Goldsmiths - University of London

Sophia Kosmaoglou

My thesis examines the political implications of my art practice in the context of “international contemporary art”. I consider the displacement of the locus of meaning and value of the work of art from the site of the work to the context and the conditions of its production and circulation. Is it meaningful to speak of hermeneutics or aesthetics as though the art-object were a vessel of discrete meaning? Do factors such as context and transmission impinge on the work and on the perceived intentions of its producer? Can the generation of meaning be entirely dependent on the particular agency of the artist?

What does it mean in these circumstances to be an artist? The question is ideological as much as it is methodological. In fact the intimate relationship between methodology and ideology becomes increasingly apparent, as do the implicit ideologies which pervade contemporary art practice. What is the value of performativity for a positive model of mimesis, against the traditional notion of mimesis as the founding concept in western aesthetics? Arguing for consensually and performatively generated ideological space, I maintain that I may not have authority or access to cultural hegemony but I do have agency. I contrast the artistic tendencies of empathic identification and purposelessness against the market strategy of individuation and specialisation, distinguishing art in an experimental context from notions of virtuosity.

I elaborate the notion of artistic agency as an auto-foundation via my “methodology from the burrow” in order to examine the possibilities for a contemporary art practice beyond the confines of the market. I elaborate the “burrow”, inspired by Kafka’s short story of the same name, as a model of complexity which demonstrates the self-referential process of creating structure from movement, replacing the Deleuze-Guattarian “rhizome” model of complexity which does not account for the purposive effect of decision-making agents. As a model of complexity and a process of deconstruction, the burrow is both a map and a practice.

Academic qualifications

2003-07 Goldsmiths, University of London. PhD candidate in Fine Art.
2006-07 Goldsmiths, University of London. Post-graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning.
1991-95 Superior School of Fine Art, Athens. Ptychion in Fine Art (Sculpture) with Excellence.
1990-91 School of Fine Art, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Foundation Course in Fine Art.

Teaching

2005 inventing methodologies?, Goldsmiths, London.
2003 Athens College, Head of Art Department, Lecturer in Art History.

Presentations and exhibitions

Single person exhibition - New Work

2002 Leng Tch’e: the Diamond Body, Ileana Tounta Con/Temporary, Athens
Joint exhibition – new work 2006 Masquerades: femininity, masculinity & other such certainties, MOCA, Thessaloniki (Cat)
2006 Territories of Duration, Karsi Sanat, Istanbul (Cat) 2006 Interval [2] the Slade / Cine Lumiere, London 2005 In Media, APT, London
2001 Art Athina, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art, Athens (Cat)

Joint exhibition – repeat showing

2006 Between Actualities, The Rich Mix, East London Film Festival, London
2004 Breakthrough, Casa Alcala, Regional Ministry of Culture, Madrid (Cat)
2003 Brave New World, Ileana Tounta Con/temporary, Athens
2003 Acquisitions 2001-02, Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (Cat)
2003 I, Me, Myself, Rethymnon Centre for Contemporary Art, Rethymnon (Cat)
2003 Free Transit, Zappeion Megaron, Athens (Cat)

Grants & awards

2005-06 Visual Arts Research Support Award, Goldsmiths, London
2003-06 Research Scholarship (Sculpture), State Scholarship Foundation IKY, Athens

Keynote lectures

2005 In Media, APT, London
2001 Synopsis 1 – Communication , Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

Conferences

2006 Discourse Power Resistance 5, Manchester Metropolitan University
2006 Interval [2] the Slade School of Fine Art/ Cine Lumiere, London
2005 inventing methodologies?, Goldsmiths, London

Professional development

2004-06 Exploding Cinema, London
2000-06 Kivotos [NGO], Athens
1996-06 National Committee of the Arts, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Athens
1996-06 Visual Arts Educators, Hellenic Ministry of Education, Athens

Selected publications

Author of article

2005 inventing methodologies?, Research Hallmark 22, London Autumn 2005
2001 “Walkthrough”, The Breeder, Athens, June 2001
2001 “Great Expectations bring Unexpected Results”, The Breeder, Athens, March 2001

Selected Bibliography

2006 Syrago, Tsiara, Masquerades, MOCA, Thessaloniki (Cat)
2006 Filipedes, Memos, Dispersed urbanity of Aegean Archipelago, Venice Biennale (Cat)
2006 Edwin, Karen, Negotiating the In-Between? Mute Magazine 19.06.2006
2006 Bal, Gulsen, Territories of Duration, Karsi Sanat, Istanbul (Cat)
2006 Rolling, J. H. & Brogden, L. M., Two Hours or More Away, Penn. State Univ.
2004 K. Gregou, D. Zacharopoulos, Breakthrough, Regional Cultural Archives, Madrid
2003 Dimitris Rigopoulos, Portrait of a young artist in Athens, Kathimerini [View], April 2003
2003 Hamalidou, Elena, Contemporary Greek Artists, Melissa, Athens
2003 Nadia Argyropoulou, Free Transit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens July 2003 (Cat)
2003 Eleni Kypraiou, I, Me, Myself, Rethymnon Centre for Contemporary Art, July 2003 (Cat)
2002 Memos Filippides, Reality Kaleidoscopes, Vimagazino, Dec 15 2002
2001 M. Stefanides, “Greek Museum: Six Centuries of Greek Painting”, Militos Athens
2001 Paulina Proteoy, “10 Great Expectations”, Epsilon, Athens, Dec 2001
2001 Sotiris Kyriakou, Athens Toward 2003, Tema Celeste 88, Milan, Nov/Dec 2001