Stefanos Tsivopoulos
History Zero

The piece comprises of a film structured in three parts, accompanied by an archive of thirty-two texts and imagery with alternative non-monetary exchange systems. The theme includes the concept of money, the value of material goods today and the alternative exchange systems.
The installation was presented exactly as in the Greek Pavilion with some necessary changes to the scale of the exhibits. There was also presented a set of seven new archives of ‘alternative currencies’ examining the history of currency in Greece from the Obol to the Euro, especially designed for the Museum of Cycladic Art (Figs 188, 192).

The works of Stefanos Tsivopoulos (b. 1973) refer mainly to the past, to the collective and individual memory, the genius loci and the types of reasoning that develop in the public domain. The technology of imagery, television aesthetics and historic authenticity of the cinematographic work, are parallel areas of research and interest for him.

The starting point for the conception of History Zero was the multilevel crisis that Greece has been going through for years, a situation that, in this case, was considered by the artist as a creative opportunity for alternative interpretations and for envisioning the future. History Zero is an original visual creation which marks a particularly definitive moment in modern Greek history, amidst the economic crisis of the time, seeking as well to raise questions about dark moments in modern history, such as the period of dictatorship 1967-1973 for Greece and the Cold War for the whole world.