Editorial

Since 1998, he lives mostly in Cyprus, where
he works in film and other media.
A run toward the unknown is probably
what is also (though more satirically) 'codified'
in the last (freeze) frame in Yannos
Yapanis’ s video-short film, Infomercial: a
man is running after another man dressed
as a chicken, who is holding a real chicken,
which the first man was chasing, all
along. Is this chicken the promise of a future
that resists capture-arrival? Taking as pretexts
recent political events in Cyprus –
the island’s entry into the European Union
and the referendum on the proposed UN
plan for the reunification of the country
– the artist is focusing on a body, standing
in for the 'collective' one, and on a familiar
yet resisting recognition space, in order
to 'map' a people’s predicament. It is
with a disorienting ‘map’, however, that we
are being presented, a subversive one as well
as irritating - both in its unorthodox set up
Yannos
Yapanis,
Informercial,
2005.
Video.
and 'material' (especially sound) and, more
importantly, in its refusal of 'meaning'.
(Antonis Danos)
The interest of Informercial lies in its being /
managing not to be totally incomprehensible,
but at the same time not to offer an
abstract and conceptual key reading, because
the "text" does not offer itself for a distanced
reading, turning us interpreters of a code.
It offers the possibility of constructing one’s
own code by which to try to turn chaos into
order - if one succeeds! The work’s interest
lies, additionally, in its rejection of a reference,
its refusal to become a symbol of
something that already exists, in opening a
passage to the unknown – the unrecognisable
– and to fundamental scheme,
and in wanting at all costs to give value to
the fundamental difference that stands before
all individualization; which is above all
incomprehensible as it is different. (Roberto
Constantini)
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