Theo Triantafyllidis: Sisyphean Cycles
Curated by Domenico Quaranta
@ Living Space
Via San Vitale 5, Verona, Italy
From October 13 to November 11 2023
Monday to Friday, 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Opening: October 13, 7 p.m.
As part of Art Verona 2023, the new space Spazio Vitale invites the public to experience Theo Triantafyllidis: Sisyphean Cycles, curated by Domenico Quaranta. This exhibition presents a unique convergence of four simulations created by the Greek artist living in Los Angeles, guiding viewers through a complex and captivating narrative journey within distinct ecosystems – digital worlds meticulously programmed by the artist to autonomously evolve. These live simulations by Theo Triantafyllidis are a testament to world-building, a creative practice that has garnered increasing interest in artistic, philosophical, and literary realms.
Triantafyllidis’s simulations breathe life into immersive digital environments, ranging from automated to interactive, adaptable to various display platforms, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and video installations. These “in vitro simulations” offer viewers the choice to observe them with scientific detachment or actively manipulate them. Triantafyllidis employs this medium to both critically dissect contemporary reality, shedding light on the individual and societal repercussions of communication technologies, and to simulate alternative realities that stem from entirely different premises.
The exhibition spotlights four recent installations, sequenced to follow a narrative progression from critiquing the present to constructing alternative universes: Ork Haus (2022), Radicalization Pipeline (2021), Ritual (2020), and BugSim (Pheromone Spa) (2022).
Ork Haus immerses viewers in the lives of a family of orcs within their domestic environment, where digital technologies dominate their daily existence. Interpersonal communication, home management, and escapism through simulations such as video games, VR, and streaming videos shape their lives. The artist employs “otor” as his recurring alter ego, reducing characters to fundamental impulses and modes of communication, emphasizing their entrapment within alternative realities as the world around them unravels.
In Radicalization Pipeline, two seemingly endless hordes engage in violent combat wielding colossal melee weapons and distorted voices. A diverse array of characters, from citizen militias to fantastical creatures, enter the fray, perpetually battling and slowly sinking into a muddied landscape. Periodic interludes feature medieval renditions of familiar pop songs, enhancing the soundscape crafted by composer and sound designer Diego Navarro. By exploring phenomena like the rise of QAnon and the assault on the US Capitol, the artist underscores the connections between gamification, fantasy, and political radicalization. Triantafyllidis analyzes the “funnel” structure of social media that creates echo chambers and perpetuates confirmation bias, highlighting its role in cult formation, the spread of misinformation, and political radicalization. Radicalization Pipeline was featured in S03 of VRAL.
Ritual transports viewers to a seemingly familiar yet post-apocalyptic space, crafted through a video game’s graphics engine. In this desolate landscape, human civilization appears to have succumbed to cataclysmic forces, leaving only ruins behind. Amidst this devastation, a nascent ecosystem of insects and animals emerges, guided by a repetitive and hypnotic rhythm resembling a peculiar ritual.
Finally, BugSim (Pheromone Spa) unveils a microcosm of life within a carefully maintained terrarium. An overcrowded colony of ants toils tirelessly across a damp glass surface amidst lush vegetation. Their labor transforms fragile purple mud into a habitable structure, giving rise to a forest of flowering plants, pollinated by buzzing honey bees and inhabited by a thriving microfauna. This enclosed terrarium system, virtually self-sustaining, serves as an experiment in resilience and entropy, meticulously overseen by a mysterious figure.
Theo Triantafyllidis (b. 1988, Athens, Greece) is an artist who builds virtual spaces and interfaces for the human body to inhabit them. He creates expansive worlds and complex systems where the virtual and the physical merge in uncanny, absurd and poetic ways. These are often manifested as performances, virtual and augmented reality experiences, games and interactive installations. He uses awkward interactions and precarious physics, to invite the audience to embody, engage with and challenge these other realities. Through the lens of monster theory, he investigates themes of isolation, sexuality and violence in their visceral extremities. He offers computational humor and AI improvisation as a response to the tech industry’s agenda. He tries to give back to the online and gaming communities that he considers both the inspiration and context for his work by remaining an active participant and contributor. He holds an MFA from UCLA, Design Media Arts and a Diploma of Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. He has shown work in museums, including the Hammer Museum in LA and NRW Forum in Dusseldorf, DE and various galleries such as Meredith Rosen Gallery, the Breeder, Eduardo Secci and Transfer. He was part of Sundance New Frontier 2020, Hyper Pavilion in the 2017 Venice Biennale and the 2018 Athens Biennale: ANTI-. Theo Triantafyllidis is based in Los Angeles.
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