The Venice Questionnaire #23: Stefanos Tsivopoulos
ArtReview sent a questionnaire to a selection of the artists exhibiting in various national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, the responses to which are being published daily in May, in the run up to the Biennale opening. Stefanos Tsivopoulos is representing Greece. The pavilion is located in the Giardini.
What can you tell us about your plans for Venice?
I'm showing a new work specially conceived and materialized for the Greek pavilion. It's called History Zero and it's a film in three parts, and an archive of texts and images. The film questions the value of money, and the archive is a collection of examples of alternative currencies where the value of money is contested. The challenge for me was to make a new work not about the Greek crisis per se but to question what crisis is, where it is generated, and to ask whether there is a way to resist by adopting a different view of the crisis.
Are you approaching the show in a different way to how you would with a ‘normal’ exhibition?
I'm not changing the way I work but at the same time this is not a 'normal' exhibition either! It's many things at the same time which makes it the most exciting project I've ever worked on so far.
Stefanos Tsivopoulos History Zero, video still, 2013 Courtesy: the artist, Kalfayan Galleries, Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani.
