Author: gourgourini

Constantly present in contemporary culture, play due to its abrupt and unexpected nature has been put under manifold and -one could claim- inspired control mechanisms: absolute connection with infancy or idleness, educationally tooled to infuse common principles and behaviours. Ιn the 20th century, in the sake of the socially engaged communicational strategies, play has been used from arts institutions to propagate the inclusive cultural model. Participatory art practices, public programming built on the triptych of “play-create-learn” have functioned as attempts to orchestrate the notion of play and the playful practice of art into hegemonic narratives. Artists themselves, are invited to constrain their playful power of experimenting, creating, interacting with the material and the immaterial to pace with the prevalent art industry.

Irini Karayannopoulou, Anna Lascari, Irini Bachlitzanaki and Anastasia Pavlou (Fellow 2019) explore the possible ground of the element of play through various practices, media and gestures in the recently founded space of Automatic Transmission.

Curator: Christina Petkopoulou (Fellow 2019)

Maria Tsagkari (Fellow 2019) presents her new video work Intimate letters at the exhibition Into my garden come in Aigio, Greece, a contemporary art show, part of the Primarolia Festival 2019.

Eight artists arrive in Aigio eager to start a new conversation with the place. Aigio, a town cradled between the sea and the high mountains holds a history that dates back to ancient times and offers a fertile ground of artistic creation and dialogue through a contemporary art exhibition. The exhibition focuses on the metaphorical concept of the garden. The title is taken from Emily Dickinson’s verse “Into my garden come!”, perceived as a meeting and gathering of senses, ingredients, objects, ideas – a point of conjunction, of matter and meaning, of past and future. This new sowing of people, ideas and meetings takes place in the coastal zone of Aigio, known as Vostizza during the Middle Ages, meaning the city of gardens, lending the famous name to the local currant variety PDO «VOSTIZZA».

Artists: Rob Kesseler, Agalis Manessi, Aggelos Antonopoulos, Luc Messinezis, Yiannis Brouzos, Maria Tsagkari, Kostas Pappas and Bill Psarras

Curator: Nansy Charitonidou

As a result of advances in machine learning, our understanding of today’s world is ever more mediated by machines. What challenges does deep learning bring to human-based knowledge? What do machines see and do differently than humans? How can artificial intelligence enhance new forms of experience and understanding?

To address these questions, in Counting Craters on the Moon, Kyriaki Goni purposely turns her gaze to a distant and uncanny territory: the Moon and its surface. The Moon, according to the artist, constitutes a fascinating example and offers an interesting analogy. Lacking an atmosphere, it operates as a data center which stores in its body the memory of our solar system and allows predictions for the future. The project presents an imaginary encounter between astronomer Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt (1825–1884) and the neural network DeepMoon, both of which set out to count the craters on the moon. Speculating upon the possible synergies between human and machine, the artist invites us to imagine how we can learn from and with machines in order to build different, multiple and, possibly, collective understandings of the surrounding world and its cosmos.

Curated by Daphne Dragona

SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2019 Theodoros Giannakis takes part at Frieaze London with the work Always Already aka a primitivism mirage again. The installation is part of Frieze East End Sunday.

Congrats to Konstantinos Antonopoulos and Vasilis Kekatos (ARTWORKS Fellows 2019) for winning the award in the Greek Short Stories in competition awards – at the 25th Athens International Film Festival among 311 submissions!

The award for Best Director was presented to Konstantinos Antonopoulos for “Postcards from the End of the World”. The jury awarded this film for being a “redemptive film, elegant and well made”. The award was generously accepted by the director.

The award for Best Film went to: “The Distance Between Us and the Sky” by  Vasilis Kekatos.

ARTWORKS team is proud & happy :)

“The Manual of the Perfect Traveler” is a group show that explores the concept of travel. Building on Kazantzakis’s phrase “That is why every Perfect Traveler always creates the country where he travels”, six artists illustrate their journey.

A journey of imagination, of self-awareness, or even a real journey.
What comes to our mind when we think of a journey? Is it a getaway, a way out, or a need for knowledge and adventure? In any realization, a journey is an exercise-path leading to inner exploration and development.
An unknown or familiar destination, even a trip of imagination, becomes a means that pushes us out of our comfort zone and changes our perspective through the making of our “own country”.
Through their personal narrative, the artists of the exhibition create a unique manual of the Perfect Traveler, for all those who love to travel and dream.

Curated by: Dialektaki Maria

Artists: Marina Velisioti (Castrata Feel), Kostis Velonis , Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Rania Bellou (Fellow 2018), Pavlos Tsakonas (Fellow 2018), Marco Raparelli

The way we perceive ourselves and our relations with other human beings are changing drastically in the era of digital culture and this is without doubt a new reality. Artists participating in the exhibition critically comment  through their work the innocent certainly that there are clear border lines between existence and its innovation, the realistic representation and the impersonation. The “reality” of human interaction is disturbed and set-up afresh, in accordance with the image, the mask and the ideal model that we construct for ourselves. That is why the visual representations of the self utilize to such a large extent digital mediums such as photography, the internet, video, and projection.

In their majority, the works of the exhibition come from the collections of the museums that comprised the platform of the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki or have been presented in Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.

The exhibition “Am I That Name, or That Image?” stands in the frame of the collaboration between the two organisations in Thessaloniki and Skopje, as part of a broader collaboration MOMus has with museums in SE Europe.

Curator: Syrago Tsiara

Assistant Curators: Domna Gounari, Eirini Papakonstantinou

Participating Artists: Evangelia Basdekis, Filippo Berta, James Bridle, Kyriaki Goni, Marianna Ignataki, Majida Khattari, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Virginia Mastrogiannaki, Oleg Mavrommati & Boryana Rossa, Eleni Mylonas, Natasha Papadopoulou, Alexandros Plomaritis, Marilou Poncin, Rena Rädle & Vladan Jeremić, Vivi Tsioga, Ira Waldron

ARTWORKS Fellows 2019 Vasilis Kekatos, Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Yorgos Kyvernits and Vaggelis Serfas take part in Greek Short Stories – In Competition . Electric Swan of our Fellow 2018 Konstantina Kotzamani will screen after the Greek Awards Ceremony of the Festival.

Monday, 23/9, 17:30, Danaos 1

The Distance Between Us and the Sky
DURATION: 9’  DIRECTOR: Vasilikis Kekatos (Fellow 2019)
Night, national road. Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station. One has stopped to gas up his bike, while the other is just stranded. Lacking the 22.50EUR he needs to get home, he will try to sell him the distance that separates them from the sky.

Postcards from the End of the World
DURATION: 23’DIRECTOR: Konstantinos Antonopoulos (Fellow 2019)
Trapped in a seemingly dull family vacation, Dimitra, Dimitris and their two daughters will have to find a way out of a secluded island in the Mediterranean when confronted with the unexpected end of the world.               

Tuesday 24/9, 17:30, Οdeon Opera1

The Canaries
DURATION: 17’   DIRECTOR: Yorgos Kyvernitis (Fellow 2019)
Petrina and Stathis fell in love when they were little kids. However, they went separate ways and each one followed their own path. They had children, grandchildren, they raised their families. Several years later, when they were left alone, they got together again, got married to grow old together. Today, at 85 years old, they live together in Syros island with their canaries.

I Only See in Me the Sea
DURATION: 24’   DIRECTOR: Yorgos Kyvernitis (Fellow 2019), Nefeli Oikonomou Pantzou, Maria Sidiropoulou, Alexis Chatzigiannis
Boredom, escape, sea, city, free time. Musician and songwriter Vangelis Germanos, sweeps us along to a summer adventure full of colors and sounds in the city and by the sea.

Wednesday 25/9, 17:00, IDEAL 

Basil
DURATION: 18’   DIRECTOR: Vangelis Serfas (Fellow 2019)
A man returns to his birthplace for his mother’s funeral. She has left a basil pot for him to take care of. During the time he spends there he confronts his past.

Friday , 27/9, 19.15, Danaos 1

Greek Awards Ceremony of the Festival

Electric Swan
DURATION: 40’ DIRECTOR:  Konstantina Kotzamani (Fellow 2018)

Buildings are not supposed to move. But on Avenida Libertador 2050, a building moves and the ceiling shivers, causing a strange nausea that devours its residents. Those who live on the top are afraid they’ll fall – the ones who live beneath are afraid they’ll drown.

Info: http://www.aiff.gr/