Presentations by Tjasa Kalkan and Antonis Pittas

Artist in Residence Program  | Tjasa Kalkan and Antonis Pittas  | Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (CDCM) Project |  CAC Mobile Gallery | 11 June,  2019 

Presentations by the artists Tjasa Kalkan from Croatia and Antonis Pittas from the Netherlands as part of the residency research program realized in Skopje in the frame of the international project Collective Domain of Cultural Memory.

The work of Antonis Pittas is characterised by the historical awareness he holds whilst addressing contemporary social and political issues. More an observer than an activist, Pittas explores topics such safety and control, economic crises and acts of resistance, as well as violence and vandalism. He has a context sensitive practice whose focal point is directed at targeting such moments as a gesture of public discontent, unrest or simply the need for expression of ones personal creativity. Pittas usually develops mixed-media installations and spatial adaptations that provides a context for interpretation. Starting point for his residence in Skopje is his project “Hybrid 2018” he treats the issues of the public space in connection with the questions of power and responsibility in the local context of the city of Skopje.

Tjaša Kalkan, analytical in her artistic approach, uses irony to defuse the pervasive commercialization and the increasing regulation of public space. Starting point for her residency in Skopje is the work “Sunset Beach”, that writer Staša Aras has called “a contemporary absurdist play” seen as an act of resistance to commercialization and devastation of space and a “fine-packed horror that we consume by participating in it.” She ultimately subverts photography as both a documentary medium and one of illusions, adapting her lens to see beyond the capitalist values of progress that have become the norm in post-socialist / neo-liberal capitalist societies.Artist in Residence Program  | Tjasa Kalkan and Antonis Pittas  | Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (CDCM) Project |  CAC Mobile Gallery | 11 June,  2019