Socratis Socratous
See it with your own Ears
March 14, 2024–May 23, 2024The Breeder Studyroom, Athens
From March 14, The Breeder Studyroom hosts Socratis Socratous with an installation-retrospective of the most important milestones of his long career, consisting of historical works, photographic material, objects, publications and documents from his personal archive. The environment that Socratous creates here is a personal narrative in the form of a visual lecture with unpublished material that completes the works themselves. Sokratous’ practice consists of a variety of media including photography, installations, performance and sculpture while incorporating methods of sociological research, fieldwork and archival classification. Themes such as collective trauma, loss, displacement and destruction are negotiated in his work. From the violent partition of his native Cyprus and the internal migration that followed to the crisis in the Middle East and the political upheavals in the capitals of the Western world, Socratous’ work is deeply political, open to different interpretations while keeping the aesthetic dimension intact.
In the installation that he will present at The Breeder Studyroom, Socratous is at his most extroverted and for the first time shares personal archival material that captures unseen moments of the journey research, practice and preparation behind the production of major projects, such as the installation Rumours, with which he represented Cyprus at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, negotiating the concept of the foreign, and the project Blue Beret Camp (2011), a series of photographs taken in the occupied part of Cyprus documenting the daily life of UN soldiers. It also includes material from his project A Cave in Dhariya (2012), presented as part of the Riwaq Biennale and resulting from his two-month stay in Palestine, material from the charged socio-political climate in Athens after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007, as well as references to the project Stolen Garden (2014) where he combines his affinity for the subject and craftsmanship with his interest in exploring the idea of the garden as a space between the private and the public. Retrospective material from the Newspaper show (2012), Auction Lots (2017) and the Salvage/FOVOS Handbook (2019-2013) will also be present.
The Breeder Studyroom is an allocated space within the gallery building, where each respective artist sets up a personal studyroom. The project intends to offer its “residents” the opportunity to share part of their creative process with the public, presenting references, objects from their studio, or parallel projects and experiments.
Socratis Socratous was born in Paphos, Cyprus and lives and works between Athens and Nicosia.
Selected solo exhibitions include: “So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.” (Psalm 103:25), The Breeder, Athens (2019), “Casts of An Island” curated by Michelangelo Corsaro, residency at Point Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia (2016), Saint Severin Gallery, curated by Sophie Duplaix, Paris, (2015), “Six Open Gates and A Closed One” The Breeder, Athens (2015), DESTE Awards, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens (2015), “Inviolable Refuge”, Omikron Gallery, Nicosia (2011), “2000- 2010 Socratis Socratous photographs Athens”, Benaki Museum, Athens & Epidaurus Festival (2010), “Socratis Socratous/ Rumours”, curated by Sophie Duplaix, National Participation, Pavillion of Republic of Cyprus, 53rd Venice Biennial, Italy (2009).
Selected group exhibitions include: The Yard – An Outdoor Exhibition, Contemporary Istanbul (2023), Public Matters”, curated by Christiane Erharter, Georg Lechner, Sergey Harutoonian, Axel Köhne, Claudia Slanar, Luisa Ziaja, Belvedere Museum, Vienna (2023), “Les Choses; Une histoire de la nature morte”, curated by Laurence Bertrand Dorléac Louvre Museum, Paris (2022), “Retours à l’Afrique”, curated by Androula Michael, Bandjoun Station, Cameroon (2019), “Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality”, curated by Laura Mott, Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit (2019), “The same river twice: contemporary art in Athens”, curated by Margot Norton and Natalie Bell, Benaki Museum in collaboration with DESTE Foundation, Athens and New Museum, New York (2019), “The Intimate Enemy”, curated by Laura Lecce and Fabrizio Vatieri, Pelagica, Milan (2017), “Instructions for Happiness”, curated by Severin Dünser and Olympia Tzortzi, Belvedere Museum, Vienna (2017), “Si Sedes Non Is”, curated by Milovan Farronato, The Breeder, Athens (2017), “Cher(e)s Ami(e)s”, curated by Christine Macel, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016), “Handsome, Young and Unemployed”, curated by Michelangelo Corsaro, Komplot, Brussels (2016), “FOCUS MENAM (Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean)”, curated by Omar Kholeif, Armory Show, New York, (2015), “This is not my beautiful house”, curated by Clea Charitou, Marina Fokidis, Eleanna Papathanassiadi and Apostolos Vassilopoulos, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens (2014), “Terra Mediterranea-In Crisis”, curated by Jannis Toumazis, NiMAC, Nicosia (2013), “Gestures in Time”, curated by Jack Persekian, Katya Garcia-Anton and Lara Khaldi, Riwaq Biennial, Palestine (2012), “Mapping Cyprus Crusaders, Traders and Explorers & Mapping Cyprus Contemporary Views”, curated by Loukia Loizou Chatzigavriil and Androula Michael, BOZAR, Brussels (2012), “Restless”, curated by Victoria Lynn, Anne and Gordon Samstag, Art Museum, Adelaide, Australia (2012), “Ηow to Make a Garden”, curated by Elena Prapa, Nicosia (2012), “A Rock and a Hard Place”, curated by Paolo Colombo, Mahita El Bacha Urieta and Marina Fokidis, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial, MOMus- Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2011), “Uncovered: Nicosia International Airport, Project #7” curated by Pavlina Paraskevaidou and Basak Senova, Ledras str/ Lokmaci, Nicosia (2011), “Farewell”, curated by Themis Bazaka and Marina Fokidis, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens, (2011), “Expanded Ecologies”, curated by Daphne Vitali, EMST, Athens (2009), “Personal/Political”, curated by Areti Leopoulou and Thodoris Markoglou, 2nd Thessaloniki Biennial, MOMus, Thessaloniki (2009), “Where Do We Go From Here?”, Nikos Pattiches Collection, NiMAC, Nicosia (2008), “Les Rencontres d’ Arles Photographie”, Arles (2008), “Hi-Lite 5”, Archimede Staffolini Gallery, Nicosia (2004), “The Garden”, Greek participation, Tiranα Biennial, Albania (2001), “Spring Collection”, House of Cyprus, DESTE Foundation, Athens (1996).
