Portfolio
Thresholds is were I always find myself; in between situations/fields of interest, which are in relation to each other, either oppositional or complementary. My approach is to mix them in unconventional ways. That’s how I coined the term “curarchitect”, to describe who I am: a hybrid of an architect and a curator.
Simon Banos MA in Narrative Environments
I studied architecture at the NTU Athens, where I experimented with several means of expression and aesthetic approaches, coming up with my motto #architectsjsutwannahavefun. The MA course in Narrative Environments at the CSM deepened my research on the relationship between space and the informative experience it can create. Through my interaction with several design fields I shaped my vision of cultural studies and curating. We live through changes in political and economical foundations, which occur with unprecedented speeds to match the acceleration of broadband Internet. Within this environment, the constructs of identity, liberalism, institutionalization and globalization have been long before deconstructed, the arts have switched target audience and the curators are striving to catch up or get ahead. Playing the role of a curator, I got over the typical positioning of objects and the respectfulness towards the artists’ ego. My goal is to initiate algorithms where the artists and the audience co-create the final “artistic events”. The subject and the notion of authorship disappear during the making, while the curator herself is the conductor, bringing the right ingredients together or causing artistic accidents and conflicts. I create engaging, immersive environments which provide the visitors with a platform to “enter the void” and spice up their lives. The “#emoji_milan” interactive display tried to capture the -co-existing in the city- layer of the language used in social media. The intersection and merging of physical and digital worlds is further developed in my project “LIGT” which alters phygital data. In addition, I have a strong interest in self-referential critique towards architecture. The provocative “DeCorbuziers” exhibition played boldly with Le Corbusier’s persona. In our participation at the Venice Biennale 2016 Greek pavilion, my team and I investigated the many #facesofarchitecture in performance art, choreography, visual arts and curating, mapping all the young, Greek, architectural Frankensteins out there!
Casting nomadism and the cultural dialogue Collaborators: Annya Suhardi (MAMF) & Hanna Brooks (MAMF)
Currently, I’m working on my MA Major Project titled “D-iD: Diffused Identities”. It is a psychological term used in this case to describe the transitional phase one experiences when entering a new sociopolitical, cultural and moral structure. I comment on the process of acculturation modern nomads experience. I argue against the romantic view that it happens naturally through globalization. Instead it has been rendered obsolete and counterproductive by its repetitiveness, not invited but actually forced by economical and political situations/decisions such as the echoing 2008 financial crises, unstable war areas and Brexit. Fueled by my personal experience in London, I’m traveling through a mixed media, performative installation. It will be produced in a hand-in-hand collaboration with the artists, in a truck, roaming around Europe, stopping where there’s an emergency, such as potential exit from the EU.
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Inhabiting CSM Second Skin #emoji_milan DeCorbuziers LIGT: The Heterotopia within which we meet • NYFW 2016 • Sleep
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Inhabiting CSM_Test 1 Kyriaki Nasioula
Inhabiting CSM Series of performances October - November 2016 London, UK, Central Saint Martins
Performance artists and dancers were invited to “inhabit” the unfamiliar to them space of CSM through their medium: their body. These series of interventions constitute studies on the way artists “acculturate” an unfamiliar space and how the audience interacts with them. Collaborators: Amy Harris, Artist & Performer Argyris Angeli, Architect & Performer Kyriaki Nasioula, Architect, Choreographer & Dancer Roxani- Eleni Garefalaki, Performer & Dancer Eliza Soroga, Performer Takatsuna Mukai, Musician Yuliya V Krylova, Costume Designer
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Inhabiting CSM_Test 3 Amy Harris
Inhabiting CSM_Test 2 Argyris Angeli
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Inhabiting CSM_Test 4 Eliza Soroga
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Second Skin Video
April - May 2017 Shanghai, China, Yi-Haus
In the near future, we foresee a world in which environmental and urban pollution, as well as global warming, have started to take a toll on the human body. Beauty brands are the new cartels, and with the support of governments, their aim is to protect citizens by providing them with disposable skin that acts as a shield against the harsh conditions of the environment. Beauty is redefined as the natural human body, and layers are added to protect that, rather than to change its natural aesthetic. Collaborators: Annya Suhardi (MAMF) Hannah Brookes (MAMF) Jasmeen Ayyashi (MANE)
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#emoji_ milan Interactive window display April 2016 [Design Week 2016] Milan, Italy, La Rinascente
Our intention is to reveal this parallel layer of the city: its citizens’ language. We use the social media as the mediator element to re-connect with the people. We created the city’s landmarks by using the most popular emojis that the citizens use on Twitter and Instagram. We also inserted characteristic Milanese elements such as the gelato emoji and the coffee cup! Finally, we made the windows a meme-generator. We inaugurated the #emoji_milan on Instagram with which Milanese youngsters were able to see their pictures displayed in the windows! Collaborators: Pei-Hsin Chen (MANE) Ryan Lewis (BA Arch) - 10 -
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DeCorbuziers Exhibition
December 2016 Athens, Greece, Romantso
Fifty years after the death of Le Corbusier, the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens in collaboration with Fondation Le Corbusier, organized DeCorbuziers exhibition, an alternative pop, neo-goth «memorial» for Corbu. DeCorbuziers exhibition attempted to bring together architects and artists who visually expressed the post-construction, deconstruction and/ or reconstruction of Corbu’s icon according to the mediating elements of his persona and the heritage he left behind. Collaborators: Vassiliki-Maria Plavou Dimitra Vogiatzaki Maroula Bacharidou Archstudies.gr Natalia Vlacholopoulou Christos Katsanos Artemis Papadopoulou Thanassis Benos-Palmer - 12 -
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Lost in Google Translation: The Heterotopia within which we meet Video
October 2015 - November 2016 London, UK, Bank Space Gallery & Oriel Davis Gallery Susak, Croatia, Susak Biennale 2016
This project aims to digitally articulate the relationship between the city and its habitants through the dialogue of two foreign citizens of London that try to shape their ID interacting with this unfamiliar environment. The concrete structures of the buildings affect our emotional and behavioural patterns, in a mutual co-dependent relationship. So, in this digitopia I try to depict our emotional mapping of London, reflecting on the mental photographs we took during our journeys in the city.
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NY Fashion Week Fashion show
September 2016 New York, USA, Bureau Betak NY
During my placement at Bureau Betak NY, I participated at the design process, the delivery of ideas and the production of several fashion shows for the Fashion Week. One of them was Alexander Wang’s collaboration with Adidas.
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Sleep
By Anna Fafaliou Durational performance
July 2016 London, UK, Nahmad Projects Gallery
“Sleep is integral to life - without it we die - but because we are not awake - we cannot ever experience it objectively - only before or after. This performance allows the audience to consider the state of sleep objectively, within the very moment it is taking place. By dedicating a space to this endeavour - we provide a safe space for its consideration. Whereas sleep in a public space is usually disturbed or threatened - in this space it is curated and protected. It exists in its purest form. An unrehearsed situation.� Collaborators: Laura Glaser Jonathon Caruana Despoina Tzanos Christina Makri Leoninne Hadjimihali Stenmark Vanessa MaCaulay
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Copyright © December 2016 Symeon Banos, All Rights Reserved