Ιs there still time, within the midst of the sixth extinction, to reweigh our anthropocentric view of the natural world?

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Nikos Arvanitis sets out a series of symbolic gestures and unexpected reversals to accent the inscriptions of nature in the multiple manifestations of anthropogenic invasiveness. A jungle of concrete devours the forest, the landscape becomes a billboard, the natural soundscape is synthesized by memory-based human imitation performance. Α watchtower resembling those in Hymettos mountain, one of the last forest reserves of Athens, is rescaled and reconstructed as a hybrid listening and viewing device - a subtle reminder that our positions are determined through constraints, our conceptions are fixed. Arvanitis amplifies the anthropocentric view to question it and invites the viewer/listener to participate in an open meaning-making process. Will their individual perception be challenged or attested?

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Nikos Arvanitis (*1979, Athens/Greece) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna/Austria at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens/Greece (Erasmus scholarship) and at the MFA course "Public Art and new artistic Strategies" at the Bauhaus University of Weimar/Germany with scholarships from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the A. S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. His artistic and research work focuses on themes, which consider the structures and possibilities of public space indwelling, the aesthetic perception in contemporary society, the construction of collective identities  and the concept of the globalized, spectacular, but also institutional mass culture. His work has been exhibited in international contexts, including the 2nd Les Ateliers de Rennes - Biennial d'Art Contemporain/Rennes, the 2nd Athens Biennial/Athens, Locust Projects/Miami, Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art/Cairo, BWA Wroclaw Galeria Awangarda/Wroclaw, Bâtiment d'Art Contemporain Le Commun/Geneva.

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Nikos Arvanitis

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