Commissioned by SIRIUS

The Manipulator Vlog documents a shift in the life and work of artist Aikaterini Gegisian during the coronavirus crisis, set against the backdrop of her teenage magazine collection, rediscovered during the ‘archival fever’ of the pandemic. The videos show the artist flicking through issues of Manipulator magazine, juxtaposed with amateur recordings of her garden activities. These in turn are intercut with 1990s cultural references and accompanied by a voice-over narration detailing her changed daily patterns. The Manipulator Vlog brings attention to autobiography, and an intimate understanding of time passing, as these interweave with larger image histories. By rereading the visual experiences of her youth and their influence in shaping her memory and identity, the artist reflects on her construction as a consumer – part of the neoliberal enterprise that has been shaping subjectivity in the West.

Gegisian’s The Manipulator Vlog: Episode 1 is the inaugural installment in a new film series featuring work commissioned by SIRIUS, permanently accessible for free viewing on the SIRIUS Vimeo channel. Other artists who are contributing this year include Ofri Cnaani, Yurika Higashikawa, Salomé Lamas, Levack Lewandowski and Gina Peyran Tan.

Aikaterini Gegisian’s production reflects on unstable identities informed by senses of place and belonging attached to territory as well as experiences of displacement and exile. She considers cultural flows between regions, histories and civilisations, outlining individual dislocations and mapping collective memories.

Her works combine location shooting, found footage and archival materials, and often mix music, environmental sound and recorded voice-over. Their multilayered narratives drift between the body and the mind, the subjective and the political, the personal and the social.

The Manipulator Vlog • Episode 1: YouTube • Vimeo

Aikaterini Gegisian is an artist based in England and Greece. She studied at the University of Brighton, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and University of Westminster, London. She has been a Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. and Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria. She was featured in ‘Armenity/Haiyutioun’, the Armenian Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, which was awarded the Golden Lion for best national participation. Her work has recently appeared at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain; The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow; Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Germany; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England.