From July 7 to September 30, 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture presents the international group exhibition Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour: In Search of the Third Paradise, curated by Katerina Gregos – Artistic Director of ΕΜΣΤ | Τhe National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, featuring 16 artists from nine countries.

Ιnspired by the book Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics (2008) written by the influential writer, historian, environmentalist, and activist Rebecca Solnit which analyses politics through place, the exhibition posits a socio-political reading of Elefsina and the Thriassian plain and constitutes a study on and testimony to modern and contemporary Elefsina. In addition, the exhibition also takes into account the historical past, which has been instrumental in defining the current identity of the city. It will thus suture memory and experience, space and time, past and present, while simultaneously proposing a psychogeographical analysis of space and place.

Many artists participating in the exhibition probe specific chapters of Elefsina’s history and present – both public and private – and address its traumas and aspirations, and how these are often interconnected. Though many of the artworks will take their cue from the locality of Elefsina, their meaning and significance will relate to wider contemporary social and geo-political issues and processes. As a post-industrial case study, the city is an ideal place for examining some of the major global processes and critical issues of our time: from economic restructuring, and transformations in industrial production and work to environmental questions, migration, citizenship, human rights, and cultural identity. Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour aims – as Solnit does in her book – to reveal “beauty in the harshest landscape and political struggle in the most apparently serene view”, thus conjoining politics, poetics and aesthetics.

Twisting the title of Alain Resnais’ seminal 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour, the exhibition looks beyond the suggested legacy of devastation – brought on in the case of Elefsina not by war but by heavy industry – and into manifestations of resilience, solidarity, hope, and commonality. The questions raised in Resnais’ film are still fundamental and contested; must one forget the past in order to move into the future? Or must we reckon with the past in order to be able to deal with this future? Elefsina, with its layers of history and its future industrial archaeology, seems a perfect place in which to engage these questions. If Hiroshima Mon Amour looked into an emotionally fragile post-war world, Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour shifts its gaze to a post-industrial world in transition and looming uncertainty.

Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour also contains “an exhibition within the exhibition” entitled Aeschylia: A Memory Archive, consisting of archival material from the visual arts segment of the “Aeschylia” festival, which was pivotal for the development of the profile of the city as a site for cultural production and presentation. The objective of this tribute is to shed light on the importance of this cultural initiative as it laid an important precedent prior to the selection of the city as European Capital of Culture.

Contributors:
Participating artists: Katerina Apostolidou / Marianna Christofides / Anastasia Douka / Mahdi Fleifel / Marina Gioti / Igor Grubic / Aglaia Konrad / Natalia Manta / Adrian Paci / Serban Savu / Sphinxes (Manos Flessas & Ioanna Tsakalou) / Maria Tsagkari / Dimitris Tsoumplekas / Maarten Vanden Eynde / Vangelis Vlahos

Artistic director / curator: Katerina Gregos
Assistant curator: Dora Vasilakou
Architectural design: Thalia Melissa
Research consultant (Elefsina): Yorgos Skianis
Production: Yorgos Efstathoulidis – Constructivist Exhibitions & Andie Chatzi
Project Coordination: Zoe Moutsokou – Directorate of Contemporary Art 2023 Eleusis, Anastasia Tsopelaki – architect

2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture
With the support of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMΣT)

Three iconic, short “ballet” works – L’après midi d’un faune (Paris, 1912), Grand pas classique (Paris, 1949), and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (New York, 1960) – are scrutinized, analyzed, and reconstructed as a choreographic collage, into a new staged proposition.

What constitutes a “dancing couple” at the present time? Repair is a quartet that puts emphasis on the notion of pas de deux and its different manifestations in the history of ballet. The ambiguous title, Repair, primarily denotes an intention of “restoring” the heterosexual duets and the choreographic strategies that identify them. It also implies, as a wordplay (“re-pair”), the “re-pairing” within the group. With meticulous technical precision and detail, the famous music compositions and choreographies are presented in a new “orchestration”. As such, a new relationship between them is forged, as composite aspects of the present piece.

Choreography: Dimitris Mytilinaios
Music: Lambros Pigounis
Lighting design: Dimitris Kasimatis
Costume design: Angelos Mentis
Make-up – Hairstyling: Ioanna Lygizou
Assistant to the choreographer: Elena Novakovits
Performers: Amalia Kosma, Pierre Magendie, Konstantina Barkouli-Gavri, Dimitris Mytilinaios
Production: howtomakeyourlifeharder
Executive production: Olga Tsatsouli

Funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports Supported by the NEON Organization for Culture and Development

*Dimitris Mytilinaios and Konstantina Barkouli-Gavri are SNF ARTWORKS Dance Fellows.

“Leave What You Loved Once” is an interactive installation that invites the public to contribute
personal objects they no longer cherish. Composed of transparent cell box units, it creates a floating
display against the backdrop of Elefsina, allowing the objects and the landscape to become the
artwork themselves. Asking people to let go of things, is a symbolic action with multilayered meanings.
It captures objects in the moment of transitioning from their functional, individually- owned, indoor
existence to the public domain, sparing them from becoming trash.

The growing collection of personal objects becomes a monument hosting the leftovers of society and a
symbol of coexistence across divergent entities. Locals and visitors are encouraged to participate in a
collective action, creating a mélange of kilometer-zero objects and ones coming from afar.
“Leave What You Loved Once” aspires to touch upon critical issues such as property, production,
consumerism, democracy, changing Mediterranean landscapes, historical and contemporary remains
and current environmental and anthropological crisis. A call for collaboration and inclusivity, prompting participants and viewers to contemplate and reexamine the relationship with the material and the spiritual world, inviting us to recognize the potential for new histories and narratives through the objects we leave behind.

MYSTERY 144 Leave What You Loved Once
PARTICIPATORY PROJECT
ARTIST: Elena Demetria Chantzis (GR)
PRODUCTION: Wild Reeds (Panos Giannikopoulos) (GR)

*Elena Demetria Chantzis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2020) in visual arts.

Sculpture as a form of art and a myth-oral tradition both act as a common basis and creative starting point for the personal, special, sensitive and at the same time dynamic artistic gestures by 14 contemporary women artists in the exhibition entitled “Contemporary Womanhood 1.0: present femininities” at MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona in Athens, from 06 July to 08 October 2023.

The exhibition, which is hosted intentionally at the department of contemporary sculpture of MOMus, a museum founded by the woman sculptor Alex Mylona, an intangible connection of the transition from modern to contemporary is attempted, not only in sculpture but also in creation and life itself.

The main pillar of the exhibition’s research is the work of the psychoanalyst and activist Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and more specifically her book entitled “Women Who Run with the Wolves”. Through intuitive, explorative and cathartic myths related to the untamed nature of women, the author brings tales from the past to the modern era. This exhibition focuses on the best-known story from Inuit’s oral tradition – the Skeleton Woman. According to the legend, a woman who experiences absolute despair and lives as a monstrous creature underwater, manages to keep the essence of her being intact and eventually reborn, through the power of transformation.

The triptych of life – death – death described in the myth making death a transitory path of transmutation, transformation and mutation, acts as a common thread for the axes that run throughout the exhibition: sculpture, the artistic gesture, the position of the female artist, and the mutation of it all from established ideas and entrenched, inaccessible and rigid standards to something more fluid, new and ultimately alive again.

Artists: Mirsini Artakianou, Despina Charitonidi, Nicole Economides, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Mariandrie, Natalia Manta, Esmeralda Momferratou, Natalia Papadopoulou, Harikleia Papapostolou, Nana Sachini, Johnna Sachpazis, Sophia Saranti, Marina Velisioti, Dimitra Zervou

Curated by: Faidra Vasileiadou, museologist – art curator

Exhibition «Contemporary Womanhood 1.0: present femininities»
MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona (5, Agion Asomaton, Thissio, Athens)
06 July – 08 October, 2023
Opening: Thursday 06 July, 2023, 20:00

*Mirsini Artakianou, Nicole Economides, Natalia Manta, Natalia Papadopoulou, Johnna Sachpazis, and Marina Velisioti are SNF ARTWOKRS Fellows.

Solo show Lise by Adam Christensen
Curated by Panos Fourtoulakis

Haus N Αthen Off-Site
12 July—8 September
Opening: Wednesday 12 July, 19:30-21:30
Wednesday – Friday 16:00-19:00 and by appointment.

With the support of Haus N and the Danish Art Foundation.

*Panos Fourtoulakis is a curatorial SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2021).

With undiminished interest in the conceptual content of body states, the choreographer Anastasia Valsamaki (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020) presents her new work focusing on the different ways to conceive wrestling.

‘From combat sports to the competitiveness between two or more opposing forces’.

Although there are several ways of perceiving ‘wrestling’ in terms of movement, the interest is located in the way the performed actions are classified. If with wrestling we usually refer to the escalating conflict and consequently the discharging of an action, the choreographer Anastasia Valsamaki urges us to see the transition from intensity to repression and its reversal in a ‘struggle’ that does not divide winners from losers. The reference to wrestling, therefore, is a way of investigating the movement beyond the corporeality of the wrestlers and the theatricality of the event; by possibly combining the ‘studiousness’ of the choreographic score with its fun and exaggeration.

In this peculiar struggle, five dancers – as a group but also as a quirky ensemble – try to bring together a priori contrasting elements: the initiating explosiveness with the awkwardness of a pause, the refueling of the physical frenzy with the suspension of relaxation, the completion of a pattern that constantly re-articulates by changing its composition. Ultimately, if the goal is to remain ‘in the game’ by constantly inventing new rules, then the fight comes as a promise to renew what keeps us still in the game, even if, momentarily, every evident goal seems to have failed.

Concept & Choreography: Anastasia Valsamaki
Music & Sound Composition: Jeph Vanger
Dramaturgy: Anastasio Koukoutas
Dancers: Gavriela Antonopoulou, Tasos Nikas (replacement for Nikos Grigoriadis), Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Thanos Ragousis, Xenia Stathouli (replacement for Nefeli Asteriou)
Light design: Apostolos Strantzalis
Styling: Nefeli Asteriou, Anastasia Valsamaki
Production Manager: Eleni Valsamaki
Text: Anastasio Koukoutas in collaboration with MINDTHELOOP
Producer: MINDTHELOOP
Created during Anastasia’s Valsamaki Artist Fellowship Program 2020 supported by ARTWORKS and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Anastasia Valsamaki – W REST L ING
29.07 | 21:30 | Mikis Theodorakis theatre
Tickets: 12€ (regular), 9€ (student, unemployed)

* Anastasia Vaslamaki is a Dance SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020.

Fear is an experience that reminds us that we are animals after all.

Adrenaline flows through our bodies, our hearts pound and sweat pours from our foreheads when we feel a threat to our well-being. The neural science and biochemistry behind it all is complex, but the net result is very simple: fear helps us survive.

Zygmunt Bauman in his book ‘Liquid Fear’ analyzes the widespread penetration of fear into modern Western life and its consequences. Ulrich Beck’s theories on the risk and insecurities generated by accelerating social and technological change are along the same lines. In such an era, characterized by uncertainty and lack of trust in social structures and relationships, the individual is now faced with complex issues that he is unable to understand, let alone manage.

No longer able to slow down the pace of change, or even predict its direction, individuals focus their attention on things they feel they can control.
Avoiding sun exposure, avoiding contact with bacteria, eating fatty foods, using biometrics, ‘protecting’ themselves by using cameras, fortifying themselves in gated communities are illustrative examples. In other words, fear has shifted from the realm of existential safety to the realm of self-protection.

The exhibition ‘Beyond Fear’ explores the context and the ways in which this displacement takes place, which eighteen eighteen artists living and producing work in Athens and Tinos will attempt to capture.

Tinos, is a place that seemingly protects its inhabitants from the dangers of urban life. Life here falls short of the anxiety that runs through an urban landscape and the ‘other’ person is not necessarily a threat. Or is it not? Does fear exist here too, while the human body, social bonds, security and technology are simply perceived differently?
The aim of the exhibition is to be an encounter between geographically differentiated experiences of the same experience and to form the basis for a dialogue between the art scene of Athens and Tinos.

Participants:

Anna Gonzalez Noguchi
Baratto Mouravas
Byron Kalomamas
Christina Mot
Dimitris Tampakis
Evangelia Niarhou
Hypercomf
James Fuller
Jeremy Lacombe
Konstantinos Doumpenidis
Konstantinos Lianos
Leuteris Naftis
Mariana Kolliri
Niki Danai Chania
Orionas Marangozian
Rihardos Foskolos
Serapis
Vangelis Hatzis
Yannis Sklavounos
Yannis Voulgaris

Open discussion during the opening at 19.00 at the atrium:
‘(Late) Modernity as an Age of Anxiety’
By @ysklavounos , Political Scientist

Curated by Un Processed Realities
Graphic Design by ESTO Association
Visuals by Markela Bgiala

With the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture

*Byron Kalomamas, Evangelia Niarchou, Paola Palavidi & Ioannis Koliopoulos (members of Hypercomf), Konstantinos Doumpenidis, Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos & Krini Dimopoulou & Dimitra Dimopoulou (members of Serapis Maritime) are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows.

Ammophila Vol. 4 Hopes and Promises, attempts to initiate a dialogue regarding hope, anticipation and the need for future imaginations are created within us as well as about the mechanics of making promises. It also refers to the relationship between hopes and promises as two containers of projections and comparisons of our needs which constantly feed each other. Among the cosmological myths mentioned about Elafonisos we find one that speaks about the refuge of Paris and the Helen (of Troy) in the sanctuary of Athena that existed on the island, as an intermediate station until their departure for Troy. After the destruction of Troy, Odysseus tried to enter the strait of Elafonisos but the wind (sent by Zeus) forbade it. The hopes of Odysseus to set sail and the promises of the couple in love are linked by a common place-point of reference for the two Homeric epics. A paradise on earth that today needs our collective care to stay intact. The idyllic landscape of Elafonisos in the summer season can be the perfect place to create expectations and adopt big goals in the midst of the optimism of the summer holidays and our proximity to nature. In addition, the exhibition takes place for the fourth year at the island’s only school, a place that is a shaping factor for the children’s future. Our collective visions and plans for a future with more love for the earth, for each other, and for what awaits us after the next sunrise can constitute our most personal coping mechanisms. The referentiallity of care can act as a paradigm to construct a future without crisis. The hopes and promises we receive and offer are linked to ideologies, scientific discoveries, emotions, collective and individual goals. They tend to be flexible and determine their variable elements according to the historical era, the environment and our capabilities.

What does it mean to hope and to envision? What does it mean to promise or to build your hopes on an edifice of promises?
How empowering can the regional character of artistic production be in a country like Greece, in a region of the country, far away from the promises of an urban cosmopolitan life?
With what promises do we fall in love, hoping that our own love will become a monument of the future?
How do we love the earth on which we hope and what do we promise to it in order to survive for those we love?

Ammophila Vol. 4 Hopes and Promises focuses on an organized effort to highlight sculptural forms that contain the element of changeability, the juxtaposition of natural and technical materials and a feeling of departure from classical structures without denying the possibilities of communicating with them. The “monuments” we envision are as fragile, ephemeral and imaginative as our hopes and promises.

Participating visual artists: Nikos Arvanitis, Margarita Bofiliou, Petros Efstathiadis, Dimitris Halatsis, George Kazazis, Danai Kotsaki, Emmyleah Liaros, Foteini Palpana, Malvina Panagiotidi, Rallou Panagiotou, Stefania Strouza

Participating writers: Panagiotis Barbagiannis, Sophie Charlotte Bombeck, Charis Kanellopoulou, Emmanouela Kyriakopoulou, Michalis Lykouris, Giannis Maniatis, Dana Papachristou, Lefteris Spyrou, Theophilos Tramboulis, Eva Vaslamatzi

Also, from July 23, the workshop entitled Waste-d Hopes: A ‘Place’ of Reconstruction will be held by Panagiotis Barbagiannis.

Waste-d Hopes: A ‘Place’ of Reconstruction
Workshop – Workshop for Children and Youth

Sand. Water. Sand dunes. Shells. Air. Trash. And people.
Little people who are artists by nature will utilize natural materials and co-shape a place for works of art. A place where these works will not just be within it, but the place itself will be the means of their creation.

With main focus on Land Art themed ‘Permanence and Deterioration around us’ but also the reuse and utilization of the waste that will result from the exhibition, the participants will be involved in experiential activities of building-deconstructing-rebuilding an ever-changing scenic installation entitled “Wasted Hopes”.
How does the place around me change when my surroundings change this place?

Ammophila Vol. 4 Hopes and Promises
Location: Elafonisos School, Elafonisos, Laconia
Opening: July 22, 19.30
Visiting hours: 22-31 July, 18.30-21.00
Workshop duration: 23 & 24 July, 19.30-21.00
Curated by ammophila

Organisation: Ammophila Non-Profit in collaboration with the Municipality of Elafonisos and the Region of Peloponnese

** Margarita Bofiliou, Petros Efstathiadis, Foteini Palpana, Malvina Panagiotidi, Stefania Strouza and Eva Vaslamatzi are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows.

On Friday, September 1, from 7:30pm, Spyros Rennt (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021) presents ‘Corporeal’, the newest book

Spyros will be at Hyper Hypo to sign ‘Corporeal”s copies and chat about the book and his work with Vassilia Kaga (Curatorial SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020).

Spyros Rennt
Παρουσίαση βιβλίου Corporeal῾
Hyper Hypo (Βορέου 10, Αθήνα)
Παρασκευή 1 Σεπτεμβρίου 2023, 19:30

From September 8 to October 1, 2023 and as part of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, Athanasios Kanakis (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2022) presents an installation titled State of Emergency (2023) at old machine works (3, Filomila str. – Karaiskaki and Kanellopoulou str., Elefsina). The work is inspired by the disastrous and historically unprecedented flooding which hit the western suburbs of Attica in 2017, drawing from the personal experience of the artist and his family in Mandra, Attica —Kanakis’ birthplace and one of the main areas affected by the disaster.

The work showcased here constitutes a fragile monumental topography, subject to constant, threatening oscillations. The resulting glass landscape is sensitive to external forces, ever changing, constantly vibrating, deteriorating, cracking, with parts of it being destroyed every day. What will be left after the destruction-exhibition? What fills the space between what we strive to salvage and what finally manages to survive? In the state of emergency, everything reverts to a single organic matter: the living, the human material, all crystallize into a volume orchestrating a deceleration of its cycle of existence.

State of Emergency stages the climax of an ongoing drama: the outbreak of a natural disaster and the exact moment of declaring the state of emergency —right when all other natural elements are seen as posing a threat to human life. The tragic realisation of a preordained mass retreat: the painful dichotomisation of a holistic ecosystem giving rise to an unbearably simplified juxtaposition opposing man to nature. The memory of the trauma of a violent separation, the sense of truly missing the time when we used to be “one”.

Christina Petkopoulou

Information:

Duration: September 8 – October 1, 2023
Soft Opening: September 8, 19:00
Official opening: September 13, 19:00
Location: Old Machine Works (3, Filomila str.-Karaiskaki-Kanellopoulou str., Elefsina)
Opening hours:
Wednesday to Friday, 17.00 – 21.00
Saturday & Sunday, 11:00 – 14:00 & 17.00– 21.00

Free Admission

Exhibition Credits:

Text: Christina Petkopoulou
Translation: Natassa Sideri
Production: WILD REEDS
Project Coordination: Zoi Moutsokou – Directorate of Contemporary Art 2023 Eleusis

2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture

Hyper Hypo and The Breeder are pleased to invite you to a very special evening into the vampiric erotic fantasy of Amalia Vekri, with the launch of her new publication, Midnight Daughter Memoirs, on Thursday 07 September 2023, 19:00 – 22:00.

On the heels of her recent exhibition at The Breeder, Amalia bites into the under-explored lore of female vampires via her own texts, found images, and her most recent works, in this newest zine published by Hyper Hypo.

Come by for your chance at immortality, for the launch of the zine, with readings and conversation with the artist.

AMALIA VEKRI
MIDNIGHT DAUGHTER MEMOIRS

Zine launch, artist talk and reading at HYPER HYPO
Thursday 7 September 2023, 19:00 – 22:00

HYPER HYPO
Voreou 10
Athina, 105 51
21 1735 9628

Artist Talk: John Sahpazis
Thursday, September 21 2023 20:00
MOMus – Museum Alex Mylona
5, Agion Asomaton Square, Thisio, Athens

The talk is part of the parallel activities programme “Contemporary Womanhood 1.0: present femininities”

More info here.

*John Sahpazis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2022)

On Friday, September 15, at 7pm, opbo studio presents the first solo show of AnnaMaria Pinaka in Greece, under the title “stay with me, I’ll give you jewls,” curated by Ioanna Gerakidi (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021). Through a new series of paintings, sculptures, and performative gestures, the exhibition inverstigates the vexed subjects of childhood and mothering, of gender, femininity, and trauma: How can the girly, the femme or the seductive co-exist with the untamed, the be-wildered, the tomboyish? How can identities, always, unapologetically swift?

“stay with me, I’ll give you jewls” will run until October 14. In the context of the exhibition, a series of parallel events will take place, the program of which will be announced soon.

Curatorial text by Ioanna Gerakidi

stay with me, I’ll give you jewls, the solo show of AnnaMaria Pinaka traces the complexities and pleasures, the guilts and desires, arising from within, yet occasionally imposed or reflected by societal norms and political realms. Through a new series of large-scale paintings composed spatially along with other gestures, varying from sculptural pieces to performative acts, both visible and invisible, Pinaka aims to speak about the vexed subjects of childhood and mothering, gender and femininity, trauma and the forever efforts of reclaiming its axes and along, agency.

Whilst utilizing paltry garments and frivolous materials, such as bedsheets found in her childhood bedroom, pieces of cheap tulle used for bridal or ballerina dresses, as well as curved, sculpted and painted styrofoam, among others, her work aims to operate as a comment on what willfully remains trivial and light, sticking to its innocence, or unwillingness to pretend a pompousness that was never there. The works produced for the show come with symbolisms affiliated both with idealized or demonized figures and creatures. From mermaids or princesses, to ballerinas representing western beauty standards, mystified or praised for these exact qualities in the 80’s and 90’s, to pigs and other animals or species unknown, carrying the semantic burden of dirt and filthiness, Pinaka’s show longs for staying with and taking care of contradictory schemes; How can the girly, the femme or the seductive co-exist with the untamed, and the tomboyish? How can identities, always, unapologetically swift? How can they concurrently be naïve and politically engaged, finding their empowerment within the passivity of undoing, whilst at the same time taking a stance towards an action a priori denying acceleration?

This play in between seemingly oppositional forces, resonates also with the performative processes followed for the production of the paintings, the drawings, the videos and the sculptural materials presented in the show. The questions raised over these actions, again, aim on bringing together what would otherwise be perceived as oxymoronic. How can a performative gesture claim its dynamic, mutant characteristics, whilst being uneventful? How can it advocate its power without collapsing into nihilism, without vaporizing or melting away? How inertia can be preserved, creating an uncannily static archive of pasts, presents and futures?

Whilst holding on to this gap, on this unknown, uncertain, suspended state of what’s excluded, suppressed, or forgotten, Pinaka’s performativity ponders on what can legitimize ambiguity; the pleasure and desire it can unleash when uncertainty is chosen and not forced upon. The work of Pinaka, traces queerness “as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality, as a structuring and educated mode of desiring that allows us to see and feel beyond the quagmire of the present”* to quote the words of Jose Esteban Munoz. The dreamy travesties, the promising subversions, the unapologetic guilt deities become in Pinaka’s work the vessel to grow in this other horizon, to look with and touch lust as an act of resistance.

“I paint as if I was 7, cause that’s when they told me my painting sucks.”
Anna Maria Pinaka

*Muñoz, José Esteban. “Introduction: Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, NYU Press, 2009, pp. 1–18.

AnnaMaria Pinaka (b. 1983, Greece) lives and works between the Netherlands and Greece. Using video, drawing and performance, she looks at how (mundane) experiences of sexuality translate through the lens of auto-ethnography and masquerading while utilizing the low-tech, the unpolished and the excessively child-like. In her practice-based PhD, “Porno-graphing: ‘dirty’ sexual subjectivities and self-objectification in lens-based art (2017, Roehampton University),” she examined the methodological use of ‘dirty’ and non-sovereign sexual and artistic subjectivities in the production of images. Pinaka has exhibited, screened and performed her work at places such as the 6th Athens Biennale, Kunstraumllc, The Project Gallery, WETFILM and Mimosa House, amongst others, and she is supported by Mondriaan Fonds.

Info: opbo studio, 86 Philonos Str., Piraeus, 18536
Opening: Friday, September 15, 19:00
Duration: September 15 – October 14
Opening hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00 – 20:00
Free entrance

Stemming from the on-going artistic research project IN-QUARRY, initiated in 2021, addressing
practicing public space and expanded choreographic methodologies, arisandmartha’s new work titled ‘they returned regularly, each time for more’ proposes a sound installation which activates and transmits the groups ideas, thinking and scoring processes while working on the archive of a former stone quarry in suburban Athens.

The work proposes a reversed activation of what it means to practice public space through the
receptors of human or other-than-human entities, not on the site of the quarry itself, but on a remote
and neutral space. One of the fundamental ideas of this work is the quarry seen as a vessel (damarmeans vessel/vein in Turkish) as well as a generator of ideas, thoughts and activations. The flow of excavated and extracted inorganic material (building stone and lime stone) found its place into the Athenian urban fabric. In reverse, the flow of organic material (human and other-than-human entities) has returned into the quarry post its exploitation and excavation era. How do we inhabit and practice those spaces? How do we imagine and invent new narratives for the former quarry of Galatsi –
Phychiko? Recordings, spoken text and performative actions are being shared between audience and
collaborators in a scaled and spatial simulation of a collectively re-imagined space.

arisandmartha is the creative collaboration between dancers, performers and dance makers Aris
Papadopoulos and Martha Pasakopoulou. Based in Athens, Greece they work at the crossroads of
staged and site-specific dance performances, exploring and expanding the choreographic possibilities
by implementing dance and performing language, text and conceptual ideas. The duo investigates the
notions of togetherness and performing friendship on stage, by using re-enactment and ready-made
materials, contemporary ritualistic practices and strategies of activating and performing archives.
arisandmartha have been supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (2018-23), KLAP
Maison pour la danse – Marseille (2018), FLUXUM Foundation – Geneva (2019), Flux Laboratory
Athens (2019), GARAGE Performing Arts – Corfu (2018), Duncan Dance Research Center – Athens
(2018-22), and Onassis AiR, Athens (2022-23).

Aris Papadopoulos and Martha Pasakopoulou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows (2022 and 2019 respectively).

CREDITS
Artistic Research / Concept: arisandmartha | Aris Papadopoulos & Martha Pasakopoulou
Material development / Co-creation: Christina Karagianni, Anastasios Koukoutas, Jeph Vanger, Martha Pasakopoulou, Aris Papadopoulos
Artistic Collaborator: Anastasios Koukoutas
Studio recordings and sound mixing: Jeph Vanger
Production: arisandmartha
The production ‘they returned regularly, each time for more’ is realized with the financial support of
the Ministry of Culture.
Kindly supported by the Duncan Dance Research Center – Athens.
The research for ‘they returned regularly, each time for more’ was supported by Onassis AiR.

arisandmartha
‘they returned regularly, each time for more’
Sound Installation / Performance
Duration 15-24 September 2023
Open every day between 19:00-22:00
Haus N Athen
Kairi 6, 2nd floor, Monastiraki, Athens

The new choreographic work of Mariela Nestora / YELP danceco. focuses on breath as the
primary relationship of the body with the world.

Plants are -and have always been- our most important co-inhabitants on the planet. We are in a
reciprocal relationship: humans breathe in the oxygen plants exhale and plants breathe in the
carbon dioxide humans produce. How can we restore the ecological affinities that bind us in a
rapidly climate-changing world?

Dancers and musicians compose the ephemeral organism of this performance that can be
perceived as part of another larger ecosystem. The choreography explores the function of
breathing as a biological, psychological and spiritual node associating different species and
cultures. Breath of the world activates empathy and proposes the experience of a performance
as a gathering of different species.

The air we breathe is not a purely geological or mineral reality but rather the breath of other
living beings. In breath we depend on the lives of others.

Emanuele Coccia

CREDITS
Choreography: Mariela Nestora
Co-creation/ performance: Ioanna Toumpakari, Yannis Tsigris, Pagona Boulbasakou
Music / original composition: Anargyros Deniosos
Musicians: Renato Kousis, Leonidas Palamiotis
Costumes: Eleftheria Arapoglou-DIGITARIA
Dramaturgy collaboration: Mårten Spångberg, Elena Novakovits
Photos: Myrto Apostolidou
Poster design: Maria Elena Myrka
Press: Evangelia Skrobola
Production: KART productions, Mary Xanthopoulidou, Anastasia Kavallari

Produced within the framework of the programme 2023 of the institution “All of Greece
one Culture” of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Information
Performances: 22,23 August 2023, 21:00
Venue: DION Ancient theatre
Duration: 50 minutes
Tickets: The event is offered free of charge by the Ministry of Culture, yet an entrance fee to the
archaeological site is payable wherever applicable. Pre-booking is mandatory. For more
information and pre-booking: digitalculture.gov.gr, nationalopera.gr
Reservations from 7th August: https://www.ticketservices.gr/event/oli-i-ellada-enas-politismos/
YELP danceco. /Mariela Nestora

Choreographer and researcher Mariela Nestora was born in Athens, Greece. Since 2001 she
has created more than 22 productions for the stage, site specific and public space, with the
support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis foundation,
Kalamata International Festival etc. YELP danceco. productions have been presented in
Maribor, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Kassel, Berlin, London, Brighton, Ipswich, Bologna, Bologna,
Montpellier, Brest, Bucharest, Parnu Aarhus, Brussels, Athens, Kavala, Patras, Thessaloniki,
Volos, Hydra, Heraklion, Chania and have been selected for platforms and festivals such as ITI,
Dance Platform, Athens Biennale, Plesna Isba, Municipal Theatre of Patras, Cultural Capital of
Patras, The Place Commissions, The Video Place, Videodance festival and MIRfestival.

Nestora studied artistic research Master’s program- ArtEZ,Netherlands, Feldenkrais method-
Professional Training Greece1, Contemporary dance and choreography – London Contemporary

Dance School, Biology- B.Sc. at Queen Mary and Westfield and Molecular Genetics- M.Sc. at
St.Mary’s Medical School, Imperial College. Her artistic research is situated in Post Humanism,
exploring choreography as a gathering and developing the methodology of molecular
choreography. As an independent artist (2011-2017) she participated in collectives: Green Park,
Kolektiva Omonia, Embros Theatre, Syndesmos Chorou and also instigated the Collective
Choreography Project CCP and from stage to page a platform and publication for the Greek
contemporary dance scene. She works as a choreographer, researcher, mentor, movement
director and as a teacher/practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method.

The genealogy of the exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries stems from the artist’s childhood before moving from Serbia Montenegro (Ex-Yugoslavia) to Greece during the conflict in 1999. A major influence for his poetic narrative emerged also from the artist’s personal experience of the euphoric celebrations for the win of FR Yugoslavia in the 1998 FIBA World Championship, followed just a few months later by the onset of tragic war-related events due to the NATO bombing.

As the artist states:

“I meticulously craft sculptures and installations infused with traditional techniques, possessing the potential to produce sounds reminiscent of musical instruments. However, instead of filling the space with audible vibrations, I embrace the power of silence, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in contemplation and imagination, evoking the possibilities these silent objects hold.

Through this exhibition, my intention is to orchestrate a symphony of silence, encouraging viewers to envision the sounds these silent objects could produce if the silence were to give way. My aim is to spark contemplation and introspection, prompting each viewer to reflect on the intriguing interplay of silence and memory within the realms of their own lives.”

Antrea Tzourovits
Counting Rests
Opening: Thursday, 21 September 2023, 19:00-22:00
Duration: 21 September – 21 October 2023
Opening hours:
Monday 11:00 – 15:00 | Tuesday – Friday 11:00 – 19:00 | Saturday 11:00 – 15:00
11 Haritos Street, Athens 10675
T +30 210 7217679
[email protected]
www.kalfayangalleries.com

*Antrea Tzourovits is a Visual Art SNF ARWORKS Fellow (2022)

The Breeder is pleased to present “Seven Days in New Crete”, Aristeidis Lappas’ new solo exhibition.

Named after a seminal future-utopian speculative fiction novel by the poet and critic Robert Graves, the exhibition, like the book, explores how mythological personalities and personal mythologies intertwine in narrative forms that span the past, present and future. The exhibition has particular characteristics that are inspired by Graves’ novel and his broader writings on Greek Mythology. The ground floor presents a series of large format paintings revisiting mythological figures that have already appeared in Lappas’ work. The Minotaur in particular, looms large as a presence in this Sacred Grove where each painting is flanked with lush foliage that create triptychs which envelop and unfold around each scene. In the same way that Graves uses the novel form to explore how he can place himself as a character in an experiential version of his more critical writings, Lappas is asking what his relationship is to Greek culture, history and notions of belonging – by painting it.

ARISTEIDIS LAPPAS
SEVEN DAYS IN NEW CRETE
September 15, 2023–October 14, 2023
The Breeder, Athens

*Aristeidis Lappas is a Visual Arts SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020

“Pedagogies of the Common/s” consists of a group exhibition, as well as a public program that will take place during the last week of the exhibition (19-20-21 October). It brings together artworks, practices and archives as it seeks to explore the possible pedagogies of the social. Through transformative instances of togetherness, stubborn gestures of resistance, poetic and political interventions in the current destructive terrains it attempts to function as a critical public experiment. Bringing together diverse collective traces and stories this exhibition and public program (that will take place in September) seeks to sketch possibilities for monstrous political forms and new shared social habits and pedagogies otherwise, in and with the landscape.

Curated by Gigi Argyropoulou, Vassilis Noulas, Kostas Tzimoulis

Participants: Forensic Architecture, Μaria Georgoula, Jeremy Deller, Zisis Kotionis, Maria Lianou & Alexandros Christofinis, Eirini Linardaki, Jumana Manna, Christina Mitrentse, Vincent Parisot, Renee Ridgway, Evi Roumani, Andrea Sitara Gran, Eva Stefani, Yiannis Hadjiaslanis, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis) and the Laboratory for art and social practices in the department of culture creative media and industries of the University of Thessaly ( Participants: Zoi-Danae Asterataki, Elisavet-Agapi Pantelaiou, Anna Karagianni, Efi Karagiannaki)

Public programme (19-20-21 October):
Dimitra Ioannou (experimental creative writing workshop), Eliana Otta (workshop), Laboratory for art and social practices in the department of culture creative media and industries of the University of Thessaly (open stamp workshop), Theodora Malamou (presentation), Christina Petkopoulou* (presentation), Yannis Hatziaslanis (presentation), Forensic Architecture (film screening), Jeremy Deller (film screening), Jumana Manna (film screening)

Pedagogies of the common/s
Opening: Thursday 28th September 2023
Duration of exhibition: 28 September to 21 October 2023
Thursday-Friday-Saturday 18:00 – 21:00

>> A detailed program and description of the public program will follow below EIGHT critical institute for arts and politics, (Polytechniou 8, Athens)

With support from Ministry of Culture

*Christina Petkopoulou is SNF ARTWORKS Curatorial Fellow (2019)