ZAFOS XAGORARIS

“The Concession”, installation, Greek participation (“Mr. Stigl”) at the 58th Venice Biennale, Giardini, Venice, 2019.
In 1948, during the 24th Venice Biennale, because of the civil war the Greek pavilion was empty. The Greek government decided to give it to Peggy Guggenheim in order to exhibit her art collection. At the same time, at the concentration camp of the isolated island of Makronisos civilians and soldiers were forced to create copies of ancient Greek temples. This indoor and outdoor installation consists of archival material and a reconstructed gate of the Makronisos camp, attached in the entrance of the pavilion, altering its architectural design. 

“The Speaker: American Protests 1960s and Today”, installation and participatory event, UMMA Museum, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2018.

Combining archival material sourced from the Bentley Historical Library at University of Michigan with an interactive “soapbox,” visitors to this installation were able to communicate their own messages of dissent. The “soapbox,” complete with AV equipment, was designed to transmit the speaker’s voice outside of the museum and project a green-screen image of the visitor making an address from atop a 1964 Ford Thunderbird parked on the museum plaza — a historical nod to the famous image of Mario Savio during a Free Speech Movement protest in Berkeley.

Series of tools for workshops in elementary and high schools, Education Program of the Onassis Cultural Center, Athens, 2017 – 19

A sign with the inscription XAIPETE! (pronounced herete in Greek, meaning HELLO!) used to be placed in the entrance of a prisoners camp in Görlitz, Germany. In 1916, approximately 7.000 Greek soldiers surrendered to the German forces. Since Greece was at the moment neutral to the war, these soldiers had a bizarre status, being at the same time guests as well as prisoners. The entire 4th Corps of Greek army was demobilized and carried by rail to Görlitz. The "guests" of the German Government remained there for almost three years. The prisoners were free to walk around the city, publish their own newspaper and realize some of the first historical recordings of Greek music. In commemoration to this historical event, which illustrates an undetermined sociopolitical status of the Greeks during World War I, Xagoraris re-creates the welcoming gate of the camp. Accompanying the structure are the sound recordings produced in the Görlitz camp and currently held at the archives of Humboldt University as well as the Ethnological Museum of Berlin..

In 1916, the Nomikos estate in Patissia opened the first open-air school for children suffering from first stages of tuberculosis. In the same area a few years later, the 8th Public Gymnasium was built. In the courtyard of the school, an open-walled chapel was designed by architect Nicholaos Mitsakis. This chapel gave the opportunity to all students, passersby and members of the community to coexist collectively in the courtyard and take part to the rituals. In 1937, the interior walls of the chapel were painted by Spyros Papaloukas. During the German invasion, the chapel was occupied and its walls were whitewashed, while in the 1950s the open side was covered by a wall. The project aims to contribute to the restoration of the chapel to its original form and to collectively activate the residents of the neighborhood, the students, the school’s administration, the church, the Municipality of Athens, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture. Printed material of Mitsakis’ drawings, collective actions around the project, the history of the building and related gestures are being added in an ongoing publication commissioned by documenta 14.

Zafos Xagoraris (Athens, 1963) has studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with an Alexander S. Onassis Foundation scholarship. His Ph.D. was about the construction of miracles by Hero of Alexandria (Department of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens).

He has presented various personal exhibitions while his work is consisted by drawings, obstructing devices of visual or other signals and public installations of sound amplification mechanisms.

Xagoraris has participated in exhibitions such as the 58th Venice Biennale, Greek Pavilion, “Mr. Stigl”, 2019, ‘Have we met? Dialogues on Memory and Desire”, Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, 2018, Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens, 2017, Politiche della Natura, Fondazione Zimei, Pescara, 2016, 4th Athens Biennial, 2013, Sotto Quale Cielo, Museo Riso, Palermo, 2011, ETICO_F, Termini Imerese, 2010. Also, Manifesta 7, Rovereto, 2008, 1st Bienal Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, 2007, 1st Thessaloniki Biennale, 2007 and the 27th Sao Paulo Bienal, 2006.

He was one of the curators of the Greek Pavilion of the 9th Venice Biennale of architecture (2004) and the 2nd Athens Biennial (2009), while he has presented the outdoor installations: “Downhill Classroom”, Benaki Museum, Athens, 2015 and “The Performance”, NEON city project, Athens, 2016.

He is currently teaching at the Athens School of Fine Arts and has taught at the University of Patras and Sassari. He was a Witt Artist in Residence at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, 2018, a visiting scholar at the Columbia University, NY, (Fulbright Scholar, 2004). He has been invited to present his work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, D’Annunzio University, Pescara, IUAV, Venice, Academy of Fine Arts, Palermo, School of Visual Arts, NY, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and many others.  

Books about his work have been published by Patakis Publishers, “The Arrow and the Eye”, Athens, 2002 and “Amps” (designed by metoo, Athens, 2006), the Athens National Museum of Contemporary Art, EMST, “Three Bells”, 2003 and Postmedia Books, “Silencers and Amplifiers” (edited by Massimiliano Scuderi) Milan, 2009.

“Zafos Xagoraris - The Performance” (edited by Katerina Gregos and designed by Speculoos) NEON, Brussels and, as part of his participation in documenta 14, “The Niche” (designed by VIER5) were published in 2017.