FENIA KOTSOPOULOU

Fenia Kotsopoulou, artist (UK)

"SCENTS OF EVANESCENCE"
Everything about this project and about the artist:
https://scentsofevanescenc.wixsite.com/feniak/about

The artist will be on streaming from her FB page on 2nd May to talk about her project:
https://www.facebook.com/fenia.kotsopoulou

Ephemeral videoperformance #1



As part of the cross-disciplinary, on going project: "SCENTS OF EVANESCENCE" (2017-present), on ephemerality, memory, intimacy.
EXPIRE IN 24Hours
Today I make public, also the website of the project:
https://scentsofevanescenc.wixsite.com/feniak Using as starting points Mayer-Schönberger's solution of information's expiry date, and the meaning of ephemerality (literally) as that which lasts only for a day, I decided to start a series of simple digital experiments, exploring the gesture of deleting. The first experiment, taking place within the context of FREE PERFORMANCE ART, curated by the wonderful artist, KYRAHM, has the form of a new video-performance, created and produced within five days (27th-1st of May). Here below is the video which will remain online for just 24 hour. At the end of the twenty four hours the video will be permanently removed from the platform, the specific video work will never become public again, nor will it be submitted to open calls. I will not keep documentation of the process (images, stills, trailer, or traces), and as final action I will record the deletion of all the files from my computer (raw material, project and related files) and share it on the website. I want to particularly thank, my dearest friends and artists: Mahmoud Maktabi and Joseph Morgan Schofield for their spontaneous and generous contribution. And of course, my dear Daz Disley, for all his support, as always... video by Fenia Kotsopoulou
poem: Mahmoud Maktabi
voice: Joseph Morgan Schofield
music: "Blue Dot Sessions" by Lady Lupine
"Corruttela" by Coin Temple
additional shots and participatiom: Daz Disley
Lincoln 2nd of May 2020

"SCENTS OF EVANESCENCE" (2017-current) is an on going cross-disciplinary art project on ephemerality, memory, intimacy, the process of (dis)appearance, and questions emerging from their intersections. The different media through which the project has been developed, until now, are : photography, alternative print making, collective text, poetry, creative documentation. After three years, the project's outputs and parts of the process are available online via a website which will be launched on the 2nd of May 2020, within the context of FREE PERFORMANCE ART.
Additionally, a new experimental, ephemeral work will be created to last for 24 hours, in the format of an ephemeral videoperformance. An experiment that deals with digital memory and the act of Deleting.
Format: Ephemeral Videoperformance (= video work that lasts 24 hours from the moment that becomes public)

Title of video: "DELETE #1"

Date: 2nd of May 2020 (00:01)

Expire time: 24 hours later.


IDEA:
Professor Victor Mayer-Schönberger in his book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Era (2009) adresses the challenges of digital remembering, and how digital technology overrides our ability to forget. He suggests to "make forgetting just a tiny bit easier again than remembering-just enough to flip the default back to where it has been for milennia, from remembering forever to forgetting over time". How do we negotiate, though, the balance between forgetting and remembering? How do we choose what to preserve and what to erase from our digital memory? Maybe it is easier to "forget" what is painful, what is embarassing, wrong or badly made, an unwanted accident, and so on.

What about, instead, we decide to erase something good, nice, and valuable? something which we have put a lot effort into?

Using as starting points Mayer-Schönberger's solution of information's expiry date, and the meaning of ephemerality (literally) as that which lasts only for a day, I decided to start a series of simple digital experiments, exploring the gesture of deleting.

The first experiment will take place within the context of Free Performance Art, curated by artist KYRAHM, on the 2nd of May 2020, and it will take the form of a new video-performance, created and produced within five days (27th-1st of May). The final output will be online for public viewing from 00:01 am (Italian time zone) and it will remain online for just 24 hours - a hyperlink will be shared through the festival's platform and in my Facebook profile. At the end of the twenty four hours the video will be permanently removed from the platform, the specific video work will never become public again, nor will it be submitted to open calls. I will not keep documentation of the process (images, stills, trailer, or traces), and  as final action I will record the deletion of all the files from my computer (raw material, project and related files) and add it in the website. The only remnant will be the recording of the deletion. I will not attempt to remake the work.



FENIA KOTSOPOULOU (GR/UK)

website:https://feniakotsopoulou.wixsite.com/artist

short version:

Greek cross-disciplinary, award-winning artist, currently based in Lincoln (UK), navigating and exploring the fields of dance, performance (art), video, photography and their intersection.  Based on a rhizomatic approach of making art, pivotal topics o her fluid and hybrid practice include: the Body as gathering place of e-motions and site of transformation, personal and collective memory, (de)construction of fe/male identity, performativity of documentation, hair, hairiness and furriness as political expressive tools of deviance, and more. Collaboration, Co-authorship and Co-creation become vital elements in my practice as she is exploring an holistic way to express her voice, vision, confusion, doubts, fears, and dissent. In the past few years, as (dance) performer, producer and visual practitioner, her works and the work of close-collaborators have been shown at a wide array of festivals and art platforms, encompassing the fields of dance, experimental performance, live-art and video-art. Alongside her artistic practice, Fenia teaches at the Master of Theatre Practices, in ArtEZ (The Netherlands).