The Greek word ‘demos’ comes from the root of ‘demo’ meaning people, or population. Demos refers to its plural; a group, an assembly, a city, or a chorus of individuals. A ‘demo’ can also mean the “demonstration” of something, such as music, a political protest or computer software. Athens-based artist and architect Andreas Angelidakis’ ongoing project DEMOS is an installation of 50 foam modules that have been commissioned for UQ Art Museum. The formation of these lightweight blocks will change throughout the exhibition run – the structures may form a seat, a stage, a study space, a wall, a monument, an archway, or even a ruin. Revisiting this concept in our current context, Angelidakis thinks through how we create community and inhabit space in a global pandemic.
DEMOS (Sandstone) approaches architectural and colonial legacies through satire; the physical elements of the works gesture to antiquity – timeless sandstone and concrete slabs – but are in fact light enough to lift. While intrinsically about Greece and Athenian foundations of democracy, where some citizens were allowed to speak and vote, DEMOS disrupts this legacy. The work is also about everywhere else simultaneously; the spread of failed democracy, the borderless flattening of the internet, the human body; and futures in ruin through climate change and resource-scarcity.
DEMOS (Sandstone) is symbolic for collaboration, as the inherent nature of ‘working-together’ is required in order to build a space that works for a temporary community. This practice radically rethinks democratic sculpture in art and architecture. Inhabiting these structures highlights Angelidakis’ interest in “unofficial architecture,” that is built by the people, for the people.
First imagined for 74-days of public programming at documenta 14’s parliament of bodies at Parko Eleftherias, Athens, as a way in which to redefine the relation between stage and audience. 2020 will be the first time that the work has been commissioned for a university audience, connecting disciplines across campus such as law, architecture, engineering, philosophy, coding, drama, among others in a common space and collective action.
Image: Andreas Angelidakis, ‘DEMOS (Sandstone),’ 2020, foam, vinyl, fifty parts. Installation view. Reproduced courtesy of the artist. Photo: Peta Rake.
