Conceptual group exhibition “Transformative Identities” is an important outcome of the International Art Residency CARV_23. Here is solo-part by Michalis Papamichael.

Release

Michalis Papamichael emphasizes the political and social impact of migration. His artistic practice connects through a fabric of political allusions and whispers of a social language. Likewise, his recent works, through a parallel transformation of the objects, act as commentaries to the new socio-political situation that migration has formed and the transformation of the migrants’ identities within this context. A sculptural suitcase unfolds and lies on the floor of the exhibition space, referring not only to the old luggage migrants bring with them filled with the most precious objects from their country, but also to the imaginary, and actual, space one needs to sleep on the floor. Whereas in the meantime, the brown color of the sculpture is reminiscent of the cardboard homeless people use to sleep on.

For his second work, Papamichael takes an ordinary object, strictly connected to the survival of the migrants, and elevated it to the status of an artwork, just like Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades. The bag used by delivery boys, most of whom are migrants, to carry food becomes a symbol of survival. Not only this bag carries food, which is crucial for people’s survival, but also is the means through which migrants earn their survival. This multifaceted work comprised of a series of photographs and a “sculpture”. The life-size photographs allude to the bags of the most well-known food delivery companies in Cyprus, whereas for the sculpture the artist has created his own branded bag. In a gesture of transformation, Papamichael converts the food bags from something cheap to an art object of high value worth to be looked at.

On the exhibition plinth, he placed a bag printed with the repetitive logo “Just Come”, that is what the politicians and other officials say to migrants, to convince them to come, however with no specific social or political plan.

— Dimitrios S. Spyrou, The Curator.

Installation views