Category: Fellows news

to see a block of flats as a cave

I started counting distance through fatigue.

Νot experience but fatigue.

I start counting with that that is caused by distance to the neck and feet.

We live in the city.

We live in the block of flats.

We see the block of flats as a cave.

He says:

Look at these plants below. How does it sound like?

From this man? Outside.

What is it heard from inside of the door?

I asked them :

When is it that you are not yourselves? He replied :

I am not myself when I change room.

I started counting distance through fatigue.

Not exactly perspective but fatigue

© Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, 2021

Kalfayan Galleries present the solo exhibition of Andreas Ragnar Kassapis titled “Τo see a block of flats as a cave”.  In his solo exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis presents a diverse installation consisting of paintings, text and archival photography. At the same time, the exhibition is accompanied by a music work that is presented and available digitally. As the artist observes regarding the new series of works: “My subjects are landscapes or at least ‘areas’ that keep within them the objects inseparable. I continue with my investigation into the concept of Nuance and consequently into the concept of Mood (Stimmung); the concept of Duration (la durée) and consequently subjective experience and lived time; the notion of distance and therefore the concept of perspective and its distortions “. Having psychoanalysis, phenomenology and contemporary cultural criticism as basic methodological tools, the work of Andreas Ragnar Kassapis focuses on themes concerning the mechanisms of perception, memory and representation. Having as a starting point cognitive theories of object perception, his paintings raise questions about the imprint of technical images on perception and memory in modern times.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday, 10 November 2021, 18.00 – 21.00
Duration: 10 November – 11 December 2021

*Andreas Ragnar Kassapis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020

The 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival is returning to its home turf, the movie theaters, prioritizing safety and abiding by all health and safety protocols, from Thursday 4 to Sunday 14, November 2021. This year’s celebration of independent cinema will take place in physical spaces, but online as well.

Within the framework of the 62nd TIFF, 197 films will be screened in the time-honored home ground of the Festival, while the audience will have the chance to watch 144 films online, through the digital platform of the Festival, online.filmfestival.gr.

Check below our Fellows’ movies which will be screen at the 62nd TIFF:

Brutalia, Days of Labour, Manolis Mavris
More info here

Motorway 65, Evi Kalogiropoulou
More info here

ORFEAS2021, FYTA*
More info here

Soul Food, Nikos Tsemberopoulos
More info here

Souls All Unaccompanied, Yorgos Teltzidis
More info here

The Timekeepers of Eternity, Aristotelis Maragkos
More info here

Holy Emy, Araceli Lemos
More info here

Magnetic Fields, Yorgos Goussis
More info here

Moon, 66 Questions, Jacqueline Lentzou
More info here

*Foivos Dousos part of the artistic duo FYTA is Fellow

“Synthesis”, a new performative installation by choreographer Tzeni Argyriou and visual artist Vassilis Gerodimos, tackles the complex event of the Greek War of Independence. Over 30 artists from the whole spectrum of performance and visual arts take part in the creation of the work, summoning the visitor to a unique experience.

“Synthesis” takes the form of a performative assemblage that correlates the process that produced the historical and socio-political network of the Greek War of Independence with that of the collective work, with its own particular, diverse conflicts, contradictions, aporias, transitions and reversals. During the three days of the event, each of whom conceptually corresponds to one of the three stages of the Greek Revolution (the intoxication of the initial outbreak, the middle-period introversion and the late-phase fatigue, but also the resilience which was a constant characteristic of the whole revolutionary decade), the artists cooperate in real time to create an interactive installation in which the spaces of the Alternative Stage lend themselves to a dynamic process of incessant visual and aural mobility. The creators set out to throw light on the invisible aspects of the official history by emphasising under-recognised factors such as financial management, military administration, ideological developments and everyday life of the revolutionary period.

Through the conversion of the Alternative Stage to a workshop space where the limits between “stage” and “backstage” become permeable and the public experience the preparation and final presentation of a series of concurrent and overlapping actions in active dialogue with each other, the creators of Synthesis trace the intertwined historical “lines” that synthesise the premeditated and the random, highlighting the analogies between a performative and a historical event.

More info:

https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/alternative-stage/es-events/item/3658-synthesis

synthesis21.gr

Maro Fasouli, Virginia Mastrogiannaki and Konstantinos Paleologos, all SNF ARTWORKS Fellows, participate in the performative installation.

As part of this years’ SYNASKí programme, COCHLEA res & Georgia Paizi curate a series of open online conversational scores between 4 or 5 each time teacher/artists, followed by a Q&A.

On Sunday 17th October, the third (and last) meeting takes place on zoom, 1-3pm GMT+3
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6909853355
Meeting ID: 690 985 3355

Number of connections is limited to 100. Subscription on facebook fb.me/e/16rwOFZyN

These conversational scores attempt a non-linear mapping of the field of somatic practices, highlight the key concepts and tools brought by these practices and investigate language, poetic imagery, translation, experiential anatomy, and touch, as well as how these practices link and relate to each other, their place within contemporary movement education, their therapeutic side, and whether they contribute to a democratisation of making and training and a sense of community versus individuality in a post-capitalistic era.

SUNDAY 3 OCT
Giorgos Sioras Deligiannia
Georgia Paizi
Marilena Petridou
Marina Tsartsara
Dimitra Charalampidou

SUNDAY 10 OCT
Timos Zechas
Anna Tzakou
Vasiliki Tsagkari
Despina Chatzipavlidou

SUNDAY 17 OCT
Zoi Dimitriou
Mariela Nestora
Ioanna Palamidous
Eleni Panitska
Ireni Stamou

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SYNASKí investigates the field of somatic practices in education, artistic research and making. SYNASKí includes 105 studio hours, 92 hours of class, 14 different techniques (incl. Alexander Technique, Pilates, Yoga, Axis Sylabus, Rolfing, Antigymnastics, Feldenkrais, SRT, BMC, Franklin, Klein, Authentic Movement, Contemplative Dance Practice, Topf) brought to us 14 different artist/qualified teachers, 4 improvisation jams, 3 open discussions, 1 history & theory session, 1 mentoring session per participant, 1 closing cycle.

Funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Supported by Duncan Dance Research Centre Athens.

Collages by Lina Vergopoulou.
Currated by Georgia Paizi & www.cochleares.com

Georgia Paizi is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021

With Takis’ series of works with magnets and iron filings as our launch pad, and through comprehensible examples and personal experiences, we will awaken the world of our imagination with a magnet. We will follow a sequence of visual art experiments to create our own works of art, while deepening our understanding of the concept of energy flow in nature and in art. A dance of filings and lines will bring to life natural phenomena, magical creatures, stories and, of course, all of our energy to create!

Up to 15 participants
For children aged 6 to 10 years old

Saturday 16 & 30/ 10 | 17.30-19.00
Saturday 13 & 27/ 11 | 17.30-19.00

Maker Space

Free attendance by online pre-registration

For the activity held on 16/10, pre-registration starts on Saturday 09/10 at 12.00
For the activity held on 30/10, pre-registration starts on Friday 22/10 at 12.00

Session #1

We will make “impetuous designs” with ink, filings and our magnet, and awaken the force of a volcano, a twister or, maybe, the waves of the sea? What will become of this momentum? What will it transform into within our artwork?

Session #2

Playing with the concepts of order and disorder, we will unravel a tangle of filings that flows to the rhythm of our magnet. Dots and lines will help us solve this mystery… How do I unravel the tangle with my pencil? How do I impose creative “order” to creative “disorder”?

Session #3

With the help of a magic box that contains filings and plenty of imagination, we will breathe life into the magnetic creatures that will appear before our eyes: are their aliens or, perhaps, mysterious insects? Where do they live, what do they eat, what language do they speak?

Session #4

We will make sculptures out of white clay, filings and small magnets. Tree or insect? Or, perhaps, a volcano? No, it’s a flower… Or a stormy cloud watering an exotic plant!

Design/Implementation: Antigoni Michalakopoulou, Visual Artist/Architect/Educator

*Antigoni Michalakopoulou is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020 in visual arts

More info: https://www.snfcc.org/en/events/art-workshop-awaken-world-magnet/10407

Sam Albatros’ debut novel “faulty boy” is out 15.10.2021 by Hestia publications.

*
WE ARE THE HAPPIEST FAMILY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

Dad sometimes beats me up with his belt. Once I saw someone beat his son like this in a Greek movie. Since then, every time dad beats me up with his belt, I feel like a movie star.

Mom won’t stop telling me to study, since her parents were so poor she couldn’t afford to go to school. If she wants to go to school that bad, she can go to mine and I’ll stay at home and be the housewise: I told her that once and she slapped me.

I’ll talk about my siblings another time, I’m bored now. They don’t live with us anyway, like normal siblings do.

I have the best friends in the whole wide world! Thanasis is my best friend and he sits next to me at school. We like to play many games but we don’t talk about some of them, we keep them secret. He doesn’t let me talk about them because last time I did, we got beaten up. Then it’s Athena and Sophia, who are also sitting next to each other in the class. Athena is strong and they call her a tomboy and Sophia wears glasses and she’s wise like an owl.

We love each other so much! I love Thanasis, Thanasis loves Athena, Athena loves Sophia (but won’t admit it) and Sophia loves me.

We’re the best students in the class! That’s cause I crib from Thanasis, and Athena cribs from Sophia. Sometimes though Athena forgets to mix it up a little. Once she had copied word by word Sophia’s writing exercise. When the teacher asked what happened, I butted in and said: “Great minds think alike!”.

For the programme of #OccupyAtopos and with reference to the 200th anniversary of the Greek revolution, the artistic director of ATOPOS cvc, Vassilis Zidianakis, invites artist, historian, and researcher Alexis Fidetzis to curate the hybrid, ongoing project #RevoltingBodies. The project aims to integrate the Greek Revolution into a broader dialogue about the revolutionary phenomenon that to an extent defined modernity, immersing into the stories of the bodies upon which both the revolutionary action and the mythologies around it are imposed.

Fidetzis transforms the neoclassical building at Salaminos 72 street into the Revolutionary Headquarters of Language and Image. The exhibited artworks are semiotic references to revolutionary moments and narratives. These artworks do not constitute an aesthetic representation of the history of the notion of revolution, instead they present more of an outline of the methods through which contemporary societies metabolize the revolutionary imaginary. A series of pencil sketches coexist with large-scale prints, creating wall installations. These artworks refer to gendered and racial identities of the revolutionary bodies while at the same time they highlight the questionable lust for glorification in post-revolutionary societies. The statue of a beheaded Jacobin on a pedestal will dominate the inner courtyard of the ‘Revolutionary Headquarters’ and will be a constant reference to the violence imposed by and on the revolutionary bodies. While the library of Atopos has been occupied by a video installation, which bombards the viewer with institutional and non-institutional representations of revolutionary actions.

The whole motley iconography will be homogenized aesthetically, through a specific color filter, a particular green shade that makes its appearance in subcutaneous aspects of the history of the revolutions, from the reference to Robespierre as a spirit as pure as the green of the sea to the turquoise green ”Faberge” eggs of the Romanov estate that Stalin secretly sold to Western tycoons.

*Alexis Fidezis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

Duration: October 6 – November 26, 2021
Days & Hours: Wednesday: 16:00 – 20:00 (in the presence of the artist & curator Alexis Fidetzis)
Thursday & Friday: 12:00 – 18:00
Saturday: 16/10, 23/10, 6/11, 20/11, 12:00 – 16:00 (in the presence of the artist & curator Alexis Fidetzis)

Free entrance, registration is required as there is a limited number of visitors allowed (up to 5 visitors per hour)

Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF) is Greece’s leading short film festival, and the annual meeting place for filmmakers and industry professionals. Based in the picturesque city of Drama, the festival is the leading Greek and South-Eastern European gateway to the world’s most prestigious short film awards, and nominated filmmakers qualify for the European Film Awards (EFA).

This year, 6 of our Fellows join the DISFF with their short movies:

Heatwave (Fokion Xenos)

Motorway 65 (Evi Kalogiropoulou)

Luxenia (Dimitra Kondylatou)

Souls all unaccompanied (Giorgos Teltzidis)

Brutalia, εργάσιμες μέρες (Manolis Mavris)

Soul food (Nikos Tsemperlopoulos)

>>> More info: https://www.dramafilmfestival.gr/en/

How can tradition converse with other forms of artistic expression, such as contemporary dance, without being threatened or offended, but instead enriched and communicated with the respect it deserves to a wider audience? Combining the principles and themes of the dances of his native Crete with his long-standing experience as a modern dancer, Foniadakis creates a palette of rhythms and melodies for directing the flow of the performance. Above all, though, he attempts to convey the strength of the Cretans who dance the pentozalis (pente meaning “five” and being a reference to the Cretans’ fifth attempt for liberation), a ten-step dance (as the Sfakians decided to start the revolution on 10 October 1769) that consists of twelve parts (musical phrases, turnings) in honour of the twelve leaders of the uprising.

Salema: a struggle with time, immobility and the moment. Dancers and musicians mingle in a bizarre game, upsetting memories and emotions.

CREDITS
Choreography:
Andonis Foniadakis

Music supervisors – Orchestration:
Paris Perysinakis, Giorgos Skordalos

Original music:
Paris Perysinakis (adaptations of traditional Cretan tunes)

Dancers:
Nefeli Asteriou, Despina Lagoudaki, Evi Economou, Maro Stavrinou, Stefania Sotiropoulou, Christian Denice, Georgios Kotsifakis, Nikos Grigoriadis, Jan Labner, Anestis (Tasos) Nikas

Musicians:
Giorgos Skordalos: Cretan lyra, Cretan lute, Song
Paris Perisynakis: Viora, Cretan lyra, Cretan lute, Mandocaster
Giorgos Makris: Recorder, Ascomandoura
Petros Varthakouris: Double bass
Vangelis Karipis: Percussion

Assistant choreographers:
Markella Manoliadi, Pierre Magendie

Lighting:
Sakis Birbilis

Costumes:
Anastasios Sofroniou

Production:
visionary culture / Vassilis Grigoropoulos

*Nefeli Asteriou, Maro Stavrinou and Georgios Kotsifakis are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows
** Antonis Foniadakis is member of the selection committee for the 4th SNF Artist Fellowship Program

EP journal is a publishing initiative by Enterprise Projects in the form of an online publication of newly commissioned theoritical and research essays in both greek and english. For issue 5, curator and Fellow Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou is writing about Art and Radioactivity. She looks at the ambivalent relation of art and radioactivity, but also at the possibly ambivalent nature of one’s experience of radioactivity. While great significance has been invested in the bomb, Kyveli turns to the notion of ambivalence as an interruption of the sublime visuality that characterizes nuclear images.

Check and download the essay following the link: http://enterprise-projects.com/ep-journal/

Enterprise Projects is an Athens based projects by our Fellows Danai Giannoglou and Vasilis Papageorgiou (SNF ARTWORKS Fellows).

ARTWORKS Fellows Elissavet Sfyri, Sofia Sfyri, Manolis Mavris, Dimitra Kondylatou, Evi Kalogiropoulou and Nikos Tseberopoulos  take part in Greek Short Stories – In Competition of the 27th Athens International Film Festival (22nd September – 3rd October 2021).

Zabeta
ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑ / DURATION: 12’ ΣΚΗΝΟΘΕΣΙΑ / DIRECTORS: Elissavet Sfyri, Sofia Sfyri

A glimpse into the life of the directors’ 90-year-old grandmother as she reminisces her forced immigration to Canada, her escape back to Greece and divorce in the 60’s. A small personal story of patriarchy in Greece.

Brutalia, Days of Labour
ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑ / DURATION: 26’ ΣΚΗΝΟΘΕΣΙΑ / DIRECTOR: Manolis Mavris

Perfectly identical girls work day and night. A matriarchal and oligarchic society. What would happen if we replaced bees with humans? Anna observes the universe of her hive. Not being able to consent to the violence that surrounds her, she’ll have to make a radical decision.

Luxenia
ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑ / DURATION: 10’ ΣΚΗΝΟΘΕΣΙΑ / DIRECTOR: Dimitra Kondylatou

A receptionist, a waitress and a chambermaid work during the summer season in Hotel Luxenia. One day, a small pause interrupts their automated, everyday routine. Luxenia is about the staged image and the backstage contradictions of the so-called hospitality industry.

Motorway 65
ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑ / DURATION: 15’ ΣΚΗΝΟΘΕΣΙΑ / DIRECTOR: Evi Kalogiropoulou

Two siblings live in the industrial town of Elefsina. A bridge connects their neighborhood, inhabited mostly by Black-Sea Greeks, to an area inhabited by immigrants varied background. Social divisions give rise to hostility, reflected in the local sports scene and two siblings’ relationships.

Soul Food
ΔΙΑΡΚΕΙΑ / DURATION: 24’ ΣΚΗΝΟΘΕΣΙΑ / DIRECTOR: Nikos Tseberopoulos

Yannis starts hanging out with Olga, a socially secluded hard rock woman who lives in the basement of his apartment building. Simultaneously, he associates with a group of teenagers, the leader of which bullies Olga whenever he sees her.

More info: http://en.aiff.gr/home_page/

With undiminished interest in the conceptual content of body states, the choreographer and SNF ARTWORKS Fellow Anastasia Valsamaki 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.

Anastasia Valsamaki
Graduated with honours from the Greek National School of Dance​, Anastasia Valsamaki made her debut as a choreographer with “Sync” in June 2016 and she was selected by the Aerowaves network as one of the 20 most promising emerging choreographers in Europe for 2017. The same year, ​she ​attended the Choreography Postgraduate Program (I.C.E) at the SEAD Dance Academy in Austria and presented “Sync” at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. In 2020 she presented her latest work “DisJoint” within the Onassis New Choreographers Festival 7. For 2020-2021 she received the ARTWORKS award and participated in the 3rd SNF Artist Fellowship Program while selected as an Aerowaves Twenty21 Artist with her work “Body Monolog​ue​”. She continues to be an active dancer and choreographer, while at the same time teaching dance. Get to know her work: https://anastasiavalsamaki.com/

W REST LING
Premiere at ROES Theater
30 September 1, 2, 3 October 2021
Tickets (8€-12€): https://www.viva.gr/tickets/dance/w-rest-l-ing/
Concept & Choreography Anastasia Valsamaki
Music & Sound Composition Jeph Vanger
Dancers Gavriela Antonopoulou, Nefeli Asteriou,
Nikos Grigoriadis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Thanos Ragousis
Dramaturgy Anastasio Koukoutas
Lighting Apostolos Strantzalis
Styling Nefeli Asteriou
Production Manager Eleni Valsamaki
Producer MINDTHELOOP
Photographers Emmanouela Pechynaki, Marieta Rou
With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Entrants to the theater must have a vaccination certificate or disease certificate or a negative COVID test (72 hours for pcr test – 48 hours for rapid test).

* Anastasia Valsamaki, Nefeli Asteriou and Jeph Vanger are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

As I told you, they were made with a technique called solar etching, in which a light-sensitive metal plate is exposed to ultraviolet radiation and washed out with cool water instead of acid chemicals. The rest is carried out with a traditional printmaking process; oil-based inks on cotton paper that runs through the intaglio press.

The subjects come from photo archives I have been assembling in Attica: urban environments, vegetal and geological formations, inscriptions on architectural structures, public sculptures, and archeological artifacts in Kerameikos. I fed this visual material into generative algorithms that run on artificial neural networks. Loosely translated, this is a process of “breeding” images that follows a predictive system inspired by biological processes and game theory …

Generated by Clouds ☁️ Etched by the Sun ☀️

—

PETROS MORIS
SOLAR VECTOR

New Etchings

22 SEPTEMBER – 23 OCTOBER 2021

opening on Wednesday 22 September from 5 to 9 pm

*Petros Moris is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

To feature contemporaneity, OMS shows young Greek art whereby “Greekness” is deterritorialized. In what way is locality part of the being if we do not speak about territory any more but about a series of situations? Situatedness can depict embodiment or perspectivism, can reflect the conditionality of knowledge or can refer to the entanglement of mind and world. It can support temporality but sitting between stasis and duration it can also counteract it. We think it cannot only be useful to describe the implications of embodiment but can also be used to emphasize the dynamic of space-time and corporeality of agency. What becomes obvious with the works of the YOUNG GREEK ARTISTS participating in OMS’s inaugural group show for the season “ΕΔΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΡΑ“ is the transversal and transgressive character of situatedness that simultaneously connects and detaches past and future and space. To put it in the words of two participating artists :”Coming out of place, makes it easier to come out of time” (Myrto Vratsanou and Anouk Asselineau). Our experience can still be at some previous location while being with embedded in the new. And we have not even begun to talk here of the implications that quantum physics, virtuality and augmented reality might have on situatedness.

OMS’s inaugural group show for the season

“ΕΔΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΡΑ“

From September 30th to October 15th 2021
September 30th, 19.30: After a brief introduction by the curators, the artists will speak about the presented work

Artists: Stathis Alexandros Zoulias, Elena Chantzis, Stelios Papagrigoriou, Fi Tsaoules, Myrto Vratsanou (in collaboration with Anouk Asselineau), Grigoria Vryttia
Curated by Nadja Geer and Florent Frizet

*Elena Chantzis is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

The fragment of antiquity is what we have been left. Only in this dilapidated form can anything be read. The only real integrity that remains is the integrity of the fragment. The only recovered form is the fragmented form. Fragments, which do not seek their wholeness, rather seek their availability, and their preservation in the initial position of zero.

This year’s group exhibition Fragments by The Symptom Projects, curated by Apostolis Artinos, and in collaboration with the Delphi Antiquities Authority, will take place in the halls and garden of the Archaeological Museum of Amfissa, where fifteen contemporary visual artists will attempt to coexist with the Museum’s collection through their work, to coordinate with the energy of its fragments and to interact with their language.

Curator | Apostolis Artinos

Participating artists | Malvina Panagiotidi, Panagiotis Vorrias, Panos Profitis, Christina Mitrentse, Eugenia Vereli, Anastasia Douka, Lizzie Calligas, Dimitris Ameladiotis, Dionisis, Hara Piperidou, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Ilias Papailiakis, Anna Lascari, Despina Charitonidi, Vasilis Zografos, George Skiloyannis.

The Symptom Project is supported by NEON.

*Malvina Panagiotidi, Panagiotis Vorrias, Panos Profitis and Anastasia Douka are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

—

FRAGMENTS

25/09/2021 – 19/11/2021

Archaeological Museum of Amfissa

OPENING

25 September | 8pm

OPENING HOURS

Wednesday to Sunday | 9am – 4pm

Monday – Tuesday | Closed

More Information: the-symptom-projects.blogspot.com

We traverse the landscape caught in-between states. From a point of departure to a delineated or yet unknown destination we find ourselves always in transition. Every step we take is a threshold of becoming, a never-ending return to the state we were in before and an arrival to a new state that is about to emerge. Neither inside nor outside we start grasping the world around us by passing through, by moving from one space to another.

The exhibition “Betwixt and Between” explores those liminal moments of being through a collaborative work by Antonis Theodoridis and Nikolas Ventourakis that takes the form of a photographic installation on the terrace of the B & M Theocharakis Foundation for The Fine Arts and Music building. First introduced by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep in the beginning of the 20th century and then rediscovered by Victor Turner in the 1960s –from whom we borrow the term that serves as the title of the show– the concept of liminality is used to define the intermediary stage in any ritual passage or in any radical situation that marks a transition within society and which comes to constitute it anew. Where social structures cease to be and fixed positions become disarranged the liminal period is one of uncertainty and simultaneously one of potentiality. In times of confinement and of social and physical distancing we are invited to reconsider those liminal spaces and times where what is real has yet to be imagined.

Between darkness and light, the works presented in this exhibition point to that direction. Taking as a starting point the city of Athens with its natural and built environments in constant negotiation Theodoridis and Ventourakis guide us through what resists being at the center, capturing and evoking what we do not expect to see or what lies in between. The exhibition space turns into a waiting space, a liminal space itself, where the boundaries between what is natural and constructed seem to get dissolved.

The ways cities are arranged reveal the social structures that formulate our human experience at the same time that our experience sets the very conditions for social actions that would allow for new structures to emerge. Located in the very center of the city, the National Garden of Athens serves as a landmark and a starting point for this rite of passage. Designed by the architect François Louis Bareaud in the mid 1800s under the careful guidance of Queen Amalia and in the principles of the English Garden, that represents an idealized view of nature, the National Garden constitutes the first organized ornamented green space of the modern Greek state. A natural yet highly constructed space for contemplation and seclusion inside the city’s chaotic realm the Garden becomes a silent frontier as well as a space between, that calls for endless crossings. Captured in long exposure photographs taken during night hours, a lush landscape of tranquility, where one can choose to remain lost, comes into contrast with the intensity of the surrounding city that seems to have remained intact. The antithesis between the natural and manmade gets intensified through another lens that depicts the city not as an organized whole, but rather as a composition that defies any strict order. Out-of-ordinary moments seem to interrupt our everyday practices and invite us to look at the city otherwise. Nature takes over in subtle or sometimes profound ways and thus becomes a new layer that weaves into the cultural and ideological narrative of the places we traverse and inhabit. Accompanying the photographs and audio installation comprising a series of recordings gathered in the Garden completes the setting by revealing the parallel lives of the place during the unsettling silence of the night. Between a fixed structure and a complete disarray, we find ourselves again on the limit, in an inter-structural position that separates us from any predetermined structure and which prepares us for the appearance of a new one.

On the very top of the B & M Theocharakis Foundation building with the direct view to the National Garden and to the symbolic and physical center of the city of Athens, we find ourselves on a liminal point, in and out of time, neither here nor there, yet both “betwixt and between”, immersing ourselves into an otherworldly state where the internal and the external alternate infinitely.

Curated by: Myrto Katsimicha
Artistic Direction: Marina Miliou – Theocharakis
Artists: Antonis Theodoridis and Nikolas Ventourakis
Exhibition Design: Eirini Dafni Sapka
Set Construction: AnotherKindArtSound
Design: Bias
Exhibition Production Assistant: Nefeli Siafaka

*Antonis Theodoridis and Nikolas Ventourakis are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Have you ever wondered why Siri, Alexa and Cortana are given female voices and names? How do machines see women? Can machines perceive diversity?

The exhibition Her Data looks into the role of data and algorithms in the current age of artificial intelligence through the female perspective. It also explores female and diverse representationin the context of our fast-paced consumption of technology. Stereotypes, different types of bias and taboos seem to come back stronger in the digital sphere, reproducing outdated worldviews, marginalising certain social groups and discriminating between communities.

Four female artists present different stories of how dominant technological narratives influence the way we experience our identities and the world, through social media, search engines and AI applications. Their works raise questions about the use of our data from tech-giants and they invite us to look deeper at the design of current technological systems, exposing how they work and what worldviews they propagate.

In a male dominated tech-industry, where discrimination persists, diversity is at stake. Global statistics show that the tech and AI industry is dominated by males, primarily white, excluding women and diverse communities from positions of power. This imbalance in the industry inevitably brings forward the questions: who designs these technologies and for whom. The growing market of machine learning and the widespread use of pattern recognition and classification algorithms in everyday life further amplify the concerns about the reproduction of social inequity through our technological systems. The exhibition brings alternative perspectives on our current relationship with technologies by exploring the aesthetics, the power structures and the social issues that emerge.

Exhibition Design | Martha Giannakopoulou | if_untitled architects
Art Direction | Korina Gallika
Audiovisual Design | Michalis Antonopoulos, Makis Faros
Press & Publicity | Yorgos Katsonis
Art Mediator | Lydia Panagou

Her Data is taking place with the support of NEON

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Exhibition: Her Data
Participating Artists: Eli Cortiñas (ES/DE), Maria Mavropoulou (GR), Mimi Ọnụọha (NG/USA),
Paola Palavidi (GR)
Curated by Katerina Gkoutziouli & Foteini Vergidou
Venue: Romantso, Anaxagora 3 – Athens
Duration: 23 September – 14 October 2021
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 15:00 – 21:00. Closed on Mondays.

* Maria Mavropoulou and Paola Palividi are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows