Tuesday, September 12 – Saturday, October 14, 2023
Wed – Fri 13:00―19:00 / Sat & Sun 12:00―18:00
Venue: MUJIN-TO Production
Closed: Mon. Tue. and Public holidays
*We are closed on Sept. 23 for the holiday.
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MUJIN-TO Production is pleased to announce Paraesthesia a solo exhibition by Amsterdam based artist, Antonis Pittas.

Antonis Pittas (b.1973) is an artist who researches and works on the theme of ‘recycling history’ – modernizing history / historicizing the contemporary. More an observer of the times than an activist, Pittas works with aspects of safety and control, economic crisis, resistance, violence, and vandalism that arise from contemporary social and political issues. Sampling the visual language of modernism and the historical avant-garde, including Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Russian Constructivism, he uniquely maps their historical development paths and examines how each event re-emerges in the present. His research-based approach is based on the idea that utopian aspirations can easily turn into the opposite, leading to destruction, oppression, and the affirmation of power and authority. Pittas’ works attempt to provide space for reflection on both history and the present by revealing the dynamics of this reversal.

Paraesthesia, the title of the exhibition, refers to a physical sensation of numbness, tingling, or burning in the hands, arms, legs, or feet. Pittas, who himself suffers from this condition, saw the concept of paresthesia as a metaphor to describe the collective psyche that is numb, indifferent, or disoriented to the current political reality – violent and destructive. The floor of the gallery will be used to visually induce the illusion, with a deliberately displaced floor and an installation of the three-dimensional letters which read “Paraesthesia”. In addition, silkscreen prints, printed with metallic silver ink on red, blue, and white reflective foil commonly used for road signs, will surround the space with images of people and explosions symbolizing destructive reality taken from Internet news sources and journals. When the silkscreen works are photographed with a flash, the reflective properties are induced, inverting the image seen by the naked eye. By inviting the viewers to photograph the works, Pittas encourages the viewers to take an active role in the work, transforming them into a witness through the act of photographing. Through the performative aspect of the work, Pittas seeks to initiate a discussion about exposure and concealment between the visible and the invisible, the inside and the outside, the open public space and the interior of the art space.

Paraesthesia, Pittas’ first solo exhibition in Asia at MUJIN-TO Production is based on the installation shown for the first time at Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam in this March, with additions of new works inspired by his research trip to Japan in May. Pittas arranges silkscreen prints like a page of comic book, suggestive of the parallel worlds of fantasy such as manga and video games, and the reality of our daily lives. The prints show images of the protest opposes immigration law that Pittas has seen in Tokyo, employing the frame of the comic book to bring the reality into focus. We invite you to face the gap between reality and the senses created by Pittas at the gallery.

Fund: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Creative Industries Fund NL
Support: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Annet Gelink Gallery

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Antonis Pittas
Born in Athens, 1973, lives and works in Amsterdam
www.antonispittas.com
www.annetgelink.com

2021 Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam
2011 CCS Bard College, NY
2003 MFA Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam
2003 Honours programme Experimental Curating, Sandberg Institute/UvA
2002 MFA Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
1999 BFA Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens

Selected solo exhibitions
2023
We cannot move, De Balie, Amsterdam, NL
Paraesthesia, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2022
Jaune, geel, Gelb, yellow. Acts of modernism with Antonis Pittas and Theo van Doesburg, EMST, Athens, GR
2021
Jaune, geel, Gelb, yellow. Acts of modernism with Antonis Pittas and Theo van Doesburg, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL
2019
All Done Go Home, Significant Other, Vienna, AI
Monochrome, Van Doesburg studio, Paris, FR
2018
Abstand, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, NL

Selected group exhibitions
2023
Aan de horizon, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL
2022
Moving Stories, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, NL
2021
Constant 101, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, NL
Omega, De Electriciteitsfabriek, Den Haag, NL
Good Citizenship, OSCAM AIR x HvA, Amsterdam, NL
EKO 8, International Triennial of Art and Environment A Letter to the Future, Maribor, Slovenia, curated by Alessandro Vincentelli
The Right To Breathe, Greece in USA Crusoe as Maker, Benaki museum, Athens, GR, curated by Polina Kosmadaki
2019
All That We Have In Common, MOMus – Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki, GR
2018
I F WE WANT THINGS TO STAY AS THEY ARE, THINGS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE, 5x5x5 program, Manifesta 12, Palermo, IT
2 UNLIMITED, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL
Vice Versa: Our Earth is their Moon, our Moon is their Earth、m3/ Art in Space, Prague, CZ

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【Artist Talk】
Antonis Pittas X Tsubasa Kato
Wednesday, September 13, 18:00〜
Venue: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dejima Lounge
3-6-3 Shiba kouen, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0011
Admission Free
RSVP mujipro.online@gmail.com by September 11