Kostis Velonis - Loneliness on Common Ground: How Can Society Do What Each Person Dreams

The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece (EMST) is staging the first museum solo exhibition of renowned young Greek artist Kostis Velonis from 11 May to 5 September. Velonis is considered to be one of the most important Greek artists of his generation. His sculptural work often refers to historical events and art-historical movements and the focus is on political utopias and the failure of ideology.

For the majority of his work, Velonis often uses found materials and his artistic practise is characterised by the combination of personal narratives with a re-examination of historical data.

Velonis was born in 1968 in Athens, where he lives and works. He studied Cultural Studies at the London Consortium (Birkbeck College, ICA, AA, Tate Gallery) in 2000 and Visual Arts at the Paris VIII University, (Maitrise, D.E.A). In 2009, he received his doctorate in Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

For his exhibition at EMST, entitled "Loneliness on Common Ground: How Can Society Do What Each Person Dreams", Velonis will be presenting a number of large-scale sculptural works as well as some smaller sculptures that the artist created in 2009 and 2010. This exhibition will reassess the nature of Velonis' oeuvre, focusing on some recent political works. The sculptures on view take Russian avant-garde, ancient Greek democracy and the working class consciousness as their subject matter, examining how these concepts and visions can be viewed today. Through architectural constructions of Russian constructivist artists such as Liubov Popova and Gustav Klutsis, the artist refers to the contradictions that accompany the aims of the Russian avant-garde and communist politics. His sculptures seek to unfold and question the ideologies behind political structures and to reflect upon ideas such as the utopian ideal, democracy and revolution. The exhibition will also present some works that bring out the artist's interest in craft making and working class orientation. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue (Greek and English), which features texts by Miltos Frangopoulos, Chus Martinez, Daphne Vitali and Florian Waldvogel.

Don't miss the exhibition by Kostis Velonis at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece.