Christodoulos Panayiotou
On affection
BarcelonaJul 20 - Jul 20, 2017

NoguerasBlanchard is very pleased to announce a version of Christodoulos Panayiotou’s work Dying on stage as the final iteration of On Affection, a group exhibition extended in time in the gallery’s space in L´Hospitalet. A series of individual presentations, this project focuses on performative practices that emphasize bodily experience and its ability to affect and be affecte. The participating artists are: Mercedes Azpilicueta, Fermin Jimenez Landa, Benoît Maire, Jacopo Miliani, Bruce Nauman, Christodoulos Panayiotou and Cally Spooner.
What we call performance these days is not the same as it was in its beginning. The practice has gone through many changes across the years while the supremacy of the object has been questioned. What hasn´t changed through the past years is the affective potential of performative practices upon audiences. Affection is the process whereby affect – in the Deleuzian sense – is transmitted between bodies and there is no secure distinction between the ‘individual’ and the ‘environment’. In short, Affect cannot be fully realised in language but only through the body grammar.
Taking as starting point Rudolf Nureyev’s 1991 staging of the classical ballet La Bayadère, choreographed while his health was critically deteriorating, Panayiotou’s lecture-performance Dying on Stage is a meditation on the impossible theatrical representation of death. Exploring various literal, metaphorical, and symbolic deaths, the artist is examining the vicious relationship between the spectator, the actor and the characters trapped in the action.
Dying on stage has been previously presented (amongst other) at the Stromboli Volcano Extravaganza 2015; at the Serpentine Galleries (2015); Performa 15 and more recently at the Onassis Foundation in Athens and at the CND (Centre National de da Dance) after the invitation of Jérôme Bel (Lab Bel) the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2017) and the Centre Pompidou (2017).
With the participation of dancer Jean Capeille.
Panayiotou’s wide-ranging research focuses on the identification and uncovering of hidden narratives in the visual records of history and time. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held (amongst others) at the 56th Venice Biennial, The Cyprus Pavilion; Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Kunsthalle Zürich; Casino Luxembourg; CCA Kitakyushu; Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig; Centre d’Art Contemporain de Brétigny; and at Point Center of Contemporary Art, Nicosia. His work was also shown in a number of group exhibitions including: the 13th Sharjah Biennial; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; 8th Berlin Biennale; 7th Liverpool Biennial; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museion, Bolzano; Migros Museum, Zürich; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Ashkal Alwan Center for Contemporary Arts, Beirut; Artist Space, New York; MoCA Miami.
Christodoulos Panayiotou was born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1978 where he lives and works.
With special thanks to Rodeo, London.