Alexandros Tzannis

The majestic drawings of Alexandros Tzannis build spaces. They invite the onlooker to walk into and between them. Hung on steel structures, the paper bends like a wave over the frame. The motifs are abstract, drawn movements in detailed layers that, when looked at more closely, resemble maps or topographic figures. The drawings are made with blue and black pen, and, in certain places, the bleeding point of the pen has pushed the paper into relief. The work is part of the series Blue Black Layers Over the White Cities for which Tzannis has drawn, among other places, his hometown Athens – its layers of emotion, history and crisis veiling it in darkness. In his work, an interest in archeology and its methodology meets the allure of gloomy visions of the future, and science-fiction iconography. Tzannis’ work is often installed as mise-en-scéne. Objects one might find on construction sites or in industrial yards, make up ambiguous portraits of our time. For the biennial, Tzannis has expanded the series with an additional four drawings. These are inspired partly by Luleå’s steel industry and the tall silhouettes of its factories, and partly by the summer landscapes of his childhood on the island of Serifos. There, what’s left of the iron and mining industry recalls the struggle, resistance and defeat of the workers’ movement. The drawings contain references to the colour palette of steel extraction: the grey metal, the glowing red of transformation, and the white smoke emanating from the material as it cools.

An additional drawing will be exhibited in the lunch restaurant Malmen at SSAB Steel mill in Luleå.

Alexandros Tzannis (b. 1979) is an artist based in Athens.

Thanks to SSAB and KKV Luleå.

Work

Blue Black Layers Over the White Cities, 2016–18.
Includes new commissions

Location

Luleå konsthall
17.11.2018–17.2.2018