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| Vangelis Vlahos |
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Born 1971, Athens, Greece. Vlahos' recent work explores the experience of transition and change in contemporary Greek society over the last thirty years. Focusing on different fragments of recent history and using archival material from various sources, Vlahos questions the relevance of this material as a tool to rethink historical concepts that still seem to influence and shape the way we understand our present. For example the project, "1981 (Allagi)" (2007) examines the first nine months of the Greek Socialist Party’s administration in the early 1980s through found material from the archive of a right wing Greek political newspaper, Eleftheros Kosmos (Free World), considered to be the mouthpiece of the Greek junta - a right wing military government that ruled the country between 1967 and 1974. The work consists of a series of photographs and magazine cuttings displayed in chronological order from October 1981 to June 1982 and attempts to portray the multifaceted notion of change (Allagi) promoted by the rhetoric of the governing socialist party during those years.
Also central to Vlahos’ body of work is a long-standing interest in comparing and confronting the language of architecture with that of politics and economic power. His interest has led to research into buildings including the modernist American Embassy in Athens designed by Walter Gropius in the late 1950s and its transformation into a political target; the Athens Tower, the highest building in Greece since 1971 and the changes of its tenants in the last three decades; and the renovation of the Bosnian parliament building in Sarajevo by the Greek State. Most specifically the work “1992” presents the outcome of Vlahos' research into Greek foreign policy in the Balkans, and particularly in the region of former Yugoslavia. Funded by the Greek government, the renovation of Sarajevo’s former Parliament building was all but destroyed during the Bosnian war. Conceived of and presented as an objective documentation of facts, the work includes archival material Vlahos collected from the press, state archives or the Internet. Monthly progress reports on reconstruction projects and found media material is brought together in the fashion of an investigative report. The archives are presented with two architectural models: one showing how the building looked immediately after the war and the other its redesigned, renovated version.
Vlahos' solo exhibitions include: What history do they represent? (with Zbynek Baladran), Blow de la Barra gallery, London (2008); 1992, The Breeder, Athens (2007); and exhibitions at display galerie, Prague (2004) and Els Hanappe Underground gallery, in Athens together with Hito Steyerl (2004). His participation in group exhibitions includes Selective Knowledge, ITYS (Institute for Contemporary Art and Thought), Athens (2008); In Present Tense, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2007); Monument to Transformation, tranzitdisplay, Prague (2007); Monument to Transformation- fragment #4, INDEX Foundation, Stockholm (2007); Der Prozess section at the 3rd Prague Biennale (2007); A Number of Worlds Resembling Our Own, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (2007); 27th São Paulo Biennale (2006); Behind Closed Doors, Dundee Centre for Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2005); Manifesta 5, San Sebastian (2004) and at the 3rd Berlin Biennial (2004).
Vlahos currently works with The Breeder, Athens. |
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