Lito Kattou

Skins & Feathers Vol. 3


Athens Biennale 7 Eclipse
23 Sep - 28 Nov 2021

San an ungendered AI hybridity conceived with human, divine and animal traits lives in the Red Lake, recreated as a real time digital environment. Their body and actions smartly respond to specific climatic variations such as temperature, humidity, visibility wind speed and weather. San are imagined as a mythological figure protecting their unique surroundings. For the AB7 Kattou presents the real time video projection Red Lake which focuses on the character of this special guardian, their alien physical and mental traits, the fluidity and necessary adaptability of their more than human existence. At the same time three sculptural works from the series Skins & Feathers Vol.3, co- inhabit the space of Fokas former department store in central Athens. The pieces are perceived as skins and feather from the creature’s epidermis continuing the homonymous series of works. They are extruded from its digital body, and they are inhabiting the space as sculptural wall pieces.


The traces of San’s body carry on them drawings of thunders symbolising the ever changing condition of the environment, the exposure bodies get to physical phenomena and the continual urge of humanity to tame and cope with the natural. The feathers and body parts of the creature are surrounded by electroformed nickel canes. The natural elements are collected by the artist at the outskirts of Nicosia, electroformed in copper and then nickel plates. The technique provides a freezing of the organic matter in time and thus creates a connection to the natural environment simulated in the digital work. The body parts carrying the lighting imagery on their epidermis seem to arise from a reed now transformed in inorganic cold metal. In this way the work problematises the presence of any human intervention on the mine site and relationship between environment and technology.




Commissioned and produced by the Athens Biennale
Courtesy of the artist and T293, Rome