Artist
country:United Kingdom
website: www.eileenbotsford.com
Bio
She holds a BAhons in Public Art and Design from Chelsea College of Art & Design and an MFA in Theatre Design from The Slade School of Fine Art.
Eileen works as a New Media Public Artist, on vast spectrum of on-site and on-line projects and commissions, and has exhibited on an international basis in group and solo exhibitions.
She is currently on her next LiveArt project taking place in April 2011 at Vryssaki and her next exhibition taking place in the Fall of 2011 at the ArtVille Gallery Athens, Greece. In 2010 Eileen completed her latest LiveArt project and exhibition called 'Amalias36' and her Syros based LiveArt project called 'In Memory of' . In 2009, amongst other projects, Eileen also exhibited and represented Greece in the Florence Biennale.
Eileen's Public Art projects include the ‘Public Screen’ at the 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, new media window displays such ones for Vivienne Westwood at Selfridges, London, and New Media Video displays for the play ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ by T.S. Elliot, St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, London.
She has accepted a number of sponsorships for her work including those from the DESTE Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the GNTO. Eileen has also won 2nd Best Experimental Video Award 05 at Strange Screen VI, Salonica Cinema Museum.
Publications and interviews include Vogue Hellas , Gynaika Magazine, ‘Greek Modern Pioneers’ The British Council, Kathimerini Newspaper and various online publications.
Recent inspirational talks of hers include TEDx Thessaloniki 2011 , Pecha Kucha Athens Vol.4, Panorama at Zappeion Megaro, Athens, and the International Interdisciplinary Conference 'Science and Art', Athens, Eugenidis Foundation.
:: Photo information and credits:
1 -2 > Amalias 36, Athens - LiveArt.gr
3 > New Media Video displays for the play ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ by T.S. Elliot, St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, London.
4 > VGing, London
5 > The Bodymode Show, Pearl Fisher Gallery, London.
6 > Cycle, still from the video.
7 > The Bodymode Show, Pearl Fisher Gallery, London.
8 > Vryssaki - LiveArt.gr
Most recent people interviewed (View all)
Toal O' Muire
Árpád Ferdinánd
Constantin Xenakis
Isaac A. Meir
Kim Herforth Nielsen
Most recent list of themes (View all)
on Architecture and Theory
on Architecture and Competent Authorities
on Architecture
on Architecture and Sustainability
on Educating Architecture
on Promoting Architecture
on Architecture and Events
on Guiding Architecture
on Architecture and Photography
on Architecture and Politics
on Architecture and Skyscrapers
on Architecture and Art
on Architecture and Travel
My point of view:
on Architecture and Art
Interview Date: 27-07-2011
You are a New Media Public Artist living between London and Athens and working internationally.
Every city in the world wants to become a viable city, on a human scale if possible. How would you characterize your city?
Be currently based in Athens, I am going to consider Athens as my city. On the whole, it is not a very well equipped city in terms of minorities and also wheelchair users or people using strollers.
However, there are some new developments going on which are very user friendly and, hopefully, they will be more of them. It is also understandable that some of the older buildings in the city of Athens, which Athens has a lot of, have a difficulty adapting to modern requirements.
What do you think is the added value that art and architecture creates within a city? In your opinion, how is the life of the citizens of a city affected by its architecture?
There are tourists that visit and stay in Athens opposed to just passing through and I guess they could be called architectural tourists or this could be called architectural tourism. Apart from the large number of archaeological sites with some still standing buildings such as the Parthenon, I would say there is also an interesting series of neoclassical buildings within the city and the suburb. Some are still residential and some have been turned into museums.
Places to visit, if you are in Athens would be the old Planetarium. It’s a very interesting building and, some of the orthodox churches. Also, there are a few contemporary buildings such as the New Acropolis Museum which is interesting although a very controversial structure. We could say places like the Hub which is a loft of building on Piraeus or even the new Benaki Museum on Piraeus.
What is the importance of cultural events worldwide? What are the profits for a city holding such kind of major events?
Cultural events are great means to attract visitors and also to get people be so interesting in the city to end up living there. Furthermore, there are means of enriching the citizens or the city itself. In Athens, there are so much going right now and if you’ve got a little bit of cash in your pocket, you can go out and be very cultured. Although, there has been a movement of free events going on and that’s great.
This is quite of a general question and I will go back to Athens again. Athens, in comparison to other cities has a long way to go in terms of funding and organizing structured public art, competitions with proper funding. Yes, Athens has a long way to go in terms of that.
How would you characterize your relationship with architecture if there is any? What is the interpretation of architecture for you?
I see architecture through the eyes of an artist. I am a great believer in the importance of harmony. But, apart from that, I am a great believer in the importance of positive and negative spaces in architecture and how we move through these spaces. I am going through this phase now where if I am asked to do a piece of public art in a magnificent building, I don’t really want to touch it apart from using lighting or music or some small interventions.
At the end, can you please provide your personal proposal for 10 buildings (constructed and visitable) which you think as the most important worldwide that someone must visit anyway?
Of course, I say again the Parthenon in Greece. But not only Parthenon, many other archaeological sites where there are some still standing buildings. In NYC, I love the Guggenheim and I also love the Frick Mansion where the Frick collection is housed. The British Museum and the V&A in London are magnificent buildings.
I recently went to Oslo to the Oslo City Hall which I think is an amazing art deco building. The Dubai Hippodrome with the hotel adjusted to it is an absolute crazy building which you must see if you are in Dubai.
Another one would be of course the Louvre in Paris and, in terms of contemporary architecture, pretty much every project of the Zaha Hadid architect.
The personal favorite of mine is the orthodox church of Saint Nicholas on my home island in Greece.
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