I have been invited to be part of this exciting exhibition, Public Domain, initiated by Lo and Behold and presented at Milkshake Agency from June 26 to August 24, 2014. The project includes 25 artists / 25 site specifics located in 12 different cities in 10 countries and is curated by Artemis Potamianou and Giorgos Papadatos. After receiving the commission I decided to create the Financial Triptych. This triptych stems from a larger series titled National Panties and focuses specifically on global financial institutions. I wanted the images to represent the anonymity and unaccountability of financial institutions, even when they are represented by iconic symbols. The triptych questions the current economic structures and the acquiescence that surrounds the dismantling of social and welfare rights to construct post-democratic societies. The outdated underwear become the emblem of financial absurdities rationalized via the logic of the corporate Body Politic as well as representation of ‘the flag’ of resurgent nationalisms.

One – Little Piggy, Financial Triptych, from the series National Panties, 2014, Lanfranco Aceti.
(Saturday, September 2, 2013, 11:22. Eurotower, European Central Bank, Kaiserstraße 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany: 50.109763, 8.673415.)
Two – Little Piggy, Financial Triptych, from the series National Panties, 2014, Lanfranco Aceti.
(Saturday, September 7, 2013, 13:58. Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, United States: 40.715078, 74.014171.)
Three – Little Piggy, Financial Triptych, from the series National Panties, 2014, Lanfranco Aceti.
(Saturday, September 7, 2013, 08:37. Charging Bull, 1 Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004, United States: 40.705745, 74.013444.)

Public Domain, in the curatorial description of Artemis Potamianou and Giorgos Papadatos, is a map-archive project consisting of documented interventions and actions in public spaces. The participating artists follow a specific working process both in terms of method and end result. They are asked to imagine and to realize an intervention on a public site in the city where they live. Afterwards they are asked to photograph the intervention and submit it in the form of a print. These prints will be exhibited at the Milkshake Agency’s project space together with an index with exact location and time of the actions.

The end result is a linear visual archive of site-specific works which signify the artists’ varying investigations and concerns as well as also serving as an intervention in the urban environment. These are intervention which walk the fine line between legitimacy and illegitimacy, since viewing the art object is not voluntary rather an imposition upon the viewer. The artists are required to reframe their personal methods and work practices are externalized following an internal negotiation where the personal is transformed into the public. This practice allows for the creation and archiving of visual records but also initiates a dialogue which exceeds the boundaries of personal investigation.

This dialectic archive is acutely political in that it documents the pulses and concerns of a variety of international artists who, not only reflect the culturally, politically and economically different societies within which they live, but also represent the contemporary art production of their time. The first part of Public Domain which included 25 documented international interventions was realized and presented at Supermarket Independent Art-Fair as part of Kulturhuset in Stockholm in 2012.

The artists for this second edition of Public Domain are:

Lanfranco Aceti / Eftichis Patsourakis / Yiannis Isidorou / Gaël Grivet / Yiannis Grigoriadis / Alexia Turlin / Lina Theodorou / Alix Delmas / Theodoros Zafeiropoulos / Giorgos Gyparakis / Benoît Delaunay / Maro Michalakakos / Iris Plaitaki / Campus Novel / Sofia Touboura / Jenny Marketou / Derrick Piens / Erik Binder / Tea Mäkipää / Marc Bijl & Alejandro Vidal / Ludovic Bernhardt / Elena Bajo / Julie René de Cotret / Celine Peruzzo / Italo Zuffi

Lo and Behold is a non-profit organization based in Athens, Greece, serving as a platform for the production of cultural activities, both in Greece and abroad, with a focus on contemporary art. LaB’s objective is to highlight the work of art itself as the outcome of artistic inquiry, rather than as a commercial product.