iskander


Alexander Dimitrios Papadopoulos (1996) had developed a practice that is rooted in the search for the origin. His dual citizenship, Greek and Italian, has informed his artistic research that is caught between eastern and westner values, images, impressions. Both the mundane and the sacred are present in his works, be they filmic, photographic or mixed-media productions.

Papadopoulos graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in New Technology of Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice in 2021, and in the same year has delivered his latest short film titled The Black Sun, accepted in the selection of Short Film Corner at Festival de Cannes. The film revolves around the concept of the end – the end of mankind as we know it, the end of the world, the end of a relationship. Endings as the conclusion and beginning of a new cycle, both deadly and generative, as a process of acceptance that provides us a chance to be born again with new flesh and a wiser conscience.
This is a recurring theme in Papadopoulos’s work that can be found also in the film Icaro I (2019), shot in the Netherlands while researching at the NHL Hogeschool, and further developed with the performance Viaggio verso il centro del sole (2020), a sound interpretation of the Greek myth of Icaro that in this work developes a different, somehow modern conscience and understanding of his fate: in our modern times where every step we take is a step towards burning ourselves, accepting our fate is the only way to trascend it. Icaro can only lose himself and be one with light is.

The theme of the sun is explored also through the installation A Message from Home (2019) and comes back again with distance to sun, Water Resonance (2021), made in collaboration with Giorgia Baschirotto, filmed during a trip through Greece and its islands as a part of the project La zona, a digital array of images and films collected through the years as fragmented memories that binded together get a new meaning, a new singular identity.

Through his art practice he had the opportunity to take part to residencies such as Vacant Zone together with artist Payal Arya (2020) and Fabrica during Michelle Mallard’s curatorship (2018), and to exhibit his work through the solo show Yposxome, curated by Robert Phillips (2018).
In 2022 he is publishing his first book titled Ilios: verso la tua luce rossa, a work about metamorphosis, the parallel between the warmth of the sun and the person we love, the imparmenence of memories and sedimented images that continue to create new layers of life.



artist statement written by








EXHIBITIONS


2022



2021



2019

  • exhibition with the collective FROM DISCO TO DISCO with other photographers at Tela Bianca (Vicenza)


2018

  • Personal exhibition, YPOSXOME at L’Idea showroom (Piazza Dei Signori 56, Vicenza), curated by Robert Phillips


RESIDENCIES

  • Art Residency VACANT ZONE with Zoya Shokoohi (artist/curator), Matteo Innocenti (curator) and Payal Arya (artist), lasting 9 months
  • Fabricante at FABRICA, in Treviso, during Michelle Mallard's curatorship as artistic director and during the return of Oliviero Toscani as Fabrica's department head, later thanks to this experience we participated in several workshops with Jonathan DeVilliers, Rejene DalBello, Anastasia Panayiotidou, Erik Kessel and others (2018)
  • Participation during the Nantes Festival during "NANTES UTOPIALES HACKATON, 2 & 3 November 2018> AsterIdea> BE HUMAN IN SPACE" (2018)
  • Participation as assistant photographer at the VENEZIA PHOTO with VINCENT PETERS, ANN RAY and JULIA FULLERTON-BATTEN


EDUCATION

  • Master course started in September 2022 at the Higher Institute for Artistic Industries (ISIA) for the Second Level Academic Diploma in Photography (October 2022)
  • 6 months period in the department of “Art 'n Sound “ at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences (Leeuwarden, Netherlands) (2021) 
  • 3 years at the course of New Art Technologies, in the Department of Visual Arts, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice


RECOGNITIONS

  • Publication of the short film "Il Sole Nero" by the selection of Cannes Short Film Corner / RENDEZ-VOUS INDUSTRY (July 2022)


ONLINE PUBLICATIONS



PUBLICATIONS