Category: Fellows news

Iris Gallerie is pleased to present August, Alexandros Simopoulos’ first exhibition with the gallery, which introduces a new body of paintings and works on paper. The works presented here have been produced in isolation mode during the past two years between Greece and Switzerland. Their color palette, subject matter, and materials hold the marks of their geographical making: that of rural Valais in the Swiss Alps and coastal Attica and the Cyclades in Greece. The natural landscape becomes here the backdrop where Simopoulos’ open-ended shοrt stories evolve. Soil, rocks, the sea, the moon, and the sun are all recurring symbols. Painted unaffectedly in a flat manner and with a euphoric color palette that resembles children’s drawings, the works employ humor and immediacy creating an accessible, comfortable and safe space for his protagonists.

The intentional lack of perspective and the banality of the everyday and the familiar, bring to mind Greek folk and outsider artists which have been a great source of inspiration for the artist. Like them, Simopoulos employs organic elements for his paintings such as raw linen, in reference to ‘liopana’, the traditional cloths used to harness the olives. Mermaids, human bodies, seascapes, and trees attest to a world that lives in harmony with nature. In Simopoulos’ paintings, the human body exists in correlation with the natural landscape or it becomes itself the actual landscape. Breasts, torsos, and vulvas merge with the sun or the moon rising, revealing a tender, carefree and affectionate cosmos.

The works as a whole could be read as a fragmented summer diary exploring personal feelings and experiences, the mythology of the Greek summer, Greek identity, nature, leisure time, and reflection on the body and the need for intimacy. On a collective level, Simopoulos’ works are a story of emotions, anxieties, and uncertainty and the potential they hold for change. Created during the pandemic and in an escapist mood, they emphasize the importance of observation through the deceleration of time and everyday life. Informed by a sense of optimism, they highlight a contemporary sensibility and ways of reacting to changes and tensions. Simopoulos combines fantasy and figuration inventing his own unique language in order to deal with uncertainty, existential fears, and the traumatizing shift in the relationship between humans and nature. For the sense of belonging, of embracing change and vulnerability becomes the starting point for building something new.

Text: Alkistis Tsabouraki

*Αlexandros Simopoulos is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2018) in visual arts.

Iris Gallerie
August – Alexandros Simopoulos
September 28 – October 28
Opening September 28, 6 – 9 pm
Opening Hours Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 6 pm
12 Antinoros 116 34, Athens
T: +30 210 72 41 580

Sheltered Gardens is a hybrid, visual arts exhibition featuring more than 35 international artists, writers and performers. Inspired by H.D.’s poem Sheltered Garden (1916) and taking place in J. & A. N. Diomedes Botanic Garden, one of the largest and most important botanical gardens in the Mediterranean, PCAI’s new programme includes numerous new commissions and performances. Opening on 22 September, Sheltered Gardens will unfold through an online, digital exhibition available at pcai.gr, a limited edition publication, a contemporary art group exhibition and a series of performances at the Diomedes Botanic Garden in Athens.

From Sasha Velour’s drag performances to Linder’s punk photomontage and from Chris Kraus’ super 8 films to Leda Papaconstantinou’s poetic narratives, the exhibition sets as a virtual tour among climbing plants, bamboo clusters and she-shed greenhouses. It acquires a physical existence turning into performances, archives and traces of ecosystems and arguments rising within contemporary female gardens.

Sheltered Gardens exhibition by PCAI in Diomedes Botanic Garden

Participating artists: Margarita Athanasiou, Eleni Bagaki, Michel Delsol, Kathleen Hanna & the Julie Ruin, Evan Ifekoya, Irini Karayannopoulou, Lito Kattou, Chris Kraus, Linder, Polonca Lovšin, Campus Novel, Selina Nwulu, Leda Papaconstantinou, Eva Papamargariti, Afroditi Psarra, Gloria Steinem, Eva Stefani, Maria Varela, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), Marina Velisioti, Sasha Velour

Curated by: Kika Kyriakakou

Exhibition in the Garden: 22 September – 2 October, 2022, 4pm-7pm

Address: Diomedes Botanic Garden, Iera Odos 403, Chaidari, Athens

Performances in the Garden: 22-24 September, 2022, 4pm-7pm

Digital exhibition: 22 September – 30 November, 2022 via pcai.gr

Free entrance, by timed ticket booked in advance via diomedes-bg.gr

SG parallel programme fb
From 22 to 24 September, a series of live performances and readings will take place in the Diomedes Botanic Garden.

Participating artists: Theodoros Chiotis, Phoebe Giannisi, Ermira Goro, I broke the vase, Dimitra Ioannou, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Leda Papaconstantinou, Aris Papadopoulos & Martha Pasakopoulou, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), VIGIL (Despina Sanida-Krezia & Fotini Stamatelopoulou), Iria Vrettou

Curated by: Kika Kyriakakou and VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis)

Thursday 22/9
16:00-17:00 Flower garden | I broke the vase
Αn insect in a flower in a flowerbed in a garden*
17:15-17:30 Flower garden | Dimitra Ioannou, META/GARDENS
17:45-18:15 Log theater | Ermira Goro, Formless formation – Momentum
18:30-19:00 Greenhouse (pic nic) | Leda Papaconstantinou, Family portrait

Friday 23/9
16:00-17:30 Log theater | VIGIL (Despina Sanida Krezia & Fotini Stamatelopoulou), Guards
17:30-18:00 Glade (pumping station) | VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), A Day in the Country
18:00-18:30 Greenhouse (pic nic) | Phoebe Giannisi, The Chic Parisien
18:30-19:00 Glade (pumping station) | Iria Vrettou, This bush is a feeling

Saturday 24/9
16:00-18:00 | Flower garden | Chrysanthi Koumianaki, The stage is empty*
18:00-18:30 | Flower garden | Theodoros Chiotis, The walls are falling*
18:30-19:00 | Log theater | arisandmartha (Aris Papadopoulos & Martha Pasakopoulou), Bad Fruit

*walking performance

The entrance to the performances is free, by timed ticket booked in advance online at diomedes-bg.gr.

***
The exhibition is organised with the support and the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the support of the British Council and Flunet Productions.

*

Margarita Athanasiou, Eleni Bagaki, Eva Papamargariti, Maria Varela, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Aris Papadopoulos & Martha Pasakopoulou, Iria Vrettou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Ioanna Gerakidi (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021) is associate curator in the in situ visual arts installation “Straw falling on concrete floors” by internationally renowned visual artist Kostas Velonis, at the courtyard behind the open theater of the Old Olive Mill, presented by 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, in collaboration with the Aeschylia Festival 2022.

The installation draws inspiration from the myth of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, and her daughter, Persephone. With a strict geometric delimitation that functions as a mechanism of gestation and harvesting, agricultural activities are linked to the erotic act. However, the erotic narrative in this monumental sculptural installation is not only underlined by the triangular shape of its structure, but is also found in the functionality of the construction. The “thighs of Demeter” function as an insect shelter with floors consisting of different recyclable materials and plants, which “seduce” all kinds of insects that assist in the pollination process.

The installation will be exhibited from Sunday, August 28 to Sunday, October 23, while its official opening will take place on Thursday, September 8, at 20.30.

Mystery 22_Straw falling on concrete floors | Kostis Velonis
Curatorial Direction: Directorate of Contemporary Art – Zoi Moutsokou | 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture
Associate Curator: Ioanna Gerakidi
Architectural Curation: A Whale’s architects & Diogenis Verigakis
Photography: Panos Kokkinias
Scientific and Material Contribution: Agricultural University of Athens
Production Management: Alexandros Tiliopoulos
Production Coordination: Giorgos Katsonis
Executive Production: opbo studio
Organised by 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture & Aeschylia Festival 2022

A production of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture

Venue: Old Olive Mill, Elefsina
Duration: 28/8 – 23/10
Opening: Thursday 8/9 | 20:30
Opening Hours: 28/8-19/9 Monday-Sunday 19:00-23:00 (on days with performances at 19:00-20:30) 20/9-23/10 Wednesday-Sunday 17:00-21:00
Free admission

More info here.

In 2018, Enterprise Projects founded EP Journal, a publishing initiative in the form of an online publication of newly commissioned theoretical and research essays, in both Greek and English.
The reader can browse through the journal online and download or print individual issues, communicated by a design that resonates with each commission’s subject matter.
Find more about the EP JOURNAL designed by Bend Design Studio here: EP JOURNAL

The 6th issue of EP Journal ” Aspects of the relationship between Logos and the work of art through the case of four Greek visual artists” by Klea Charitou is out now. You can download the issue here.

*Klea Charitou is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2020 (curating)

**Enterprise Projects is an Athens based project by Danai Giannouglou (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2019, curating) and Vasilis Papageorgiou (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2019, visual arts).

AMA House is pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition “History of Absence”, opening on Saturday July 9th, 2022, at Spetses Island.

Following a year-long artist residency program in Greece, AMA House is reclaiming the emblematic building of the formerly all-males boarding school “Anargyrios & Korgialenios Foundation” in Spetses with the exhibition History of Absence, curated by Elina Axioti, and newly commissioned works to Agata Ingarden, Malvina Panagiotidi and Chloé Royer.

Starting from the last year’s issue of AMA house Tactile Ghost, with works by Eva Papamargariti and Marios Stamatis, the History of Absence continues on an investigation of visibility and context, referring again to a certain “fantasmography,” as a way of collecting the uncollectible when the uncollectible can turn to the specter of ghosts. Three speculative installation works present history through re-collections, meaningful options of their reading and attempted distortive perspectives. The works are driven by investigations about local histories attempting an inversion where the ghost-like is reinstated as a present element voiced by feminist practices. Absence becomes evident as the show prioritizes some impossible views. The installations are set as ensembles of sculptural objects, operating on local narratives. Inspired by Iannis Xenakis, who attended the former boarding school as a child, the work of the taxidermist, Dimitris Katsoris, who hunted in the surrounding forest, and the sea creatures. They treat history as an idiosyncratic loss of balance between remains; where narrative emerges as this exact trouble in equilibrium. History is rarely challenging itself enough if it is operated in a visible mode, seeking between visible elements alone; the most important side of history deals with saving the elements that disappeared from it; bringing forward the disappeared can be understood as the driving force of historical creativity. This could be a synonym for forcing absence to become something that it is not. A set of instances, referring to an invisible missing presence, becomes more accurate than absence, crystallizing the local, hidden side of the generic social sphere (while) resisting it in different ways.

History of Absence

Agata Ingarden
Malvina Panagiotidi*
Chloé Royer

Curated by Elina Axioti
Organized & produced by ΑΜΑ House

Opening: Saturday, July 9, 2022, 19:00 – 23:00

Exhibition Duration: July 9 – September 11, 2022

Venue: Anargyrios & Korgialenios Foundation, Spetses Island

Exhibition visiting hours: Daily, 10:00 – 22:00

*Malvina Panagiotidi is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

The exhibition “Ammophila vol.3: There Was Land Here Before” renegotiates our relationship to land, as well as the dominant narratives associated with it. We often think of land as our subsoil, a common ground for coexistence, and we create stories and histories to reinforce this relationship. The exhibition invites us to think of new interpretations and stories regarding real lands, as well as those constructed through our collective fantasies: fantasies of a non-existent land, a land that is different or inhabited differently, a land that can shake us off, a decaying land, a flourishing land, a trembling land, a land without borders. There Was Land Here Before creates narratives around our sense of place and time and how these form our different lives.

Elafonisos, once a peninsula connected to the mainland, was transformed into an island by an earthquake. On this trembling ground, how can we reexamine past narratives and narratives of the past, while replacing them with collective dreams and radical gestures?

Visual Artists:
Alexis Fidetzis, Fotini Kalle, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Panagiotis Kefalas, Electra Maipa, Persephone Nikolakopoulou, Ilias Papailiakis, Poka-Yio, Dimitris Rentoumis, Nana Sachini, Nana Seferli, Eva Stefani, Sasha Streshna, Garden Thief, Kleopatra Tsali, Manos Tsichlis, Vaskos, Marina Velisioti, Christos Venetis, 3 137.

Writers:
Natalia Damigou Papoti, Emmanouela Kiriakopoulou, Anastasia Michopoulou, Christina Papoulia, Eleni Riga, Theophilos Tramboulis, Vicky Tsirou, Evita Tsokanta, Stefanos Yiannoulis, Costis Zouliatis.
Guest performance by Sofia Kouloukouri
Location: Elafonisos School, Elafonisos, Laconia
Duration: 18-28 August 2022
Visiting hours: 18:00-21:00
Curated by:

Musical Performance

post-truth is  

another water  

game I play   

against my mouth 

(electro-acoustic Lamento for 4 performers / sound installation) 

5000 years ago, there was a city — there, we can immerse ourselves in its own perspective  with what is left to be true. Now beings live in the World of the Mouth (inter-verbal space)  but the gates of what remains, are outside their sight.

Participating Artists:

Anna Papathanasiou:  vox – performance /  Stella N. Christou:  vox – performance – digital electronics / Tasos Stamou: Improvised sound sources – analog electronics / Kostas Tzekos:  Bass Clarinet – analog electronics. 

Composition – Installation – Words: Stella N.Christou 

Location: Archaeological Museum of Neapolis Voion, Laconia

*Alexis Fidetzis, Electra Maipa, Nana Seferli, Sasha Streshna, 3 137 and Anna Papathanasiou have been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS.

The international AegeanFF is a non-profit organization that celebrates world cinema, documentaries, shorts and new ideas in the Aegean islands.

Τhis year, in AegeanFF 11th edition, 4 SNF ARTWORKS Fellows – Yorgos Gousis, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Kontantza Kapsali and Dimitris Tsakaleas – are participating with their films.

Check our Fellows’ screenings:

ARM WRESTLER • Documentary • 77’ • Greece • 2022
Director: Yorgos Gousis
Spetses • Tuesday, July 12 • 21.00  • CINE TITANIA

Elissavet Sfyri’s first solo show “The Hawk Shank Redemption” is a hybrid work that merges the boundaries among curation, painting and performance. In this painting on velvet series, humans and hawks coexist and become the protagonists of the same performance.There is a parallel narrative taking place during the show; the performance that is naturally and subconsciously given by the attendees of social gatherings in spaces such as a bar or a gallery. The anthropomorphic hawks painted on fabrics surround their prey and drag it into a unified performance. Throughout this work and show, the artist poses the question whether she/or anyone else could really liberate themselves from the artistic circle and at what price?

Elissavet Sfyri (b. 1994, Athens), finished her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2019. She is a graduate of the Fine Art School of Goldsmiths University London. She has taken part in several group exhibitions internationally such as MAMCO (Geneva), CICA (S.Korea), the National Museum of fine Arts (Taiwan Taipei), the War Museum of Athens (Athens) and she has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2020). She has been officially selected for the 23rd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2021), and was awarded with the International film under 50min Fischer 1st prize for the film ZABETA (in collaboration with Sofia Sfyri), which got nominated for the IRIS Hellenic Film Awards. She recently gave a lecture at the University of West Attica for the MSc in Interior Architecture: Sustainable and Social Design with the title: Social experiments with Aesthetics and sound. She organized, curated, produced and took part as an artist at Saline Art Residency, with permanent public sculptures in Ermioni and Porto Heli Greece, collaborating with emerging artists that right after her residency got supported by international foundations such as; the Somerset House, the Cannes Film Festival, New Museum New York, Lenbachhaus, Chisenhale Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Breeder Gallery, the BFI, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Athens International Film Festival, Benaki museum, NEON Greece, Stegi – the Onassis Foundation, DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation and more. Selected

Exhibitions/Shows: Performative Encounters, Hyle Athens (2021); ZABETA, 23rd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2021); Nychtes Premieras Athens International Film Festival (2021); 1821, ΟΠΤΙΚΗ ΜΙΑΣ ΕΠΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗΣ, War Museum of Athens, Athens (2021); Saline Art Residency, Public Sculptures, Porto Cheli & Ermioni (2018); To Camp, Centre d’Art Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva (2018);Sisyphus Ver. 20.18, National Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2018); New Media Art, CICA museum, Seoul (2018); UR: Human Presence, Aures Sensorium, London (2018); MA Sculpture Show, Royal College of Art, London (2019), WIP show, Royal College of Art, London (2018), Practicing, HD Kepler, Athens (2018); Eye’s walk festival, Syros (2017); Χοροί Χωρεί μας, MIR festival, Athens (2018); _ U _ _ S, London (2016); Goldsmiths Fine Art Show, London (2016)

Aliki Makrygianni completed her master’s degree at Edinburgh University in the Department of Film, Exhibition & Curation in September 2017. She is a graduate of Communication, Media and Cultural Management in Panteion University. In 2017, she got a scholarship from the University of Edinburgh, to do an internship and research at the Microscope Gallery in New York. She has taken part in various seminars such as at the Festival Readings at Eleusis 2021 (2019), at the Plissken Lab of the Plissken Festival (2015), as well as she did an Erasmus at the University Nouvelle Sorbonne-Paris 3, Médiation Culturelle (2011). She has worked at the Art et Marges Museum in Brussels (2014), and was a production assistant at the Syros International Film festival (2016), as well as collaborated with the Greek Ministry of Culture – Festivals Department (2013). She took part in the film selection process at the Cambridge Film Festival (2016) and was a Stage Management Assistant at the Plissken Festival (2015), as well as volunteered at the Oxfam GB Music Shop in Glasgow. Today she works as an art mediator at NEON and at the same time is a freelance booker and event planner for music shows through the french collective and music agency Pilori Productions

The Hawk Shank Redemption
A solo exhibition of Elissavet Sfyri Curated by Aliki Makrigianni
Opening: Monday 11 of July 7.00 pm-10:30 pm
Duration: 11.07.2022 – 15.08.2022
“ΜΙΜΗ” | Daily Bar – Cafe Naoussis 24, Athens 104 47

A series of 44 in the total of painting workshops will be held in the 42 villages of Rhodes, and two more in the city. The start date is May 4 starting from the village of Koskinou. Traversing one by one 20 villages from eastern Rhodes to the southernmost in Kattavia, the workshops will continue from the west side in 22 more villages, until they are completed in the city of Rhodes.

The meeting will take place in the central square of each village, Monday to Friday at 16.00, while on Saturday it will take place in the morning, at 11.00. From the square we will proceed to the place where the workshop will take place, which will last for three hours. The points will be chosen by the artist close to the nature of each village, depending on the landscape.

The broader topic is the exploration of the concept of fascia. The fascia is the connective tissue in animal organisms that holds the vital organs and the entire musculoskeletal system together. Using this metaphor, the artist will visit the villages by bicycle, designed for this trip. The road will be this connecting body that as a fascia unites the villages-organizations through art. At the same time, through painting we will explore the connection between shapes, forms and space. With the surface (of the canvas) as the meeting point and through a series of exercises on the canvas and the space around it, we will move towards the search for ways to capture the meaning of the link, exploring elements of the painting language. Using only basic colors, will lead participants to an organic basic color theory lesson. The materials will be acrylic on canvas and will be distributed to each participant.

The main purpose will be to have the opportunity for people in eccentric and remote areas to get in touch with the art of painting and to be inspired to discover their creativity. As she moves from village to village, the painter will simultaneously practice her own artistic practice. All her personal material (paintings, photos from the workshops and texts) will be exhibited at the end of the activities, in July.

The workshops are aimed mainly at teenagers and young people, but anyone who feels young on their journey in the art of painting is welcome to attend. The villages in order: Koskinou, Kalithies, Afandou, Psinthos, Archangelos, Archipoli, Platania, Malona, Massari, Kalathos, Pylona, Lindos, Lardos, Laerma, Gennadi, Asklipio, Vati, Mesanagros, Lachania, Kattavia, Istrios, Profylia, Siana, Agios Isidoros, Embona, Kritinia, Apollona, Salakos, Dimilia, Kalavarda, Fanes, Soroni, Theologos, Damatria, Maritsa, Pastida, Paradisi, Kremasti, Ialyssos, Rhodes.

Organisation: Dopar, municipality of Rhodes island
Sponsor – cycling support: Diadromes
Thanks for the support: Rhodes Art Park
Communication sponsors: Lotos Magazine lotosmag.gr
Artist: Vatsaki Evangelia

DOPAR organizes
20 + 22 Painting Workshops
with the artist Vatsaki Evangelia

Title: Fascia
Daily 16.00 – 19.00
Saturday 11.00 – 14.00

Evangelia Vatsaki is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow 2021 (visual arts)

Kyveli Zoi
Letters to my future self
29.6 – 18.9  2022

Opening: Wednesday June 29, 2022
ACAPPELLA
Napoli, Via Cappella Vecchia, 8, (Napoli)

The exhibition “underthesun” curated by Odette Kouzou draws upon Tinos’ unique landscape to develop an in-situ installation in the interior and exterior spaces of our hotel. Following the aesthetics and harmony of the majestic, deserted landscape, the works in the exhibition emerge from the natural environment and interact with its defining features such as the light, air, sea and soil.

Location: Under The Sun Cycladic Village, Tinos
Opening: Wednesday, June 22, 19:00 – 22:00
Duration: June 22 – October 3, 2022

Artists: Antonakis, Alexandros Simopoulos, Aristidis Lappas, Despina Haritonidi, Evgenia Vereli, Margarita Myrogianni, Marilia Kolybri, Nana Sachini, Panos Profitis, Socrates Fatouros, Sofia Stevi, Chyrsanthi Koumianaki.

* Alexandros Simopoulos, Aristidis Lappas, Panos Profiti and Chyrsanthi Koumianaki are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows.

On Thursday 16.06 the ΕΜΣΤ new artistic programme kicks off with 5 new exhibitions, of which is the group exhibition “Statecraft (and beyond)” that features works by 39 artists and occupies two floors .

Statecraft is an international group exhibition that explores the underlying mechanisms at work in the engineering of the nation state as we know it today, and the challenges it faces in our globalised, networked world. Probing the history and the processes of nation-building in modern times, Statecraft examines the power structures and processes behind state bureaucracy, governance, and sovereignty, along with their common issues of democracy, citizenship, rights, inclusion, and exclusion. The exhibition also explores the scope and limit of state authority while confronting a new political reality in Europe and beyond during a time of rising nationalism and authoritarianism as some countries revert to an inward-looking model.

Featuring 39 artists, Statecraft looks beyond traditional forms of the nation state towards alternative models of statehood and political organisation, while addressing the current challenges of mass migration and the realities of post- and trans-national structures of organisation, globalisation and technologically enabled nomadism.

As the exhibition was being prepared, Russia invaded Ukraine, making us painfully aware of the fact that the post-Cold War order has begun to unravel, that democracy and national sovereignty are not to be taken for granted, and that unchecked state power leads to violent and dangerous conditions for humans, as well as the environment. In today’s multicultural Europe, it is very difficult to formulate objective criteria for nationhood—as the fluid concepts of identity, language and ethnicity are increasingly shifting. In this context, what is the nation state, this relatively modern artificial construct?

To what degree is the nation an imagined political community, a cultural formation, produced through the continued circulation of discourse, as Benedict Anderson has suggested in his seminal book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and spread of Nationalism? How are the myths that sustain the idea of coherent national community engineered?

Statecraft prompts us to reflect on the nation state in the changed circumstances of today, more than 200 years after its conception as an idea. Can we imagine other models of social organisation and statehood that don’t require identification with a particular flag or passport? What other forms of belonging and community outside the nation state might come into fruition? How can we move beyond the toxicity of nationalism while retaining the benefits of the nation state? Is the concept of “global citizenship,” which is gaining currency in light of the need to find shared solutions to shared problems, at all possible—or even plausible?

The artists in the exhibition critically dissect these issues, revealing the hidden complexities underlying the contested issues of nation and statehood, and compelling us to look at these from unexpected and imaginative angles.

Statecraft inaugurates the new artistic programme of Katerina Gregos, who was appointed artistic director of EMST last year.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated, full-colour catalogue. Available in both Greek and English, it is designed by Rafaela Dražić with texts by Katerina Gregos, Anny Malama, Ioli Tzanetaki, Theophilos Tramboulis and the artists.

Curated by Katerina Gregos

Artists
Bani Abidi, Ewa Axelrad, Zany Begg and Oliver Ressler, Loulou Cherinet, Liu Chuang, Köken Ergun, Katya Ev, Alexis Fidetzis, Marta Górnicka, Ivan Grubanov, Giorgos Gyzis, Lise Harlev, Femke Herregraven, Eleni Kamma, Navine G. Khan-Dossos, Thomas Kilpper, Szabolcs KissPál, Panos Kokkinias, Stéphanie Lagarde, Langlands & Bell, Ella Littwitz, Thomas Locher, Cristina Lucas, Tanja Muravskaja, Marina Naprushkina, Kristina Norman, Daniela Ortiz, Trevor Paglen, Antonis Pittas, Janus Samma, Larissa Sansour, Jonas Staal, Anastastis Stratakis, Sasha Streshna, Maria Varela, Vangelis Vlahos, Eirini Vourloumis

*Maria Varela, Anastasis Stratakis, Sasha Streshna and Alexis Fidetzis are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Statecraft (and beyond)
June 16–October 30, 2022

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST)
EMΣT
Kallirrois Ave. & Amvr. Frantzi Street (former FIX Factory)
11743 Athens
Greece
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–7pm,
Thursday 11am–10pm

Yesterday, at the Iris Awards 2022 ceremon , 3 of our dear Moving Image SNF ARTWORKS Fellows, Yorgos Goussis, Araceli Lemos and Jacqueline Lentzou were among the honored guests.

Yorgos Goussis received the Best Feature Film Award, among the 5 Iris awards that he won in total for his film “Magnetic Fields”! Araceli Lemos was awarded for Best Film Director for “Holy Emy” and Jacqueline’s Lentzou feature film “Moon, 66 Questions” won the award for the Best Editing.

Congratulations to all!

You can check the awards list here.

“Image Making / Παραγωγή Εικόνων” is a visual atlas of image making made by Anastasia Pavlou in 2020. Within it, images and image-making are explored porously, interlacing photographs, scans, digital collages, and drawings in varied non hierarchical configurations. This book can also be seen as a map and a record of personal experience– one that is about looking, and one that looks.

“Image Making / Παραγωγή Εικόνων” doesn’t hinge on the “how” or the “why” of looking, but on the “where”, becoming another locus for considering the environments that are created by the visual perception of a subject. These environments take form between a specific time and an abstract place. Its stream of images is punctuated with fragments of text, which are traces of conversations between people from the same cultural milieu exploring questions about image-making and its place in the world. The publication is formed as a question and a record of related observations. Choosing propositions over answers, it is a visual and textual dialogue with purposefully vague limits and indefinite potential.

It includes contributions from Hugo Canoilas, Vasilis Chamam, Julia Gardener, Panos Giannikopoulos, Danai Giannoglou, Alix Janta, Stellios Kalinikou, Aris Mochloulis, NMR, Margot Norton, Eleni Odisseos, Eva Papamargariti, Yorgos Prinos, Sebastian Lloyd Rees, David Sampethai, Laurentiu Sarjan, Erica Scourti, Kiriakos Spyrou, Jesper List Thomsen, Maria Toumazou, Arnisa Zeqo. With kind support from Nicholas Konstantinidis, Amalia Mytilineou, Leopold Thun, and those who wish to remain anonymous.

“Image Making / Παραγωγή Εικόνων” was designed by Korina Gallika

Image Making / Παραγωγή Εικόνων launch
Anastasia Pavlou
at Goethe-Institut Athen

Book launch:
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
19:00 – 21:00
with a DJ set by Noff

Goethe-Institut Athen
Omirou 14-16
Athens 100 33

“A cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints.”
Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto (1985)

“All possibilities lay before us. We no longer have to choose. We are encouraged to take on the totality of being.”
Dean Lockwood, Rob Coley -Cloud Time: The Inception of the Future (2012)

“Traditions which appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented”
Eric Hobsbawm, “The Invention of Tradition” (1992)

At the dusk of 20th Century, Donna Haraway introduced “A Cyborg Manifesto” essay in an effort “to build an ironic political myth, faithful to feminism, socialism and materialism” using her words. In order to speak about the capitalist technocratic politics, and the possibilities of socialist feminism engagement with science and technology, Haraway, marks the hybrid organism of a cyborg – one of the highest technological achievements of this time- as a historical signifier of the changing conditions that women are experiencing in the late 20th Century but most importantly, anticipate for in the coming Century.

“Paradoxical e-Traditions” draws on the same ironic attitude, as a project that takes as its starting point topics raised in Haraway’s essay, through the lens of the current sociocultural conditions -whilst in the third decade of the 21st Century. Revisiting the essay at a time where social connection and integration is interwoven with emerging technologies, structuring historical transformations, the invited artists disentangle the paradox of living in a culture of ‘capitalist digitality’; “A culture, defined by the global informatic archive to which we are constantly tethered, fosters a dream-like state in which we can both possess and be everything we wish simultaneously” (as mentioned at ‘Cloud Time’ by Dean Lockwood & Rob Coley). The project gathers work and performances that evoke the evolution of the postmodern human relation with the machine, emerging computational technology and its connection with what is classically understood us cultural temporal tradition within societies.

Challenging the emotional resistance of societies to cancel binaries or accept innovation that questions what is perceived as inherent tradition -depending to one’s region and social life, the participating artists employ different mediums and techniques, with the use of -what is usually understood as- “traditional” practices like embroidery and drawing, as art forms adjusted to a contemporary context of art production and dissemination. Involving those with new media technology such as early and contemporary computer graphics, they highlight the challenges of adapting to the ever-changing needs of today’s societies. A recurring twist between digital and physical, past and future as a reflection of present time. Considering the idea of ​​the cyborg world where “people are not afraid of their common kinship with animals and machines, they are not afraid of permanently identities and conflicting views” the project attempts to examine the social perception of gender identities, the representation of feminine bodies in art history, the gender dimension of artificial intelligence, and ecologies of the future as potentially developing (“invented”) traditions.

The exhibition is in constant dialogue with the spatial context in which it evolves; a self-organized artist-run space that fosters experimental ideas and supports independent exhibitions, recognizing the vulnerability of their production process. “Paradoxical e-Traditions” creates a network of care by reclaiming the relationships of trust needed to make these alternative trading processes work, which is the essence that makes up the art communities both globally and locally. As presented in Nicolas Sassoon’s work, “SKYLIGHT”, which captures through idiomatic visuals, his experiences and memories of the autonomous underground scene in Western Canada (Vancouver BC). Places of gathering that cultivated alternative economic gestures, supported by the local art community in Vancouver, are visualized via pixelated patterns and digital moirés based on the traditional aesthetics and wallpapers of the physical spaces he recreates. Theo Triantafyllidis work “Self Portrait” (Reclining Ork), calls to reflect on the stereotypes of gender identities and representation while it further mediates on the divisions between the digital and the physical, juxtaposing traditional imagery to his NB digital hero in the form of a woven tapestry typically seen in folklore museums.
Correspondingly, in her work “Daemonic Ecran Vivant” Iria Vrettou presents a moving portrait based on the idea of ​​Tableau Vivant, recalling a technique of presenting a moving image of the 19th Century. Vrettou brings her handmade designs to life through a ritual of perpetual transformation that highlights the fluidity between human and non-human bodies, the subjectification of gender, time and space. For her installation, Erica Scourti uses everyday materials such as different types of paper, napkins and advertising leaflets to archive thoughts from her daily life into an open-ended work, both of collective and self-narration that explores representation, emotion, subjectivity and consumerism. Kyriaki Goni’s work, “Eternal U ” addresses issues of care and emotional infrastructure of an imaginary(?) future, where the human-machine relationship extends beyond the current perceived limits of gender, of private ownership of data management rights, of the human and mechanical element, presenting a dependence between basic human needs, high technology and capitalist economy.
Marina Velissioti in her work “Pacific Call”, is using older traditional techniques such as the use of the loom and embroidery, to emphasize on the physical gesture. In her handicrafts, she involves stories of science-fiction and modern reality. Issues of the presentation of different identities through the use of text and image are raised through the work of the late Maïa Izzo Foulquier (1991-2019), Homme Sandwich (Femme Propagande). Maïa presented, throughout her work, a very personal and moving critique of capitalist patriarchy, the perception of the role of the woman in society, and of the institutional and behavioral rules that frame this, from the point of view of the artist, sex worker and activist.
The work of Georgia Fambris is characterized by the idea of ​​deconstructing what is usually understood as “traditional” behaviors for females and the use of household appliances “traditionally” made and typically advertised as tools exclusively for female use. Recalling the history of performance art and the representation of the female body in “A Lexicon of Gesture”, Evann Siebens recreates characteristic gestures of, both famous and forgotten by art history, artists, in a self-narration and vulnerable performance described as a “feminist way of learning” art history. The incomplete representation of the female figure echoes through the work of Marina Karella who creates sculptural images that deal with the void, while they carry an energy of presence with the animal form dominating, In her sculpture “Cat” she creates the illusion of fabric and fluidity.

Special thanks to The Breeder Gallery, and Zoumboulakis Galleries in Athens, and Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver BC, for the collaboration.

Paradoxical e-Traditions
A group exhibition curated by Georgia Liapi

With works by:
Georgia Fambris, Kyriaki Goni, Maïa Izzo-Foulquier, Marina Karella, Erica Scourti, Evann Siebens, Nicolas Sassoon, Theo Triantafyllidis, Marina Velisioti, Iria Vrettou

Opening: April 12, 2022, at 17:00. Exhibition Duration: April 12 – May 25, 2022.

Visiting hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 18:00 – 21:00, and by appointment.
P.E.T. Project Space, Kerkyras 87, Kypseli.

*Kyriaki Goni and Iria Vrettou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

The Sunday Cook is the inaugural publication by Kottage, based on the homonymous collaborative Instagram project, born during the first COVID-19 quarantine. Celebrating the importance of interdisciplinarity by bridging the realms of food and art, it documents the culinary experimentations of various contemporary Greek artists — viewing the kitchen as an extension of the studio. The book is part cookbook part art book, featuring a collection of diverse recipes, photographs of their ingredients, execution and luscious results, as well as accompanying texts and interviews, exploring creative hybridity and its transcultural potential.

The launch will include a presentation of the publication, which will be available for purchase — as well as the onsite execution of an original recipe by Greek-Palestinian-Jordanian chef Vasilis Chamam, conceived especially for the event and in direct dialogue with the project’s ideas and content, which will be served to the audience.

Participating artists: Natasa Biza, Eleni Christodoulou, Dimitris Efeoglou, Alexis Fidetzis, Valentina Karga, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Virginia Mastrogiannaki, Kosmas Nikolaou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Kostas Pappas, Nana Sachini, Fotis Sagonas, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Valinia Svoronou, Maria Tsagkari, Maria Varela

With texts by: Sofia Eliza Bouratsis, Vasilis Chamam, Anastasis Stratakis, Christina Tzekou

*Dimitris Efeoglou, Alexis Fidetzis, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Virginia Mastrogiannaki, Kosmas Nikolaou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Valinia Svoronou, Maria Tsagkari, Maria Varela and Christina Tzekou are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows.

APODEC
Verias 4, 54625 Thessaloniki, Greece

12.05.2022, 18:00

More info: https://kottageprojekts.com/tsc2020booklaunch

Space52 presents Forthcoming III, the third chapter of an exhibition series and research project first initiated in 2018. Charting the material traces of artists’ working processes, the exhibition brings together a collection of sculptures, drawings and fragmented artifacts, miniatures of their self-directed works in progress. The exhibition explores the conversations that take place in artists’ studios and studio visits, forming an inquiry into the expansive terrain of contemporary artistic inquiry. As the first show at space52’s new home on Larnakos Street, Forthcoming III invites a diverse group of contemporary artists, architects, and dancers as a starting point for nurturing future exchanges of knowledge and skills within this new site.

Artists’ studios are more than spaces in which art is produced: they embody a certain way of thinking and being that emphasizes emerging, intuitive, embedded, and non-linear processes. As both a non-profit art space hosting a residency program and the home of Dionisis Christofilogiannis’ art studio, space52 is a reservoir of ideas and artistic practices in dynamic dialogue with each another that come to form a collective art studio.

Forthcoming III
Space52
Larnakos 28, 104 46, Athens
28th April – 21st May
www.space52.gr

Opening Reception: 28th April, 19:00-22:00
Opening hours: by appointment ([email protected])

Curator: Dionisis Christofilogiannis
Research Assistant: Athina Lasithiotaki
Catalogue/Poster: Pantelis Vitaliotis – Magneto
Residency Coordinator/Liaison: Ariana Kalliga

Artists: Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Ioannis Dedes, Rene Habermacher, Socrates Fatouros, Lise Harlev, Niκomachi Karakostanoglou, P4 architecture, Nikos Papadopoulos, Ilias Papailiakis, Nikos Sarlis, George Stamatakis, Giorgos Tserionis, Apostolos Karakatsanis, Giorgos Kontis, Karolina Krasouli, Esmeralda Momferratou, Mathias Malling Mortensen, Helene Nymann, Pantelis Vitaliotis – Magneto, Ioanna Ralli, Adonis Stoantzikis, Andi Xhuma, Mary Zygouri

*Giorgos Kontis, Karolina Krasouli and Andi Xhuma are SNF ARTWORKS Fellows

Two creatures are struggling to exist. Everything shatters and everything is put back together. Τhe world and their bodies reattach in ever-changing combinations. These creatures do not know if they will eventually dodge what is about to crush them. Surprisingly they go on and on with their elusive life cycle. After all, the only thing they are left with is survival. Isn’ t life a miracle? They may feel so small and terrified sometimes, some other times a bit aggressive. But let’s be honest here, they are completely harmless. If only they could pull this off!

Credits:
Concept- Choreography: Natasha Sarantopoulou
Performance: Ioanna Antonarou, Natasha Sarantopoulou
Dramaturgy Consultant: Alexandros Mistriotis
Set & Costumes Design: Dimitra Liakoura
Music Composition: Pavlos Katsivelis
Light Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Assistants: Giannis Stavropoulos, Foivos Petropoulos
Photography: Aris Papadopoulos, Periklis Pravitas
Production: En Exallo AMKE, Prosopo Organisation

May 7, 8, 21, 22, 28, 29 at 21.00
M54, Menandrou 54
Pay What You Wish Αdmission
Reservations are required due to limited seating
Reservations: 6977660260
Duration: 30’

Strobe lights will be used during the performance
With the financial support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and NEON Organization.

*Natasa Sarantopoulou is a dance SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

Α “faulty” boy in a -phobic and violent rural greek city. Blood from a punch in a video game and blood off-screen. A boy who isn’t good at being a boy and has to change, has to be slave to other people’s desires. While he only wants to be a slave like Britney Spears in I’m a Slave 4 U; he wants to dance like her because it is fun. A typical Greek family which on the pretence of having the boy’s best interest at heart, has absolutely no idea what’s good for him. A boy that ends up beating up his teddy bears using a belt, pretending to be a dad who takes care of his kids. Past and present collide: a violent father who becomes daddy who becomes daddy issues. Pokemon and Sailor Moon as the grand narratives of childhood, as a mean to escape in a colourful world. And the hope for the metamorphosis, to become something else, something with wings, something away-from-here.

Faulty boy: the performance
The Queer Archive festival #3
Sam Albatros
Romantso, 3 Anaxagora str. Athens
May 12 2022, 21:00-22:00

*Sam Albatros is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow

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