During a “speed dating” session, 10 artists and 10 science and humanities experts found their “match”. The teams were then asked to work together to co-produce a work that could take either a visual, auditory, or sensory form. For 6 months, the participants had to bypass conceptual and practical barriers in order to arrive at a final, but still evolving, work of art. The resulting works were presented in the exhibition Fusion is the Future. The curatorial team was Omiros Panayides, Achilleas Kentonis, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert and Niki Zanti-Philiastides.
DI.VA.N was a conceptual project and proposal by Panayiotis Proestos and Panayiotis Michael for the project - Fusion is the Future in 2016. Helga and Constantinos provided support in regards with the development of the project in terms of design morphology and language. The result was a product derived from a dimensionally vague narrative. A floating divan, held by a magnetic field with pumice and memory foam as materials.
“The speed dating session was speedy. All I can say is that I had a different story to tell each time I introduced myself to each of the scientist-participants (it is no surprise that I chose and was chosen by a psychologist to work with).
My collaboration with Panayiotis Proestos was like trying to figure out how to share a room and cohabitate smoothly. It was interesting to see how we both functioned within it … how we each looked at ourselves and presented ourselves to one other … to know how each person’s narratives emerged when listening to each other’s stories … I found the moments when we allowed ourselves to give up control of the situation and let the process take over, very productive.
Our decision to invite Constantinos Economides and Helga Josepsdottir to design the final work gives rise to several questions: what does it mean to outsource part of the project to others? What is the role of the others? Are they technical executors or important collaborators? What does it mean to lose control? And what about the authorship of the work?”
text by Panayiotis Michael.
Project by: Panayiotis Proestos and Panayiotis Michael.
Visual development with: Helga Josepsdottir.
Year of conception: 2016.
Materials: Pumice and memory foam.
Dimensions: 170 x 70 x 66 cm (length x depth x height).
© Helga Josepsdottir and Constantinos Economides 2004 - 2021.
