Katina BitSICAS

1422 1829 1702, 2:20, 2019

1422 1829 1702 is a performative video that explores the memories associated with physical locations of my past, present and future. More specifically, I am utilizing feet (both figuratively and literally) as a unit of measurement to navigate through my grandmother's, my mother's, and then my own home. Every carpet, rug, wood panel, tile and floor covering is meticulously measured, as I pace each inch with my feet. As I walk these homes, the floor plans become permanently ingrained in my memory, inch by inch, solidifying the connection between my family and I, no matter the distance. Each home segment can be seen as a parallel world to where I currently am, and reminds me that my past and present will always be a part of me heading into the future.

1829, 2:14, 2021

1829, is a performative video of both myself and my mother tracing and measuring my childhood home with our feet, which are used literally as a unit of measurement. I performed this measured walk pre-pandemic when all were able to visit each other in order to ingrain the floor plan of the home into my memory, and to solidify my connection to the physical space. Now that we are distant from each other, my mother performed the same walking action, 2 years later. The space has changed, and with my father’s passing the people have changed too, but the floor plan remains the same, steady material thing, grounding us and uniting my mother and I from afar. These two performances are blended together to display this unity. The audio is a haunting track of distant memories that these walls contain. This performance is then projected onto an embroidered floor plan of my childhood home. Projected onto the floor plan is archival footage of my younger self inhabiting each of these spaces in the distant past.

Katina Bitsicas is a Greek-American new media artist who utilizes video, installation, AR and performance in her artworks to explore grief, loss, trauma and memory. She has exhibited worldwide, including The Armory Show, PULSE Art Fair, Satellite Art Fair, Superchief Gallery NFT, Plexus Projects, the Wheaton Biennial curated by Legacy Russell, CADAF: Digital Art Month Paris, Torrance Art Museum, Westbeth Gallery, New York, Eye’s Walk Festival, Syros, Greece, 57th Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece, HereArt in New York, Art in Odd Places in Orlando, Digital Graffiti Festival, and the St. Louis International Film Festival. In 2022, her artist book Luci: The Girl with Four Hearts was published with Flower Press. She received her BA from Kalamazoo College, Post-Baccalaureate from SACI in Florence, Italy, and MFA from the University of South Florida. She is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Digital Storytelling at the University of Missouri, where she also conducts research with the MU School of Medicine on utilizing digital storytelling as a meaning-making intervention for bereaved family members. This collaborative research has been published in Death Studies, OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, and the Journal of Social Work in End-Of-Life & Palliative Care.