Author: gourgourini

The group exhibition Sacred or Monsters, through a composition of sculptures, video performances, inscriptions, and sound archives, longs to explore the multifaceted meanings and connotations of identity as a malleable or mutable structure carrying the possibility to undemonize every Other, stripping away its semiotic weight as dangerous, dirty, or abnormal. Post-human entities, mythical creatures, ever-transforming beings, and exhausted yet resilient psyches and bodies coexist, shaping a narrative completed through its fragmentation—an uncanny chronicle that at times frightens, dazzles, disorients, while simultaneously illuminating, informing, and empowering.

The exhibition aims to reintroduce the self beyond its immovable and fixed entity and, along, to think of history as a fluid, an often temporal or paradoxical system. How can we reframe monstrosity, a construct that often generates, imposes and perpetuates psychosocial and geopolitical hierarchies? How can we turn it into a tool for dismantling power structures, authoritative gazes and identity norms?

The works exhibited, emerge from what remains unspeakable, subterranean, disguised; they arise from and with malformed bodies, they grow into divine species, they speak of myths and imperceptible gestures. The cavernous, the secret, the transcendent—that which is often perceived as chthonic, foreign, or undesirable—are the main vehicles through which the artists renegotiate conflicting structures and erratic behaviors we humans enact daily.

The exhibition first seeks to recognize and then affirm these constant yet spasmodic clashes. Starting from the building’s depths, situated in a seemingly inaccessible portal, Petros Moris’ marble diptych sculpture titled Entropy as Hardship / Entropy as Kinship explores the entropy as a condition that legitimizes both disintegration and recomposition, confronting them as mechanisms for reevaluating the anarchic, or the opposing. By using an aesthetically idiolectic scheme, a language borrowing elements from both tectonic geologies and the urban landscape, Moris’ sculptural installation introduces a series of persistently mutant questions around a tongue-less, willfully incomprehensible vocabulary. In his work, the oracle, in its duality, encourages us, audiences, to query our contact with the visible or intelligible, to be initiated into that which consciously chooses the covert, to find in the unknown a haptic form of resistance.

The monstrous, now seen as a parable, gains new meaning—it becomes perceivable through its potential, its manifested reservation, or its sanctity. Marina Xenofontos’ sculptural installation, through the video performances Pinocchio, 2008-2009/2025, To Egon Schiele, 2008-2009/2025 and Am I a puppet, 2008-2009/2025 which interact asynchronously, seeks to reinforce this absurd resilience, investigating the idea of an other that dwells within the self. By transforming her own identity, the artist look with, rehearses, and performs each gesture as an encased imitation; her props and postures enact the stubbornly odd. Through prosthetic extensions that alter her face, through threads that determine her movements, and through gestures instigating the body’s appearance, the works long to exist as allegories uttering desires, emancipations, imperatives, transpositions. The puppet steps to the stage, only to deforming herself, to claim her agency, to expand her limits.

Tainted and sacred, the ideal is profane, the marginal’s the focal point of a narrative that both belongs to and eludes otherness. Doves in the Kitchen, the sculptural, echoing constellation of Niki Danai Chania, which is placed on the Foundation’s rooftop, brings together the exhibition’s narrative. Her work assembles personal diaries with stories where demons carry freedom, grave offerings accompany another kind of birth, reflections attest vulnerability. By encountering a material like metal—capable of freezing or heating based on its surroundings—and by re-evaluating the semantics of gold as a material tied to the emblematic or pompous, the artist negotiates the relationship between the unholy and the blessed, the fabled and the real, the unwanted and the cherished.

How can the monstrous, no longer confined to a narrative associated with the abject, the repulsive, the external, or the menacious, serve as an example, a motive, or a medium for the disassembly and reshaping of a collective identity, a resilient body, a reality grounded in imaginative possibilities? How can our actions, interactions, and decisions be informed by those of mythical, unnoticed, peripheral, or just other beings—validating an ongoing dialogue between the past and the future, bridging the dispersed and the complete?

The exhibition Sacred or Monsters wishes to exist as a series of hypotheses and inquiries—voiced by what is deemed inferior yet took the place of the prominent; by what was unspeakable but found space to exist; by bodies which grew bigger in order to be freed.

Artists: Petros Moris, Marina Xenofontos, Niki Danai Chania

Curator: Ioanna Gerakidi

Artistic Director: Marina Miliou Theocharakis

Exhibition Coordinator: Nefeli Siafaka

Communication: Marina Kampouroglou, Christina Oikonomou

 Duration: September 25–November 27, 2025

Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 13:00 – 17:00

Admission: Free

*Ioanna Gerakidi and Petros Moris are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Eleonora Siarava was resident choreographer at UniArts Helsinki for the development of her artistic work and experimentation with methodological tools, composition devices and creative media.

Eleonora Siarava is a choreographer working between Greece and Germany. She has presented her work in Greece and internationally. She creates enigmatic multilayered performances experimenting with aesthetic forms, imaginary-real spaces, overlapping temporalities, hybridity, atmospheres. For her piece The Body and the Other~ premiered at Tanzhaus NRW, TEMPS D’IMAGES Festival, was supported by the program »Transfer International« of NRW KULTURsekretariat of Germany, Ministry of Culture and Science of NRW, artistic grant I-Portunus/Creative Europe and collaborated with Mixed Reality and Visualization Institut for the implementation of digital technology. Since 2020 is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Greece. She created the pieces BLUE BEYOND presented in National Theatre of N. Greece, Tanz:digital/ITI Berlin, Frankfurt LAB Emerging Artists 2023, Who knows where the time goes-potential destination #1 (Roes theatre, residency at SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographing Development/Interdisciplinary Incubator, Prague), I am Dancing in a Room (MOMus-Stereoma Festival). She participated in Moving Digits/Creative Europe project for Dance and Digital Technologies, Tanzhaus Düsseldorf & STL Tallinn (2018-2020). Siarava has been awarded the S. Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS 2022-2023 in the field of Choreography, was fellow of START/Robert Bosch Stiftung & Goethe Institut and resident choreographer at UniArts Helsinki, Finland 2025 and ITI International Theatre Institute Germany/Motion Bank, Berlin, 2024. Her works have been included in the Media Library for Dance and Theatre – ITI International Theatre Institute Germany, one of the most extensive audiovisual documentation archives for the performing arts in Germany. Currently, she is preparing her upcoming piece (June July-working title) that will premiere in 2026.

instagram.com/siaravaeleonora/

per-dance.com

Ileana Arnaoutou and Ismini King are part of the Ducato Prize finalist exhibition at the Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza and have received the Residency Award along with Pascale Birchler and Andro Eradze.

Exhibition
The exhibition of the finalists opens at Cappella Ducale – Palazzo Farnese, Piacenza, on 20 September 2025 until 9 November 2025. The exhibition features works by Yumna Al-Arashi (USA), Ileana Arnaotou & Ismene King (Greece), Pascale Birchler (Switzerland), Cao Shu (China), Andro Eradze (Georgia), Evan Ifekoya (Nigeria), the TOMBOYS DON’T CRY collective, and Yuyan Wang (China) in the Contemporary category. The Academy category will feature works by Ylenia-Gaia Dotti (Italy), George Hiraoka Cloke (United Kingdom), Joyce Joumaa (Lebanon), Besnik Lushtaku (Germany), and Yanqing Pan (China).

Residency Prizes
Three residency Prizes are awarded to the most deserving artists selected from among the 80 selected (Contemporary + Academy). Each Residency Prize will consist of a three- to four-week artistic residency in various locations, both in Italy and abroad.

Myrto Xanthopoulou, represented by Citronne Gallery, is the recipient of the Art Athina Young Artist Award. Now in its fourth year, the award aims to support artistic creation as part of the fair’s institutional framework. The award, which includes a solo presentation of the artist’s work at MOMus–Alex Mylona Museum within 2026, was announced on Friday, September 19 2025, by jury member and MOMus representative, Yiannis Bolis.

According to the eligibility criteria, candidates for the Art Athina Young Artist Award must be artists up to 45 years old, living and working in Greece, and nominated by their representing gallery, in which they have held at least one solo exhibition. The award was established by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association, while Art Athina collaborates for the fourth time with MOMus–Alex Mylona Museum, one of the five museums of the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus).

After reviewing the 14 submitted nominations from artists and their representing galleries, the jury unanimously decided to present the award to Myrto Xanthopoulou.

The five-member jury consisted of:
Polyna Kosmadaki (Art Historian and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Benaki Museum)
Christoforos Marinos (Art Historian and Curator)
Thoulis Misirloglou (Art Historian and Artistic Director of MOMus–Museum of Contemporary Art–Collections of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the State Museum of Contemporary Art)
Yiannis Bolis (Art Historian and Head of the Department of Contemporary Sculpture at MOMus–Alex Mylona Museum)
Anna Mykoniati (Art Historian and Curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens–EMST)

Art Athina – Jury’s statement

According to the jury, Myrto Xanthopoulou’s work evolves with consistency and coherence, distinguished by the breadth and multiplicity of its artistic media—installations, constructions, drawings, video, performances. It demonstrates a particular interest in the use of language as an expressive tool, while disposable materials and everyday single-use objects form a fundamental element of her practice.

Art Athina is organized by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association and produced by BeBest. The event is part of the Regional Program “Attica 2021–2027.”

art-athina.gr
myrtoxanthopoulou.com

Neritan Zinxhiria won the Golden Dionysus at the 48th Drama International Short Film Festival for his film “Noi”, which was shot in Metsovo and had its world premiere at the Raindance Festival.

In “Noi”, Neritan Zinxhiria tells the story of a boy coming of age against the almost otherworldly mountainous landscape in which he grows up, burdened by the loss of his brother. When his older brother is killed by his beloved horse, the younger one must decide, through nightmares and visions, whether to kill the animal or forgive it. Blinded by revenge, he ultimately chooses a different path. The relationship between human and nature, the Greek landscape, and adolescence take center stage in Zinxhiria’s film.

Neritan Zinxhiria first won the Golden Dionysus in 2012 for his film Chamomile, while in 2024 he received the DISFF Documentary Award for Light of Light, once again using his lens to probe into the essence of the Balkan soul.

Neritan Zinxhiria is an ARTWORKS Fellow (2018) in the field of moving image.

Iris presents the second solo exhibition of Alexandros Simopoulos, entitled Every beach I have ever slept in. The series constitutes a personal mapping of the beaches where the artist has fallen asleep throughout his life. Some of these have already disappeared, while others face the same threat. Drawing on memories, imaginary fragments, and photographic archives, Simopoulos paints landscapes that have been experienced repeatedly and under different circumstances. His work engages with children’s imagery, folk painting, and the history of landscape painting—not in order to faithfully depict the shores, but to reinscribe them as emotional and imaginative places. Sleeping on the beach becomes an act of embodied memory and sensory coexistence with the landscape. The beach thus emerges as a space of relation, healing, and enchantment—a place where body and environment intertwine, generating new forms of experience. The works also function as open questions concerning the present and future of our collective relationship with the coastal environment: How can we inhabit it without depleting it? How can it remain a common good? And what modes of desire, rest, and engagement with the environment are still possible?

Alexandros Simopoulos | Every beach I have ever slept in
Opening: September 16, 2025, 6-10pm
Ιris Gallerie
12, AntinorosΑντήνορος 12, 11634, Athens
Wednesday-Friday 12-7pm
Saturday 12-3 pm

On the Greek island of Syros, the capital of the Cyclades, the Astrowalker Constellation, the new environmental night-time land art installation created by Katerina Kotsala, is presented as part of this year’s 18th edition of the ANIMASYROS International Animation Festival, which will take place from September 22 to 28, 2025. The Astrowalker Constellation is composed of 11 solar lights, with dimensions of 357×158 meters. It is a simulation of an earthly constellation that abstractly forms a human-bird figure, the Astrowalker, installed on the islet of Didimi, just across from Ermoupoli. “The Astrowalker Constellation is a poetic artistic gesture in nature. It is a proposal for contemporary mythology, an allegory, where the Astrowalker, as a dislocated constellation, reappears in dark, mysterious, and inaccessible places. Only there it can unfold its wings and be seen. On mountains, islands, in landscapes far from light pollution, the Astrowalker strives to unite with the other stars of the sky. Although this is in vain due to their difference, it keeps trying, driven by its impulse for an ideal world. The work thus doesn’t refer to the individual imagination of an artist, but rather, it achieves a collective resonance, as an extension of thoughts and questions raised by our times — such as, whether the total disappearance of stars/fireflies has really taken place (see George Didi-Huberman, The Survival of the Fireflies, 2009), or if a silent revolution is starting from the mountains and islands.

My first encounter with the human-bird was in 2010, during a research program studying prehistoric rock carvings in nature, in collaboration with archaeologists. It was then that I first noticed a rock carving representing the human-bird in a linear way: it was two rectangles perpendicular to each other, like an abstract human form, that created the sense that the figure was flying. This sense was reinforced by the oblique placement of the drawing on the rock, in relation to the other carvings and the earth, with its background to the east. The persona of the Astrowalker was born out of this experience, which appears regularly in land art constellations since 2012. The Astrowalker “earth constellations” appear in different places each time, embodying the double concept of figure and idea — all the while striving to capture the essence of things beyond the visual, within the context of endangered ecosystems.

In 2025, the environmental work Astrowalker Constellation reappears, this time on the island of Didimi, opposite the town of Ermoupolis in Syros, as part of ANIMASYROS. On Didimi stands the first lighthouse in Greece, built in 1835. The lighthouse symbolizes the change of eras, the transition from the historical to the technological period — while it is also a point of orientation, analogous to how travelers have been using constellations since prehistory. In an attempt tο fragment the image through the unification of earth and sky, as well as through an exploration of the poetic potential of materials, the Astrowalker Constellation appears with the use of solar lights, and with minimal luminescence, it tries to be visible from Didimi island across Ermoupolis. There is a mystery, but Astrowalker Constellation reveals itself, by search and focused observation, it is there, you can see it.

In order for the Astrowalker to achieve its apparent suspension, 11 “stars” are placed in a bird formation, with a slight tilt on the surface of the island, directed towards the sky. They are waiting for the sun to set and for the earth to become one with the sky, creating an earthly continuation of the stars. The solar lights have a power of 3,5 lumen, which is enough for the artwork to be visible in the natural environment without causing light pollution. They do not affect the environment, they run on solar energy, and they will leave no trace once removed after ANIMASYROS 2025 is over. Indicative visibility points of the project are the Manna area, at Syros Airport and Agios Dimitrios. It is a work based on sustainability.” Katerina

Katerina Kotsala July 2025, Athens

katerinakotsala.com

Team Project: Katerina Kotsala & Pythagoras Chatziandreou, Production Director: Orestis Rouskas, Photographer: Alexandros Petrakis, Documentation Photographer: Nikoleta Gialoglou

Radio Free Europe presents a selection of works by artist Kosmas Nikolaou, developed during the summer of 2025 as part of his residency. His practice can be seen as a form of artistic archaeology, unearthing myths and hidden stories to construct narratives that are at once intimate and geopolitical.

The title Radio Free Europe evokes both the radio station founded in 1949 at the onset of the Cold War, based in Munich, and the 1981 R.E.M. song, underscoring the interplay between politics and pop culture. The exhibition unfolds as a prelude, with each element appearing like a fragment from a film in the making.

Beginning with the battle for cultural influence during the Cold War, the works trace how Western ideology was transmitted through media and art, and how these strategies shaped both institutions and personal memory. Through pieces that echo archival materials—sound works, photographs, maps, letters—a layered narrative emerges, where individual stories contribute to a collective voice.The backdrop is the city of Paris: its architecture, public spaces, and history. Paris functions both as setting and silent protagonist, conjuring its many appearances in cinema and pop culture, such as in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s film Diva (1981). In this way, the ‘archives’ and the city merge with personal memory, transforming the space into a stage where historical fragments resonate with contemporary questions of politics, public space, and culture.

Kosmas Nikolaou (Greece) is currently in residence through the EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens × Cité internationale des arts programme.

From 27 August to 25 October 2025

Opening Wednesday, 27 August, from 4 pm to 7 pm
On view, in the presence of the artist, on Wednesdays, from 4 pm to 7 pm, or by appointment

➜ Petite galerie
Marais site | Cité internationale des arts

K-Gold Temporary Gallery presents Blue Moon, a solo exhibition by Yorgos Maraziotis, curated by
Nicolas Vamvouklis. This site-specific installation explores notions of habitation and human
connection through a new series of sculptures and spatial interventions. Continuing his investigation into the identities of public and private spaces, Maraziotis creates works that shift between the real and the imagined. He delves into the concept of displacement and the tension that arises when objects are removed from their original context and reappear charged with new meanings. This shift speaks not only to material transformation but also to the lived experience of moving from one place to another.

The exhibition originates from oral testimonies collected from former residents of the neoclassical
house that now hosts K-Gold Temporary Gallery, located in the village of Agia Paraskevi on Lesvos
island. These voices are translated into dynamic works made of neon, marble, metal, and mirror. In
parallel, the artist reintegrates architectural elements that had been removed during the building’s
renovation—material anchors of memory and links to the past. The result is a hybrid landscape at once familiar and unexpected. A theatrical setting where personal and collective narratives interweave into a journey through fragments of stories and emotions.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual (Greek/English) publication featuring a conversation
between the artist and Sam Steverlynck (curator, S.M.A.K. Ghent), designed by Marlon Tate.
Yorgos Maraziotis (b. 1984, Athens) is a visual artist based in Antwerp. He studied fine arts in
Belgium, the USA, and the UK. His work has been exhibited internationally at art galleries,
institutions, and museums, including Marres (Maastricht), AC Institute (New York), the 7th
Thessaloniki Biennale, the School of Visual Arts (New York), the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
Antwerp, Box Freiraum (Berlin), the CICA Museum (South Korea), the Benaki Museum (Athens),
Matadero Madrid, and the Tinguely Museum (Basel). He was a resident artist at the Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art.

PUBLIC PROGRAM

RE-COLLECTION: A parallel exhibition showcasing works from the gallery’s collection alongside
pieces originally produced for past projects on Lesvos. It highlights artists who have shaped the
gallery’s journey since its inception, offering a fresh encounter with their work for the island’s
audience. Participants include photographer Harley Weir, fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner,
and sculptor Erwin Wurm.

RESIDENCY: In August, K-Gold Temporary Gallery will host a residency program with artist Ellada
Damianou, who will carry out research on the concept of performative scenographies, supported
by Flanders State of the Art. Her interdisciplinary practice spans performance, costume, and set
design. She is currently collaborating with renowned choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
and Radouan Mriziga.

Yorgos Maraziotis
Blue Moon
12 July – 31 August 2025

Exhibition opening hours: Friday to Sunday, 11:00–14:00 & 19:00–22:00
Opening event: Saturday 12 July at 20:00
Free admission
K-Gold Temporary Gallery
Agia Paraskevi, 81102 Lesvos, Greece
+30 6942202222
kgoldtemporarygallery.tumblr.com
[email protected]
@kgoldtemporarygallery

Founded in 2014 on the island of Lesvos, K-Gold Temporary Gallery brings contemporary art closer
to everyone through innovative cultural and educational programs. It is a co-founder of the
MIRAMAR network, supporting artistic mobility and professional development across Europe and
the Mediterranean. Recent creative collaborations include Athens Conservatoire, Institut français,
the Municipality of Milan, and Mediterranea Young Artists Biennale.

*Yorgos Maraziotis and Ellada Damianou are ARTWORKS Fellows

The DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, in partnership with the Benaki Museum, Athens, are pleased to announce In a Bright Green Field, the third in a series of collaborative exhibitions highlighting the work of contemporary Greek and Cypriot artists. On view starting June 11, 2025, at the Benaki Museum–Pireos 138, Athens, In a Bright Green Field features the work of twenty-nine young artists exploring possible futures where renewed relationships with the natural world might emerge and expansive approaches to community may flourish. Gathering artists working across a variety of mediums, this exhibition surveys some of the most exciting emerging practices in Athens, Nicosia, and across Europe.

The exhibition highlights a generation of artists who are particularly attentive to the local histories of Greece and Cyprus and the ways in which they are useful for thinking through larger global challenges. These artists register the dramatic changes to labor and landscape accelerated by technology, while working to highlight emergent forms of collectivity across both urban and rural life. Their works explore the poetics of infrastructure, pastoral science-fictions, urban animism, and generative collaborations that resonate far beyond the space of the museum. Ranging from lyrical painting and sculpture to experimental documentary film to communal performance, In a Bright Green Field looks at art practices that can serve as prototypes for myriad possible futures.

In a Bright Green Field follows the 2019 exhibition The Same River Twice and the 2016 exhibition The Equilibrists, organized by the New Museum and DESTE Foundation in partnership with the Benaki Museum. It echoes previous projects by both the New Museum and the DESTE Foundation over the past four decades that have looked to contemporary art to address the most pressing issues of the day, and embodies the mission of the Benaki Museum, a historical museum with a contemporary program focused on bridging the past and the present.

The exhibition is curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator, New Museum, and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog published by the DESTE Foundation with new writing by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Athens-based curator and writer Danai Giannoglou, and Nicosia-based curator and writer Ioulita Toumazi.

Artist List:
Niki Analyti (b. 1994, Corfu, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Raissa Angeli (b. 1986, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Nicosia, Cyprus
Ileana Arnaoutou (b. 1994, Athens, Greece) – Live and work in Athens, Greece
Vera Chotzoglou (b. 1992, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Anna Housiada (b. 1990, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Danae Io (b. 1993, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works between Athens, Greece and Amsterdam, Netherlands
Byron Kalomamas (b. 1993, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in London, England
Konstanza Kapsali (b. 1989, Thessaloniki, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens
Ismene King (b. 1993 Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Kyriakos Kyriakides (b. 1996, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Nicosia, Cyprus
Latent Community (working since 2017 in Athens, Greece): Ionian Bisai (b. 1992, Saranda, Albania) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece Sotiris Tsiganos (b. 1992, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Ioanna Limniou (b. 1987, Alexandroupoli, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Maria Louizou (b. 1988, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Marietta Mavrokordatou (b. 1996, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in London, United Kingdom
Polina Miliou (b. 1990, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Eleni Odysseos (b.1991, Famagusta, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Nicosia, Cyprus
Nefeli Papadimouli (b. 1988, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Paris, France
Theodoulos Polyviou (b. 1989, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Sofia Rozaki (b. 1990, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Despina Sanida Crezia (b. 1998, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
David Sampethai (b. 1989, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Marios Stamatis (b. 1986, Larissa, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece

The Post Collective (est. 2018 in Brussels, Belgium):
Mirra Markhaëva (b. 1992, Ivolginsk, Buryatia) – Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium
Elli Vassalou (b. 1983, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium
Theo Triantafyllidis (b. 1988, Athens, Greece) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Maria Toumazou (b. 1989, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Nicosia, Cyprus
Marina Xenofontos (b.1988, Limassol, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Athens, Greece
Damianos Zisimou (b. 1994, Nicosia, Cyprus) – Lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands

OPENING: 11/06/2025, ώρα 20:00
DURATION: 12/06/2025 – 13/09/2025 *
(*)  In August only by appointment (T +30 210 275 8490) on the following dates: Friday 01/08/2025, Wednesday 27/08/2025, Thursday 28/08/2025 and Friday 29/08/2025, 10:00 – 13:00.

What does it signify if we have reached the end of natural landscape as we knew it? If we are entering a post-territorial reality, wherein digital, virtual, or algorithmic landscapes transcend the natural? Does Google Maps constitute a new form of geological stratum? How does one excavate a form of mediation or other remnants that seemingly have no physical substance? What does this mean for archaeological stratigraphy?

The exhibition This way the traces never die is the result of an artistic exploration that focuses on landscape as a concept but also as a material object of memory, change, and absence.

Through a series of works that function as witnesses or hybrid remnants, Athina Koumparouli constructs a narrative full of open questions about the landscape and its loss in a period of climate crisis. Matter emerges as a carrier of memory, a depository of stories, a time capsule that can provide us with information about past uses of landscape that are leading to its loss.

This exhibition’s works depict gestures that do not seek to preserve what remains, but rather seek to excavate what has vanished. Her experience as a conservator of antiquities, and specifically the conservation of an object made of plant tar, is the starting point for the exhibition. The temporal coincidence with the outbreak of fires in the period 2021–2024 led the research process towards a new direction, with the ravaged landscapes serving as case studies. Adopting archaeological methodology but transforming it into an artistic tool, the artist presents a new form of excavation that includes fragments of the landscapes she investigates. Among them, casts of burnt tree roots serve as physical records and imprints of a disaster. At the same time, three-dimensional models of tree fragments that have now been lost are composed through photogrammetry, using digital material from Google Street View. Seeking presence through absence, the exhibition maps a landscape that is both imaginary and utterly real.

The exhibition also includes archival and photographic material from the artist’s research, which is inextricably linked to her practice. The concept of absence functions as the central axis of the exhibition, not as something static, nor through the sadness of loss, but as a field of exploration for how we can encounter the landscape anew, even when we no longer see it. Ultimately, it is a search for a new relationship with the irrevocably transformed landscape.

*The text for the exhibition is written by Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou. The exhibition is accompanied by a printed publication and a video, which include textual and visual interventions by other artists and researchers. They function as a series of conversations between friends, where personal reflections compose a collective commentary on the work. (Contributors to the publication include: Katerina Stamou, Alexandros Psychoulis, Vasilis Galanis. Documentation photographs by Romane Bourgeois. Video by Konstantza Kapsali).

Athina Koumparouli
This way, the traces never die
a.antonopoulou.art
20 Aristofanous str., Psyrri, 4th floor
105 54 Athens / tel. 210 3214 994
Opening: Thursday, 12/06, 7–10 p.m.
Through to 18/07/2025

Imagine a reverse world
in which reality is imagined or designed
as this vaporous flux of vibration and resonance,
in which words dissolve into shimmering echoes,
physicality becomes diffuse,
almost lost in a dream state of aurality.

— David Toop, Resonant Frequency

The choreographer/dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki presents the dance performance Sonic Dances, a work that seeks to decentralize the visual as the primary mode of representing dance, offering a multi-sensory experience with various access points to the choreography. 

Three dancers engage with the act of listening to what is heard and what is not heard. We voice movement and move rhythms through a choir of syllables and gestures, creating an interplay of sound, motion, and collective presence. The project focuses on the bodies and voices of the dancers as creators of a rhythmic composition that is both audible and visible on stage, resonating within listeners, observers and performers. The piece develops in four layers: movement, voice, music, and text. A single sentence breaks into words, letters and syllables to form rhythmical patterns that pulse, shift, scatter, and echo. The performers surrender into a landscape of overlapping rhythms. A sense of memory is implied, where what has been said or done reverberates into what comes next. Together, we enter into a mode of sensitivity, taking in both our own rhythm while staying tuned to one another, as a practice of expanded awareness. Sonic Dances shifts between the eye and the ear, one holding space for the imaginative other.  

Choreographer’s note:
Sonic Dances comes as a continuation of my two previous works, the duet Re-call (2020, Onassis Stegi), and the solo Phrases (2022, Kampnagel). My focus is on the development of accessible performances that resonate with a broader audience with and without disabilities. In my projects I explore artistic and aesthetic approaches to accessibility, so far by artistically incorporating the accessibility services of audio description and closed captions into the creative process. In Sonic Dances I am working on the idea of giving access to movement through sound and vice versa.

Sonic Dances was created in close collaboration with:
Concept / Choreography / Text: Venetsiana Kalampaliki
Music Composition: Andys Skordis
Performance / Material Co-Creation: Christina Zacharia, Venetsiana Kalampaliki, Xenia Koghilaki
Dramaturgy: Rallou Karella
Consultation on Aesthetics of Access for Blind and Visually Impaired Audiences: Anna-Maria Foskolos
Consultation on Surtitles: Philipp Wacker
Lighting Design: Marietta Pavlaki
Surtitles Design & Poster: Dimosthenis Barbas (Barba Dee)
Vocal Coaching: Sofia Sarri
Sound Engineer: Giorgos Kravvaritis
Lighting Console Programming: Giorgos Tsitsigkos
Lighting Console Operation: Vasiliki Kapetanaki
Photography and Video Documentation: Giorgos Athanasiou
Communication: Katerina P. Trichia
Production Management and Execution: Olga Tsatsouli (GR), Sofia Chionidou (DE)
Production: in the middle AMKE
Co-Production: LICHTHOF Theater

Special thanks to Filippos Vasileiou, Karate Apollwn, Pinelopi Iliaskou, Markella Manoliadi.

Info:
Dates: Monday, May 5, 2025 to Thursday, May 8, 2025
Location: ΦΙΑΤ (97 Falirou Str, Koukaki – 117 41)
Start Time: 21:00
Duration: 50’
Presale Tickets: available at https://www.ticketservices.gr/event/sonic-dances/?lang=en

Ticket Prices: €12 general admission, €8 reduced (for people with disabilities, students, unemployed)
Inquiries: +30 697 392 1747

Accessibility:
The work has been conceptualised with the aim of addressing audiences both with and without disabilities, blind and visually impaired individuals, as well as d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals, offering an equally auditory and visual experience without requiring the use of accessibility services, as an artistic approach to accessibility (Aesthetics of Access).

Wheelchair accessible venue.
Surtitles provided.
Use of loud sound; earplugs are available.

The performance is funded by the Hellenic Republic – Ministry of Culture, the Behörde für Kultur und Medien – Hamburg, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, the Claussen Simon Stiftung, and the Scheherazade Stiftung.

The performance is supported by the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, the Goethe-Institut Athen, FLUX Laboratory Athens through its artistic residency program, and ARTWORKS.

Mutable Cycles is a group exhibition exploring the dismantling of public infrastructures in service of private profit. The featured artists turn to recent histories of financial fallout and its aftermaths—from collective struggles over home foreclosures in Cyprus since 2012–13, to the 2019 solar energy boom in Lebanon—in order to think through debt, property, and the right to public goods. Mutable Cycles features work by Joyce Joumaa, Iris Touliatou, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, and Peter Eramian.

Joyce Joumaa’s video installation Mutable Cycles II (2024) pairs present-day imagery of solar panels in Lebanon with footage from the nationwide protests of 2019, drawing attention to the adoption of this renewable energy source as a stand-in for the state’s failure to provide electricity following the country’s economic collapse. As the earth revolves around the sun, Mutable Cycles II charts the cyclical temporality of infrastructural crisis, whereby state corruption both enables and forecloses the possibility of citizen-led solutions.

untitled (diversion) (2025), Iris Touliatou’s site-specific installation, consists of a wall-mounted phone and an annotated agreement, outlining the conditions of the artwork’s presence and use within the gallery. The artist forwards all calls directed to her registered landline and cellphone along with her estimated utility costs to the museum, intervening in the institution’s administrative operations.

Investigating the effects of financialization and austerity, the collaborative project The Broken Pitcher (2022–) by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, and Peter Eramian takes the form of a study room and film. The project considers the rise of home foreclosures in Cyprus after the country’s 2012–13 financial crisis. The exhibited research materials situate the foreclosures within a longer colonial history of property, land theft, and debt under British rule. Featuring interviews with international housing rights activists, lawyers, economists, and artists, the accompanying film expands the project’s investigation into methods of collective intervention and resistance.

Employing film, photography, research materials, and installation, Mutable Cycles foregrounds the varied strategies of artists interfacing with the larger political and economic transformations around them, reflecting on these events’ fraught histories and their ongoing reverberations in the present.

Related Programming:

repairing debt
The Broken Pitcher Forum

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center, Bard College (30 Campus Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504)

If reparations are inversions of debt, what would it take to repair the paradigm of private property? The Broken Pitcher Forum traces the entangled histories of debt and private property—from the banks and commissioners at the center of the film The Broken Pitcher (2022) to the colonial land surveys, loans, and tributes that transformed land into collateral.

The public program will begin with the opening sequence of The Broken Pitcher (2022), followed by a conversation between the film’s co-directors, Natascha Sadr Haghighian and Marina Christodoulidou; writer and curator Adam HajYahia; and Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bard College. The discussion will be moderated by filmmaker and scholar Argyro Nicolaou.

The forum approaches the film as a departure point, tracing these foreclosures through longer colonial histories of property and ownership in dialogue with each speaker’s ongoing research—from the effects of austerity and real estate speculation on life in Athens, to the psychic, materialist, and aesthetic formulations of the condition of debt.

6:00–7:45 pm
Introduction by Ariana Kalliga
A conversation between Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou, Adam HajYahia, and Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, moderated by Argyro Nicolaou

8:00–8:30 pm
Performance by Emiddio Vasquez