Case Study

Single Channel HD Video
18 min.
Berlin, Germany / 2007

 

4 min. excerpt

PREMIERED AT

“In Present Tense: Young Greek Artists”, Group Show, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, 2008

PRESENTED AT

2017
“Uncinematic” – George Drivas Solo Show, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Rome, Italy

2014
“The Laboratory Diaries: A Study on Human Adjustment” – A Tribute to George Drivas, Athens International Film Festival, Greek Cinematheque

2013
“Points of View”, Video Art Festival – Museum Sztuki and Academy of Fine Arts, Łódź, Poland
“Désillusions verticales” – Cinema and Architecture, Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne, Switzerland

2012
“Periphery as Center – Politics of Loneliness”, Group Show, Island of Kastellorizo, Greece

2011
“L’evento immobile – Sfogliare il tempo”, Group Show, Casa Masaccio / Centro per l’arte contemporanea
San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy

2010
“KLEX”, Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival, Annexe Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2008
“Transexperiences Greece”, Space 798, Beijing, China
“In Present Tense: Young Greek Artists”, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.

Reviews

“George Drivas’s “Case Study” is a refreshingly low-key take on surveillance and today’s cities. Or tomorrow’s, actually, as “Case Study” belongs to the genre of science fiction which relies on the futuristic qualities of whatever is surrounding us right now rather then constructing a projection of a possible future. Think along the lines of Nouvelle Vague Sci-Fi like Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 or Godard’s Alphaville, and of course Chris Marker’s seminal La Jetée from 1962. Like Marker’s film, “Case Study” is told through a series of black & white photographs. Instead of a character-driven narrative, Drivas relies on the ornamental or abstract qualities of Berlin’s architecture. While we basically follow the path of the protagonists through a multitude of halls, stations and staircases, there is no obvious distinction between separate buildings; the space traversed by the people in Drivas’ film is not meant for anything else than transit. Obviously, this goes well with the surveillance topic, as surveillance is to large extents based on the localization of persons within space; thus, the pristine transit spaces of Drivas’ film, purged of any other connotations, make the actuality of following and being followed even more poignant. Thankfully, Drivas also abstains from the popular (or populist) polemics used by most artists working on surveillance issues. Analogous to the reduction of the city to a pure means of transit, surveillance is reduced to the acts of being watched and followed. No specific antagonism – the state watching the people, the corporations watching the people, the police watching the people – is needed here; all that’s left is the both abstract and highly emotional state watching someone being watched, and, of course, participating in the “Case Study” as a viewer ourselves.”
'Director’s Lounge'
Contemporary Media and Art Festival, Berlin, Germany (2008)