What? – What do you see? Why? – Why do you see? How? – How do you see? These are the questions raised by the public intervention that took place on the weekend of January 27th and 28th by the artist PASHIAS.
Presenting an unexpected and untitled action, in the form of occupying screens along the main avenues and streets of Nicosia, PASHIAS continues his investigation focusing on the relationship of a social-political body with the urban-public environment.
Abandoning the use of objects and references, often encountered in his practice, the video exposes the primary source of images, experiences, and knowledge – the human body, dressed in golden sequins, standing upright, facing forward, encountering the gaze of passersby.
He raises his left hand, bends the elbow, places the palm on the chest and twists the fingers clockwise. The fingers return to their initial position and twist again. A simple gesture in continuous repetition, a universal sign of questioning as the only ‘material’ present in the artist’s vocabulary, creates multiple layers of meaning, questioning, disturbance, and confrontation.
Over time, the body transforms into an object for observation, fluid movement turns into mechanical repetition, PASHIAS is replaced by his avatar, a humanoid with vacant eyes, disintegrates, malfunctions. The moving fingers shake the skin adorned with golden sequins, activating the rest of the body – a vessel, in an attempt to bring the humanoid back to life.
The fingers continue to rotate, persisting, turning the mind, turning the viewer’s gaze along with the ‘violent’ effects on the exposed body.
The video-work is realized by the youth organization YEU – Youth for Exchange & Understanding Cyprus and the studio of experiential design ABR – Alternative Brains Rule, within the framework of the public intervention program Art.Act.Disrupt funded by the ACF- Active Citizens Fund.
In collaboration with the organization Smart Nicosia, the body in continuous questioning occupied the screens – information points installed in the center of Nicosia, utilizing the existing means of visual communication of the city with its residents.
Through the occupation of public space, literally – using public screens, and conceptually – diverting the attention and time of passersby, PASHIAS composes an act of protest that challenges dominant modes of perception: How do gender, physical characteristics, sexual preferences, skin, and race, the way we look, behave, and exist, play a role in a social context? How are we received and perceived? How are we influenced by the common gaze? How can we distort and change it?
Video & Photography: Charalambos Varelias, PASHIAS
Project Coordination: Maria Efstathiou
*The project Art.Act.Disrupt is supported by funding under the Active Citizens Fund Cyprus, which is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants 2014-2021.
(Images © Charalambos Varelias)
