NEWS

Pow, Blop, Wizz

For the 22nd edition of Hydra School Projects artist and curator Dimitrios Antonitsis presents a colorful mosaic of 10 Greek and international artists with the title: "Pow, Blop, Wizz".

Of course, the reference is  "Comic Strip", the legendary song and video clip by Serge Gainsbourg featuring Brigitte Bardot as a super-heroine. Antonitsis explains: "The challenges of the everyday demand from us unconventional action but with conventional attributes — like courage and morality. The line between super- and anti- hero has become a blur. We don't always act for the right reasons. Our actions are not always noble." 

Their common denominator is that they have more issues than answers; perhaps more thoughts than emotions.

 

Duration: 19/06/21 - 19/09/21

Location: Merchant Marine Academy, Hydra

 

Curator: Dimitrios Antonitsis

Artists: Mark Bradford (USA) // Mike Kelley (USA) // Richard Woods (England), Erwin Wurm (Austria) // Danny Pallilo (Finland) // Thomas Diotis (Greece) // Versaweiss (Greece) // Dimitris Papaionannou (Greece) // Euripides Laskaridis (Greece)

Pow, Blop, Wizz

Liminal - Neither here nor There

Liminal - Neither here nor There

IFAC Arts // New York City • Athens • London // 25th May - 24th August 2021

Curator: Katja Ehrhardt

 

In his book “Liminality and the Modern – Living through the In-Between” anthropologist Bjorn Thomassen takes up liminality as any ‘betwixt and between’ situation or object, any in-between place or moment, a state of suspense, a moment of freedom between two structured world-views or institutional arrangements. It relates to change in a single personality as well as social change and transition in large-scale settings; it ties together the micro and the macro and opens the door to a world of contingency where events and meanings — indeed ‘reality itself’ — can be moulded and carried in different directions.

The idea of liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "threshold) was coined by anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep in his work Les Rites de Passage 1909. In his essay in comparative symbology, anthropologist Victor Turner later develops the notion of liminality as the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage. During its liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, established at the end of the ritual. In “Liminality and Communitas”, Turner began by defining liminal individuals as “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony”. He refers to this stage through the concept of the “realm of pure possibility”.

The liminal phase has frequently been likened to death or being in the womb, or equally to invisibility, darkness, wilderness.

The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new forms and structures to become established. Social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt. The concept of liminality was subsequently recognized also in theology, performance studies, literature, psychiatry, psychology, art, and education. It passed into popular usage and has been expanded to include liminoid experiences relevant to post.industrial society. In psychology, it was applied as the technical name for the perceptual threshold, the degree of stimulus intensity sufficient to being noticed as audible, visible, or detectable in any sensory mode.

The liminoid experience, which signifies contemporary society, is achieved through separation from the old self, a transitional phase that is characterized by ambiguity and disorientation, and finally a phase of incorporation and the formation of new perspectives. A liminoid experience thus defines an undetermined set of rules that triggers a transformation in the sense of self.


This exhibition explores the liminal in the artworks of 7 contemporary Greek artists, the malleable in-between stage devoid of its former structure and of pure potential towards the emerging new. In the works of the series “Oceanic”, Alexis Vasilikos implies the dissolution of the separate self, preparing to merge with the whole represented by the ocean. Antonis Kapnisis works, initially drawn on a computer, then painted by hand on surfaces like paper and wood, negotiate the contrast between manmade and non-manmade, real and digital, creating a world “in-between” “neither here nor there”. Dionysis Christofilogiannis’ work comments on the contemporary social, economic and political disorder and the destruction of a world of former seeming safety. In his series “Feels like Home” he presents an uncanny view of reality through the image of a dystopian world, by superimposing Syrian rubble onto metropolitan city views of Athens, Rome, Paris, raising the question “Where do we stand?” Yiannis Theodoropoulos’ photographies constitute sites of absence, of memory. For him, the truth lies in mainainting the moment rather than capturing a universal story. It is the moment in between moments, however seemingly insignificant, carrying the past and yet not of it, leading into the future which is not yet there. Maraziotis’ work explores the notion, common to postmodernist thought, that viewed objects are devoid of any referential trait. He develops intimate participatory situations that question domesticity and contemporary habitation - viewers become active participants in experiencing shapes or objects and are asked to think somatically. The duo Versaweiss combines new media, digital printing and graphic design with the traditional forms of art such as photography. Through their imagery, the viewer is introduced to a fragile reality, drawing new connections regarding mental experiences and emotional states. Eva Papamargariti’s work delves into issues and themes related to simultaneity, the merging and dissolving of our surroundings with the virtual, the symbiotic procedures and entanglement that take place between humans, nature and technology. It plays with the constant diffusion of fabricated synthetic images that define and fragment our identity and everyday experience. The expression of the artworks presented take us into the heart of uncertainty and at the same time open up to the realms of pure creativity in motion.


Katja Ehrhardt completed an M.A. specializing in Performance Theory in Anthropology and Modern and Classical Indology at the University of Heidelberg. She lived, studied, and worked in the United States, Japan, India, Bermuda, Thailand, Nepal, Malaysia, Israel, and Hong Kong. She worked in arts management, international project coordination and research i.a. at the University of Heidelberg, Pruess & Ochs Gallery Berlin (Asian Fine Arts), German Academic Exchange (DAAD), House of World Cultures Berlin, and the Goethe Institute. In Athens, she developed and managed the cultural program for University programs from abroad at the Athens Centre, working together with cultural institutions and embassies in Athens. She co-curated and coordinated the arts and sciences program of the Asia-Pacific Weeks at the Senate Chancellery Berlin and the House of World Cultures Berlin. As co-founder and director of the curators and artists initiative AthenSYN, she develops, manages, and curates art projects with Greek artists and art institutions and international partners i.a. at documenta 14, Museum of World Cultures Gothenburg, Transeuropa Festival Madrid, Athens Biennale, AthenSYN Festival Berlin, and Kyiv Biennale.

 

 

Participants

Alexis Vasilikos // Antonis Kapnisis // Dionisis Christofilogiannis // Eva Papamargariti // Versaweiss // Yiannis Theodoropoulos // Yorgos Maraziotis

 

https://www.artsy.net/viewing-room/ifac-arts-liminal-neither-here-nor-there/works

Liminal - Neither here nor There

Homo Sportivus. Examining the world through games

Homo Sportivus. Examining the world through games

Back to basics: Uncanny II

Back to basics: Uncanny II

ENIA Gallery // Athens, Greece // 26th January - 21st April 2018

Curator: Artemis Potamianou

 

The exhibition Back to the basics: Uncanny II builds on the first part of the show, held at the ENIA Gallery in December 2016, by exploring the different approaches to the concept of the uncanny as it was defined by Sigmund Freud.

The uncanny, a concept which Freud explores in his book Art and literature, first published in the autumn of 1919, has been a source of inspiration in the creative process of many artists. The complexity of the Uncanny lies in that while it conveys the notion of the foreign and the uncertain it is directly linked to a suppressed familiar feeling of an experience.

Analysing the relation between the German word heimlich (familiar, not absurd) and its logical opposite, unheimlich, through their etymology in various languages, Freud concludes that the semantic interpretation of heimlich verges towards ambivalence until it ends up coinciding with its opposite—unheimlich.

Through a collection of experiences and situations which trigger a sense of unfamiliarity, Freud demonstrates that the uncanny belongs to the category of the familiar scary-paradox which, through the process of suppression, ends up becoming unfamiliar.

This transition from familiarity to alienation is fundamental to the creation of an uncanny condition. 

The second version of the exhibition Back to the basics: Uncanny explores different versions and approaches to the interpretation of the notion of the uncanny in the work of thirteen contemporary artists.

 

Participants

Martha Dimitropoulou // Bella Easton // Ekkehart Keintzel // Boris Lafargue // Nina Lassithiotaki // Clay Smith // Maaike Stutterheim // Nikos Tranos // Yiorgos Tsakiris // Giorgos Tserionis // Versaweiss // Katerina Zacharopoulou

 

Opening hours: Monday - Tuesday closed

Wednesday - Saturday 11:00 – 15:00

Thursday 11:00 – 18:00 

Friday 14:00 – 20:00

eniagallery.com

 

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Back to basics: Uncanny II

ENIA Gallery // Αθήνα // 26 Ιανουαρίου - 21 Απριλίου 2018

Επιμέλεια έκθεσης: Άρτεμις Ποταμιάνου

 

Η έκθεση Back to the basics: Uncanny II συνεχίζει την προβληματική του πρώτου μέρους της έκθεσης που πραγματοποιήθηκε στην ENIA Gallery το Δεκέμβριο του 2016, ερευνώντας τις διαφορετικές οπτικές της έννοιας του ανοίκειου όπως αυτή προσδιορίστηκε στο δοκίμιο του Sigmund Freud.

Το Ανοίκειο (uncanny), μια έννοια που ο Freud ανέλυσε στο βιβλίο του Αrt and literature που εκδόθηκε για πρώτη φορά το φθινόπωρο του 1919, αποτέλεσε πηγή έμπνευσης στη δημιουργική διαδικασία πολλών καλλιτεχνών. Η πολυπλοκότητα του Ανοίκειου έγκειται στο ότι ενώ μεταφέρει την έννοια του ξένου και του αβέβαιου έχει άμεση σύνδεση με μια καταπιεσμένη οικεία αίσθηση μιας εμπειρίας. 

Ο Freud αναλύοντας τη σχέση μεταξύ της γερμανικής λέξης heimlich (οικείο, όχι παράδοξο) και της λογικά αντίθετής της λέξης unheimlich (γερμανικός όρος για το ανοίκειο) μέσω της ετυμολογίας των δύο λέξεων σε λεξικά διαφορετικών γλωσσών συμπεραίνει ότι η σημασιολογική ερμηνεία της λέξης heimlich αναπτύσσεται προς την κατεύθυνση της αμφιθυμίας, μέχρι τελικά να συμπίπτει με την αντίθετη της, Unheimlich.

Μέσω της συλλογής εμπειριών και καταστάσεων οι οποίες διεγείρουν την αίσθηση της ανοικειότητας, ο Freud αποδεικνύει ότι το uncanny ανήκει στη κατηγορία του οικείου φοβιστικού - παράδοξου που μέσω της διαδικασίας της απώθησης καταλήγει τελικά να γίνει ανοίκειο.

Αυτή η μετάβαση από την αίσθηση οικειότητας στην αποξένωση είναι θεμελιακή για τη σύσταση της ανοίκειας κατάστασης. 

Η δεύτερη εκδοχή της έκθεσης Back to the basics: Uncanny θα διερευνήσει διαφορετικές μεθόδους και τρόπους προσέγγισης της ερμηνείας της έννοιας του Ανοίκειου στο έργο δεκατριών σύγχρονων εικαστικών.

 

Συμμετέχοντες

Μάρθα Δημητροπούλου // Bella Easton // Κατερίνα Ζαχαροπούλου // Ekkehart Keintzel // Boris Lafargue // Νίνα Λασηθιωτάκη // Clay Smith // Maaike Stutterheim // Νίκος Τρανός // Γιώργος Τσακίρης // Γιώργος Τσεριώνης // Versaweiss

 

Ώρες Λειτουργίας: Δευτέρα – Τρίτη κλειστά

Τετάρτη – Σάββατο 11:00 – 15:00

Πέμπτη 11:00 – 18:00 

Παρασκευή 14:00 – 20:00

eniagallery.com

Back to basics: Uncanny II

Don’t Kill Bambi

Don’t Kill Bambi: The Studio 54 phenomenon repositioned at times of crisis

BIOS // Athens, Greece // 27th June - 28th July 2016

Concept, curatorial: Stavros Kavalaris

 

Two cities; two different periods; a fiscal crisis alike; a common narration: New York in the 1970s and Athens during the last seven years.

One could understand the 1970s in New York as a decade of disillusion, cynicism, bitterness, and anger. For many New Yorkers, the period, as for most of the Greeks after 2008, this extent of time was marked by convoluted hardships, restraining barriers, frustration, and an overwhelming feeling that the country had lost its direction, challenging the very heart of the post-war liberal consensus.

Such dimming environment spawned the short-lived phenomenon of Studio 54, as the mecca of the bright-lights-big-city epicenter of a heavily problematic society in conscious denial. The club owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, capitalizing on new formations and structures, scrawled the most “tantalizing” history of a reformed middle class conscience.

The exhibition, based on the social analysis of Felix Salt’s titular novel, by the American sociologist, Ralph H. Lutts, examines the sociopolitical parameters of crisis’s canonistical prototypes, as created by a middle class in escapism and its exploiters.

 

Versaweiss/ cameos: Dimitrios Antonitsis, Theo-Mass Lexileictous

The exhibition is supported by OUTSET Contemporary Art Fund (Greece). Exhibition’s organizational body: House of Cyprus

 

http://neon.org.gr/en/

spititiskyprou.gr

 

 

Don’t Kill Bambi

Tradition Today

 

House of Cyprus // Athens, Greece // 06th October - 07th November 2014



Participants

Dimitris Antonitsis // Christos Vagiatas  // Natali Yiaxi  // Christopher Doulgeris // Petros Efstathiadis  // Marina Kassianidou // Antonis Katsouris // Jenny Marketou // Maro Michalakakou // Apostolos Ntelakos // Efi Spyrou // Valentinos Charalambous // Savvas Christodoulides // Maria Christofidou // Theo-Mass Lexileictous // Versaweiss


Curator: Stavros Kavalaris

spititiskyprou.gr

mfa.gov.cy

 

Tradition Today

F Is For Football

 

Skouze 3 // Athens, Greece // 12th June - 13th July 2014

 

June 12th begins the World Cup in Brazil. For a whole month the football fans - and not only, will glorify the “round goddess”.

In the same period 11 visual artists in the center of Athens, exhibits the “F is for Football” and explores football as a social and cultural phenomenon, with all the contradictions and ambiguities that intrinsically incorporates both temporal and today, the era of globalization. A phenomenon, that seems even times have changed, remains unchanged.
Of course we will watch the football matches! In Skouze3 we will show all World Cup matches every day to create a dialectical relationship between the sport itself and the exhibition, adding a festive character that is so fitting with the same spirit of football society.
Through a selection of old and new works (photographs , installations, paintings , video), the participants have commented critically the modern football, the homo footballus, and also other issues associated with football: from the politics of the identity, propaganda and violence, to issues of space, architecture and the future states of football.


Participants

Yiannis Theodoropoulos // Antonis Kapnisis // Christos Michaelides // Maro Michalakakos // Dimitris Dokatzis // Nikos Papadimitriou // Artemis Potamianou // Efi Spyrou // Pavlos Fysakis // Dionisis Christofilogiannis // Versaweiss


Curator: Konstantinos Argianas
 

skouze3

 

F Is For Football

Made of Good Stuff

 

Widmertheodoridis Gallery // Eschlikon, Switzerland // 7th June  – 19th July 2014 

 

widmertheodoridis inaugurates its new premises in Eschlikon with a group show comprising sixteen artists. ’Aus gutem Stoff’ (Made of Good Stuff) launches a trilogy curated by Werner Widmer and Jordanis Theodoridis, which covers terms, such as texture, evidence and origin. ‘Aus gutem Grund’ (With Good Reason) and ‘Aus gutem Hause’ (From good Home) pick-up after the summer break and run till end of the year. 

 

The close propinquity and conceptualization of the three exhibition titles is no surprise and was chosen on purpose. This results in overlaps that were designated to facilitate a detailed exploration of the terms. They introduce the new show, enable reviews and interconnect various positions. By using soft shifting and doubling gestures one’s perspective and point of view are challenged an triggered. 

 

‘Made of Good Stuff’ deals on one hand with the material character and on the other hand it refers to the metaphorical ambiguity of the term ‘fabric’. Being one of the oldest elements of civilization it refers mostly to a long history based on tactile perception. Everyone has a sensual connection to fabric. However, canvas as painting underground was only used from the dark ages and became eventually the favorite material for visual artists. For a long time the allocation of a piece of art was quite simple: Paintings on canvas were considered art. All other techniques, such as embroidery, knitting, sewing were considered handicraft. This classification was broken-up in the last decades only by the interest in new and unusual materials that led to a new interpretation of what is art. What was connoted for a long time as a female material has meanwhile received broad reception. 

 

The well-known sayings ‘Made of good stuff/different stuff/same stuff’ refer to the old belief that trees are animated. The term ‘good stuff’ reflects characteristics, such as consistency, purity, perfection and is metaphorically presented in a few exhibited art works. Other positions underline the importance of clothes (as a second skin) or its fabrication. And finally others accentuate narrative, exciting stories that are – made of good stuff.

 

Participants 

Othmar Eder // Chiara Fiorini // Stefan Gort // Gian Michelle Grob // Sybille Hotz // Erna Hurzeler // VInzent Kriste // Ariane Lugeon // Andoni Maillard // Andreas Marti // Elisabeth Nembrini // Lisa Sartorio // Versaweiss // Werner Widmer // Lydia Wilhelm // Marko Zink

                                                                                                               0010.ch/galerie

 

Made of Good Stuff

default.03 // is this spring?

 

Department of Architecture University of Thessaly // Volos , Greece //  31st May 2014

 

default is an interdisciplinary network of artists, architects, designers and vinyl enthusiasts located in Greece. Fusing individual creative tensions through synergy, default aims at bringing together various fields of art under the sounds of electronic music. Our purpose is to promote and support what we like in an unconditional level.

 

Participants // Art Exhibition / Audio 

Alexandros Psychoulis // Katerina Koutsogianni // Eva Papamargariti // Ioannis Salesiotis // Konstantinos Dimitriadis // Andreas Platis // Christos Ioannou // Joanna Sotiriou // Lne Boubari // Dark Horse // Versaweiss // Space Under // Dimitris Maragozis // Topotheque // Dora Karali // Paris Papaioannou // Ioanna Piniara // Christina Liakati // Anastasia Nechalioti // Alexandros Touliopoulos // Mirna Marianovits // Lapien // Metropolis // Bu$$ // i:Diom // Lowjac // Mackenzie

 

www.default.gr/E03

 default.03 // is this spring?