Medium as Narrative

Medium as Narrative

The idea that triggered this exhibition is that the very material from which visual artworks are made forms part of their narrative. In addition to the diverse aesthetic and stylistic “discoveries” of modernism, a seminal element in its legacy is the gradual shift from large-scale compositions, often on historical or religious subjects, to the poetics of small, everyday things, to the aesthetics of the commonplace and the – at least at first glance – trivial. A turning point in this shift was the move from painting to three-dimensional art, to relief and to the introduction of materials and objects, as was the re-assessment of the form-content relationship.

It was in this context that, already in the early 20th century, a series of works were produced in which experimentation with the medium expanded the narrative scope and ushered in new aesthetic pursuits. To mention but a few, Pablo Picasso’s Assemblages, Dadaist anti-art, Marcel Duchamp’s Ready-mades, artworks by the French New Realists. 

It remains a fact that often in the history of 20th-century art artists’ choices of medium were made so as to showcase aspects of the material world and the potential of poetic metamorphosis, re-signifying and extending the concept of visual creativity, or establishing material as the principal constituent of art, or even proclaiming the object itself as art.

The exhibition focuses on a distinctive facet of visual art – the medium, and the narrative context that this establishes. Related trends emerged in the Greek visual arts in the early 1960s. This was a period when several artists explored the question of physicality and introduced the object in their work – a seminal development in Greek art. Tracing the evolution of this phenomenon across generations of artists, the show reveals eloquent examples of the interplay of material, object and narrative. Limitations notwithstanding, and not claiming to include an exhaustive selection of work by relevant artists, the exhibition proposes a representative, evolutionary and generational overview.

Participating artists:

Andreas Voussouras, Giorgos Gyparakis, Daniel, Vangelis Dimitreas, Giorgos Divaris, Diochanti, Thodoris Zafeiropoulos, Stephanos Kamaris, Vlassis Kaniaris, Angie Karatza, Michalis Katzourakis, Nikos Kessanlis, Peggy Kliafa, Nikos Makarounas, Stavros Bonatsos, Yannis Bouteas, Kriton Papadopoulos, Leonidas Papadopoulos, Rena Papaspyrou, Eftychis Patsourakis, Andreas Savva, Christina Sgouromyti, Angelos Skourtis, Marios Spiliopoulos, Aspa Stassinopoulou, Giorgos Tsakiris, Pantelis Chandris, Panos Haralambous, Giorgos Harvalias, Pythagoras Hatziandreou, Ersi Hatziargyrou, Youla Hatzigeorgiou, Thaleia Chioti, Kostas Christopoulos, Alexandros Psychoulis.

Concept and original design: Giorgos Divaris, Kostas Christopoulos

Curator: Lina Tsikouta   -- [ more ]