Exhibition Guide Yorgos Sapountzis The Protagonists 20 July 15 September 2013
GALLERY PLAN 2 nd Floor Reading Room 1 st Floor Gallery 2 Gallery 3 Gallery 4 Ground Floor Bookshop Café Bar
INTRODUCTION Statues or monuments that are placed in urban landscapes as statements of civic identity, pride, and power, are the starting point for Yorgos Sapountzis work. Besides the historical or cultural information these sculptures convey, he is interested in the way in which they accrue a range of different meanings, lives of their own, as they are interpreted appreciated, denounced, or ignored by the many different communities who congregate around them over time. For The Protagonists, Sapountzis has created an imaginary park of public sculpture that blurs the boundaries of Arnolfini s indoor gallery spaces with the outdoor sites of the monuments he has appropriated with performances, photos, and films. Sapountzis works with public space in a way that emphasises it as shared and communal, a place in which different opinions and lifestyles are negotiated. These areas are shaped through daily, more or less conscious rituals, habits that we share, or rules and beliefs that we follow as individuals or communities. The artist is interested in how bodies both human and sculptural - appear in this public space. Sapountzis uses public monuments, and the way in which they relate to rituals and myths, as protagonists for his work, which he activates with riotous yet elegant films, and vivid, large-scale structures. The exhibition presents videos, fabricand-frame structures, and casts from public sculptures in Bristol, in an installation that unfolds throughout the galleries and involves visitors in a scenario of bright colours, images, and sound.
A sense of openness in Sapountzis practice gives his work an anarchic quality, exemplified by his commitment to immediacy, improvisation, and collaborative working with non-professionals including Arnolfini s resident group, Young Arnolfini, with whom he worked on a series of nighttime interventions around Bristol city centre. Besides the new works made at Arnolfini, the exhibition also presents previous sculptures and installations, which give an insight into Sapountzis ongoing concerns.
GALLERY TWO Sapountzis work often takes the form of parasitic interventions. These include performances choreographed around a public sculpture, or add-hoc temporary structures made from ephemeral, easily transportable materials such as brightly coloured fabric, aluminium rods, and adhesive tape which are constructed and placed in public space. In Sapountzis exhibitions, elements of these interventions are often transferred back to the galleries through video and photographic documentation, or casts made from the original sculptures. The tent-like structure that dominates Gallery 2 was originally hung over a statue of Friedrich Schiller in Mannheim, Germany, for a performance that Sapountzis realised as part of a theatre festival. The colourful fabric was used for a ceremonial re-veiling of the classic monument, staged together with a group of young people. Situated in a gallery space, it acts as a stand-in for the physical presence of bodies in space, and although very light, it shapes the space dramatically, alluding to the artist s imagining of public art works as being works-in-progress silent, evolutionary protagonists in many different people s lives. Photographs of the project, titled Shells of Time / Is the Now Time? (2009), are included in a series of collages, which Sapountzis fabricated with the teenagers participating in the show. These collages are reminders of the collaborative nature of the work, recalling handmade posters and event boards in schools and churches. They can be also seen as traces of Sapountzis attempt to reintroduce a sense of myth into contemporary life: in the era of Wikipedia, it is exceptional to have no access to knowledge and to speculate, or even recreate and appropriate, through misunderstandings. Contemporary artists playing provisional materials and corporeal fragility against the sculptural purity and architectural solidity of classicism and modernism are not unique. Yet Sapountzis manages to set himself apart from the historicizing pack. His poetic reliance on those strange coloured fabrics freak flags of some other order and silvery scaffolding, turn these materials into archetypes that might replace the older archetypes (marble monuments), while evoking myths and histories both ancient and modern. His use of colour and sound to stain his films of public sculpture, meanwhile, invest the iconic monuments with new feeling and meaning a kind of playfully ironic allegiance and grandeur which in turn references the old feeling and meaning they were originally meant to conjure. (Quinn Latimer) A series of works on aluminium sheets are described as advertisements (Reklame) and represent different professional roles a cook, a doctor, a
worker who are almost stereotypical figures, in opposition to the open and not-yet defined roles of the young people that he collaborated with. Sapountzis dedication to an open aesthetics is further elaborated in Empty Shelves Black News (2012), which is literally empty a shelf without goods, subtly nodding to the commercialised public spaces in Western inner cities. GALLERY THREE Sapountzis is from Athens, a city where the monumental presence of the past impacts very strongly on the present day. The Protagonists (2013), on display in Gallery 3, was produced specifically for the exhibition at Arnolfini. The installation includes reference to the collection of local public sculptures in the city centre of Bristol, and consists of leg casts of some of these sculptures, works with fabrics, sheets of aluminium and large structures made from metal tubes. Stacks of dining tables and chairs serve as architectural bases for the works. The installation occupies all possible areas of the space and encompasses viewers upon entering, involving all senses in a dense and colourful scenario. The artist merges sculpture and theatre with a reflection of the human figure, both as image and our own body, in shared social space. Some of the metal plates, with pieces of fabric attached like a drawing, contain images of the casts, which Sapountzis has used to create the plaster elements of the installation. Flattened for the photographs, the casts go from three dimensions to two-dimensional forms, in a similar way to developable geometric surfaces, such the globe of the earth as a flat map. This literal investigation of figurative sculptures points to the layers of the representation of human bodies: the forms of the body parts, the artistic treatment of the figure, and the specific story of the person which is represented. Jars with vegetables, used as bases for some of the plaster elements, point to this aspect of the human figure: when we re alive, we need to eat. The video, which is part of the installation, consists of footage the artist created from performances made in collaboration with Arnolfini s resident group Young Arnolfini, who are aged 16 to 25. On a series of night-time wanderings around Bristol, the group developed partly improvised theatrical tableaux which activated the sculptures with interventions, adding fabric or imitating details of the figure s gestures, extending or confronting the sculptures in the public spaces. The video highlights these actions, combining them into a flow of images that develops between the sculptures and the performers. The soundtrack to the video was composed by Øyvind Torvund, a long-time collaborator with Sapountzis.
The large, circular dining tables and chairs, which are part of the installation, are not modified, but are included as elements of the world as we know it. They allude to their function of hosting social events. In the exhibition, they create the setting of a dining situation, to which the visitors arrive, symbolically, as guests. During the opening night, the exhibition will be activated by a performance and concert with Øyvind Torvund, Sapountzis, and a group of musicians and performers. The title of the work, The Protagonists, does not only refer to the sculptures as actors in public space, but also the audience in the exhibition space. In Greek tragedy, the protagonist is the first person to enter the stage, and he is the centre of the conflict of the play. GALLERY FOUR The work presented in Gallery 4, Fast Cast Past (2011), unlike the collaborative projects, is a dialogue between the artist and two sculptures in Berlin. The focus of the installation is a pair of statues by the German sculptor Richard Scheibe (1879-1964). Both are male nudes, and are created in a nearidentical style, but made under very different political regimes. Schreitender (Genesender), translated as the walker, was produced in 1935 during the period that Scheibe was producing public sculptures for the Third Reich. The second piece Ehrenmal für die Opfer des 20. Juli 1944, made after the war in 1952, memorialises a failed attempt by the German Resistance to assassinate Hitler. Both sculptures are located close to Isabella Bortolozzi gallery, where the work was initially presented. The elaborate back stories to these figurative sculptures are a good example of how similar images might take on ambiguous significance and be co-opted for conflicting intentions. In the video, Sapountzis performs with the older sculpture, building a relationship to the problematic work and taking a cast of its head, which can also be seen included in a sculpture in the gallery. Symbolically, the figure is involved in a new narrative. The second sculpture appears at the very end of the video.
Yorgos Sapountzis, Mirror Cast, 2012. Installation view, Overgarden Institut for Samtidskunst, Copenhagen. Photo: Anders Sune Berg. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
Yorgos Sapountzis, Reklame - Zimmermann, rot,2012. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
(Image top) Yorgos Sapountzis, Die Welt in Teilen (Office), 2011. Installation View, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. (Image bottom) Yorgos Sapountzis, Fast Cast Past, 2011. Video Installation, dimensions variable. Photo: Nick Ash. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
Yorgos Sapountzis, Shells of time / Is the Now time, 2009. 5. Internationale Schillertage, Mannheim. Courtesy the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
BRISTOL SCULPTURE MAP Bus Station To the M32 THE CENTRE BALDWIN ROAD 2 Bristol Old Vic 3 College Green PARK ST ANCHOR RD 5 Watershed CANON S RD BROAD QUAY NARROW QUAY PRINCE ST KING ST Queen Square 4 WELSH BACK Millennium Sqaure THE GROVE 1 M Shed WAPPING RD Spike Island To the A38, M5 COMMERCIAL ROA
1 In front of Arnolfini John Cabot, Stephen Joyce, 1986. Cabot came to Bristol from Venice in 1495 and left to discover Newfoundland. 2 City Centre Edmund Burke. The statue is a replica from a marble sculpture in St Stephen s Hall, Westminster. Edmund Burke represented the city of Bristol in Parliament 1774 1780. Neptune, 1723. The statue was re-sited from the harbourside in 1999. 3 College Green Queen Victoria, 1888. The sculpture from Carrara marble commemorated the fiftieth year of Queen Victoria s reign. Rajah Rammohun Roy, Niranjan Pradhan, 1997. Roy (1772 1833) was an Indian social reformer and died in Bristol in September 1833 while visiting England. 4 Queen Square William III., John Michael Rysbrack, 1736. One of the most impressive sculptures of his time shows King William in a heroic Roman style uniform. 5 Millenium Square Cary Grant, Graham Ibbeson, 2001. Grant was born in Bristol in 1904 as Archibald Leech. Thomas Chatterton, Lawrence Holofcener, 2000. Chatterton (1752 1770) was born in Bristol.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Yorgos Sapountzis (born 1976 in Athens, Greece), lives and works in Berlin and Athens. Recent solo exhibitions include Overgaden in Copenhagen, the Ursula Blickle Foundation in Kraichtal near Stuttgart, Freymond-Guth Fine Arts in Zurich, Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery, Berlin, and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. He has participated in group shows at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, at Lismore Castle Arts in Lismore, Ireland (curated by Mark Sladen), and Kunsthaus Bregenz (curated by Yilmaz Dziewior, all 2013). Additionally, he has worked as a set designer and director for theatre projects. He has forthcoming solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Glarus in Switzerland and Kunsthalle Lingen, Germany. YOUNG ARNOLFINI Young Arnolfini is a collective of local art enthusiasts aged from 16 to 25 working, learning and living in Bristol. The group aims to provide a cultural forum through workshops, blogging and live events to bridge the gap between young people and Bristol s thriving art scene. You can read an interview with Yorgos Sapountzis conducted by Young Arnolfini on their blog youngarnolfini.wordpress.com. The participants in the collaboration for this exhibition were: Tom Beale, Aimee Bowden, Grace Cohen, Charlie Crosley-Thorne, Miriam Gilkes, Katie Ibbott, Mia Moore, Katie Morgan, Emma Morsi, Maz Shar, Alice Titshall.
EVENTS Performance Friday 19 July, 7.30pm 8pm, free The Servants, concert by Øyvind Torvund, with Harry Cameron-Penny (Clarinet), Sarah Mason (Percussion), Mark Knoop (Piano), Alice Purton (Cello), Yorgos Sapountzis and members of Young Arnolfini Exhibition Talk Saturday 20 July, 2pm, free Artist talk with Yorgos Sapountzis, Kathy Noble (curator, London) and Axel Wieder (Curator of Exhibitions, Arnolfini) The Protagonists, Performance with Yorgos Sapountzis Sunday 15 September, 8pm, free The Protagonists will be presented as part of the performance festival 4 Days at Arnolfini, Thursday 12 Sunday 15 September 2013 Exhibition tours Every Saturday, 2pm, free The free tours of our galleries are led by a member of staff, or an invited guest an artist, writer, or curator and are a chance to hear the personal interpretations and insights of the tour leader, learn more about the work on show, and task any questions you may have about the exhibition. All welcome. Arnolfini presents an extensive programme with performances, talks, films, music and educational activities for all ages. Please visit our website for further information.
Photography Policy Please feel free to take photographs of the exhibition for your own private use. Reproduction is not permitted. Please share your impressions of the exhibition via Facebook or Twitter: #TheProtagonsists Reading Room If you would like to learn more about the exhibition, there are further resources and exhibition guides available in the Reading Room on the 2 nd floor. Bookshop In the bookshop you find a selection of publications for sale that relate to the current exhibitions. Large print versions of this guide are available at Box Office Portable seating is available on request Exhibition spaces open: Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holidays, 11am 6pm Admission to exhibition spaces is free. Arnolfini 16 Narrow Quay Bristol BS1 4QA arnolfini.org.uk @arnolfiniarts Supported by Access We aim to make all visitors welcome. There are parking spaces for people with disabilities outside our main entrance, access via Farr s Lane. Our galleries are wheelchair accessible. Stay in Touch To join our free mailing list send us an email (boxoffice@arnolfini.org.uk) or visit our website. You can also follow Arnolfini on Facebook and Twitter: @arnolfiniarts. Arnolfini is a registered charity no. 311504. With kind support of The Bristol Hotel Arnolfini would like to thank Isabella Bortolozzi and Andrew Cannon, Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth, ITYS Collection, Øyvind Torvund, Edward Tucker, Thomas Keller, Young Arnolfini, Elinor John, Aldo Rinaldi and Francis Fry. Cover image: Yorgos Sapountzis, The Protagonists, 2013, produced in collaboration with Young Arnolfini. Photo: Edward Tucker. Courtesy the artist, Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery, Berlin, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, Freymond-Guth Fine Arts, Zurich.