ARTiculAction Art Review - Special Issuue Aug. 2016 | Page 26
ICUL CTION
C o n t e m p o r a r y
A r t
meets
R e v i e w
Thodoris Trampas
An interview by Josh Ryder, curator
and Dario Rutigliano, curator
how does your cultural substratum inform
the way you relate yourself to art making
and to the aesthetic problem in general?
[email protected]
Multidisciplinary artist Thodoris
Trampas' work ranges from installation to
performance to explore the limits inside
and outside the body. In his work
Scorched Earth that we'll be discussing in
the following pages his inquiry into the
the concerns of our contemporary and
unstable society allows him to draw the
viewers into an immersive experience in
which they are urged to rethink the
elusive notions of time and space. One of
the most convincing aspects of Trampas'
practice is the way it accomplishes the
difficult task of creating a deep and
autonomous synergy between our limbic
parameters and our rational categories to
highlight a human condition as an
endless effort to balance within an “area”,
which is constantly cha nging in space and
time: we are very pleased to introduce our
readers to his multifaceted artistic
production.
Hello Thodoris and welcome to
ARTiculAction: to start this interview,
would you like to tell us something about
your background? You have a solid formal
training and after having graduated with
honors from the Athens School of Fine
Arts you started your career as a
multidisciplinary artists, nurturing your
education with experiences at ΜΑΙ
(Marina Abramović Institute) and NEON
(Culture and Development Agency): how
do these experiences influence your
evolution as an artist? And in particular,
18
At first, I would like to thank you for giving
me the opportunity to share some paths of
my artistic journey with you.
My embryonic relationship with
performance art began in the third year of
my studies in the School of Fine Arts, when
my teacher, Aimilia Bouriti, trained me
through physical and mental exercises. As
a result, I was initiated in performance.
Those exercises were directly influenced
by butoh, yoga and meditation and they
still help me in self-concentration, stamina
and flow to this day, aiming at the better
performance of each project. As regards
my collaboration with MAI (Marina
Abramović Institute) and NEON (Culture
and Development Agency), they brought
me into contact with the legacy of Marina
Abramovic, namely long-lasting
performance. It was the first time in my
artistic career that I faced the limits of
myself and my mental and physical
strength to such an extent. The process of
the long-lasting performance has got
inside me, after 329 hours of performance
at the As One exhibition, leaving me with a
strong realization of the concept of present
Time and the confrontation with our
personal limits. Due to my education in
visual education, visual terminology
almost always accompanies my work,
giving rise to matters about composition,
light and shadow, colour and sculpture.