Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
Jannis Psychopedis, GR
Vicks, 1968. Oil on canvas 20 × 30 cm Venue: St. Bonifatius – Ferdane Satır Tea Garden.
Jannis Psychopedis develops an artistic language in which painting, drawing and printmaking are closely linked to political and social issues. Since the 1960s, he has been dealing with dictatorship, oppression, resistance and the visual signs of everyday life. Instead of painting traditional still lifes, he uses ordinary objects such as medicines or a radio to make social tensions, disturbed communication and an unbalanced reality visible. His works combine precise, often sober observation with art-historical references and a clear political stance. Psychopedis does not understand art as a retreat into the private sphere, but as a critical form of confrontation with history, the present and public life.