MARILENA SYNODINOU sample portfolio of work/ 2014
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Drawn from Elias Canetti oeuvre Crowds and Power, crystall formations are used as a metaphors of rigid, self contained, unchangeable crowd formations, united under a common purpose. This image is part of work that investigated how ideology can form a collective body. 2
Crowd Crystals
woodblock print on xerox photocopy of digitally manipulated found image
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Statement
In my work I explore technologies of the self. I examine them from a critical perspective: how the individual is related to the whole, ways to relate to the Other. The strategies that inform and establish systems of alterity. I am interested in employing various forms of narrative, in order to present my own interpretations of realities, genealogies of contemporary life.
Each time I set for a new project, I begin with an open ended approach, involving field work, theoretical readings, doing visual research, sketching, discussing, and keeping notes. It is my intention to let the work evolve without using a predetermined medium or having a predefined task. I do have, though, a preference in using mediums that allow reproduction and interaction in physical space. Through my practice up till now, I have employed printmaking, small scale publishing/ artist books, in situ installation and performance, network transmission. I enjoy working collaboratively with artists and theorists from a wide range of backgrounds- choreography, visual arts, theatre, media art, anthropology and social sciences. I believe that working together is a valuable learning process for all members. The experience and outcomes are characterised by a unique richness and diversity and this is a reason I always pursue to take part in collective actions, whenever the right opporunity arises.
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p.
INDEX
crowd crystals issue of details B 1/1 relatives the BIRD institute you are here ebb coin against lethe drifting cities list#2, the whole picture das ist ein other work samples current work
2-3 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22-23 24-25 26-27 28-30 31
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Issue of details takes a close look to imagery used for propaganda purposes: a technique to identify with and project oneself to an image, idea or object. The resources were mass produced printed material , such as posters, magazines, and film drawn from the age of modernism. I tryed to underpick the underlying visual and logical structure. A digital copy was sent via e-mail to different recipients, who were asked to fit in the publishing by submitting their own text or image, responding to the book. A second issue of details was produced and the co-authors recieved a silkscreened unique print with their entries in the back: texts, images, sound.
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Issue of details
archival print, edition of two, 2012 and silkscreen unique prints with digital print of collaborative project, edition of eight, 2013
please visit http://issuu.com/mrl.syn/docs/issue_d_presented
issue of details, archival print, 2013
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B
installation and performance, unique silkscreen prints, burnt oil, objects. for the 2nd Athens Printfest, 2012
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The issue of details project evolved to an installation and performance. This commented on the use of the idea often used by propagandathat of the clean, pure and proper. Elements used to promote the sense of the ideal. A rigid and balanced composition of prints,where drawn from the book and displayed in a room. With the help of an assistant, burnt engine oil was put in the back side of the prints. Gradually the filth emerged to the front side of the paper, contaminating the basic material of the image.
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documentation film still
I s s u e o f d e ta i l s 1 / 1
in situ installation unique silkscreen prints, 14th Athens Comics Festival
This work is a transition of the issue of details, from the book format into space. It was presented in an abandoned-formerly building technology- school building in the degraded center of the city. It is meant to be a building inside a building , a space of temporary inhabitance, pray or transport. 11
please visit http://issuu.com/mrl.syn/docs/relatives_index 12
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ĆľĆŻĆˇĆŤĆ Ć˛Ć¨ĆąĆ˛Ń†ĆŹ Ć ĆŹĆ§ĆŻŃ†Â›ĆˇĆŹ
For this work, I used an artist as ethnographer methodology. I researched the greek extreme right discourse, examining a network of interrelated extreme right internet sites and blogs as field work.
Affinities
a study on stereotype print on demand digital publication, 2013
I also researched relevant literature on the topic of the other and set up an artist book, combining artistic writing with manipulated imagery under the title Affinities. In Affinities some of the core ideas and strategies implemented by this clan are presented as the outcomes of my research which formed the springboard to complete my artwork. 13
The BIRD institute
in situ lecture- performance
A key element of this discourse is the euphoric past(the belief that life in the past was always better compared to the present). Through blood descendance, the ancestral -stereotypical- physical and intellectual properties are passed on to the present. I decided to trace back a genealogy of these ideas. I arbitarily connected the works of George Cuvier, Francis Galton, Alphonse Bertillion, Aby Warburg amongst others. I built an archive of images, naming each one of them as command lines that, when read one after the other, produced a narrative of discrimination. I then transmitted them through an independent network into public space. Later on, I presented this archive, performing as a fake institute lecturer. The space was manipulated so as to resemble an educational room with various educational materials, such as a projection, educational cards, books, posters, notebooks, a fake prestigious publication, certificates of attendance. Existing typography elements and furniture where incorporated, so as to refer to the methods of stereotype reproduction.
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filmstill- documentation of the performance
please visit http://issuu.com/mrl.syn/docs/bird_tutorial
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What does val u e mean? How is it being created? If so, how are it’s different aspects (economic, aesthetics,education,...) interconnected? Does one experience the current social circumstances as a crisis of values across all levels? How do we redefine today the value of life and things? A weekly-basis workshop during AGORA, the 4th Athens Biennale brought artists and academics together, in order to discuss on issues around value. Following my recent experience of moving from Athens to London, I talked about the loose, ever moving frame and the strange rules that apply when seeking to enter in a professional work environment. The presentation was accompanied by surreal infographics. These where the result of my everyday life documenting, while going through various assesments and processes to join a new life in the UK , along with idealistic photographs from lifestyle imagery. Following my interest for modes of conduct, the presentation used a strict but underminingly sarcastic language.
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ÎĽou are here lecture- performance, Value team member 4th Athens Biennale
please visit http://athensbiennale.org/ai1ec_event/value-workshop http://issuu.com/mrl.syn/docs/youarehere
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The ebbcoin manifesto What it is Ebb is a reserve currency of an imaginary coin. It is allocated in the borders of the real. Value
EBBCOIN http://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/
EBBCOINhttp://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/
Ebb seeks value in the failures and sort comings of the financial status quo. Ebb accepts failure as a generator of potential. It departs from the ‘bigger, better, faster’ notion. How it works It is a generative coin that interacts with real-time data collected from the bitcoin market, exchanged into the market value of drachma on its’ last day of circulation. Why Drachma? This national currency not only became obsolete but is alsohttp://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/ a symbol of the EBBCOIN http://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/ EBBCOIN
failure of a national economy and a monetary union, a supposedly borderless 1 of 1
18/10/2014 3:47 μμ
1 of 1
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prosperous community. As of 1st January 2002, Greece lost its potential to use its own economic strategies in favor of a highly centralized ‘common’ narrative. Why Bitcoin? The potential that the bitcoin suggested, challenging the existing financial systems. The success of the bitcoin was hugely based on its’ decentralized structure, complexity and anonymity. It was developed in the obscurity and fluidity of the darknets, behind the official set of rules. It is now growing popular,EBBCOIN facing its possible assimilation from the global economic system. http://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/ http://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/ EBBCOIN
What is next? 1 of 1
1 of 1
18/10/2014 3:46 μμ Ebb is open to transformation, modification, reproduction.
18/10/2014 3:28 μμ
Ebb is a positive currency that makes market failures its own success story. Ebb is good to go!
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EBB coin
an on-line media art project, in collaboration with Evaggelos Makropoulos as part of the HDLU Treasury and Mint project initiated by Peter Macapia
please visit hattp://ebbcoin.vagmakr.co.uk/
Ebb coin is an imaginary currency that seek its value from the failure of the financial status quo. It is continiously shaped by the Bitcoins realtime data in conjuction to the Drachma's market value on its last day of circulation. From the very beginning of Greek economical crisis, Drachma became the symbol of both failure and potential solution, if the Greece had to leave the Europian Union. On the other hand the Bitcoin, which melted into the notorious darknets and became widely known during the last year, remind us that the existed financial system is alterable. Ebb coin exists to underline the both the great potential and danger when the global market meet the great failure.
http://ebbcoin.vagmak
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A g a i n s t L e t h e , detail
Against Lethe
collaborative mail art project, 2013
In the framework of the 5th ICTVC, Les Yper Yper invited creative people from all over the world to submit original mail artwork relevant to the conference theme “Against lethe�. Social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental issues that affect us all demand a new way of thinking. However, as we look forward we should not forget the lessons of the past. What has been the role of visual language against forgetting till now and what may happen in the future?
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A g a i n s t L e t h e , paper, blind emboss printing on thick cardboard , stainless steel typographic elements, string, 2013
The work consists of a thick card , part of which is embossed with shapes of animal body parts. The shapesare enclosedby two metal brackets, attached on the card .The composition refers to taxonomy systems. The viewer is intructed to remove the metal brackets , then by shading light from a low angle, observe the traces of a method of compartmentilisation and archiving. The body of the animal functions as a metaphor of the other.
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D r i f t i n g c i t i e s at the EMST museum
D r i f t i n g c i t i e s at the goverments’ central bureau
Drifting cities
carborundum print on 300gr cotton paper
This series of carborundum unique prints illustrate a sentimental reaction towards forces applied from the environment. Clean, geometric and absolute ,rational movements of white, enter a more obscure inner landscape. Inspired from a novel by Tsirkas . 1st Prize- Gounaropoulos museum 2011
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to stretch
to center
to impress
to name
to polarise
to skew
to divide
to light from within
to detail
to follow
to mirror
to group
to change position
to distribute
to brand
to layer
to bond
to exhibit
to attack
to gender
to combine
to shape
to clear
to destroy
to institutionalise
to set opposite
to shorten
to connect
to portray
to stylize
to assemble
to arrange
to tesselate
to frame
to compose
to blur
to invert
to polish
to expand
to imprint
to dapple
to mark
to pose
to shine
to ridicule
to hide
to exclude
to apply
to impose
to use
to measure
to penetrate
to archive
to trim
to distort
to smudge
to convert
to tidy up
to regu;arize
to enclose
to refer
to rearrange
to project
to analyse
to scale
to reproduce
to exclude
to scale
to repeat
to array
to erase
to appropriate
to graft
to copy
to trace
List #2
list of verbs, originally paper printed on plotter/ silkscreen
A list of verbs to pick up and understand ways, actions, strategies in order to relate to the Other. A personal guide to understanding and interpreting. A first step before moving to visualisation in two or three dimensions. After Serra’s Actions to relate to oneself.
The whole picture
woodblock monoprint, silk-screen unique print on the background
from the Croud Crystals series (see page 1) 24
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P revio u s wo r k
Das ist ein
set design- polystyrene, video projection, 2009 in colaboration w Z.Languie and video artist Alexandros Mistriotis, for Yelp dance.co
Inspired by the work of Wittgenstein, this work was comissioned as a set design for a contemporary dance company. Two solo performers end up in a duet. The work was meant to explore the use of (body) language in a passage from the narcissist self towards the other. A rigid wall was designed to separate the audience in two sides. Incorporated video projection made use of the wall as a pseudo-inteactive screen. Up until the moment the barrier between the performers and the audience collapsed.
Athens Festival, 2009 26
for more please visit http://vimeo.com/14039158
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Interventions In Public space
Lebenswelt
Non-comissioned urban park
A set design for Yelp danceco, a contemporary dance company. The world of life-Lebenswelt is a big theatre of objects, arranged in various ways in space and time. We experience the world not only personally but also through the vision of others. This is a set design to combine choreography and video art projection.
A former parking space in a central Athenian neighbourhood was left void after the ending of it’s contract. Due to complicated property transactions, although it΄s ownership was passed on to the council, in order to become a park, it had been left unbuilt for decades.
set design Junge Hunde International Festival, Entrescenen, Aarhus, Denmark concept design, detailed drawings
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collaborative project Team member, bench design concept, working hands WhereHouse architects member
The local community organised a transformation eventa guerilla garden action. Lots of groups and inividuals volunteered and arrived on a Sunday morning to transform the empty plot into a park. As WhereHouse architects, we designed and built a bench for socialising and other urban accessories .We were glad to see our bench appropriated and used in various ways.
Linescape
land art project concept, execution
Following a workshop with artists Jan Hawgarth and Jim Buchanan and a team of european artists, I made an intervention in the public space of Le Beaucet municipality: a subtle path from left over material from a local quarry. This slim interupted line was a reference to traces left by the quarring equipment. The new path led to selected views in the area, while celebrating the walking practice.
3 r d At h e n s B i e n n a l e
enviromental graphics Incrporation of existing brand, application on site
The 2011 Athens Biennale had the theme Monodrome. A yellow line linked inside- out, a contemporary exhibition space to the surrounding urban environment. The line marked it’s route passing through floors, walls, doors and other architectural elements of the building, providing an expressive, visible and costless signage, generating various discussions during the marking process in the street such as what is an urban intervention, how is art integrated in a neglected neighbourhood, which audiences will it attract, are greeks going very often on strikes an so on... 29
Our world workshop U p c y c l e d s o n i c p l ay g ro u n d in collaboration with artist J. Efthimiou in planning, making of and involving volunteers
During the Athens Olympic Games, artists were called to get involved in the city’s public spaces. In this commission artist J. Efthimiou called artists and community mebers in a collaborative action in order to add an upcycled structure and provide a sonic playground within the prestigious national garden of Athens. 30
restore lost hope foundation: planning and delivering a drawing and stop motion animation workshop with homeless kids in Uganda with G. Papazafiriou
During this workshop, homeless kids were called to reflect on their past experiences, present situation and aspire their future. An imaginary town was created after cutting and pasting individual drawings into a new collective collage. The process was documented and animated. It was a way to empower participants to imagine, collaborate and create. This was an action within the Kabale Art Centre artist project, by Greg Papazafiriou and Jeff Vanderpool.
C u r r e n t Wo r k : C V s t o r i e s
research, set design and costumes for a post dramatic theatre performance with artist and director E. Efthimiou, actress and theorist Y. Nikolopoulou, theorist K.Demiri and film makers D. Zachos, G. Demiris
Brief description
The idea behind the performance
CV Stories is a multiple projections / interactive theatre performance that together with the audience reflects on the construction of ‘correct’, ‘smart ‘or strong’ CVs/Resumés and challenges the idea of a self-activating, vigorous, flexible citizen. According to Gershon such a citizen «is the absolute master of himself […] as if he, himself was a private enterprise rather than a simple ownership».
In the era of globalization and with a cross-border traffic in terms of money, information and above all work, CV Stories aims to put personal experience into social context that theatre offers, par excellence, the frame for telling life stories.
This industry of CVs, encouraged by the neoliberal capitalistic policies, leads the individual to conform to a ‘rhetoric illusionism of biography’, that is to construct a solid image of a self, a united identity and a predictable product well worth for the future employer to invest in. The starting point for this work is the artistic project You Are Here (M. Synodinou, performed during Value Workshop, Athens Biennale 2014). In this piece I presented the experience of moving to another country (from Greece to UK) and entering into the process of job-hunting. The piece explores the new cultural, professional and psychological conditions in which one may find herself in. The performance aims at commenting on current job market recruitment methods and existing working conditions and even further, on the matter of self-image and identity.
By putting on stage together volunteers and amateur actors we build a relationship between agent and subject, as everyday citizens become ‘social actors’. Above all, in the core of the performance lies the problematic between the ‘true Self’ and the ‘Self as a product’: as the possible positions vary, candidates are forced to present different CVs and develop a rhetoric that each time fits the situation - in other words a ‘fluid Self’. This disconnection between the ‘writing Self’ and the ‘true Self’, the professional aspect and the human aspect, these two poles of the individual are the main question in the performance. The staging In CV Stories there is no dramatic text. The performance is based on invented images and formations that will come out from our inquiry/preparation stage, from the synergy between the actors and from poems, theoretical texts, literature, quotations, projections, installations, etc. This dynamic process will substitute the need for a dramatic text.
CV Stories has secured sponsorship of Goethe Institute Thessaloniki and is currently looking for support and affiliation from more cultural organizations. It is now in the stage of artistic research.
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MRL 2014
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