No Rest for the Wicked is a curatorial project presented at ArtInternational in Istanbul by Lanfranco Aceti. The project will showcase recent artworks by Bill Balaskas as well as a series of exhibitions and art projects developed by MoCC (Museum of Contemporary Cuts) since 2012. No Rest for the Wicked will provide the opportunity to engage with an international organization and a range of international artists that are tirelessly altering the landscape of contemporary art, presenting innovative and original approaches that are defining contemporary art history trough a visual reinterpretation of the social.
In his exhibition at ArtInternational, Bill Balaskas continues his investigation into utopianism, a concept that has informed his practice ever since the outbreak of the global economic crisis. In his most recent work, Ou la mort (2014), a modified French typewriter from the late 1960s is transformed from an object of everyday use into a symbolic gesture that appears to question the universality of Enlightenment’s principles and their continuity to the present day. This dialogue with the historical precedence of social upheaval is also evident in Re: Evolution (2013), an imaginary flag that combines the design of a computer with the symbols of communism and the Soviet flag. Finally, the constantly flashing question “Is this ever going to end?” of the website www.thisisnevergoingtoend.com (2013), is indicative of the artist’s poignant, yet humorous visual language, which invites us to rethink determinism at a time of rapid social, political, economic and cultural transformation catalyzed by new media technologies.
September 26, 27, 28, 2014
ArtInternational, Istanbul
Institutions section of ArtInternational
Senior curator: Lanfranco Aceti
Artworks by: Bill Balaskas
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY
Bill Balaskas
Bill Balaskas (b. 1983, Thessaloniki, Greece) is a London-based artist working across different media. He is currently a PhD candidate in the programme of Critical Writing in Art & Design of the Royal College of Art. His work has been widely exhibited internationally, in the context of more than 90 solo, group exhibitions and special curated projects such as FILM at Art Basel in Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Balaskas has been nominated for several awards, including the AUDI Art Award in 2013, and in 2012, he represented the UK in the London Cultural Olympiad and in Maribor, the European Capital of Culture. Also, Balaskas is an editor for the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (The MIT Press). He has recently given public talks about his work at the University of Oxford (UK), the 11th Sharjah Biennial (UAE), Tate Liverpool (UK), Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg, Germany) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK). Bill Balaskas is represented by Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki.
Bill Balaskas, Ou la mort (Or death), 2014.
Mixed media installation (modified French typewriter of 1967 and framed print).
Courtesy the artist and Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki. Photograph by Steve Shrimpton.
