BIO
Yiannis Melanitis, born 1967, Athens, Greece. Lived in Paros till 1974. Since then he lives and works in Athens. He holds degrees in Painting (prof. X. Botsoglou), Sculpture (prof. G. Lappas) and Masters degree in Digital Arts from Athens School of Fine Arts. Since 2002 he is teaching as a Lecturer of the Sculpture Dept., Athens School of Fine Arts and teached at the School of Architecture as a PhD Fellow (2007). He is a PhD candidate (2005) at the School of Architecture, Athens. Till 2008, his art refers to the body in relation to the epistemological (biological) context which defines it. He introduced the term bio-performance based on the conception of the "analogical body" (as opposed to digital), in an attempt to re-establish the corporeal status of experience, de-depenting the body from the domination of simulations or virtual allusions. The notion of the body as soft and malleable unity, forming a "liquid space" formation within space was proposed as a neo-appearance of corporeality. During 1993-2008, he presented interactive performances (mostly web-based) using originally designed software, as well as sculptures and drawings related to them. His work "The Land of Noman", is a work in five acts, with their correspondances: Calypso, Nausicaa, Circa, Penelope- [the fifth act refers to the residency of Ulysses as Faust in Ithaca.] The work consists of five parts each one interconnected to the Homeric narration through Ulysses novel by James Joyce. It refers to the transformations of a female persona which represents the four different societies visited by Ulysses. Four islands, four societies, four women, four environments of distinct techniques, represented by female performers in bodily transformations. In his E31 Gallery personal exhibition(2008) he presented sculptures in a serie entitled "Ulysses as Faust".
In his works (The Garden, the Diffusion of the Elements, The Land of Noman), technology is not visibly apparent, forming a magical interaction between materials and the body. Presentations include two group exhibitions at Ileana Tounta Center for Contemporary Art with sculptures and video-works (1999), an interactive performance "Pleasure Machine" at the 8th New York Digital Salon (2000) also presented at the Blue Stage in the House of World Cultures of Berlin, the video-work "The artist as a bird " at Deste Foundation (exhibition "Toxic’ 2001). Also at the
[email protected] Festival/ De-Globalizing/Re-Globalizing, presenting " Bio-robotic symbiosis’ interactive installation -(Lavrion, Sofia,Maribor, Frankfurt, 2001). At Ex Teresa Arte Actual he presented the interactive web-performance "Terra Ingognita" (a telerobotic piece) for the X International Festival of Performance Art: Life in Another Planet, Mexico City, 2001. One of his most recent performances was "Animal Accessories" for the group exhibition "Living inside", Athens 2002, also the interactive performance "Prometheus" performed at the Kourzoum Djami and at the Athens Academy. At the International Science Fiction Conference "Biotechnological and Medical Items in Science Fiction" he presented the paper "Biorobotic environments, interactions and hyperhumans: Interactive robotic performances exploring the potentials of an unknown space towards the potential of a renewed anatomy ", Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki 2001. His latest interest concerns "biotechnology and control of the body", where he uses his term "bio-performance" as an advanced environment -in this situation, the control of the performance is derived from biological algorithms. Other performances were presented in Monaco Dance Forum 2002 (interactive performance "Blind Date’), The Garden interactive performance at Eugenidio Foundation( Athens 2005), also the interactive performance "The Diffusion of the Elements’ at the D624 project space (2005). He presented Molly-Penelope-Bloom and Nausicaa/place of virginity performances at UNFAIR(mperial Hotel) and OPA, (BIOS), also participating with E31gallery at artATHINA 2007. He writes for artzine journal and Futura magazine. Since 2002 he is teaching as collaborator of Sculpture Deptm., Athens School of Fine Arts. Melanitis Yiannis is member of Delphi Society. He is a PhD Fellow (June 2005) at the School of Architecture, Athens. [Full CV of Y. Melanitis: http://melanitis.com/bio.html]