Gregos Theopsy, your latest work which I could briefly describe as a Nazi green carpet covered with frenetic cheap Chinese elecronic toys is presented this week in Athens at Bulb, a symposium around ecological awareness. What exactly is the connection here?Why a Nazi flag, why toys, why there...what does it represent?
It's an allegory covering a large spectrum of ideas ranging from a specific collective project that consists on making the world a better place, to specific phobias,such as xenophobia and international conspiracy. I used a naive and provocative combination of well-known symbols and ready-mades to reflect the immaturity and dangers that really accompany every collective project of this sort. I changed the color of the Nazi flag from red to green and used it as a sort of playground on which i set my "actors"; a couple. It's not my first work with toys. I usually bend the toys I am working with, but for THINK GREEN I thought to keep them raw, fresh and from the hands of some lady in a Chinese factory. To tell you the truth, I even wear gloves when I touch them...to be totally sure that they keep their original vibe.
"Think Green" - mixed media 240x160 cm 2011
In what is this work related to the home made bomb that you presented at Palais de Tokyo in Paris?
"Revolution Now" was a bomb that I displayed in a museum as an art object. I really tried to make it look as beautiful as I could so that people would walk by and say: "Wow, that looks really nice!" before they even realize what they were confronted to. For "Think Green" the process was kind of similar. There are many ways to read this piece. I brought elements on the scene and let the viewers do the narrative. That gives a certain space for people to imagine all sorts of interpretations. It gives them space to imagine things. And simultaneously it gives me an occasion to provoke a distortion of what they believe it's true. For these two pieces I worked with History - as a collective absolute truth - as if it was some modeling paste.
Think Greek is clearly a politically oriented work and you also recenlty are very active on the blog Boom-Wow! which aims to generate a feedback between arts and politics. What made you focus in this direction?
I don't perceive anymore politics as the struggle between some ruling organ and the people. I perceive politics as the relation between every individual and the rest. And it is somehow a similar situation you face in art. The relation between each one of us and the totality is what interests me in both fields. At Boom-Wow! we are trying to create interaction between these two fields in order to find new ways to communicate and promote integration.
What would be for you the ideal society, the right place to be?
The united states of poetry.
Do you intend to do more bombs and fascist flags?
You know, in the Roman empire it was forbidden for most of the people to wear purple, a color that was solely reserved to the emperor's family.I am simply trying to show that historical events belong to us, that history is not some stream that simply unfolds away from us. I am trying to take back the event, because it has been taken away from us and redistributed as a spectacle on TV, movies and everything that is between us and the world. Between me and you.
Are you eco-friendly?
I don't like packaging very much and I think that cars are ridiculous objects.
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