Anima I | Onassis Foundation

How is the Self formed and performed in the age of information and the frenetic expansion of social media? What is the image of the body one has for oneself and the other – and what are its embodied metamorphoses?
In “Anima I”, Jannis Varelas explores the concepts of identity and alterity, iconophilia and iconoclasm, sameness and difference, the normal and the abnormal, impulse and repulsion, melancholy and ecstasy, the binary and the multiple gender.

The artist chooses his models among his friends and neighbors, and has them dressed specifically to be photographed in the specially laid out setting of his studio. The photographic rendering of the event is then transferred onto the canvas, transformed and diffracted by the language of painting. This publication includes paintings, scrapbooks, archive material, photographs, a selection of everyday objects from the Collections of the Benaki Museum, collages, and costumes from the preparatory stages of the performative process.

“Anima I” poses questions about contemporary art itself and its relation to these changes within the post-human condition.

Publisher: Onassis Foundation

Editors: The publication comprises essays and conversations by Eli Diner, Martha Kirszenbaum, Polina Kosmadaki, Afroditi Panagiotakou, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis and Jannis Varelas

Design: Grid Office

Photos: Constantinos Caravatellis, Tasos Gkaintatzis

Publication year: 2019

Language: English

Pages: 376

Dimensions: 21.5 x 28 cm

Format: Printed

Description: Soft cover, numerous colored photos, different papers

ISBN: 978-618-83618-3-6

Price: 40 €

Availability: In stock

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Jannis Varelas lives and works between Athens and Los Angeles. He has presented his work in various solo exhibitions and projects, and in group shows in Europe and the US. Works by Jannis Varelas are in prominent private and institutional collections among which are the Saatchi Collection, London; the Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens; the Zabludowicz Collection, London; The Onassis Foundation Collection, New York and The Hort Family Collection, New York. Jannis Varelas is represented by The Breeder.

Gianni Jetzer, curator at Large at the Hishhorn Museum in Washington points out: "The works of Jannis Varelas share an electrifying energy. They forgo any one-point perspective in order to produce a flat vision of multitude rather than concentration, stressing diversity over singularity, equality over privilege. His paintings function as a lingua franca between generations. They overcome questions of origin, power or social status in order to create common patterns for identification. Highly inclusive by nature they groom a way for societies to come that recognize Outsiders as valuable members of society…"

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Jannis Varelas: Anima I,” that was organized by the Benaki Museum, co-produced by the Onassis Foundation and supported by The Breeder Gallery, Galerie Forsblom and Galerie Krinzinger.
(Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, Athens, 11 September – 17 November 2019)