Is it an intervention or an encounter?: Interview by journalist Christothea Iacovou (CI.) of PASHIAS (P.)

"Parathyro" for Politis Newspaper, 04/02/24 - Read Article (GR)

PASHIAS progresses his artistic research with an untitled and unannounced intervention on the streets of Nicosia with the help of technology.

Is public art an intervention, an accidental encounter or necessary presence? This past week, a figure dressed in gold sequin appeared on the screens of the "Smart Nicosia" project situated in the Nicosia Municipality. This figure was that of visual artist PASHIAS, who presented an unannounced and untitled action, lingering in public space for about three days. For some, it may have been perceived as an interruption within public space, for others, as a chance encounter with an action in the form of advertising campaigns, and for others, it may have been a playful game of PASHIAS' performance art, certainly there to direct our attention towards social issues.

"Parathyro" encountered this action last weekend and observed the pedestrians and skateboarders at one of the video screens. It did indeed feel like a game with the public space and its visitors. Some were stopping to look and others were walking by, turning their head in wonderment as to what the poet was ultimately trying to say. "Parathyro" spoke with artist PASHIAS regarding his action, the evolution of his investigation into the socio-political body and its relation to the urban environment, as he relinquishes the use of objects and references, collaborating with technology and removing the live dimension of his performance work by creating a video.

It is worth noting that the video performance, with a duration of 15 minutes, continuously looped, exhibited the standing body, draped in gold sequin and facing forward, raising the left arm, bending the elbow and executing a gesture that speaks to many cultures. It appears to be a simple gesture, yet as we have already mentioned, it creates multiple layers of meaning, enabling PASHIAS to compose a protest act that challenges the prevailing modes of perception.

CI: What does 'public intervention' mean for you?

P: When art takes a public stance, literally in the common or urban space, and conceptually in the commons or the systemic configuration of society. It is an intervention when it takes part according to, referring to and within the pre-existing social structure, disrupting or interfering with its functions, sometimes unannounced, often targeting the passing citizen as the spectator.

CI: One of your performance works was displayed on the screens of "Smart Nicosia" intervening on public space. How did it come about?

P: The public intervention was commisioned by the "Art.Act.Disrupt" project, given complete freedom by the organisers as to the space, time and 'manner' of the artistic gesture. By living Nicosia, walking its streets every day, the screens - information points installed in the city centre by the "Smart Nicosia" team captured my interest. Although still in their initial stage of operation, the screens are now part of the urban architecture. Their occupation, by my videotaped figure in movement, finds a recipient in the passer-by, addresses everyone indiscriminately and utilizes the pre-existing means of visual communication between the city and its inhabitants.

CI: This is a video, featuring a white background, showcasing you at its center, wearing gold sequin. What is the rationale behind this choice?

P: The white background and the picture's high resolution can be associated with an advertising campaign, limiting the palette of colours, symbols and references that usually characterise the artistic gesture. Dressed in the emblematic golden sequin, the figure attempts to catch the passer-by's attention, serving as a flag, a living banner or a pennant. The body, decorated and readied, is displayed as an after-party remnant, in late cold January, after the New Year's celebration. Over the passage of time, the body is transformed into an object up for observation, its fluid movement turning into mechanical repetition. Therefore, the hand rotates and rattles the golden sequin skin, activating the rest of the body, in an attempt to bring it back to life.

CI: A gesture that speaks to many cultures. How did you choose it?

P: I raise my hand, bend my elbow, fix my palm at chest level and twist my fingers clockwise. The fingers resetto their original position and twist again. This is the gesture I chose as the focus of our public intervention, a universal sign of questioning to be repeated, deconstructed and reconfigured, in order to create anew multiple levels of meaning, disruption and confrontation. It's my most honest form of reaction towards my social context, as an artist and a citizen of Cyprus. Why do you care whose hand I hold when I walk down the street? Why do you care what I wear? Why do you care who and how I am? Why?

CI: So, is this action connected to the previous one that referred to the mermaid and the 'other'?

P: I describe the current untitled and unannounced screen takeover as a continuation of the thematic reflections we developed in live performance "Ω3" that took place last year as part of Nicosia International Festival. Crawling on the concrete floor of Eleftherias Square, half man - half fish, I was searching for a familiar environment, in which I could move and survive - the water. The figure appears as different, foreign, but always familiar. Fully conscious, it experiences the effect of the communal gaze. It calls for its immidiate integration into the public sphere, into society as a whole. It declares itself present, asks questions and demands changes, either with fish scales or golden sequin.

CI: One of the screens was found on Sunday broken and bent. Part of the action or a coincidental event?

P: On Sunday, the 28th of January, one of the screens on Stasikratous Street was found in a diagonal position, bending towards the pavement, presumably due to a car accident, with two of the concrete spheres surrounding it ripped out. As in live performances, the artist first composes the action, the colours, the means that make up his work and then he is called upon to realize it in real 'time' and 'space'. The accident, the mistake, the sudden, the surprising and the unexpected are all part of the work. The city follows its own script, so any form of artistic intervention has to adapt to it.

CI: In this artwork, you use technology and step out of the 'mold' of live performance. How do you see the synergy of performance art with technology?

P: Video performance is one of the many facets encapsulating the art of performance, referring to the body in action towards the photographic lens, within the rectangular camera frame. In our case, the horizontal or vertical orientation of the city screens determines the position of the human body. It is illuminated and it illuminates, stands there day and night, it starts and it stops again and again. The correlation of technology and art continues from there and evolves further, takes on interactive formats, it's continuously reshaped through artificial intelligence. Wherever technological advancement takes us, no matter how many artificial universes we construct, I believe that the value of meeting the human gaze in person will remain.