Kostis Stafylakis is an art theorist and artist. He graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts. He holds an MA in Modern Art and Theory from the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex and an MA in Continental Philosophy from the Department of Philosophy at the same University. He holds a Doctorate from the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University (Athens). He has been a post-doc researcher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2011-2012). He taught “Research-based art and the art field” as adjunct at the Unit of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He currently lectures on “Art and Visual Communication” at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras. He is the one half of KavecS artist duet (www.kavecs.com).
We met Kostis at 13:00 in a cafe to hear his perspective on the patriotism and nationalism withing the current greek art scene, heavily affected by both documenta 14 and the current political/economical situation in the country.
He argued that many of the forms of art initiated both under documenta and against it, use tactics such as restistance (fx. resisting neoliberalism, capitalism ...), reclaiming (fx. territory for art practice) and solidarity (with the opressed), which share similarities with patriotic and nationalistic discourse.
"Thinkers, artists, activists lamented over technocratic capitalism’s urge to destroy self-sufficiency, national community and locality. In this framework of mourning and ‘new-melancholy’, sovereignty was primarily understood as self-sovereignty. Even criticisers of the nation-state agreed that national self-sovereignty is a necessary step to a more internationalist terrain of emancipation: the struggle to ‘reclaim’ the local ‘resources’ was seen as the first priority in every possible agenda of struggles – the principal struggle, the one that fashions all others. A wide range of ideological spaces, from the greater part of the anarchist/antiauthoritarian space and the libertarian left to the new patriotic movements and anti-memorandum parliamentary parties, consented to this mantra."
from Kostis's post on the nationalisation of art and activisim:
