Outset Greece supported Stefanos Tsivopoulos’ solo exhibition History Zero at the CACT, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (now MOMus – The Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki), curated by Syrago Tsiara. History Zero was specially commissioned for the Greek Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013.
The exhibition comprised a film in three episodes alongside an archive of texts and images. The film questions the role of money and the fluctuation of value through the stories of three different individuals, exploring the invisible interconnectivity between people’s lives. In the first episode an immigrant searches for scrap metal in the streets of Athens in order to sell it and secure his survival. His daily routine gets disrupted when he accidentally finds a bag full of money in the shape of flowers. In the second episode, an artist wanders the city collecting images as material for his new work, when suddenly he finds something that captures his attention: a supermarket trolley full of metallic objects. The last episode features a lonely old lady who is a contemporary art collector who crafts origami flowers out of Euro notes.
The archive Alternative Currencies. An Archive and a Manifesto is a collection of 32 stories composed after historical and anthropological research about past and present alternative economic systems that have rejected the usage of a common currency. It explores communities that invent their own money or apply models of self-management, barter goods and services, in order to deal with worsening problems in times of crisis.
ON VIEW: 3rd October 2014 – 10th January 2015
Born in 1973 in Prague Stefanos Tsivopoulos studied fine arts at the Superior Academy in Athens, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Solo exhibitions include ISCP, New York (2011); Heidelberg Kunstverrein (2010); Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (2010); and Art Forum, Berlin (2009). Group exhibitions include Manifesta 8, Murcia (2010); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2010); BFI Southbank, London (2009); ev+a, Limerick (2009); Athens Biennale (2007); and Thessaloniki Biennale (2007). He lives and works between Amsterdam and New York.
