SAVE

SAVE

(To make safe; to procure the safety of; to preserve from injury, destruction, or evil of any kind; to rescue from impending danger; as, to save a house …)

“SAVE” participants submit a critical commentary on the relationship between contemporary cultural and the political conditions in our country. A country with cracks in the perspective of modernity which prompted once the romantic request for a “total experience of Utopia” beyond the limiting distance overcoming space and time. “Is this the end or the beginning of the nightmare?” Each answer remains pending until viewers search for possible participation in the universe of the image and they find their own “Native Land” through this journey.

On the occasion of the above considerations, the exhibition deals with the conditions of protection, rescue, and healing from potential risks in a morally changing world.

“SAVE” is curated by George Tserionis and is held in collaboration with ENTROPIA Theater. The exhibition constitutes part of its new international production «P.I.G.S», which has been conceived and directed by Marilli Mastrantoni.

Participating artists: Andreas Voussouras, Georgia Kotretsos, Lina Gaki, Nikos Palaiologos, Efi Fouriki, Giannis Sinioroglou, Giorgos Tserionis, Lea Petrou, Babis Karalis, Giannis Christakos, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Maria Tsagkari, George Gyzis, Panos Famelis, Kostantinos Stamatiou, Natasha Poulantza, Villy Manolakou, Kostantinos Ladianos

Curated by: George Tserionis   [ more ] 

AGORA

Given that 2011 was the year of protesting and dreaming dangerously, 2013 prompts us to think responsively and come up with useful ideas and suggestions. At a time when the financial crisis in Greece and elsewhere is reaching a highpoint, the 4th Athens Biennale (AB4) cannot but respond to this bleak situation through a pertinent question: Now what?

While Monodrome (AB3) attempted to reflect upon Modern Greek history and the origins of the crisis, this year the Biennale will set out to explore creative alternatives to a state of bankruptcy.

Pondering this turning point, AB4 puts into play the collaborative process in producing an exhibition. Titled AGORA, it reflects on the way a biennale has to operate under the current socio-economic circumstances. Using the empty building of the former Athens Stock Exchange as its main venue, AB4 proposes AGORA not only as a place of exchange and interaction, but also as an ideal setting for critique. 

Contrary to an idealized image of the ancient agora, this new AGORA points to a radical re-orientation in thinking – one that entails judgment, ruptures and conflict. As a contested space where multiple theses and doctrines emerge, this AGORA cannot be taken for granted: it aims for pleasure and purpose; it opts for the carnivalesque and the ambiguous, for the significant as much as the insignificant.

AGORA draws on the notions of the assembly and the assemblage. Conceived both as a living organism and an exquisite corpse, it is formulated through a succession of objects, collaborative events, performances, roundtable discussions, film screenings, workshops and educational programs. In AGORA works and theses evoke that which is urgently needed at this particular moment: an engaged subjectivity, an unearthing of timely attitudes, a reevaluation of artistic strategies, a deconstruction of mystifying narratives.

AB4 will be realized by a nameless and ephemeral group of artists, curators, theorists and practitioners in the creative industries. AGORA is thus a collective experiment, the result of a process of fermentation between professionals from different backgrounds. What matters most to those who participate in such an experiment is a shared sense of responsibility and an urge to co-produce meaning. [ info ]

Remap 4 Part 4

Remap 4

part 4

point 17

HOMO UNIVERSALIS REVISITED: INDEPENDENT PROJECT 

CURATED BY MARIA PAPAIOANNOU AND MARIA DIALEKTAKI

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it”.

Pablo Picasso

Trying out new media and exploring new ways of expression helps expanding the technical, aesthetic and conceptual framework of creation. Yet, it is a very demanding and difficult procedure. Today’s dire financial crisis and the consequent growing general uncertainty make experimenting even harder. Thus, sometimes artists find working within a more recognizable pattern and complying with a given identity simply safer. For others, limiting down their creativity is another way to fit in the demanding and extremely competitive art world. However, from Pablo Picasso and Louise Bourgeois to Adam Chodzko and Ryan Gander, the artistic creation presents an illustrious line-up of artists who kept and keep experimenting with different media, forms and contents.

‘Homo Universalis Revisited’ is an exhibition that investigates the concept of the Renaissance man by means of focusing entirely on the ability of the artist to use and express him-/herself in different mediums and art forms. This exhibition is also an experiment; it will try to see whether the artist of today can personify the restless and inquisitive spirit of the universal man.

‘Homo Universalis Revisited’ is focusing on the role of the artist, which is often taken to be an attempt to recast reality in different expressive modalities. Crucially, artists live and work within a specific sociocultural context, which unavoidably drives, and even channels, their (artistic) creativity. In this sense, the role of the artist constantly changes along with the setting within which they operate.

So, how can the artist of a given ‘today’ express the ever- changing ‘zeitgeist’ in terms of new mediums without losing the constitutive elements of his/her own identity? Paraphrasing the homo universalis, what is the importance, as well as the value of absolute success? How can it be measured when it is being tested and contrasted to the new, the different and the non-recurring?

Eleven artists who work with a wide range of media were asked to experiment with a medium they have never worked before or a new art form. ‘Homo Universalis Revisited’ has invited them to explore different materials and styles and in this way trace the endless possibilities of human creativity through exploring an aspect of their work unknown equally to their audience and themselves.

Artists: Dimitris Baboulis, Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Nikos Gyftakis, Thanos Klonaris, Maria Lianou, Amelia Newton Whitelaw, Oré, Nana Sachini, Philippos Theodorides, Sofia Touboura, Marina Velisioti

Curators: Maria Papaioannou and Maria Dialektaki

CAMP CONTEMPORARY ART MEETING POINT

Loxodrome

Loxodrome is an intervention / site-specific installation on the second floor of Iasonos 47 st. As part of this installation the space hosting the project is sculpturally approached through interventions and additions on the space itself as well as other objects / readymades that are incorporated and adjusted to the space. The sculptural manipulation aims towards reappropriating the space, unifying it and creating the circumstances that allow for its empirical experience on the part of the visitor. Similarly to a brief stop in the middle of a long journey, Loxodrome aims to create an enclosed universe, urging the visitor to explore “alternative routes”, different viewpionts and experience alternative micro-destinations – to let loose in the investigation of the new dimension proposed.

At the same time, the installation acts as a platform and an exhibition space for works that form part of the project. Works by guest artists are incorporated into the work, mark the space and become part of a uniform whole, suggesting an alternative view of the architectural built environment hosting the project. [ link ]

Artists: Irini Bachlitzanaki, Alice Evans, Clare Flatley, Dimitris Georgakopoulos, Villi Manolakou, Ifigenia Papamikroulea, Maria Tzanakou, Christos Vagiatas, Augustus Veinoglou

Curators: Augustus Veinoglou, Irini Bachlitzanaki

Now logic must take care of itself: an independent project by Nana Sachini

Taking into consideration the polyphony of the specific region and its extreme contradictions, the exhibition-installation is a questioning about the value of decisions that only seem rational (rational-like) and the value of “spaces-places” that function as holes-voids in the rational structures.

Traditional sculptural materials and readymades, cheap items and/ or with a false semblance of luxury are recomposed into a “noisy parade” of constructs, in a way that the physical and functional properties of materials and objects to be altered.

The title is an appropriation from the work of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”, an ambitious project which questions the relationship between logic, language and reality and their limits.

The absence of logic could cause euphoria or/and agitation and annoyance. Furthermore this absence could lead to invention or/and understanding of new systems with new types of tools.

Considering works of art as structures do the spectators’ thoughts-projections on the work reinforce, alter, interpret, shift, deform, erode or do they “give life” to this structure?

The sound in the installation is a composition-edited sound from texts-responses-thoughts-projections from the “first spectators” of the work, who became “co-creators” and “co-destructors” -while they “contributed” to the progress of the work with their comments.

In addition a series of photos- from specific views of the sculptures that the spectator hardly sees- is presented. S/He could see these views only if s/he moved his body “paradoxically”, i.e. if s/he stooped too much, laid, crawled etc.

Nana Sachini studied in Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK (Master and Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art) and in School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki, Greece(BA Hons in Painting).

Her work embraces various media including drawing, sculpture, installation, performance and photography.  [ link ]

THIS IS AMATEUR

U.F.O. (unidentified found object)

Participants: Unknown artistsCurator: This is Amateur

U.F.O. (unidentified found object) showcases found artefacts and everyday objects selected and reassigned by This is Amateur. A selection of ready-mades, outsider art, amateur crafts and cultural leftovers are being drawn out of obscurity and put under the spotlight in an art space thus challenging our concepts of authenticity and artistic value. The combination of different things, never meant to be associated, creates new images and unexpected meanings. [ link ]

Kawaii

Kawaii – かわいい

Kawaii かわいい as the cute, small, round and irresistibly adorable is a concept that originates from Japan and thrives in the temperate environment of global consumerism.

During the 70’s and 80’s, Kawaii significantly contributed in the development of Japanese sub-culture, as expressed particularly in the video-game industry, Manga comics and Anime films. Since then, Kawaii’s overpowered cuteness has been widely applied in the industry and has therefore influenced the art market.

From Hello Kitty to Takashi Murakami’s overwhelming paintings, Kawaii lends a unique style and adds monetary value that transforms everyday objects into irresistible must-have products. Nowadays, it constitutes a massive pop phenomenon, which is being daily expressed through millions of users in the social media all around the world.

Inspired by the wider concept and aesthetics of Kawaii, 13 Greek and 13 Japanese artists present their new work at CAMP. Clear and vivid colours, houmor, naivety and self-sarcasm converse with the ingenuity of visual arts and produce a range of paintings, drawings, sculpture and video. This exhibition attempts to renegotiate the notion of “cuteness” and at the same time react to its crisis-striken and grave surroundings.

All exhibiting artists cling stubbornly on かわいい’s sweetness and cover a wide spectrum of fairytale, eroticism, fantasy, cynisism and mainstream.

Kawaii is curated by Michael Parlamas, Olympia Toptsidou, Tadashi Mitani and CHEAPART. [more] 

Participating Artists:

Satoshi Ago

Eleftheria Alexandri

Hyon Gyon

Masae Kariya

Katerina Katsioura

Nina Kotamanidou

Asako Masunouchi

Mayu

Tadashi Mitani

Jiro Murakami

Asako Otsuka

Michael Parlamas

Christos Ponis

Fotini Poulia

Kenichi Sawazaki

Eri Skyrgianni

Hideyuki Tanaka

Sawako Tanizawa

Lina Theodorou

Nozomi Tojinbara

Olympia Toptsidou

Maggy Touliatou

Maria Tsimpourla

Ayako Tsunekawa

Maria Vozali

Grigoria Vryttia