Birthday — chous

a CHOUS × KNGROUP design synergy

Emmanouil CHOUS occupies a KN GROUP space to present an installation of unique design pieces. BIRTHDAY signifies an anniversary of creative “labour” of objects of affection and daily poetry. Mastering materiality, form and paradoxical balances, CHOUS shapes a personal narrative, a direct dialogue with the city and an invitation to experiment on a function-functionality level.

7-8 May 2022
V. Sofias 71, Athens

BIRTHDAY marks the first solo exhibition of CHOUS while as a title it captures the gestural essence of his creative process. CHOUS works are born in an explosive, confident manner of an instant. They are a result of an inner fermentation period –  an intellectual pregnancy of some sort, where in the time and place of creation the possibility of an object manifests itself in the expression of the object; via the energetic synchronicity of body and mind crystallized in matter.

CHOUS begins approaching the possibility of the object by re-acting to ‘objets trouvés’ fragments that are aged and formed by unknown gestures. As a mediator, he integrates them in a newly born corpus, where each part is autonomous, yet in synch with each other. The parts are tied together intimately, yet their interaction  is fluid and rather flexible. To combat gravity, the two parts form codependent structural relations, the unpredictability of which creatively transcends architectural and material duet notions of ‘light-heavy’-‘φέρων–φερόμενο’.

Ermioni Garramone architect-director

When does an object start to live? Is it the moment of its final material realization by the artisan or the moment of its initial experience by its user? An object encloses  an additional aspect that typically an artwork lacks: the function, which introduces a multilevel, sensational and experiential relationship with its user. It possesses the power of humble intervention in casual behavioral patterns, secretly modifying the way we move, touch, feel. Simultaneously, the user has the freedom to dynamically distort the object’s purpose while traces of use become part of the object’s body that enrich rather than weaken its original state. Therefore, also time-memory adds an extra layer to the object’s impact.

This mutual adjustment between the object and the user, this discreet, yet radical interaction further shapes the object’s identity and the user’s scope, intentions and acts. The product of this fundamental differentiation, is a distinct intimacy, gradually evolving on an everyday basis.

Emmanouil CHOUS