Yiannis Christakos
- bio - cvHe is born in Athens (1966). He works in Athens and London
Studies: Graphic Arts and Printmaking, The University of Athens (1984-1988) // Fine Arts, School of Fine Arts, Aristotelian University (1989-1994) // MA in Fine Arts, University of London (1997-1998) // PhD in Fine Arts, from the same University (1998-2003).
He is practicing individually and in collaboration with group “Capsule” which he is a founding member of.
He taught: at The University of East London (2000-2002) // The Department of Fine Art and Art Sciences, University of Ioannina, Greece, (2003-2005) // The School of Human Studies, University of Thessaly, Greece, (2007-2014) // The School of Human Studies, University of Nebraska,
exchanging program in Greece, (2008-2015) // The School of Graphic Arts and Design, University of Athens, (2004-today) - solo shows2015 Art Wall, Athens
2014 C.C. Gallery, London
2013 Gallery 2nd Aegeanale, Kivotos Art Projects, Mykonos, Greece
2012 Gallery Cube, Patra, Greece
2006 Gallery Gazon Rouge, Athens
2005 Gallery Amimoni, Ioannina, Greece.
2004 Gallery K, London
2003 UEL Gallery, London
2003 Gallery-K, Nikosia, Cyprus
2001 Greengate Gallery, London
1997 Antinor Art Gallery, Athens
1995 Myrovolos Art Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece - group shows2015 “Of Human Bondage”, Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery,(cur.Th.Vrahopoulos), N.York
2015 “1095 Days”, Art wall, Athens
2014 “Auction”, C.C.Gallery, London
2014 “Goplacia”, Taf Gallery, Athens
2014 London Art Fair 2014, C.C.Gallery, London
2014 “I painted my future”, The Foundation of the Hellenic Parliament, Athens
2013 “The Cabinet from Darkness to Light”, Remap 4, Athens
2013 “Routs with bridges”, Art Prisma, Athens
2013 “Christakos, Adonopoulos, Tserionis”, Gallery Art Prisma, Athens
2013 “Contemporary Art Auction 2013”, Christies Auctions-C.C.Gallery, London
2011 “11th Plateau”, Museum of Hydra, Greece
2011 ”Nostos”, Art Prisma Gallery, Athens
2011 “11th Plateau”, Archeological Association Museum, Athens
2010 “Copy Paste”, Gallery Container, Thessaloniki, Greece
2010 “Lost Heritage-Cyprus”, Archeological Museum of Cyprus, Nicosia
2009 “Lost Heritage-London”, Gallery K, London
2009 “Erotica”, Art Prisma Gallery, Athens
2009 “Open Space” (cu. Alex Stanas), Alecton Project Space, Athens
2008 “9”, Gallery Gaia, Athens
“Territory no longer precedes the map nor survives it. It is the
map that precedes the territory…that engenders the territory.”
Jean Baudrillard
On the wall above my desk hangs a large map entitled “The World”. It is the one I have used to study for hours and hours since my school years. It is the one that I used to plan my imagery exploring trips; India, North and Latin America, Route 66, USSR…
Since then three decades have passed. Although the outline of this “Map-form” remains the same with very little deformations, the content has radically changed.
With the collapse of European and Soviet Communism, and the thawing of the Cold War, a new order of Mapping has sought to establish itself. With the physical and political fall of the Wall, the map we knew changed. New countries came into being; no more USSR, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Czechoslovakia…and more to come. Millions of economical refugees abandoned their homelands to approach the “ex-enemy’s” land. Relating to cartography, there is a massive impact to the map. Perhaps the old East-West defense axis will be superseded by a North-South economic axis. The influence of mapping upon perception can be easily recognized. The convenient ethnographic devises of Left vs. Right may give place to these of Up vs. Down.
The power of Colonialism is taking a strange turn. In the interest of foreign investment and trade, the changing of traditional urban landscapes is readily accepted, locally.And while the natives are bewitched by the modernity and conveniences of “foreign” cultures, it is the “foreigners” who now lament the loss of native cultures.
In fact the dissolution of the Cold War, and the absence of global polarity have brought about the resurgence of national and local identities. And although much of neo-Nationalism may be impelled by the political and financial ambition of the few, the new map (neo-Map), nevertheless, seems quintessential to the self-identity of the indigenous mass.
Where do I belong? seems to be the question that plaques so many of my debates and many of my concerns. As a constant agony, it refers to dislocations felt by displaced subjects towards disrupted histories, to shifting and transient identities. It is the anxiety of coming from the periphery, the fear of being an immigrant, the presser of carrying a hybrid identity. It is like to exhibiting institutions and market places and not least, to the ability to live out complex and reflexive identities which, acknowledge language, gender and race as modes of self positioning. It is one of those misguided questions, which nevertheless serve a useful purpose, for, while it may naively assume that there might conceivably be some coherent site of absolute belonging. It also floats the constant presence of a politics of location in the making.
Therefore the geography I am examining, my personal mapping, is the geography of keening and wailing from the loss of ideologies and homelands.
My inquiry does not attempt to answer the question of location for belonging; it is by no means prescriptive since I have no idea where anyone belongs, least of myself. It is however an attempt to take issue with the very question of belonging, with its naturalization as a set of political realities, stable structures and signifying systems.