Fever of the antique

Fever of the antique

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Association of Greek Archaeologists

The exhibition Fever of the antique enlightens the aesthetics of fragmentation through the influence that the practice of excavation exercised on the configuration of modernity's logic of representation and identity. In addition, it enquires the meaning, which has been attributed to the recovery of the extracts of the past in the contemporary Greek condition and the ideology of the collective self-determination.

The systematic excavations implemented under the shadow of the ideas of neoclassicism and romanticism by the archaeological schools of the emerging European nation states, brought to light numerous, yet unseen, fragments of earlier cultures. The condition of the findings, despite the deterioration and the elliptical quality of the figures, was idealized and influenced the Western perceptibility. It configured, not only a visual model but also an ideological, ethical and aesthetical legacy. What until then had only been slightly discernible, was eventually embedded in the Western Canon of modernity: the aesthetics of the fragment, the poetics of elliptical narration, concealment, repulsion and hint; and in dialectical contradiction, the logic of the archive (as a substitution for the incoherently structured -early colonial- cabinet of curiosities), the need for recalling, narrating and putting in order an already existing material, the retrospective attribution of meaning.

Fever of the antique associates the poetics of fragmentation with the sense of detachment experienced by modern subjects; the dematerialisation of the present and the urge to constantly interpret the elusive past, constitute the subject of exploration by the artistic practices, which are woven together in the curatorial project. The exhibition, above all, seeks to remind the need for tracing the path towards the principle of reality and encourages an embedded perspective as a prop, which will provide the foundation for the lessening of the local identity's precarious correlations. Finally, Fever of the antique addresses a positioning beyond antiquity's continuous recurrence (i.e. out of the power of the precedent), testing the symmetries between the present and the past.

Curated by Evangelia Ledaki

Visual identity: Christos Kotsinis

Coordination: Fotis Georgiadis and Evangelia Ledaki

Artists: 

Paki Vlassopoulou, Kostis Velonis, Efthimis Theou/Electra Angelopoulou/Anthi Efstratiadou, Lizi Kalliga, Alexandros Laios, Kostas Bassanos, Yiannis Papadopoulos, Nina Papaconstantinou, Dimitris Foutris, Kostas Christopoulos

Venue: 

Association of Greek Archaeologists

[ links: GR  EN ]

Καθημερινότητα

Η φωτογραφική ομάδα F9 παρουσίασε την έκθεση με τίτλο: "Καθημερινότητα" στο Πνευματικό Κέντρο της Άμφισσας από τις 4 μέχρι και τις 10 Οκτωβρίου 2013.

Μιλώντας για την καθημερινότητα αναφερόμαστε σε μια βεβαιότητα ότι αυτή η καθημερινή δράση των ανθρώπων υπάρχει και είναι η μόνη αληθινή κίνηση που άμεσα μας προσανατολίζει- θεωρητικά με ασφάλεια-μέσα στο χώρο/χρόνο. Αυτός ο αυτοκαθορισμός μας ή ετεροκαθορισμός μας από την αίσθηση μιας δεδομένης πραγματικότητας εμφανίζει μια διαρκή –σε μεγάλο βαθμό ασυνείδητη-πρακτική καταστάσεων ζωής, δημιουργώντας την αίσθηση της αμεσότητας και της οικειότητας με ένα κόσμο όπου πραγματικότητα και αλήθεια ταυτίζονται.

Εξυπακούεται ότι η καθημερινότητα δεν αποτελείται μόνο από πράξεις και πρακτικές, αλλά και από αντίστοιχες μορφές συνείδησης ,σκέψεις, ιδέες, επιθυμίες φαντασιώσεις. Εάν ,ωστόσο, υπάρχει ένα σημείο περατότητας σ’αυτή τη συνήθη κατάσταση της ζωή μας, που όλοι μας εμπλεκόμαστε, αυτός είναι ο θάνατος, που αν και γεγονός ανοίκειο και άρα μη καθημερινό, εισέρχεται και λαμβάνει τη θέση του στην καθημερινότητα της μνήμης και της επόμενης ημέρας.

Πολλές φορές ή και συνέχεια σκεφτόμαστε την υπέρβαση και τη διαφυγή μας από την επανάληψη σχεδιάζοντας μια άλλη διαχείριση της καθημερινότητας ίσως και τη ριζική ανατροπή της.

Η φωτογραφική αποτύπωση παγώνει διάτρητα και αδιάκριτα πολλές φορές τη ροή του καθημερινού χρόνου, αποκαλύπτοντας ή έντεχνα σιωπώντας δεδομένα της τροχιάς όλων μας. Όμως η φωτογραφική κάμερα παρά την τεχνολογική της εξέλιξη σήμερα αδυνατεί να καταγράψει όλες τις εικόνες, τον ρυθμό και την ταχύτητα της καθημερινής ζωής που αρκετές φορές μοιάζει να ‘ναι ακίνητη προσπαθώντας να μας επιβάλλει το ίδιο κάδρο. Αδυνατεί να εστιάσει στο φαντασιακό της καθημερινότητας ,και να αναιρέσει το απαγορευτικό όριο που εμείς οι ίδιοι συχνά θέτουμε. 

Η εικόνα μοιάζει πάντα αρχικά να ΄ναι μία ρεαλιστική απεικόνιση, δηλαδή εμπλέκεται με την καθημερινότητα παραμένοντας μια μοναχική γραφή. Η φωτογραφία γίνεται σημαντική με την παρέμβαση του φωτογράφου, όταν αντιληφθεί και αναζητήσει τα σημεία που υπερβατικά ή αφαιρετικά δημιουργούν τη φωτογραφία-γεγονός, αποδεσμεύοντας νοήματα και συναισθήματα, χρησιμοποιώντας τις δυνατότητες που του παρέχει η φωτογραφία ως εκφραστικό μέσο.

Τα ονόματα όσων συμμετείχαν στην έκθεση φωτογραφίας :

Αγγελόπουλος Ευθύμιος

Ανδρέου Δημήτρης

Αρτινός Αποστόλης

Βουγιουκλής Νίκος

Βούλγαρης Χρήστος

Δημητρίου Βασιλική

Δρόλαπας Ανάργυρος

Ζωγράφος Γιώργος

Ζωμένου Βασιλική

Καλογήρου Σύνη

Καμπεράκη Ρούλα

Κανέλλος Δημήτριος

Καραμπέτσου Νίκη

Κόκκινος Ασημάκης

Κουλελής Γιάννης

Λαλάς Παναγιώτης

Μπότη Λίτσα

Σπέντζος Ευθύμιος

Τζαμτζή Αγγελική

Τραχανάς Γιώργος

Τσάκαλος Φάνης

Χριστόπουλος Κώστας

[ link ]

Mehr Als Schein - Αυτό Που Φαίνεται

MEHR ALS SCHEIN / SHINING THROUGH / ΑΥΤΟ ΠΟΥ ΦΑΙΝΕΤΑΙ

Within the framework of Zone D by Zoumboulakis Galleries, the group exhibition "Mehr Als Schein / Shining Through / Αυτό που φαίνεται", curated by visual artist Mark Noll, opens on 17 May 2013 at the new Zoumboulakis Galleries’ building.

The exhibition, in which 19 artists participate (who live and work in Germany, in Greece and in Cyprus), is held in a neoclassical building in Ermou Street near important archeological areas (the Acropolis, the Keramikos ancient cemetery, the Ancient Agora of Athens etc.).

 

As Mark Noll writes: “Appearances are deceptive, beauty is only skin-deep. Attractive surfaces have often invited suspicion in the intellectual mind and been associated with shallowness or even worse deception. The essential substance - like contents, meaning or truth - on the other hand, is always expected to hide behind the surface.

 

 The show Shining Through is not focusing on the alleged deficit of the surface, but it is aiming to reveal that first of all a surface is an aesthetic phenomenon that does not derive from contents nor serves as mere, superficial decoration. Surface first of all renders a sensual dimension.

 

 It´s the concept of the show to present both Greek and German artists who are preoccupied with the aesthetics of the surface and who are united in their effort to explore how the effect and the appearance of the surface can be reinterpreted in different media.”.

 

Artists: Alexiou Nikos, Bassanos Kostas, Bitsikas Xenofon, Christopoulos Kostas, Faust Jeanne, Ganas Iannis, Goldschmidt Dorothea, Kailiang Yang, Kelm Katia, Krause Inge, Loizidou Maria, Maike Sander, May Ruth, Noll Mark, Papaconstantinou Nina, Pichler Michalis, Xagoraris Zafos, Zacharioudakis Manolis, Zenner Barbara.

 

A three lingual (German/Greek/English) special edition will be published by FUTURA Editions within the context of the exhibition, including indicative works and accompanied by texts written by Ludwig Seyfarth and Mark Noll.

 

Kostas Christopoulos

 

bio::
1996-2002, Athens School of Fine Arts, Painting (studio of J.Psychopaidis) and Engraving (studio of G.Milios and V.Kazakos)

1999-2000, Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, Painting (studo of Werner Liebmann)

2006-2008, Athens School of Fine Arts, Master Course in Fine Arts

2010- , Ph.D. candidate in the School of Political Sciences, Faculty of Law, Economics and Political Sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

works::

 the room (solo show) ∙ bingo (solo show) ∙ blindfolded ∙ the cube ∙ the banner ∙ conversation piece ∙ 1983 ∙ sanatorio project ∙ e.g.k.e.d.g

site::

www.kostaschristopoulos.com

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 ]