My name is Alex Dermatis and I am an interdisciplinary performance artist, living and working in Berlin.
Since October 2016, I've held a weekly residency at Kit Kat Club. Throughout the nights of each Saturday since, I've come to develop a new body of work; expanded from my research upon sexuality, intimacy, bdsm, bodywork, mindfulness and aerial acrobatics.
My stage work is usually framed within long durational performative installations, mainly made with bodies, ropes and coloured lights. I frequently work with models who, up to that moment, are total strangers to me. The physical language of negotiation I have developed, is my greatest treasure in this journey of researching sexuality and bdsm through performance. And, although often somewhat hidden within the war-zone environment of the club, this language is always present and on display for the careful audience to observe; And it is what dictates each piece, its content, its duration and its extreme.
Before I got to be known as the bondage artist of Kitkat, I spent 14 years in London. I studied History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, (2002-2007) with a thesis on Performance and Performativity. I then worked for artists and companies that focused on site responsive performance; from immersive experimental theatre, to late night performance events, to museum & gallery based performance art.
Notably, I've worked for the Shunt collective (Shunt Lounge 2008-2010), Tino Seghal (Tate Modern 2012 and Athens Roman Agora 2014) and Oreet Ashery (Artangel's Party for Freedom 2013).
In addition to my employment in large scale artistic happenings, in 2009 I began developing my own performance practice, often involving aerial acrobatics and ropes. In 2011, I initiated the Guerrilla Rigging series; an ongoing site-specific circus project in the form of public interventions, which is gradually archived and scheduled to be published on a hard copy.
In 2015, I moved to Berlin with a plan to approach sexuality scientifically, and incorporate it into my performance practice. I met Felix Ruckert and it was he who introduced me to rope bondage.
I'm originally from Greece. I was born and grew up in Athens.
