13 Goodbyes

13 goodbyes for 2013

A new generation of Greek artists

A fresh 

A new generation of Greek artists

Curated By: Daphne Dragona, Tina Pandi, Daphne Vitali

Shortly before the completion of its permanent home, EMST is shifting its focus to the young generation of Greek artists. Afreshexhibition highlights the closure of EMST’s first significant period that counts already 13 years and the beginning of a new promising chapter in its permanent location.

Main aim of the museum’s exhibition policy since the beginning has been to bring out the most vibrant, progressive and innovative domestic artistic forces, while enabling the opportunity for artists to create new works of art. Afresh exhibition explores our future in an international environment, presents the new questions posed, showcases these emerging artists as they gain momentum.

A systematic and thorough research that lasted about two years has proceeded. Starting point was EMST’s open invitation to the artistic community in an attempt to map the new generation that resulted in the collection of over 1000 portfolios of Greek Artists.

KERNEL - Reciting

Participating artists: Christos Vagiatas, Hrysa Valsamaki, Ino Varvariti, Maria Varela, Afroditi Psarra, Marinos Koutsomichalis, Paky Vlassopoulou, Panagiotis Vorrias, Theodoros Giannakis, Natalie Yiaxi, Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos, Athanasios Zagorisios, Efthimis Theou and Thanasis Deligiannis, Valentina Karga, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Marinos Koutsomichalis, Alexandros Laios, Kernel (Petros Moris, Pegy Zali, Theodoros Giannakis), Bill Balaskas, Rania Bellou, Petros Moris, Kosmas Nikolaou, Sofia Dona, Myrto Xanthopoulou, Ioanna Ximeri, Maria Papanikolaou, Tula Plumi, Erica Scourti, Εvangelia Spiliopoulou, Anastasis Stratakis, Stefania Strouza, Maria Tsagkari, Maro Fasouli, Myrto Ferentinou, Marianna Christofides, City Index Lab + Energize  [ link  ]

Lungs

Well, won't you lend your lungs to me?

Mine are collapsin'

Plant my feet and bitterly breathe

Up the time that's passin'

Breath I'll take and breath I'll give

And pray the day is not poisoned

Stand among the ones that live

In lonely indecision

Well, fingers walk the darkness down

Mind is on the midnight

Gather up the gold you've found

You fool it's only moonlight

If you try to take it home

Your hands will turn to butter

You better leave this dream alone

Try to find another

Salvation sat and crossed herself

Called the devil partner

Wisdom burned upon a shelf

Who'll kill the raging cancer

Seal the river at its mouth

Take the water prisoner

Fill the sky with screams and cries

Bathe in fiery answers

And I for one, and you for two

Ain't got the time for outside

Keep your injured looks to you

We'll tell the world that we tried

Townes Van Zandt

Parenthesis

One broken wing, 

Soaring and suffering, 

Arm in a sling, 

I don’t owe you anything. 

I’m a bad absentee, 

You know when I want to leave. 

So close up your knees, 

And I’ll close your parentheses. 

I’m a bad amputee, 

With no phantom memory. 

So close up your knees, 

And I’ll close your parentheses.

Tricky

Painting Matters

Painting Matters

Elika Gallery presents the group showPainting Matters. Seven contemporary Greek painters examine the significance of painting, addressing some of its key issues. The ambiguity of the shows’ title forms the starting point for its materialization: while it draws attention to a commonplace that painting still matters, it simultaneously raises questions that are particularly pertinent at the present time, such as why it still does, what are its particularities, and from where it draws its power of expression. The artists in the show aim to explore the possibilities of the act of painting, consciously oscillating between the gentle conviction and persistent questioning born out of the coexistence of the two words that make up the exhibition title.

Among the issues posed by painting today, many of which have been persistently arising as part of the discussion revolving around the medium in the last few decades, are the ones questioning its very limits, its relationship to the present, to memory and history, its interaction with other media such as photography, sculpture, literature and film, as well as the need to reinstate romantic irony as a critical stance towards the proliferation of images.

The artists participating in the exhibition find themselves in a constant search of defining their own relationship with the history of painting as well as pinning down the position their work holds in that history. What does it mean for someone to still paint nowadays, when «everything has already been said by the great masters»?. What is the driving force behind the choice to paint and how is this analyzed and assimilated by the artist? Through this process the blank canvas becomes a battlefield. While it is possible that this battle could ultimately lead to freedom of expression it may as well not. In any case, painting seems to be for these artists a one way street.

Moreover, the exhibition addresses the need to define contemporary painting, both on an international level, as well as in our country which, maintains a characteristic tradition in the teaching of painting as a starting point, as well as the basis of a visual arts language.

Participating artists: Eugenia Apostolou, Vasilis Vasilakakis, Vangelis Gokas, Vasilis Zografos, Yannis Malegiannakis, Ilias Papailiakis, Maria Polizoidou

[ link ]

Nothin'

 Hey mama, when you leave

Don't leave a thing behind

I don't want nothin'

I can't use nothin'

Take care into the hall

And if you see my friends

Tell them I'm fine

Not using nothin'

Almost burned out my eyes

Threw my ears down to the floor

I didn't see nothin'

I didn't hear nothin'

I stood there like a block of stone

Knowin' all I had to know

And nothin' more

Man, that's nothin'

As brothers our troubles are

Locked in each others arms

And you better pray

They never find you

Your back ain't strong enough

For burdens doublefold

They'd crush you down

Down into nothin'

Being born is going blind

And buying down a thousand times

To echoes strung

On pure temptation

Sorrow and solitude

These are the precious things

And the only words

That are worth rememberin'

Townes Van Zandt

X-mas Trees

This year's X-mas trees

Merry X-mas