Busts, 1997-1998

25 color analogue prints, mounted on aluminium, 150X103 cm

…In 1997, Baboussis photographed frontally and in colour the “busts” of automatic cash distributors, which stand precisely as the interlink between the materialistic society of urban centers – the ones managing money – and the new mechanisms which exercise and control global economy through the electronic signal and pulse of bits… Symbolically, behind the ATM lies the bank institution, as well as global electronic control. In a world, which has born and accepted globalization, human beings lose their identity as autonomous personalities and become digits, personal identification numbers, abstract entities. By displaying the ATMs – that is, by using them as a visible point of reference of an invisible process, away from circulation of capital which covers our financial life 24 hour basis – Baboussis invites us to reflect over the reality, where we find ourselves submerged: a reality extensively invisible, therefore unable to capture on camera……If we compare the first images that Baboussis captured in mental clinics with the recent ones taken in bank basements, we realize that they are endowed with perfect circularity. The forms of the institutions constitute the visual level. “Value” is absent…

Extract from Daniela Palazzoli’s text, Manolis Baboussis and the detective’s gaze, catalogue from his solo exhibition at Athens National Museum of Contemporary Art, in 2003.

Μπούστα, 1997-1998

Όταν βλέπω τις φωτογραφίες των ΑΤΜς κρεμασμένες στον νέο εκθεσιακό τους χώρο, βλέπω ένα αντικείμενο αποτυπωμένο στο επίπεδο χαρτί, μία μνημειακή μορφή απειλητική αλλά χωρίς όγκο, ένα εκκλησιαστικό τέμπλο. Πρόκειται για τις καινούργιες εικόνες της πίστης, την βάση της τραπεζικής συναλλαγής και της νέας θρησκείας.