Opening reception: Saturday January 5th, 2018, 4-6pm
COOPER COLE is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Angelo Plessas.
The Talisman of the Brotherhood Portal is a ritual that happened on the archeological site Portara rock on Naxos island in Greece in the summer of 2018. In the ritual, Angelo Plessas invited the Young Patrons of the Cycladic Art Museum and random visitors to the site to take part in a procedure where he guided them through a meditation he adapted based on ancient Indian and Greek traditions. During the meditation, the artist wears a hand-sewn quilt made by EMF protection fabrics while the participants drink an organic-based elixir which he claims: “purifies bodies and bring everybody closer”. The artist aspires that the video will act as a manual for meditation and contemplation.
Angelo Plessas (b. 1974, Athens, Greece) makes work in and around the internet. The focus of his practice is to network the offline with the online in ways that make us understand aspects of both conditions and to generate new ways of relating to both. His work highlights the ambiguous approach of spirituality with technology opening up themes of freedom of speech, social relations and identity. Plessas’ activities range from performances to artist residencies; self-publishing to interactive websites; and sculpture to live-stream events and educational projects. Over the last years, he has organized the annual, weeklong gatherings of the Eternal Internet Brotherhood/Sisterhood in different places in the world and, most recently, of the Experimental Education Protocol. His work has been exhibited internationally in large-scale exhibitiions and art institutions, such as documenta 14, both in Kassel and Athens; the Narional Museum of Contemporary Art, the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; the Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Frieze Projects, London, United Kingdom; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, USA. A Fulbright alumnus, he has been awarded the DESTE Prize in 2015. Angelo Plessas currently lives and works in Athens, Greece.
