Seminar
1980
The work is displayed as part of the permanent exhibition
Painting
Μixed materials
63.3 x 89.4 cm
Donated by the artist, 2004
Inv. No. 509/04
Jannis Psychopedis produced the Seminars series in 1979–81, while living in a divided Berlin, invited by the Art Programme of the City of West Berlin. In Seminars, a thematic subdivision of the Undelivered Letter series, the artist makes use of the photographic images —a recurrent element throughout his oeuvre— and introduces the written word. Fragments of painted images from newspapers and magazines, anatomical drawings, and still lives are interspersed among excerpts from Marx’s texts on subjects such as art, labour, political power, and the consumerist society, which the artist copies by hand and adds his own comments. Through this juxtaposition of the fragmentary, seemingly “objective” photographic image and his “subjective” notes, the artist presents his critique about his contemporary socio-political affairs and calls upon viewers to draw their own conclusions.
Eleni Ganiti, ENTER EMST: Collection and history, A short guide, 2020