UFO Visitor #4: Vasiliki Sifostratoudaki (Yellow Brick, Athens) - kopie

Vasiliki Sifostratoudaki

I am a visu­al artist and art edu­ca­tor based in Athens Greece. I stu­died art at Athens School of Fine Arts, grap­hic design and inte­ri­or archi­tec­tu­re at Vacalo Art & Design College and com­ple­ted my Masters in Fine Arts at the Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy in the Netherlands. 

My artis­tic prac­ti­ce explo­res the cre­a­ti­on of spa­ce around objects and the soci­al pro­spects both spa­ce and object generate. 

A metap­hor I often use for my prac­ti­se is the table’: a spa­ce for per­for­ming sin­gle acti­ons of making, shif­ting into a spa­ce of coming together and of poly­vo­cal interaction. 


What are you cur­rent­ly wor­king on?

Since 2016, my main focus has been the devel­op­ment of Yellow Brick; a pro­ject /​space I foun­ded in Nea Ionia, a sub­urb of Athens esta­blis­hed by migrants of Asia Minor. Yellow Brick pro­mo­tes inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry dia­lo­gue and cul­tu­ral exchan­ge under­ta­ken through rela­ti­o­nal enga­ge­ment of wri­ters, cura­tors, and mem­bers of the local com­mu­ni­ty. With the board and team of Yellow Brick we focus pri­ma­ri­ly on mul­ti­mo­dal prac­ti­ces inclu­ding art exhi­bi­ti­ons, edu­ca­ti­o­nal pro­grams for child­ren and adults, artists’ work­shops for the pro­duc­ti­on of art­works, art publi­ca­ti­ons, com­mon din­ners and expe­ri­men­tal acti­vi­ties, aiming at the inter­ac­ti­on of research and cul­tu­ral rethinking.

Parallel to run­ning Yellow Brick, I have been invol­ved in seve­r­al research and artis­tic pro­jects with the most recent one being JUNCTIONS21 resul­ting to an exhi­bi­ti­on dis­play and pre­sen­ta­ti­on tit­led Unearthing memo­ries, fee­ding prac­ti­ses for plu­ral know­led­ges and beings’ with Elliana Otta, Nuno Cassola and Imaya Caceres at PACT Zollverein (December 2021 – Essen, Germany). JUNCTIONS21 was ini­ti­a­ted by PACT Zollverein as an invita­ti­on to seven trans­dis­ci­pli­na­ry teams across dif­fe­rent con­ti­nents to devel­op col­lec­ti­ve research pro­jects in rela­ti­on to local and post­co­lo­ni­al con­texts. My con­tri­bu­ti­on was a pre­li­mi­na­ry draft of my on-going research on the prac­ti­ces of mid­wi­ves from Asia Minor, fol­lo­wing the 1923 popu­la­ti­on exchan­ge bet­ween Greece and Turkey. Stories of migra­ti­on, human rights, the accu­r­a­cy of his­to­ry, lan­gu­a­ge, hos­pi­ta­li­ty, hea­ling, fami­ly struc­tu­res – appro­a­ched through a femi­nist lens – con­ti­nue to inform this research, which is set to have its second ite­ra­ti­on in the upco­ming group exhi­bi­ti­on at Yellow Brink and pro­spec­ti­ve­ly form a foun­da­ti­on for a PHD appli­ca­ti­on I am cur­rent­ly occu­pied with.

How would you defi­ne your practice?

If I had to choo­se a phra­se, it would be that of not – yet’ bor­ro­wed from Jeanne van Heeswijk’s enti­cing essay PREPARING FOR THE NOT-YET’ 

To quo­te from the text: The cre­a­ti­ve prac­ti­ti­o­ner has an impor­tant role in re-ima­gi­ning spa­ces and sce­na­ri­os for living together. This pro­cess does not have a clear road­map, nor a linear tra­jec­to­ry. The prac­ti­ce is not a series of pro­jects or a series of inter­ven­ti­ons. It is actu­al­ly an atti­tu­de and it has to beco­me embo­died through the prac­ti­ce of the not-yet.’ 

How do you see your rela­ti­ons­hip with artists?

Reciprocal, orga­nic and in a con­stant continuum..I would like to think of each artist hosted at Yellow Brick as an inte­gral com­po­nent of the ongo­ing pro­gress and con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on of the pro­ject. The team, board and par­ti­ci­pa­ting artists move within a rela­ti­o­nal fra­me­work alig­ned to Yellow Brick’s fluid ope­ra­ti­o­nal mode. Together we are to con­ti­nuous­ly rege­ne­ra­te tho­se ener­ge­tic pro­ces­ses of exchan­ge and (un)learning.

What do you expect from the UFO visi­tors programme?

I am very hap­py to be invi­ted to the UFO Visitors Programme as I pre­do­mi­na­te­ly work on col­lec­ti­ve pro­ces­ses of exchan­ge and research. This has been a con­scious choi­ce of learning from and with. I am loo­king for­ward to con­ve­ning with the artists and cura­tors selec­ted, to being intro­du­ced to their prac­ti­ce and ope­ra­ti­o­nal modes and to sha­re my per­spec­ti­ves, fin­ding com­mon grounds of inte­rest and in gene­ral immer­se myself into new ter­ri­to­ries of exchange.


BIO

Vasiliki Sifostratoudaki is a visu­al artist, grap­hic desig­ner and edu­ca­tor. She holds a degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts and a MA in Fine Arts from Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy. Her artis­tic prac­ti­ce ini­ti­a­tes mecha­nis­ms of curi­o­si­ty” by attemp­ting to recon­struct new per­cep­tu­al envi­ron­ments through spa­ti­al and per­for­ma­ti­ve inter­ven­ti­ons / notes. (Self)observation, eve­ry­day expe­rien­ce, clas­si­fi­ca­ti­on as expres­si­ons of com­pa­risons, quo­ta­ti­ons and move­ments are the ways to evo­ke mea­nings and cor­re­la­ti­ons. Plastic gestu­res, fluid mate­ri­a­li­ties, poe­tic impro­vi­sa­ti­ons and cho­re­o­grap­hies along with inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry prac­ti­ces and tools from anthro­po­lo­gy, archi­tec­tu­re and phi­lo­sop­hy are used to cre­a­te event clus­ters, trig­ger ener­ge­tic pro­ces­ses and actu­a­te polypho­nic pro­jects ‑such as Yellow Brick- that expand and com­ple­ment (her) aes­the­tic and poli­ti­cal per­spec­ti­ves. She has also orga­ni­sed mul­ti­ple inter­ac­ti­ve pro­jects in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with cul­tu­ral and soci­al orga­ni­sa­ti­ons in Greece and abroad.