Architecture meets politics
Political content has been a steady element in the conceptual art of Vangelis Vlahos. His work currently being shown at The Breeder venue continues the artist’s search into the relationship between architecture and public projects, with the design of political strategies and geopolitics. The work «1992» is the outcome of the artist’s research into Greek foreign policy in the Balkans, specifically in the region of the former Yugoslavia. Funding by the Greek government for the renovation of Sarajevo’s former parliament building – which was all but destroyed during the Bosnian war – provides the occasion for the artist’s exploration into Greece’s role in the Balkans. Conceived of and presented as an objective documentation of facts, the work includes archival material the artist has collected from the press, state archives or on the Internet. Monthly progress reports on the reconstruction projects, newspaper clippings analyzing Greece’s role in the Balkans and all sorts of state documents are put together in the fashion of an investigative report. Displayed on a large, square table that brings to mind the large maps in the drawing of geopolitical strategies, the archives are bound in dossiers and presented together with two architectural models: One shows what the building looked like before the war and the other shows its redesigned, renovated version. Vlahos reveals the symbolic function of buildings and discloses the inextricable, but often hidden, link between form and content. In another work, also presented at The Breeder, Vlahos has used the same concept and methodology to trace the political subtext behind the new National Bank building in Thessaloniki. The building’s construction is seen against the expanding Greek public sector investment projects in the Balkans. Vlahos has probed the intricate, political content that underlies public architecture in many of his previous works, as for example, in the case of US Embassy in Athens or the Athens Tower. His work now being shown at The Breeder was also presented in last year’s Sao Paolo biennale. Minimal and tight in meaning, his work hones our awareness of architecture, and by extension culture, as an instrument for the implementation of political strategies. [email protected] «1992» at The Breeder (6 Evmorfopoulou, tel 210.331.7527) through April 5.
