GEORGE DRIVAS - INCIDENTS IN (PAST) FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
Incidents in (past) future perfect tense is a triptych exhibition of the artist George Drivas. The show is compiled by Aeonium (2020) a five-channel video installation, the video titled Kepler (2014) and a static double projection titled Still Life (2020). One could say that all three hover on the fringe of Science Fiction ―or to be exact within Climate Fiction (cli-fi), a subsection of the genre―, while their political metaphor is quite obvious. By putting them all together we are taken aback by a devastating urgency.
In Aeonium, five large screens positioned one next to the other run simultaneously. All the action takes place in a greenhouse. The interior is surrounded by enormous, opaque glass panels. Outside, the world has probably collapsed after an unexpected catastrophe which is called “The Event”. At the same time, inside the greenhouse, five workers are tending to a plant ― a succulent of the Aeonium species to be specific. At the same time, they try to explain what has happened. They get anxious, angry, they wonder. This piece was completed during the recent quarantine and it came to be significantly allegoric.
Kepler was shot in Georgia sic years ago and it feels like a sequel or a prequel of Aeonium. A large toxic rock appears out of nowhere and compels three people to take a stance. The coming of this rock and its undeniable pestilence is also an unexpected “Event” which has toppled all balance.
Still life is a two- channel static projection which completes the subject the two other pieces touch upon. One man looks through the microscope while right next to him rests an Aeonium plant. It is uprooted and laid on a white surface, one which could very well be its epitaph.
These works were to be shown at MOMus Experimental Centre for the arts at Warehouse B1 in Thessaloniki port but due to the measures taken for the prevention of the Covid 19 spread, the exhibition was postponed indefinitely. However, large photographic reproductions of video stills of Aeonium and Kepler will be on display on the Festival’s venues on Pier 1 at the Thessaloniki port during the festival dates.
The videos AEONIUM (20΄) and Kepler (14΄) will be available to the public from 10:00 am on Thursday November 12 until 10:00 am on Friday, free of charge, on the Festival’s online platform.
Organized by Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Curator: Orestis Andreadakis
Production & Coordination: Thanos Stavropoulos
AEONIUM (video still)
Aeonium, five-channel synchronized projection. Color and sound, 20’, 2020
ΚEPLER (video still)
Single Channel HD Video. Color, Stereo Sound, 14', 2014
STILL LIFE
Two channel HD still projection. Color no sound, 2020
With the support of
