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Most Mechanics Are Crooks at the KULTURSYMPOSIUM WEIMAR 2019!

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Panos Sklavenitis It's me! Curated by Kostis Stafylakis  Performance: Thanos Ghikas, Helen Karakou, Orfeas Kyriakos Makaris Kapetanakis, Markella Ksilogiannopoulou

Saturday 1st June 2019, 19.00,  Stoa 42

In his recent work, Panos Sklavenitis experiments with the dynamics of absurdly tuned groupuscules. In 2018 6th Athens Biennale, Sklavenitis presented “Cargo”, a ritualistic Cargo cult dressed with rags and leftovers from Greek nationalist rallies. Recently, Sklavenitis designed a live action role play for art students. Each student has to learn to mimic an animal.

Most probably, this is not some posthuman attempt to “feel” the animal. This is not a “becoming animal”, but “it’s me”: An exercise in anthropocentricism, a treatise on the anthropocentric imagination, or a flirt with the sexual anxiety/fantasy triggered by animalistic mimicry. Sklavenitis looks into the orwellean tendency in post-digital art but cancels the didactism of the animal-image, sabotaging its allegorical usage in centuries of literature. The “artist and the animal” is an intertemporal trope; we should perhaps revisit some examples: From Valie Export walking Peter Weibel as a dog, to Joseph Beuys and the coyote, to Oleg Kulic’ Mad Dog performances, to cosplay aesthetics in recent works by Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic et.al. Rather than alluding to the monistic tendencies in theories of posthumanism (all is part of the same life force, which facilitates the creative trespassing of epistemic boundaries), Sklavenitis exposes the ontic dualism of the (post-)digital era and subjectivity. For the seamlessly online self, the animal becomes animalistic, material ectoplasm, the dark-side of the digit, or the other of the (bio)metric. In the (post)digital era, the animal tends to be depicted, via dualism, as monstrous, a crack in the algorithm, the sinister transgressivity of the animal-headed troll, the vitalist fantasy of a “dark-web”. In this predicament, the animal is a god symbol of trollish subversion. Sklavenitis visits this dualism, and risks to restage it by performative means. His “animals” are avatars cum flesh, ruins of the popularized fantasy of an anonymous revolt against civility, galvanized for more than two decades on row. The animalistic mimicries presented by Sklavenitis and his performers are products of a certain type of authority, gracefully embraced by the artist. He mostly works with art students and, by stepping into the shoes of the game master, he introduces them to role-play. Together, they serve the gamification of the cityscape through long-term processes of rehearsal, trial and error, and debriefing. Sklavenitis suggests and gratifies certain animalistic semblances produced by his students, without intention to obscure his authorial supervision or oversight. In contrast to earlier experiments with the animal, Sklavenitis exempts himself from the act of mimesis. He unapologetically animalizes others, acknowledging the power play on behalf of all sides involved. Eventually, he explores this failure to instrumentalize the other, which is stressed by the very tautology of authorship inscribed in the confessional title, “it’s me”. This is neither trespassing nor “becoming”. This is mimicry for the sake of the mimetic. These performances propose that, in some cases, mimicry is neither part of some emancipatory plan, nor the direct extension of the artist’s ethical position. Mimicry is, also, a trial with no sublime goal.

Kostis Stafylakis

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POST ATHENS DAYSIGN WORKSHOP April 8, April 15, 2019, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens, Greece. In the context of the seminar ‘Multimodal approaches to Anthropological research’ of the Department of Social Anthropology of Panteion University and the Studio 11 asfa of Athens School of Fine Arts. See more: https://daysign-project.tumblr.com/

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New Daysign workshop!

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Many thanks to the Athens Biennale team for this video!

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Most Mechanics Are Crooks website!

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Most Mechanics Are Crooks!

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“Hi people, it’s me! A herd and a caucus. A crepuscular groupuscule” by Panos Sklavenitis (open rehersal)

Human-turtles, human-frogs, demonized hens, chimpanzees and ostriches. Members of a sad groupuscule, inhabitants of an undefinable dystopian world, dark conspirators, isolated, miserable and ridiculous; a herd of wild animals and a political party conference at the same time. They develop their own social structures, their own language, rituals and meetings. Without being touched. No touch is permitted, neither between the group members nor with external parties. It’s me! is an ongoing project carried out with the collaboration of a group of performers at weekly meetings. The final event – if any – is not planned, but stays open to eventualities. So far, open rehearsals have been routed, while a rather direct goal is to carry out a series of performances and a video. The first open rehearsal of the project will be hosted by TWIXTlab, Monday, February 11, at 20:00.

Performers that have participated in the project so far have been: Thanos Ghikas, Charitomeni Mara, Christopher Ioakimidis, Helen Karakou, Orfeas Kyriakos Makaris Kapetanakis, Markella Ksilogiannopoulou, Katerina Lebidara, Anastasia Pampouropoulou, Georgia – Ivi Pappa, Sophia Pappa, Theodora Savvalaridi, Avgoustina Stylianou, Ilias Tafaruci, Tania Varveri, Andreas Vidalis, Haris Vlahos. http://twixtlab.com/2019/02/05/its-me-by-panos-sklavenitis/?fbclid=IwAR36IFaAVtsBQQp9MU8Jps2-u0dKUKuzcFjYpms6EoRz4edSL63GynrcrJY fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/143104619963471/

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My contribution to PHp #4 - Rooms by The Pink House (Antwerp, Belgium) https://antwerpart.be/agenda/php-4-rooms?fbclid=IwAR2_Kf-XyZuUmboG6JrkH6FQk7o-YFbIPkfq3T8-5hK0feC4B9agfF_pmfw fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/753556295024113/

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Sarakiniko, a performative installation by Eva Giannakopoulou and Panos Sklavenitis, in the context of AB6. Fri16 Nov 2018 19:30 Esperia Palace, GiGi, Ground floor

Photos: Christos Zafiris

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Sarakiniko, a performative installation by Eva Giannakopoulou and Panos Sklavenitis, in the context of AB6. Fri16 Nov 2018 19:30 Esperia Palace, GiGi, Ground floor

Photos: Dimitra Kondylatou

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Sarakiniko, a performative installation by Eva Giannakopoulou and Panos Sklavenitis, in the context of AB6. Fri16 Nov 2018 19:30 Esperia Palace, GiGi, Ground floor Participants: Margarita Amarantidi, Evriviades Goro, Theodore Κakitsos, Argyris Marinis, Savvas Τsimouris, Katerina Kalentzi, Avgoustina Stilianou, Theodora Savvalaridi AB6 program: https://anti.athensbiennale.org/en/program-week/week-3 Fb event: https://www.facebook.com/events/797204360610841/

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Cargo backstage Photos: Dimitra Kondylatou

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Cargo backstage Photos: Christos Zafiris

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Cargo backstage Photos: Ioannis Tzaneteas