Kostis Velonis, Monument for a Forgotten Education

Monument for a Forgotten Education by Kostis Velonis (Athens, 1968) places emphasis on educational awareness. It proposes a model version of the public monument of Mathias Goeritz and Luis Baraggan “Torres de satellite" (1958), located in Mexico City, assumed to be one of the most characteristic public projects of Mexican Modernism. By replacing the walls of the Monument made from reinforced concrete with chalkboard paint on wood, and reducing the size of the original monument, Velonis addresses to a “contemporary impossibility” of a monumental representation and argues if it’s possible to rewrite the history of a certain Modernism, that deals with abstraction and collective amnesia, as well as to revert the aesthetic values of public monuments. This project is part of a wider one titled Part Company that combines antithetical approaches to community living and social participation by two distinct figures of Mexican Modernism, Greek-Mexican activist Plotino Rhodakanaty (1828-1892) and Mexican artist of German origin Mathias Goeritz (1915-1990). The artists have adapted models of public sculptures by Goeritz informed by research on Rhodakanatys’ political concepts. Thus, the constructions explore a broader context around social class, politics of sculpture, architecture and design, encompassing rather than isolating these two separate ideologies.