Author: gourgourini

Art Is (Not) For Sale / Free Palestine!

In a time of war, of genocide, of gendercide, art (if it exists) is for sale.
In a time of resistance, of struggle, of freedom, art (which exists) is not for sale.
In a time of censorship, art (which is defiant) is not for sale.
In a time of indifference, art (if it can be called “art”) is for sale.
In a time when words fail us, art (which came before words) is not for sale.
In a time when all we have is each other, art (which is and is not for sale) is active solidarity.

FAC is organising a solidarity art sale to raise funds for Queers in Palestine @queersinpalestine and the Dismantle Damon campaign @dismantle_damon. The sale will open on Thursday 28 November and run until Sunday 1 December.

Artists who have already committed to participate include: Madlen Anipsitaki/Simon Riedler, Irini Bachlitzanaki, Isabella Eda Baker, mélie boltz nasr/Andromache Kokkinou, Stella Chaireti, Vera Chotzoglou, Maria F. Dolores, Naomi Frisson, James Fuller, Vasilis Galanis, Catriona Gallagher, Anna Gonzalez Noguchi, Alexandra Greene, Richard Hronsky, Rowena Hughes, Dimitra Ioannou, Fanis Kafantaris, Katsarida Press, Dionysis Kavallieratos, Markellos Kolofotias, Elena Koumarianou/Caterina Stamou, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Anna Koura, Beskida Kraja, Maria Lamprinidi, Latent Community (Ionian Bisai, Sotiris Tsigkanos), Maria Louizou, Naya Magaliou, Irini Miga, miss dialectic, MKX, Mochi, Petros Moris, Kosmas Nikolaou, elianna otta, Vasilis Papageorgiou, Maria Papapostolou, Yiorgos Psychas, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, Eleni Riga, E Scourti, Fiona Spathopoulou, Myrto Stampoulou, Sweatmother, eugenia tzirtzilaki, Konstantinos Χatzipapas, Xenokratis, Doreida Xhogu, Paky Vlassopoulou, Maria Zreiq, 3 137.

Art Is (Not) For Sale / Free Palestine! is curated by Caterina Stamou @thebirdsdokiss and Pati Vardhami @pati_v_pati

The initiative is supported by @3_137_artist_run_space, @eight_athens @amoqa.athens @sest_somateio

Opening hours:
Thursday 28 November 8-11 pm
Friday 29 November 8-11 pm
Saturday 30 November 4-8 pm
Sunday 1 December 4-8 pm

Address:
Feminist Autonomous Centre for research
Agiou Panteleimonos 7b 104 46 Athens

DESMOS: A Dinner Study is a project by the A-DASH platform, curated by Christina Petkopoulou. It explores themes of closeness, sharing, and empowerment within the artistic community through the study and the reenactment of historical gatherings organized by the Desmos gallery, known in Greek art history as the “Desmos’ Mondays.” The group show hosted at EIGHT/TO OXTΩ, Critical Institute for Arts and Politics (8 Polytechniou St., Athens), will feature artistic and curatorial work shared at a series of thematic dinners, along with archival material. The opening event will take place on Saturday, December 7, from 18:00 onward and a performance program is soon to be announced.

Since spring 2024, A-DASH has been organizing a series of dinners at the independent exhibition space Work In Progress Studios in central Athens. These were five simple pasta dinners, each with a different curated group of guest artists and curators, held in five unique temporal and spatial settings. The gatherings prioritized relationships and practice, resulting in five distinct actions, whose traces form the material for this group exhibition. Among the displayed works, material from the curator’s research is exhibited, archival documents, and personal records from the Desmos Gallery archives (part of the National Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum Archive – ISET).

DESMOS: A Dinner Study exhibition serves as a contemporary curatorial interpretation of the historical “Desmos’ Mondays,” a series of events organized by the Desmos gallery starting in 1972. During this time, gallery founders Epi Protonotariou and Manos Pavlidis hosted gatherings where they offered pasta to artists in a private setting within the gallery, accompanied by avant-garde music selected by contemporary composers. This exhibition reflects on the relationships, bold choices, and unconventional practices that historically shaped artistic communities. It considers environments of care, safe spaces, and settings that support and empower the artistic community, fostering critical internal relationships essential to creativity. The focus here is on practice and sharing, beyond the art market’s competitive pressures and production demands. Artists and theorists will present artworks, installations, notes, texts, archival material, and performances inspired by the thematic dinners, attempting to identify conditions that foster connection and empowerment within the creative community, both in the past and present times.

With the financial support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. Special thanks to Kava Oinotypo for providing wine for the dinners and opening event, and to KOPRIA for their floral decorations.

DESMOS: A Dinner Study

Opening: Saturday, 7.12.2024, 18:00

ΤΟ ΟΧΤΩ/ΕΙGHT, 8 Polytechniou str., Athens

Visiting Hours: 7.12.2024-11.01.2025, Thursday-Saturday 18:00-21:00 and by appointment

Curated by: Christina Petkopoulou

Participating: Nadja Aryropoulou, Eloise Fornieles, Ioanna Gerakidi, Panos Giannikopoulos, Marina Velisioti, Nikolas Ventourakis, Olga Vlassi, Sylvia Sachini, Christina Kotsilelou, Dimitra Kondylatou, Konstantinos Kotsis, Kosmas Nikolaou, Rena Papaspyrou, Phantom Investigations (Ino Varvariti, Giannis Delagrammatikas), Theo Prodromidis, Nana Seferli, Stefania Strouza, Mare Spanoudaki, Marianna Stefanitsi, Stamatis Schizakis, Christoforos Marinos, Myrto Xanthopoulou, Zoe Hatziyannaki, Yiannis Hadjiaslanis, Konstantinos Hatzinikolaou, Vera Chotzoglou, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas, Kostas Tzimoulis)

*Christina Petkopoulou, Ioanna Gerakidi, Marina Velisioti, Nikolas Ventourakis, Olga Vlassi, Dimitra Kondylatou, Konstantinos Kotsis, Kosmas Nikolaou,  Giannis Delagrammatikas, Theo Prodromidis, Nana Seferli, Stefania Strouza, Mare Spanoudaki,  Myrto Xanthopoulou,  Vera Chotzoglou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

On Wednesday, November 20 at 20:00, the exhibition It empties, it fills, the light will open at the V. & M. Theocharakis Foundation, highlighting the significance of light in art through a dialogue between the works of seventeen distinguished historical and contemporary artists.

“Maybe shame is what you feel when you start to truly get to know someone. When perfection makes room for our human side—what you love with all the mistakes they have made or will make. Because it’s the human part we seek. Perfection is for strangers, for celebrities on TV. For those who are never really part of our lives.” — Excerpt from the novel Dad, I Want You to Be Ashamed of Me.

An evening full of surprises, celebrating the release of Dad, I Want You to Be Ashamed of Me. The central theme of the book is the diary of the protagonist, who shares his secrets without shame, in an attempt to finally connect with his family.

In the spirit of the book, the audience will be invited to anonymously share a secret to be read on that day.

ROMANTSO, Anaxagora 3-5, Athens
Wednesday, November 6
Arrival Time: 20:00
Free Admission

* Sam Albatros is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2021)

Thodoris Trampas (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020) joins the OSTEN Biennial Skopje 2024 and receives the Special Recognition Award by the OSTEN BIENNIAL Skopje 2024. This award is given to artists distinguished for their innovation, creativity, and the impact of their work on the contemporary art scene.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/YoWpxVwAcFxGTkaB/

https://www.osten.mk/en/awards-2024/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGIj-5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUnwG0urM4vhJAfkSFnbZXvyjSNlM2AnpgYlUDaQo9MBSbBLKY2anaKupg_aem_alZgSRo66TgayPayqsa3Ng

Weaving Worlds is an exhibition about processes of world-building or re-worlding as depicted, discussed or enhanced through art. The experience of the pandemic allowed us to reflect upon what is lost in a condition of continuous acceleration, and what is yet to be gained in order to find ways of living with each other in a period of a generalized crisis. Weaving Worlds addresses the need to reimagine forms of co-existence on an environmental, social or political level. It questions the idea of a one-world world acknowledging the existence and interdependence of different realities, needs and possibilities.

Participating artists: Margarita Athanasiou, Campus Novel, Sofia Dona, Maro Fasouli, Dimitris Gavalas, Effie Halivopoulou / Tim Ward / Nikos Falagas, Zoe Hatziyannaki & Constantinos Hadzinikolaou, Charles Hustwick, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Anna Lascari, Michael Lekakis, Stefanos Levidis, MAENADS (Eleni Ikoniadou, Afroditi Psarra, Anne Duffau), Alexia Celia Peza / Petros Tatsiopoulos / Nori Tsouloucha, Dimitra Skandali, Lina Theodorou, Μaria Varela, WordMord {Onlania tentacle}.

*Margarita Athanasiou, Sofia Dona, Maro Fasouli, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Stefanos Levidis, Μaria Varela are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Weaving Worlds
An exhibition curated by Daphne Dragona at Deree – The American College of Greece
Friday, May 20 – Saturday, June 25, 2022
Opening: May 20, 2022 18:00-22:00
ACG Art Gallery – The American College of Greece, 6 Gravias Street, Aghia Paraskevi

Organised by: The Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts (FRSFPA) of Deree – The American College of Greece
as part of the Arts Festival 2022
Supported by: the Art History, Graphic Design, and Visual Arts Programs

Opening hours: Mon-Fri: 14:00-18:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00
Entrance is open to the public. Visitors are required to wear face masks at the exhibition venues.

Rebecca Camhi gallery is pleased to announce a new group exhibition reflecting on the notions of the sun as a driving force and, at the same time, an existential homeland, curated by Marina Fokidis.

The exhibition includes Zoë Paul’s weavings on obsolete fridge grills, Iasonas Kampanis’ painted portraits of animals taken from ancient Greek mosaics and friezes, Yugoexport’s collection of zoomorphic ceramic sculptures and vases, Panos Profitis’ facemask-sculptures, inspired by the iconography of ancient Greek amphorae, and Eleni Kotsoni’s ongoing collage-installations, made from material fragments of the past and the present, to create a continuous narrative.

This paradoxical title emphasizes how crucial light is in the conception and creation of these artworks. It examines the sun’s ability to transcend geographical boundaries, and to heal the human condition and our environment. The artists of the exhibition were born and raised in countries of the so-called broader south, where the sun is untamed and powerful. These include Athens, Belgrade, Kythera, Livadia, South Africa, and Rhodes.

Their works carry the influence of a shared understanding of South-eastern cultures: their myths, traditions, political idiosyncrasies, economic realities, and craftsmanship. The metaphorical and literal “shapes” and “colours” in these works encourage the viewer to look beyond the hegemonically imposed “white” purity of the Renaissance and Classicism, as well as Enlightenment’s rationalism and in general, the prevalence of western thought in society today.

The branch of philosophy called epistemology is defined by the relationship between the researcher and reality, the artists and their surroundings. This is what constitutes their version of the Epistemologies of the Sun.

You are invited to expand on these epistemologies through multiple perspectives and orientations during many occasions this summer such as the summer solstice, when the sun will be at its zenith.

Epistemologies of the sun
Group show curated by Marina Fokidis
Artists: Iasonas Kampanis, Eleni Kotsoni, Zoë Paul, Panos Profitis, Yugoexport
Duration 12/05/2022 – 09/09/2022

*Iasonas Kampanis and Panos Profitis are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Eleonora Siarava, a choreographer who lives and works between Greece and Germany presents her new piece Blue Beyond. Blue Beyond is a dance performance about time which as an experiential perception, a natural phenomenon, a corporeal event runs through a continuum. It constructs an imaginary condition where future penetrates present and present emerges into future creating overlapping temporalities. Drawing from the chi-fi book of the beginning of the 20th century “Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future” by Olaf Stapledon, 1930, explores corporealities, cartographies and images of the Future and questions how the idea, the vision or the fantasy of the Future is depicted, reflected, embodied.

Through an interplay with mythologies, realities, dramaturgies, fictions, topologies, imaginary spaces of the future, memories of the live present and embodied traces of the past, the idea is to turn the stage into an active hybrid space with movements, objects, sounds, words and create a live moving capsule of imprints and visions forming a Memoir for¦of the Future, a cyclic schema to represent time.
The piece uses montage techniques in order to reveal different variations of non-linear performance unfolding and explore how body and movement are affected when transferred in a different temporal condition or spatial context. To enhance this, there is an interactive sound design with live amplification processes and recording within recording techniques.

Blue Beyond follows a series of Siarava’s artworks about Time. The Body and the Other ~ (2020) premiered in one of the most important dance production houses in Europe, Tanzhaus NRW at Düsseldorf in the framework of Temps D ‘Images Festival while Who knows where the time goes – potential destination #1 (2021) was presented in Athens supported by the Ministry of Culture of Greece and after a residency at SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographing Development/Interdisciplinary Incubator 2019 (Prague).

Concept – Choreography – Artistic Direction: Eleonora Siarava
Dance, choreography: Eftychia Stefanou
Sound design: Yannis Tsirikoglou, Space design: Eleonora Siarava, Light design: Eliza Alexandropoulou, Dramaturgy advice: Betina Panagiotara, Set construction: Christofili Kodolefa, Athina Koubarouli, Costume: Girogia Dipla, Production assistant: Nefeli Vlachouli, Visual communication: Christofili Kodolefa
Production: Per_Dance Choreographic Research Plarform
www.per-dance.com
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Greece for 2021-2022

20-21-22 May | 20.00 | Theseum Theatre
Tournavitou 7, Athens
Duration: 50 minutes
Tickets: https://www.ticketservices.gr/event/blue-beyond-eleonora-siarava/?lang=en
Contact: [email protected]
Post-Performance Talk
On Sunday 23th May the performance will be followed by a discussion between the artistic team and the audience facilitated by the dramaturg Betina Panagiotara.

Η παράσταση πραγματοποιείται με την οικονομική υποστήριξη του Υπουργείου Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού για το 2021-2022

In sculpture there is a kind of plausibility and honesty of the materials. The material has its own properties that can only be used but not changed; the substance can be used in different ways to demonstrate various attributes. The honesty and ethics of the materials remain unscathed. In the art of sculpture, the physical dimension of the space in which the work of art is perceived plays a central role.

Having the notion of sculpture as a starting point for his solo show “I follow the sun as I follow my distraction” at Callirrhoë, Vasilis Papageorgiou is using materials through which gestures can be expressed. Bended copper plated plastic, marble spheres cut-in-half, curved steel, (de)formed plasterboards and clay shape his narration and convey to the observer the illusion of entering the domestic environment of the artist. An unconscious fantastical world is opening up as the spectator is building an imaginary space that includes all the objects to be gazed in an apparent sequence. Papageorgiou offers a twist of perspective on how we can observe familiar objects differently.

At this point, the question of the different connotations of the definition of sculpture comes to the fore, starting with the smallest object that can be found in the exhibition space and moving towards the sculpture in the middle of the room that could easily be spotted at a public space. But what is it that can actually be seen and interpreted? What’s the title hinting at?

Vasilis Papageorgiou
I follow the sun as I follow my distraction

curated by Olympia Tzortzi

27 May – 10 July 2022
Opening day: 27 May, 7 pm – 10 pm

Following an initiative of the King George Hotel, group exhibition “beautiful south” will be hosted in its lobby from 20 May till 26 June. The show will highlight the dual identity of the hotel as one of the oldest hotels and meeting points of Athens and at the same time as one of the spaces that attempts to bridge the traditional with the contemporary.

The selection of the artworks is based on works that belong to private collections and subsequently, on works from a selection of young Greek artists that play a significant role in the scene. This would be the first attempt to exhibit a NFT artwork in such an environment in Greece and will be a great addition to the more traditional mediums – such as paintings and sculptures – that will be presented. As the title implies – beautiful south – the main topic of the exhibition is the topos that we are interacting with. The south is a place which stimulates emotions, that supports a sense of freedom (through its natural surroundings).

Through a pluralistic selection of works, the show tries to unify and facilitate, attempts to build bridges and proposes a better understanding of contemporary art. A one-day symposium on the relationship between art and technology will take place. Andrea Lissoni, director of Haus Der Kunst in Munich, and Miltos Manetas, a distinguished multimedia artist, will play the key role to the symposium.

Beautiful South
King George Hotel
2, Kleomenous str., Athens

with works by Giannis Adamakos, Olive Allen, Margarita Bofiliou, Maria Georgoula, Giannis Gkizis, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Paul McCarthy, Maro Michalakakou, Roila Mpouzea, Albert Oehlen, Malvina Panagiotidi, Tasos Paulopoulos, Sofia Petropoulou, Yorgos Stamkopoulos, Erik Steinbrecher, Nikos Tranos and Kostis Velonis

Opening: 20 May, 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Duration: 20 May – 26 June

Directed by Desire is a collaborative project iterated into a group exhibition conceived and curated by Daphne Vitali and Arnisa Zeqo and taking place in rongwrong, Amsterdam from 15 May to 2 July, 2022. The exhibition brings together the work of mainly women artists and writers based in Greece, Italy and the Netherlands. The works deal with notions of desire, love and exhaustion. The sensitivity of the artists weaves together the personal with the political. The artworks invite us to think about the power of interpersonal relations and their effects in daily life. The exhibition presents both existing and newly commissioned works that move between longings for a person and for human solidarity altogether.

Directed by Desire addresses issues of affect and intimacy in the form of longing, frustration, tiredness, personal turmoil and tensions. These are emotions and situations often felt and experienced on a quotidian basis that determine both everyday lives and artistic creativity. In the exhibition, personal stories and imagined fantasies become strategies to confront the complexities of achievements, failures, self-negation, love, uneasiness, devotion and unfulfillment. Sensual pleasure and desire are sometimes linked with harsh, uneasy and demanding conditions such as distance, disillusionment, abandonments and other forms of emotional difficulties. The artists’ works engage different registers of intimacy and proximity and act as vehicles for emotional engagement.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from a verse by American poet, intellectual and activist June Jordan (1936 – 2002) who has been an important reference for the curators while thinking of the power of the word and poetic sensibilities in relation to ideas of affect. Τhe artists participating hold a particular relation to language, writing, visual poetry and artists’ books.

Directed by Desire

Curated by: Daphne Vitali, Arnisa Zeqo

Participant artists: Eleni Bagaki, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Becket MWN, Quinn Latimer, Aliki Panagiotopoulou, Iris Touliatou, Raffaela Naldi Rossano, Myrto Xanthopoulou.

*Eleni Bagaki, Iris Touliatou and Myrto Xanthopoulou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Rongwrong, Amsterdam
Binnen Bantammerstraat 2, 1011CK, Amsterdam

Opening: May 14th , 6-8pm –during Amsterdam Art Week
Duration: May 15 – July 2, 2022
Fridays and Saturdays 14:00 – 18:00 or by appointment

More info: http://www.rongwrong.org/

The exhibition is made possible with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development.

State of Concept Athens is happy to present the second episode of Waste/d Pavilion, the solo exhibition of Oliver Ressler, entitled “Assets Must be Stranded” curated by iLiana Fokianaki, accompanied by a public program curated by PAT.

Oliver Ressler has been for many decades working in the intersection of art and politics, closely inspired by and connected with the work of various activist groups and social movements, civic society and volunteer groups. Overall his work is characterized by themes that relate to politics, the aftermath of globalization and turbo-capitalism, protest and democracy, the commons in relationship to labour and questions that relate to ecology and sustainability and how these connect to the damaging effects of the anthropocene/capitalocene.

Belonging to a group of artists that discuss politics and ideology mainly through photography and the moving image, he is known to Greek audiences, for his four film series entitled “Occupy, Resist, Produce” that is discussing the aftermaths of the economic crisis of 2007-8, since one of the films, was dedicated to the occupation of the Vio.Me factory in Thessaloniki, by workers that took over and operate it to this day.

For this exhibition, Oliver Ressler presents works that will resonate very much to Greek audiences who the last decade witnessed protests and massive mobilization against extraction and pollution throughout the country: from the case of Erimitis in Corfu to the resistance against wind turbines in the historic Agrafa mountains, to the goldmine in Skouries in Northern Greece. Ressler has been following the environmentalist movement and has produced a series of films examining questions of climate activism. Primarily the artist will present his most recent film The Path is Never the Same (2022), discussing the efforts of activists and local residents from 2012 until this day to stop the lignite mine operations in Hambacher Forest in the region of Rheine, Germany by occupying trees and living on them.

Audiences will also see two films from his series “Everything’s coming together while everything’s falling apart” that follow the struggles of local residents to halt government plans to upend their lives and ruin their surrounding environment. The first film is focused on the infamous story of the ZAD, an autonomous zone created by local residents and activists, in an effort to stop plans for a new airport in Nantes, France. The second film, focuses on the Ende Gelände, a forest in Germany where local residents and activists aim to stop lignite extraction. Ressler will present also photographic works.

Bona-Fide: Elsa Brès – Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou Α dialogue between artist Elsa Brès and art historian Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow) as part of the Bona-Fide series of exhibitions dedicated to contribute to the promotion of young artists and critics/curators. Brès presents Notes for Les Sanglières, a short film about a film in the making, shot in the rural French region where she lives, which deals with wild boars as allies, inspired by the ideas of ecofeminism. In her text Mavrokordopoulou, a researcher on the subterranean imaginary in contemporary art, especially with regard to nuclear spaces, shares her thoughts on Brès work in relation to ecology, in the fundamental sense of the term as the interaction of organisms with each other and with their environment.

Oliver Ressler’s exhibition was made possible by the support of Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS).

Waste/d Pavilion is part of the ‘Coalition of the Care-full’ a program of The European Pavilion.
The European Pavilion enables cultural spaces to experiment and reflect on Europe. To question, discuss and define what Europe is and what it could become in the future. To tell stories, to imagine, to question. Is there a more appropriate venue for such an undertaking than the European Pavilion?
‘Coalition of the Care-full’ is funded by the European Cultural Foundation. https://culturalfoundation.eu/stories/european-pavillion

Waste/d Pavilion, Episode 2:
Oliver Ressler – Assets Must be Stranded
Bona Fide 2: Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou & Elsa Brès
Opening: 27th of May, 19:00-22:00
Duration: May 27th 2022 – September 24th 2022
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 16:30-20:30 Saturday, 12:00-17:00

In ‘Spirit Structures’, Athens-based Petros Moris unfolds a ranging installation of sculptures, etchings and video both inside and outside PTX; a dialogue of works revolving around the entanglements between the material and metaphorical undergrounds of geology, bodies, and psyches. Equally employing both computational and archaic production techniques, machine learning algorithms, makeshift rapid prototyping and intaglio printing, the artist looks at the internal anatomies beneath surfaces and skins – domains that reverberate the processes of animation and transformation, engendered by the fateful interdependencies of earthly and cosmic phenomena.

*Petros Moris is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2018.

Spirit Structures
Petros Moris
PTX Athens, Pl. Theatrou 10, Athina 105 52
Exhibition dates: 02.06 – 19.06.2022

The G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation Art Prize 2022 was jointly awarded to artists Ileana Arnaoutou (1994) and Ismene King (1993) for their in situ sculptural installation Tender shell geophilia.

The in situ installation Tender shell geophilia (2022), by Ileana Arnaoutou and Ismene King, consists of concave forms situated on the rocks of the shore, semi-submerged in the water. The work is created through multiple casts of rocks, reflecting the existing landscape of the shore, while a part of it extends towards and within the seabed, allowing water to move fluidly in a wavelike flow. Resting pockets appear within its smooth and waxlike surface, reminiscent of an organic shell, creating inviting spaces within its interior. The installation functions simultaneously as a destination and a passage, proposing various routes, which can be approached either from the paved piers or from the sea.

The work creates a system of relief structures placed on the rocks, introducing a sculptural language of “potent containing spaces, which rearticulate the notion of the container, reiterating it as an active, porous and constantly ‘open’ space, interlinked with the geographical landscape.” The installation draws links between a “semi-sunken boat and a new alternative gulf, as an extension of the existing landscape”, opening up the conversation regarding a technology that is rooted in a libidinal approach towards industrial design and the ways that it may relate to the body.

Following a “geophilic approach”, the work is in line with practices of Land Art, offering a “bidirectional and embodied relationship with the landscape” through which “the work develops into an empirical and in situ condition of viewing and interacting, which positions the human body as an active element in a state of relatedness with nature.” In addition, the work introduces “a broader sculptural vocabulary that relates to ebb and flow, absence and presence”, which materially makes kin with feminist approaches towards phenomenology, and contributes to a wider conversation around embodiment as a methodology for the production of knowledge. In this regard, the artists refer to a “fluid condition which does not constitute the mold as a container and the relation of absence and presence as dual, but rather as bidirectional and constantly evolving.”

Τhe artists note that “the work is based on a feminist approach articulated through multiple and multidimensional encounters and extensions, related to a ‘safe geography’, directly referencing [their] Mediterranean narrative, closely linked to the experience of being within an archipelago, always interconnected and in harmony with water, a condition that places the body in a situation of proximity and safety, in water and on land.” They elaborate on ways in which sculptures become “‘safety topographies’, in view of contributing to an expanded community rooted in embodied communication, bidirectional relation and active co-relation with others, and the environment”, positions which both form an integral element of their collaborative artistic practice, and the vision of the Sculpture Garden.

Tender shell geophilia is a “proposal of a hybrid extension of the land in the sea, functioning as a point of encounter, rest, and leisure”, always seen under the prism of socially engaged art, i.e., an art form where the artwork becomes the stimulus for introspection, community forming conversation, collaboration and social interaction.

June 4, 2022 | 19:00-23:00
Minos Beach art hotel

MISC Athens proudly presents Unlikely Outcomes.The Exhibition**, Nikolas Ventourakis’ third part of the series, which will take place between June 8th 2022 and July 30th 2022.

The exhibition is an occasion for Ventourakis to return to some of his most significant themes and approaches. Meandering between intimate and public stages, we are confronted by existential questions through an unwonted use of the documentary aspects of photography aimed at questioning its instrumental value. Ventourakis leaves the observer in charge of piecing together the fragments of a narrative which ultimately brings us to the most fundamental of thresholds: of light and darkness, of life and death. He does so through images able to immerse us in situations familiar to us but underlining their transcendence by extrapolating and abstracting the signifier in a careful selection of associations, colours and textures.

The balance found by Ventourakis with Unlikely Outcomes.The.Exhibition** is one between abstraction and documentation, between familiar and unexpected, between pleasure and staleness. However the key to unlocking these dichotomies seems to lay in the artist’s capacity to evoke images beyond those presented, turning static photographic images into performative gestures in which every carefully thought detail opens a dialogue to another more intricate but also unexpectedly intimate subject.

After all artworks are more often than not, mere traces of the artistic process and invitation to join a dialogue between ourselves the artist and their worlds.

Curators: Christian Oxenius and Sylvia Sachini.
Curatorial Text: Christian Oxenius
Essay: Danai Giannoglou

*Nikolas Ventourakis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020

MISC ATHENS
Tousa Mpotsari 20, 11741 / www.miscathens.com

Private View: 08.06.22 | 19.00-22.00
Duration: 08.06.22 – 30.07.22

Opening hours: Wednesday and Saturday 12.00 – 18.00 / Thursday and Friday 14.00 – 20.00

The exhibition “Does it Matter?” held under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in Riga brings together works by 11 Greek visual artists from different artistic media; dedicated to the Centenary of diplomatic relations between Greece and Latvia, it is inaugurated on the occasion of the official visit to Latvia of H.E. The President of the Hellenic Republic Ms Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The exhibition, curated by the artist Chloe Akrithaki, focuses on the artists’ relationship with the medium of photography, a relationship that reveals itself as one of simultaneous dependence and admiration, an endless dynamic or the only way to realize the work. At the end, it is an approach to photography based on its material dimension. An attempt to underline the importance of matter and material, which are of great importance because in the case of art, matter and meaning are inseparable and decisive. The artists participating in the exhibition are active in Greece and abroad and apart from photography they work with different media such as sculpture, performance, painting, video and installations.

Outdoor exhibition 24/7

The site-specific installation enveloping the vessel Diversity’s Ark by Tolis Tatolas, as well as the three-channel video installation Beckett Rain by FilipposTsitsopoulos, on display at the deck, will remain on view until September 2022.

The exhibition is held under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in Latvia.

Participating artists:
Chloe Akrithaki, Martha Dimitropoulou, Efi Haliori, Athina Ioannou, Lizzie Calligas, Marianna Lourba, Alexios Papazacharias, Georgia Sagri, Tolis Tatolas, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Katerina Zacharopoulou

*Αlexios Papazacharias is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021

DOES IT MATTER?
Group exhibition at NOASS Art Center

ADDRESS: AB dambis 2, Riga LV-1048, Latvia
Contact: Gita Jankovska [email protected]
Opening: 03.06.22 at 18.00
Exhibition duration: 03.06 – 01.07.2022
Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday 15.00-22.00

The Breeder is pleased to present Oikonomia, Georgia Sagri’s new solo exhibition.

Performance lies at the center of Georgia Sagri’s work. Through the years, the artist has developed a practice of care she terms IASI, in reference to the Greek word ίαση for recovery. This was born out of her need to prepare and recuperate from demanding performance pieces. IASI has since shifted into ongoing research on conditions of the body, which Sagri calls “performance pathologies”.

For her solo exhibition Oikonomia at the Breeder, IASI (recovery) is practiced onto her own works. Sagri narrows her attention on the reorganization of practices, materials and objects that have been produced and presented in the past -that share common qualities: most were damaged and retrieved from the art circulation, reaching a state of vanishing. Some were damaged while being exhibited, others by being used in performance works or being displayed in public space or were destroyed due to mistreatment, during deinstallation and transportation.

The exhibition includes three performances, which are also currently in a state of invisibility, because they were never documented. Part of their recovery is the search for testimonies and archival fragments, on the basis of which the artist reconstructs the performances, remembers them and mnemonically re-enacts them.

This process is economic in the sense that Sagri creates new artworks by invoking and validating artworks that already exist.

However, the main economic dimension lies in the conceptual reorganization of the works. Although they may have meritorious courses in different times and places, they have reached a state of seemingly irreparable damage. The deterioration they have suffered is a situation that Sagri wishes to reverse. Following an eclectic method of repair, preservation and reinvention, the artist comments on the body per se and the way it is wounded and healed.

With this exhibition, Sagri states that IASI (recovery) is the most fundamental form of economy.

GEORGIA SAGRI
OIKONOMIA
January 12, 2023–February 5, 2023

Opening: , Thursday 12 January, 19:00-22:00
The Breeder

Curated by Danai Giannoglou & George Bekirakis

Performances:
● Breathing (2003): Saturday 21 January 2023, 12-5pm
● Deep Listening (2001) : Saturday 21 January 2023, 7pm
● Rent (2009): date to be confirmed, subject to menstruation fluctuations

*Danai Giannoglou is a curatorial SNF ARTWORKS Fellow