In her performance, artist Virginia Mastrogiannaki explores the last years of Joseph Beuys' life and his increasing politicisation. The focus is on the influence of Anacharsis Cloots' universalist ideas on Beuys' artistic and ideological thinking—particularly in the context of his candidature for the European Parliament. Mastrogiannaki analyses central founding texts of the European Union. She is particularly interested in the tension between language, identity and political symbolism. By deliberately removing economic terms from the EU treaties, she uncovers the ideational foundations of the Union and scrutinises which values define Europe today. The title Tavros (bull) refers to the transformation of Zeus, the second hero of the myth of Europa, from which the European continent and the European Union took their name.
about the artist(s)
Virginia Mastrogiannaki is a Greek visual artist working with performance, sculpture, and video. Her work has been shown at the National Gallery of Greece, at ZKM in Germany, at MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo in Rome, at the Greek National Opera, in CHART Art Fair of Copenhagen, at the Old Parliament House/National Historical Museum of Greece, at Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi in Istanbul, at the Benaki Museum in Athens, in Venice International Performance Art Week, at MOMus (Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki), in Paris/Berlin festival, at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
