/Uncinematic. George Drivas

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea presents the exhibition /Uncinematic. George Drivas, curated by Daphne Vitali, a selection of filmic works made between 2005 and 2014 by the Greek artist George Drivas, who currently represents Greece at the 57th Venice Biennale, 2017. 

Drivas creates narrative videos based on motionlessness, and in most of his works he makes use of a remarkable sequence of images which he alternates rhythmically so as to bring to the foreground the underlying link that has always joined photography and cinema, causing the fertile connections that unite static image and dynamic image underneath to resonate: “Each of my works develops along two directions: on the one hand, linearity, narrative, the tale of something that advances and develops, and on the other, the surreal, the pause, that forgetting how it will end up, frozen in the moment that is photographed…”

Indeed, for Drivas it is a question of creating a new conception of space vs. time, a new way of introducing and/or following a story via the construction of a “‘sped-up slowness,’ similar to the non- rhythm of dreams, a quickness perceived almost hypnotically, so that time and duration become almost irrelevant.”

His investigation during this decade involves experimentation on the still and moving, narrative or non-narrative, image and a quest for an abstract language as regards both content and form. His films could be set anytime and anywhere, in future or past times, as they convey both a futuristic and a retro mood. The images of the cold modernist architecture captured by his video camera and photo, project an ambiance of melancholy and alienation, while the urban landscape sets the stage for the key issues addressed: existential quests, human relationships, lack of communication, sexual desires left unfulfilled in a society of surveillance.

Bio
George Drivas born in 1969 in Athens, where he lives and works. He is currently representing Greece at the 57th Venice Biennale, 2017. He studied Political Science at the University of Athens and Film and Media at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin.

In 2009 he had a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). His work has been presented in group exhibitions and festivals including: Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany, 2017 (as part of the exhibition organized by EMST); As Rights Go By, Q21 International, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Austria, 2016; Festival du nouveau cinéma, Montreal, Canada, 2015; future past – past future, Transmediale Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2014; Depression Era, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece, 2014; Melancholy in Progress, Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan, 2012; FILE, Electronic Language International Festival, FIESP Cultural Center, Sao Paulo, Βrazil, 2012; Annual Exhibition, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA, 2012; Les Rencontres Internationales: New Cinema and Contemporary Art, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Polyglossia, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece, 2011; Digital Wave, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2009.