewer sits on any of these, mechanical computer voices recite extracts from laws and regulations as defined by the official state across all the lengths of the earth. The lawfulness of the rules runs counter to the obvious violation of the basic human rights of freedom of thought and action, equality in law, human solidarity.

In the third installation, an old camp board with a mark “WARNING BARB WIRE” turns and stops by redefining the space and pointing each time in another direction. The removing of the billboard as a municipal waste and redeploying its horizontal position cancels the original use of the object, which is now free to be given a new meaning. The rules and restrictions that imply the existence of the sign controvert the rules that modern societies have introduced for the well-being and prosperity of the man. Rules, however, which ultimately trap most of the world's population in their unworthy respect, perpetuating oppression, injustice and lack of freedom.

Translation: Argyroudi Niki