Throwing the Stone

In the frame of Art Athina 2019: International Contemporary Art Fair of Athens
Performance/Video Installation. Duration 7 minutes
Curated by Sozita Goudouna
Live Performer: Loizos Constantinou
Video Performer: Genadi Bogdanov
Project Manager: George Lazoglou
% Trust: Towards A New Visual Performance

Originally commissioned work by the Museum of St Petersburg, to commemorate the 100 anniversary of the Russian Revolution, 2017. For the Athens Performance, a dancer performed the ACT in front of the screen.

Departing from Meyerhold’s etude Throwing the Stone -- which we see performed on the large screen by Gennadi Bogdanov -- I aimed to find a connection or a meeting point of this gesture, at once an artistically poetic and art-revolutionary act, to today’s radical acts of throwing stones, acts which range from socially furious encounters, to even claiming to be forms of unarmed resistance. The installation floor is covered with stones, broken pieces of cement and fragmented pieces of marble, implying the existence of a riot or a protest. Stones are thrown in the context of conflict and this act suggests desperation, employed when one has little else for self-defense against hostility or indifference. The sound accompanying the video completes the installation and connects all these elements. The viewer instead of listening to the melody of classical music normally accompanying such choreographic exercises is found surrounded by echos of riots and stone throwing, taken from actual crisis riots happening in Greece. Some of the desperate voices heard are demanding a “Right to the Future”.

In this installation I tried to develop a critical perspective on how we demand and supply social changes as irrational subjects in a world in transition. There is a play between personal and social narratives, between connotations of art revolutions and social revolutions and a play between a troubled past, a critical present and an unforeseeable future.