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Richard Wentworth and Semiconductor>Interacting with Art Online: ABSOLUT NEXT GENERATION

Why Louise Bourgeois chose Aspassio Haronitaki:
‘I’ve known Aspassio for over eight years. I like the way that he is dealing with the animalistic qualities in human behaviour and looks.’

Aspassio Haronitaki
'The animality of man has been continuously hidden and battled against by the evolution of civilisation. In my pictures I try to reveal this counterfeited part of our identity.' Aspassio Haronitaki was born in Greece in 1972 and now lives in Paris where he studied with Christian Boltanski. As a young artist, he would contact artists he admired and ask to meet them. This is how his friendship with Louise Bourgeois began. His recent solo exhibitions were in Florence, Paris,
Thessalonique and Milan. Initially he worked in steel, but for the past 10 years Haronitaki has specialised in digitally manipulated photography, creating the Humanoids for which he is now best known. Even cultures preceding Greek mythology created magical and nightmarish creatures which are a fusion of human and animal elements. Haronitaki is fascinated by the different ways in which species and individuals convey their identities – animals communicate immediately through skin or fur, their size and shape. He seeks man's latent animal nature in unnerving, beautiful works which prompt us to rethink the dichotomies of truth and fiction, illusion and revelation.

Together in ABSOLUT GENERATIONS
When they first met in 1993, Bourgeois was so impressed with Haronitaki’s work that she suggested they make a piece together. Aspassio was astonished and assumed she was joking. In ABSOLUT GENERATIONS, he finally takes her up on her offer. For him, the starting point is a portrait of his friend: 'I want to change your face into a lion's to try to capture something about your mind, to capture your animal force.'

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foto: www.absolut.com, Aspassio Haronitaki