Mikhail Karikis

From November 8 to December 21, 2019
Opening on November 14 at 7 pm

In colourful or even wacky worlds, in which both objects and beings apply themselves to personifying abstract ideas or moral concepts which are difficult to depict, the works brought together here by Bambitchell, Julia Feyrer and Mikhail Karikis offer another way of telling the world and make allegory a form of activism.

For more than ten years, Mikhail Karikis has been exploring the impact of industrial and ecological change on work and social structures. He develops sustained collaborations with communities weakened by various geographical, socio-economic or environmental issues in order to open up spaces of dialogue which create new forms of social solidarity. For example, he has become interested in groups of elderly women in South Korea who work in seafood and pearl fishing, in the solidarity of workers with their disabled colleagues at a Japanese chalk factory, in the unshakeable bond between workers in a coal mine and, in a recent piece, in the invisibility of the work carried out by nursing assistants with non-verbal individuals.

Sound plays a singular role in Karikis’ work. Making listening a kind of activism, he amplifies the voices of those that we do not see and those from whom we hear little to nothing. Fascinated by the power of the voice and of collectively-produced sounds, he creates artworks which explore in different registers the intensity arising out of shared common values and the concepts of revolt and democracy in micro-societies.

The three works presented in this program actively involve communities of children and adolescents who call into question what has been handed down to them as techno-dystopian narratives, ecological injustices and socio-economic legacy.

Children of Unquiet depicts children retaking a village built for workers at a geo-thermal power plant which today has been automated.

Ain’t Got No Fear documents the alternative vocation given by young people to a power plant, in defiance of authority and surveillance.

No Ordinary Protest, inspired by a children’s science fiction book entitled The Iron Woman, makes children’s political voice heard and opens a space for imaginative eco-feminist activism.

PROGRAM

Children of Unquiet (2014) — HD video, sound, 15 min. 36 sec.

Ain’t Got No Fear (2016) — HD video, sound, 8 min. 56 sec.

No Ordinary Protest (2018) — HD video, sound, 7 min. 48 sec.

Mikhail Karikis (1975) is a Greek-British artist living in London and Lisbon. His work has been presented in numerous biennial exhibitions, including the 54th Venice Biennial, Manifesta 9 (Genk), the 19th Biennial of Sydney, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 (India) and the Seoul Mediacity Biennale in 2015. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented recently at venues such as Whitechapel Gallery (London), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin) and Casino Luxembourg — Forum d’art Contemporain. In the United Kingdom, the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), the De La Warr Pavilion and Tate St Ives are currently presenting solo exhibitions of his work. He is shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award 2019.