Vassili Balatsos The Promenade of a Schizophrenic: A Detrospective Exhibition
February 24 - April 2, 2011
The Apartment is very pleased to present an exhibition of works by Greek artist Vassili Balatsos. The exhibition opens on Thursday, February 24, 2011. Titled �The Promenade of a Schizophrenic: A Detrospective Exhibition� is a concept show, a revision of the artist�s practice and includes paintings, collages as well as a new site-specific installation which takes over the main gallery space.
Vassili Balatsos is primarily known for his �Independent Landscapes�, a series of site specific wall installations, made of DIY materials such as masking tapes that bear eclectic affinities to abstraction, from Piet Mondrian to Blinky Palerno. These playful, spatial interventions encourage the viewer to think outside systemic models of living. They demonstrate how our built environment is a defining factor in the socioeconomic performance of societies and how it affects our lives and values. It was Henri Lefebvre that orgininally argued that the space that surrounds us often shapes our perception and understanding of ourselves and that is fundamental in the reproduction of society, hence capitalism itself.
A large scale collage dominates the second gallery and is in dialogue with a sculpture that refers to a recent scandal of a senior officer of the Arts Council of Greece and his girlfriend and colleague that led to a suicide attempt amongst accusations of nepotism, corruption and embezzlement. The artist�s disillusionment does not exclude himself who often appears in his collages as an aspiring young artist. His critique of dominant mass culture is perhaps more evident in his series of drawings of football players turned upside. Football, the most popular of sports, is presented as a disoriantating spectacle for the masses.
Born in 1966, Vassili Balatsos has had a number of solo exhibitions including Ozon, Athens and Villa Arson, Nice. He has recently participated in a number of museum exhibitions at Maison Blanche, Neuchatel, the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki and The National Contemporary Art Museum in Ahens. His works have been aquired by prestigious public collections such as the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCO), Geneva, The Art Cologne Foundation, Cologne and others. Apart from his activity as an artist, Vassili Balatsos has been active as a curator and gallerist; he was one of the founders of Unlimited Contemporary Art, hosting exhibitions by Lothar Hempel, Erwin Wurm and others.
