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SIRIUS ARTS CENTRE: COMMISSION: Aikaterini Gegisian

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Aikaterini Gegisian
The Manipulator VlogThe film The Manipulator Vlog documents a shift in the life and work of the Greek Armenian artist Aikaterini Gegisian during the COVID-19 crisis, set against the backdrop of her teenage magazine collection, rediscovered during the ‘archival fever’ of the pandemic. The film is composed of six episodes, made between 2021 and 2023. Each episode shows the artist flicking through issues of the Manipulator magazine, juxtaposed with amateur recordings of her gardening and intercut with 1990s cultural references. These, in turn, are accompanied by a voice-over detailing her changed daily patterns.

Aikaterini Gegisian’s film The Manipulator Vlog is available on the SIRIUS Vimeo Channel. The production and online presentation of this work is supported by SIRIUS and curated by Miguel Amado, director.

https://vimeo.com/user126841542
Aikaterini Gegisian, The Manipulator Vlog: Episode 1 (still), 2021. Courtesy of the artist 

The Greek Armenian artist Aikaterini Gegisian’s production reflects on unstable identities informed by senses of place and belonging attached to territory as well as experiences of displacement and exile. She considers cultural flows between regions, histories and civilizations, outlining individual dislocations and mapping collective memories. Her films combine location shooting, found footage and archival materials, and often mix music, environmental sound and recorded voice-over. Their multilayered narratives drift between the body and the mind, the subjective and the political, the personal and the social.

The Manipulator Vlog brings attention to autobiography and an intimate understanding of time passing, as these interweave with more extensive image histories. By rereading the visual experiences of her youth and their influence in shaping her memory and identity, the artist reflects on her construction as a consumer – part of the neoliberal enterprise that has been shaping subjectivity in the West.


Aikaterini Gegisian is based in Thessaloniki and London. She studied at the University of Brighton; Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London; and the University of Westminster. She has been a research fellow at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria. She was featured in Armenity/Haiyutioun, the Armenian Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, which was awarded the Golden Lion for best national participation. Her work has recently appeared at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain; Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Germany; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England; and the International Center for Photography, New York.
 
Aikaterini Gegisian, The Manipulator Vlog: Episode 6 (still), 2023. Courtesy of the artist 
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