(my) space diary

Monday, December 9, 2013

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 ]

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Misfit Love

Wanna see my past in flames,

Don't waste a drop baby, I ain't fussed.

Where I was born, no escape,

There, there ain't even no good/bad drugs.

In the city is it true?

If you don't, you act like you do.

Feast of fools. I can't wait,

Give 'em a taste of my misfit love.

Complicate.

Encarcerate.

Feel my heart wake up.

Ain't born to lose baby,

I'm born to win,

I'm so goddamn slick baby, it's a sin,

It's a sin.

Transforming is becoming on me...

Do me first, do your worst.

Gimmie what I want some of.

One track mind, no time to waste.

Sidewalks, feel me strut so good?

Gutter, don't forget this face,

Let 'em taste my misfit love.

I'll show you all my dirty tricks,

Then show 'em again,

I'm so proud of em.

It's cruel to be constantly,

Feel my heart play dumb.

Ain't born to lose baby,

I'm born to win,

I'm so goddamn sick baby, it's a sin,

It's a Sin.

Just a dead man, walking through the dead of night,

And if you are going anywhere tonight? Just a dead end,

Walking through the dead of night and if you are going,

Can I get a ride?

Just a dead man walking through the dead of night,

Its impossible to wait until the light,

Cause, I'm already gone,

If you bet on me, you've won.

Queens Of The Stone Age

Friday, December 6, 2013

Remap 4 part 3

Remap 4

part 3

point 9

WHAT LIES HIDDEN REMAINS UNFAMILIAR

CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery

The show examines the hidden elements that constitute life. It investigates and questions sites, spaces and perceived notions that contribute on shaping our perception of reality. Fear, myth, science fiction, memory, cinema and tradition. Michalis Zachariasexposes scenes from the sci-fi erotic movie UltraFlesh, Maria Kriaracreates elaborate drawings with pencil on paper that manifest her own vision of a Warburgian Atlas. Diamantis Sotiropoulos presents us with half human half animal creatures from the world of fantasy.Panayiotis Loukas creates a personal mythology that illustrates a series of dead painters. Tula Plumi exhibits sculptural objects with fabrics that hang on the wall like erased canvases. Stelios Karamanolis paints awkward moments from the past forcing us to a re-evaluation of history. Lefteris Tapas continues his philosophical search of the ‘real’ through a monumental wall-piece from his Garden series.

Zoi Gaitanidou employs the technique of drawing, cutting and sewing to create a tapestry-like canvas that unfolds an apocalyptic narrative of a mysterious tribe of humanoids whose world is significantly altered after an encounter with a seventies-styled spaceship. Yorgos Stamkopoulos is dealing with the constant presence of the unknown through abstract paintings that constitute landscapes of an inner vision, meditative works referring to existence and characterized by temporality, melancholy, anticipation and energy. Pavlos Tsakonas references to industrial-urban to create a space installation with objects that create a new optical reality and last but not least, Daskalakis-Lemos‘ work deals with traces left in time that create an alternative reading of history and an archive of memories that take us from the specific to the general, while it attempts to create meaning through a combination of the philosophical with an image-historical approach and site-specific paradigms. [ link ]

Artists: Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos, Zoi Gaitanidou, Stelios Karamanolis, Maria Kriara, Panayiotis Loukas, Tula Plumi, Diamantis Sotiropoulos, Yorgos Stamkopoulos, Lefteris Tapas, Pavlos Tsakonas, Michalis Zacharias

OF PEOPLE I LOVE AND THINGS I DON’T KNOW

Artist: Giorgos Gripeos

Elika Gallery

Three distinct elements, a series of photographic portraits, copper pipes and water, compose Giorgos Gripeos’ work, Of People I Love and Things I don’t Know, presented by Elika Gallery at Remap 4.

Portraits of family members, friends, and people that have passed through the artists’ life and have become part of it, as well as the human relations to which these portraits refer, sketch out the destination of the journey the artist embarked upon when he left Greece several years ago.

Old copper pipes, collected from various construction sites, carrying with them their respective stories, stories of the homes and walls they once belonged to, agents of water, life and memory, anticipate union and expansion.

A poetic dimension is at play in the final part of the installation, where the clear reflection of the visitor in a bucket of water is dispersed, as a dripping tap disturbs the waters’ surface, causing one to turn their gaze inwards.

The installation as a whole forms an interactive system where all elements, including the space and the visitor, function together as a unified improvised and sensitive instrument to reveal a universal image portraying us all.

Giorgos Gripeos was born in 1973 in Piraeus. He holds a BFA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands. He has presented his work in three solo shows and has participated in several group shows both in Greece and the Netherlands. He currently lives and works in Amsterdam. [ link ]

INDEPENDENT PROJECT BY AUGUSTA ATLA, VISUAL ARTIST DK

YGGDRASIL

Yggdrasil is the Nordic name for The Tree of Life in Nordic mythology. According to Nordic mythology, Yggdrasil is the tree connecting all worlds. It is considered as holy and the gods go to Yggdrasil to assemble their things. The wisdom and fate of all men float in the waters of the tree.

Continuing as late as the 19th century, warden trees were venerated in areas of Scandinavia. They were considered to be guardians and bringers of luck and offerings were sometimes given to them.

There is said to be a sacred tree in Tingvellir in Iceland and a huge tree standing in Uppsala in Sweden. Both are described as remaining green throughout summer and winter and no one knows what types of trees they are. The artwork Yggdrasil by Augusta Atla is a prayer for luck, protection, vitality, love, growth and health. YGGDRASIL solo show by Augusta Atla, incl. artworks by invited guest artist Nikolaos Branidis [ link ]

point 10

PAUL DESBOROUGH: MISHEARD LYRICS

Rebecca Camhi

Curated by: Francesco Nevola, TFA | Teverina Fine Art, Cortona

The paintings of Paul Desborough challenge our most basic assumptions about the nature of painting. By being neither on canvas or panel, his works sever the conventional bond between medium and support to develop a new strategy of painting for our time and in turn to celebrate the physical materiality of the paint. The act of making the paint mark is preserved in its essence: unconstrained by framing edges, each paint-skin is stretched through space or over a surface, to activate and become one with its setting. By blurring with the boundaries of sculpture and installation the formal limits of painting are challenged afresh.

Paul Desborough’s portable murals are not site-specific works: rather they are the means by which the site is conditioned. They take charge of the space they inhabit they activate the walls by breaking through their confining nature, engendering a spontaneous flow of colour, light, depth and thought.

A close inspection of Desborough’s paint-skins – characterised by an intuitive instinct for abstraction combined with a technical facility in the classical tradition – reveals the presence of photographic images from consumer product packaging grafted into the skin of each painting. In his works the commercial aspect of the appropriated and embedded images is corrupted and re-individualised to serve as a platform for the interpretative reading of the work.

Desborough’s intuitive pictorial approach to appropriated print media images unleashes the potential of narrative transformation: in the flash of awareness before conscious understanding we become aware of layered references, from which the impulse of new meaning self-generates. An exuberant pallet of venetian colour, a Baroque grandeur of scale, and a gravity defying lightness seemingly revel with the molten metallic edge of a rock-riff or cinematic sequence, to create a cultural fusion all its own: an aesthetic arena unconfined by the framing edge of categorisation – a pictorial space in which the most unexpected cultural synergies are brought into play to create a new narrative for the present.

Paul Desborough makes his paintings in series: he calls these Albumsto underline the influence of counter-culture rock-pop music and those band’s recording achievements, which he likens to his approach to image making. This exhibition presents a selection ofSingles from his recent Albums – notably the Earlier Influences: works that fully reveal the artist’s refinement and control of a seemingly informal technique. [link ]

Thursday, December 5, 2013

You Can't Quit Me Baby

It's a mistake, but who knows

Followed you home, crawled in your window

This life is a trip when you're psycho in love

And I know

Followed your friends, you were not there

Slashed and I cut, I bled in the sink

Heard what you said and you're laughing baby

Slashed and I cut, and I do it for you

I want you to notice when I'm not around

Wherever you are

You're solid gold

I'll see you in hell

Queens Of The Stone Age

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Remap 4 part 2

Remap 4

part 2

point 06

ROMANTIC DAWN

Federico Vavassori - Artist: Dario Guccio

They shared the same passion for tennis. They used to meet on the school’s terrace on Thursdays to kiss and then go to the court. He was climbing the stairs that run along the school, leading to the terrace. Before taking the last step, he saw Her through the thick net on the rooftop, kissing the new class president. They detatched only when the wind came and ruffled the girl’s hair. Nothing remained to Him but the scent of honey floating on the stairs. [ link ]

WYATT KAHN - STILLS

WESLEY MARTIN BERG - SHADOW KINGDOM

Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

WESLEY MARTIN BERG – SHADOW KINGDOM

Shadow kingdom is a new body of work made up of painting and sculpture.The imagery in these works is the representation of a singular character (the hobo) that I have been working with over the past 5 years. This ambivalent character is mostly hidden behind this own vignette made up by a hat and overcoat, masking his real thoughts and identity. My character is an evolution of this american archetype made famous by writers like walt whitman and jack london and through american comic strips and films. The importance of this character is in metaphor, in social fluidity for freedom from social code and ethos. The shows title shadow kingdom was chosen to describe this attitude. [ link ]

DIAMONDS IN THE MINE

Maccarone, NY

Hanna Liden’s works are inspired by the banality of city life, present-day memento moris, and the everlasting cycle of urban rebirth and decay. Diamonds in the Mine, named after the Leonard Cohen song, takes on emptiness as its prevailing theme. What remains when everything is gone; what fills that void?

Liden also presents a two-dimensional work, consisting of four screen-printed panels that depict trash bags lining the sidewalk. These trash bags are yet another form of the “stack” which, like the boulder sculptures, speaks to the detritus that people leave behind. In the piles of waste and garbage is a pervasive sense of absence and abandonment.

Diamonds in the Mine is as much about the act of leaving behind as it is about an intrinsic emptiness. In Liden’s works the proverbial “mine” can be attributed to both a physical as well as a psychological state. Yet in exploring ideas of emptiness, hopelessness, and longing, something poetic is unearthed.

Hanna Liden lives and works in New York. [ link ]

point 08

ANDREW DADSON

Galleria Franco Noero

Andrew Dadson, of Vancouver B.C., will present a project composed by a painting and sculptural works that deal with the idea of painting in different medias. The artist creates paintings of intensely worked layers of oil paint, pushed unidirectionally across the painting’s support, allowing a thick blur to settle on the picture plane while excesses of color build up at the edges. Combining multiple canvases in small groups that often sit on the floor and lean on each other, he emphasizes the physicality of his process and the object-like nature of the results. Through the painting and a sculptural installation of plants that will be completely painted in black and that will be presented during ReMap, Dadson explores his assertion that “. . . everything has boundaries; the delimitations between such can be static and opaque or permeable and imagined. In my practice, I search for the spaces where society manifests these invisible distinctions, and how they can be indiscernibly breached and stretched.” [ link ]

KYPSELI FANZINE

Κυψέλη

KYPSELI is an independent publication initiated by a company of creators who live in or care for the neighborhood of Kypseli. It comes out every two months. Following the tradition of fanzines, the publication consists of black and white photocopies on low gram paper so that the production cost is kept low budget and its independent character is secured. The word “kypseli” (literally meaning beehive) doesn’t refer solely to a certain neighborhood in Athens. It also applies to a structure and an attitude, it’s a cue, a call to reclaim the city center and participate equally in its polymorphous and complex life. The first issue came out in April 2013. In September 2013, celebrating the launch of the fourth issue, we shall organize a big presentation show at REMAP 4. The project will include a curated exhibition of original pages, prints and objects by the fanzine crew and guest creators and an alternating program of music, dance and theater performances. [ link ]