Man Standing, on a Column (Michalis Kallimopoulos, 2018) is a comment on Rodin’s Man Walking, on a Column (1901)
The artist's note that follows was written for the catalog of the "Prometheus 2.0" exhibition, where the work was first presented.
Rodin’s Man Walking moves towards the future. Western Civilisation was always on the move: it is already walking with its legs spread like those of the first Kouroi. Humanity has been walking ever since our kind got off the trees. Until now.
Why should a shattered column cease to be shattered after all these years? Pity those who perform shoddy repairs on ancient columns and attempt to restore the ruins. Every civilisation redesigned the column, reinventing it in order to improve it. Pillars stood for humans. All civilisations did this, except for the current one. Oi! I’m talking to you! Can’t you let off your mobile for just one minute?
A sculptor is no architect. He or she will create a column like a child does, from memory. The attitude of contemporary Greeks towards history is determined by this childlike “that is what I remember”. Sentimentality sets the rules for the liquid certainties inherent in our day and age. We live in a century of the internet but also of darkness. The institutionalised uncertainty that is the social media does not employ statues for its public monuments, but memes.
Scrolling through my touch screen I am the god of communication. Apps are my promethean inventions. My smart phone is imbued with the ability of Prometheus the Titan to prophesy. I carry all humanity’s knowledge. My smart phone is the sacred lamp which carries My Contacts over and above the Dark Seas. With this lamp to guide ships in hand I am the Statue of Liberty (F. A. Bartholdi, 1886). Yet my lamp casts its beam straight in my face, leaving everything else in the dark.
Title
Man Standing, on a Column (Michalis Kallimopoulos, 2018). Please see it here.
Dimensions
Height 215, length 33, width 35 cm on a 60 cm base.
Materials
Giluform, electric circuit, led lamp.