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Reviews
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Chris Prosylis is active in a parallel yet entirely
different artistic universe. He uses performance, digital media, the
internet and he basically belongs to a [small] international avant-garde
that explores the sculptural languages of the years to come in
experimental ways. What makes Prosylis' work stand out is his
insistence of the purity of the use of new media and his effort to create
unique voices and aesthetics instead of reproducing those of the past. He
uses the notion of the Body through actors and dancers, whilst redefining
the tradition of ancient Greek drama by using digital projections. Aside
from the artistic output, Prosylis is a prolific writer. His 2002
manifesto begins like this: "Each net citizen [netizen] has cultural self-determination
and independence, regardless of their social, political or ideological
status". And he is absolutely right.
Thanasis Moutsopoulos
Art Historian - Art Critic
Prof. in
University of Crete, Greece
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The adventure of a
system in the making
The project forms part of the artist’s long-standing
and ongoing preoccupation with innovative ways of expression through art.
Prosylis has for years stretched the boundaries of performance and
digital art and film/stage directing and is now venturing into a new field
of research, exploring existing systems of knowledge transfer and
communication.
Academic lecturing is one such system. A
lecturer lives and works within an established social system of codes and
signs, which is, however, constantly personalised by him or her. Lecturers
send their messages across both from within a system and as individuals.
They are, in a sense, performers who act according to directing, but also
make their own particular interpretations. This complex semiotic system is
taken up as an example by the artist, who uses a number of ‘catalysts’ –other
established systems, in this case ancient drama and myth- to initially
unpack and highlight the particulars of the semiotics of academic
lecturing. He then eventually re-synthesizes everything into a new whole
that is a combination of the above in the form of artistic creation.
Prosylis’s experimentation is facilitated and enriched by the use of
cutting-edge new technologies, which enable him to both improvise and
create a unique aesthetic experience, while exploring the elements of a
new ‘system’ in the making. The title of the project reflects its main
parameters, namely the contribution of the academic lecturer to knowledge
and a furthering of thought as a parallel to the mythical hero’s
Prometheus’s contribution to the enlightenment and empowerment of the
human kind.
With this experiment Prosylis seeks to define a new
expressive means for himself as a director, which he will elaborate
through a series of similar performances, with the participation of
different lecturers exploring different themes. At the same time, the
artist offers a wide audience an opportunity to question established
systems and participate in the creation of new ones, which reflect
contemporary thought and behaviour. Prosylis also finds here an
opportunity for an in-depth exploration of his role as the artist-manager/administrator
of pre-existing ‘materials’, in this case people, systems, situations and
technological possibilities.
Evi Baniotopoulou
Art Historian - Art Critic
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