Rowdy SS | Balance

Live performance

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Serapis Maritime | Untitled

Video projection-public space intervention

DEO Projects invites the art collective Serapis Maritime and the performer Rowdy SS to a collaboration exploring the intersection between contemporary art and design, which will unfold through a commissioned performance and a visual art public space intervention. Rowdy SS and Serapis Maritime will collaborate and present new, independent works in Chios after their dialogue. The local archives with the seafarers’ correspondence and the coastal observatories-watch towers (vigles) of Chios are used as references or methods to form the conceptual framework of the dialogue.

In the imposing archaeological site of Vigla of Pachi, in western Chios, the British performer Rowdy SS will present a new interpretation of his work Balance: a dance-sound-visual improvisation, a study in the uses of space. The question he poses is how we use space and how, in turn, the space uses us. At the same time, it addresses new ways in which we can make ourselves, our physicality, available to connect/disconnect to/from spaces and communicate.

The concept of visual communication/telecommunication as well as the concept of the organic connection between humans and space are intertwined with the watchtowers, the beacons of Chios, such as Vigla of Pachi, where the performance is presented. Rowdy SS invokes the historical use of the location and its energy and interweaves past and present with his body. Prior to the presentation, the artist invites the locals to “mail” him notes with unprocessed emotions and raw memories from the sea, in order to incorporate them into his performance, bringing about the “balance” himself, as a ritual.

After the performance, for the first time, the stone body of the imposing Vigla of Pachi will be put to use in the present and transformed into a work of art. The  Serapis Maritime video, which will be projected on the watchtower, shows fire smoke in slow motion, a reminder of the optical telegraph, which was the medieval use of the watchtower. Smoke signals, alarm, danger, but also preparation, protection, rescue.

The elements of this intangible work, smoke and fire, carry ambiguous messages and connotations, focusing on concepts such as contemplation, concentration, survival, but also destruction, entrapment, trauma. Serapis Maritime with this project, commissioned by DEO Projects, connect the coastal landscape with their own maritime themes and the aspects of the danger inherent in the sea.

Rowdy SS

Rowdy SS’s projects are set at the intersection of sound-music, dance-movement, at the centre of which he develops live performances, wrought with his body as the main medium. His innovative approaches to sound, inherited from his tenure in the Berlin noise band Atari Teenage Riot and from collaborations like the one with dub legend Lee Scratch Perry, as well as his selective use of multimedia are instrumental in navigating, browsing, escaping and ultimately exploring space as a transmitter of vibrations and sensations. How do the spaces sound? How do we feel within them? How do the spaces themselves feel when they surround us?

His performances have been held at TATE Modern, Pace Gallery, ICA, 180 The Strand, Block Universe and The Southbank Centre in London, Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, Turner Contemporary in Glastonbury, Transmediale in Berlin, Palais De Tokyo in Paris, among others. Recent collaborations include the performances Liquid a Place with Torkwase Dyson (2021) and Run Come Water with Rebecca Bellantoni (2021).  Rowdy SS was born and lives in London, where he is a resident artist at Somerset House Studios while he runs courses and workshops for UAL, The Roundhouse, Slade School of Fine Art, Goldsmiths University and The Yard Theatre.

Serapis Maritime

Serapis Maritime is a hybrid artistic entity operating in the fields of art and fashion that creates works inspired by the aura of the ocean and the industries related to the sea.  It aims to expand the boundaries of artistic production and distribution, and its work functions as an extended novel: an anthropocentric narrative set in the universe of seafaring, with a strong spirituality in its images and references –an exercise in revealing what usually remains hidden.  The artistic production of Serapis Maritime can be read as a contemporary seascape.

Its exhibitions include the following: All as One at Arch, Athens (2019), Liquid Soul, at Rodeo, Athens (2019), SECCMA Trust, at St. Catherine, Paris (2019), Hands on your Soul at 13 rue d’Ormesson, Paris (2018), By his Wounds You will Be Healed at Cité des Arts, Paris (2017). The garments and houseware of Serapis Maritime are distributed internationally both in shops and in museums and galleries, including the Benaki Museum and the CAN and Dio Horia galleries in Athens, and the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna.

Vigla of Pachi

The watchtowers of Chios, scattered strategically along the coastline of the island, were observation posts that watched the sea, monitored the anchorages and sea passages and detected pirate ships. In combination with the fortified settlements of the hinterland, they formed a single defence network and an effective telecommunication system, developed during the Venetian rule (1346-1566) –similar systems were used to combat piracy throughout the Mediterranean. The sentinels, persons of high responsibility, were assigned the task of warning the populations in time in the event of an invasion, through smoke signals (by day) or fire signals (by night). The Vigla of Pachi, a typical turret-shaped watchtower, with a round floor plan,  is one of the few restored watchtowers of Chios, one of the numerous on the west coast of Chios, and one of the estimated 50-60 that existed throughout the island.

ABOUT DEO PROJECTS

DEO Projects is an alter-institution based in Chios. It explores institutionality as a living polymorph in constant flux Its programme is developed in cyclical timescales through interventions that take the form of commissions, exhibitions or artistic residencies.

Based on the values of empathy, trust and generosity, DEO Projects is committed to encouraging transnational dialogue and supporting the island’s existing cultural infrastructure. As a spaceless cultural entity, the organisation operates across the island, in collaboration with local museums and associations, non-institutional spaces and the public realm. Research thematics emerge from the multi-layered historical, social and cultural roots of the island and extend beyond its geographical boundaries, through stories which are travelling by sea.

DEO projects aims to create a fertile and inclusive space to radically re-examine symptoms of the past, long-lasting wounds, patterns of stereotypical thinking, and to deconstruct ideologies and connotations. By cultivating an interdisciplinary ethos through multiple types of knowledge, somatic experiences and local wisdom, DEO offers a space to marginalised voices and a voice to places that have been silenced. DEO Projects aspires to be a platform for dialogue that invites international and local artists, curators, thinkers, patrons, along with ecologists, healers, scientists, craftspeople, visitors, journalists and viewers to collectively explore versions of cultural, social and political change.

More information about DEO Projects: www.deoprojects.com

Free admission to all projects

DEO Projects and its creative programme of 2022, is financially supported by its circle of donors (Stamos Fafalios, Theodoros Fatsis and Maria Apodiakou, Maria Kalomenidou and Yannis Skoufalos), as well as the additional support of the 2022 guest patrons (Tonya and Ato Wright).

The creative programme of 2022 is curated by the director and founder of DEO Projects, Akis Kokkinos

The activities at Vigla of Pachi and the Open Air Theatre in Tigani, Sidirounta are carried out with the kind permission of the Ephorate of Antiquities and the Municipality of Chios.