No Self Control is a conflation between intimacy and inaccessibility. The exhibition transcends binary oppositions and strives for an in-between state that resonates with both the self and that which appears to be threatening to the self. Through the juxtaposition of different codes of abjection, it examines the fragility of the subject’s physical integrity and probes the more bestial aspects of their ego. Found somewhere between fascination and repulsion, this intuitive state builds on an emotive site that frustrates reason and deconstructs established meanings.
The exhibited artworks encourage the viewer to confront knowledge about the limits of their own bodies in palpable and visceral ways and demand an embodied response. This is a different kind of call from the one initiated by art that puts the viewer in a spectatorial position leading them to have a relationship with an object. Rather, it is a question of a solicitation to subjectivity, in which the artwork positions the viewer in an ethical relation that calls for their mercy, their grief, or their awe. Such aesthetic practice demands that viewers open up to the affective power of art and allow themselves to be moved by it. This idea builds upon feminist contributions to trauma studies by writers such as Jill Bennett (Empathetic Vision), Griselda Pollock (After-affects and aesthetic transformation) and Bracha L. Ettinger (Art as Encounter-Event).
Other works ignite a distressing dialogue between the body of the viewer and the materiality of the object, creating associations that can affect the spectator on a psychosomatic level. They are made by artists who utilize processes and materials to subvert conventional definitions of the socially sanctioned representation of human anatomy. Such pieces tap into the organic qualities of their materials, instigating a profound connection to the viewer’s living form. In this way, they disturb the viewer’s sense of their bodies’ spatial differentiation from the material object they are confronted with. Concerned with foreignness, they put a sense of claustrophobic smothering on the central stage, plumbing collective fears and anxieties.
Curated by: Dinos Chatzirafailidis. Participating artists: Dafni Atha, Katerina Komianou, Cecilie Skov, Leontios Toumpouris, Corinna Triantafyllidis, Carlos Zorromono Poster by: Pantelis Vitaliotis - Magneto.
