Jannis Varelas
The Oblong Box

October 21, 2011–November 26, 2011
Kunsthalle Athina, Athens

Kunsthalle Athena presented an exhibition of new works by artist Jannis Varelas, inaugurating the programme of individual presentations of acclaimed and upcoming artists. The exhibition was part of ReMap 3 and in the parallel programme of the Athens Biennale 3.

The Oblong Box exhibition was situated between two interacting levels. On the one hand, we had Jannis Varelas’ references to heroes, characters and personas found in independent horror film productions – as well as child TV shows – in the 70’s. On the other, we had the rearrangement of moral shapes embedded in the aesthetic status of these references. As the artist explains, “the meaning of the idea of the person in the dramatics of these productions, despite being of avant-garde conception, it has been associated with a weak but simultaneously blatant critique against the socio-political norms of the established class of their time, which was expressed by means of both form and plot”. However, clichés models of heroes and anti-heroes reproduced in this procedure have now been transformed from tools of social critique into stereotypical shapes. This shift was interpreted by the artist as “a transformation of the previously avant-garde forms of expression into the ashes from which today’s mass culture is being reborn”. In this context, “The Oblong Box” exhibition explored a further – and perhaps more personal – shift of these images “from the sphere of stereotypes to the sphere of internal trauma, as well as the dialectical relation between the uncanny and the recalling of a known experience”. This exploration was visually fulfilled through diverse media such as installations, videos and collages that permeated the entire space of Kunsthalle Athena. Viewers were invited to a timeless adventure with no other direction than the one of illusion.

Jannis Varelas was born in 1977 and is a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Royal College of Art in London. In 2007 he participated in the 1st Athens Biennial “Destroy Athens” (curated by XYZ), in the 1st International Art Biennial in the city of New Orleans in 2008 and the Cairo Biennial in 2010. In 2011, he was nominated for the DESTE prize. Jannis Varelas is represented by The Breeder Gallery.
The exhibition was curated by Marina Fokidis and the team of Kunsthalle Athena: Apostolos Vasilopoulos, Eleanna Papathanasiadi, Angeliki Roussou, Daphne Mangalousi