Jake & Dinos Chapman

The Department of Fine Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology, on the occasion of the inauguration of the undergraduate studies programme, organizes a symposium-homage to Jake and Dinos Chapman, on Saturday, November 24, as follows:

6-8pm: Panel presentations-discussion

Amphitheatre 1, Tassos Papadopoulos building (corner of Themidos and Ifigenias str., Limassol), CUT

Participants:

Jake Chapman, artist

Dr. Sozita Goudouna, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Performa Institute, New York, and Teaching Fellow, New York University

Dr. Efi Kyprianidou, Adjunct Lecturer (Cultural Policy and Development), Open University of Cyprus

Mr. Niki Young, Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Malta (Junior College)

coordinator:

Dr. Antonis Danos, Associate Professor of Art History and Theory, Dept. of Fine Arts

Welcome address: Professor Andreas Anayiotos, Rector

8-10pm Party Reception

Art Studios, Department of Fine Arts (Arch. Kyprianos str., adjacent to Limassol Town Hall)

The Department of Fine Arts marks the inauguration of the undergraduate studies programme with an homage to artists of international significance, whose work and approach to art, in general, intersects with its own vision. The department aims at establishing an environment that encourages experimentation and art production of a high aesthetic calibre (as multi-sensory experience and creation, intertwined with art history and theory, and critical-philosophical analysis), as well as a critical approach toward, and aesthetic intervention in, contemporary Cypriot society.

Integral elements of this aesthetic and critical contribution, by the department, to Cypriot contemporaneity are both a substantial negotiation of the history of art and a constant dialogue with the global, contemporary art scene.

Based on such aims, and taking as pretext their part-Cypriot parentage (they were born in the UK, to an English father and Cypriot mother), the department organises a symposium, dedicated to Jake and Dinos Chapman, consisting of brief presentations and panel discussion – Jake will be joined by four academics – followed by a party-reception.

Jake and Dinos Chapman emerged from the Young British Artists (YBAs) “group”, who, in the 1990s, forcefully placed British art at the forefront of the international art developments. Yet, in spite of being established on the world stage, the Chapman brothers – in contrast to some of the other YBAs – did not prioritise commercial success (though it was achieved), nor did they trap themselves in a state of narcissistic self-referentiality. On the contrary, their work remains, formally and technically, innovative, as well as, substantially and poignantly political (for some critics, even, “shocking”). It constantly interrogates art – including a critical dialogue with both the past (such as, their “appropriation” of Francisco Goya’s works) and the present (see, their “re-creation” of Tracey Emin’s Tent: everyone I have ever slept with, as, The Same Only Better) – but also, politics, culture (often, their work has been considered as de-constructing the Enlightenment worldview) and, more generally, the human condition.