Utopia - Dystopia - Atopia
Both the theme of 2021, “Extension to the Future. A research for the limits of the possible" as and the idea to coexist 15 curators, in an area of 2,100 sq.m. after the difficult period of great confinement and isolation creates a new familiar-unfamiliar condition, is by itself a great fact. In “Utopia-Dystopia-Atopia” participate 18 artists with older of artworks create especially for the exhibition, aiming to rise a new dialogue, between them, with the space but also with the new era that is rising. Each artist, through his work, makes a comment on a triptych, which if in the past seemed a philosophical or theoretical question, today is more realistic than ever.
The painter Christos Athanasiadis through his black & white diptych “nevermore”, which is directly related to the well-known poem by Edgar Alan Poe, “The Raven” (1845), presents the connection of two images dealing with the destruction and the reality of nature, both equally sharp. Taking as a departure point the listed building of the 1920’s, Ada Anastasea, creates a series of small-scale works based on pencil that in between appear some colors, as a research-comment on the change of use of space. A 100 years old building at first designed for luxury apartments, the the last 40 years spent long periods used as a professional roof with an artistic object, and after the end of the exhibition it will be transformed into a hotel.
Theodoulos videoprojection “Flight 03-03”, coincided with the war in the Persian Gulf, and created after the invitation of the Musée d’Art Contemporaine - Les Abattoirs to participate in the exhibition “la conquête de l’air” with subject from constructivism to the present day. It was presented in Toulouse, the pre-eminent city of aeronautics, in 2002 and in Thessaloniki in KMST in 2003. This work creates connotations in every raid and threat against the carefree citizen, which is currently on the rise. “Fright 03-003” coincided consists of two parallel video projections where a man swims naked and carefree in introverted movements, but he is locked in the gunsights of a virtual warplane that makes a repetitive circular orbit in space. An allegory for the use of technology which can be not only beneficial but also a threat to the human species -Today it is more relevant than ever through the repetitive cycles of history. Yiannis Theodoropoulos shows again his photo “Nun”, an alternative self-portrait, presented the exhibition "Shell the politics of being", curated by Costas Prapoglou at the 15th Lyceum of Kypseli in 2018. Putting his work in a new context and raising a number of new concerns, since with this storm of information “usually useless and soul-crushing”, he is wondering if monasticism is one-way street, is this the path that the pandemic has shown us, or do we really need one other now? ‘’All You Need Is Love’’ answers Dimitris Lempesis in a paradoxical visual way and wonders “What has been called “globalization” and has evolved over the decades, if it does not collapse, surely is redefined. Cairo Dec. 2012: Trying to make a research for contemporary art t in Egypt, we fall into dead ends, everyone is afraid to talk about anything. Wandering in the Arabic part of Khan el-Khalili, the head and legs of a camel on the butcher's block initially shocked me, I had never imagined it. Athens June 2021: Looking at the photo again, I no longer see the camel's head, but the heads of us all, in a world flooded with oppression, social inequality, racism, indiscriminate and unjustified imprisonmentς, "Dystopia" has never had so much in common with reality. Tik-Tok, the clock is ticking backwards. Creepy. Tik- degrees of freedoms are slashed and diced, Tok-Human Rights are truncated. Freedoms and Human Rights that were not given but instead rivers of blood needed to be treated as acquis”.
Alexandros Maganiotis through his “Oblations” conveys optimistic messages through his own "oblations", such as the wooden Oblations that are placed in the Japanese temples, the 9 different drawers-boxes represent according to the artist 9 fields: “The house, the faith, the work, the power, the history, the Motherland, the time and one void waiting for your, the visitor’s, word-dedication". Stella Mourkogianni represents her recent work "Transit", since its presentation on November 2020, coincided with the beginning of the great enclosure. We created a second-realistic condition, to exhibit the razor wire installation, which this time, does not occupies the entire exhibition space, but a part of it. The artwork although started on the occasion of the first major confinement in March 2020, recalls from memory, personal and collective, all the crossings, the barbed wires, the barriers and the obstacles (real or fake) which act for each of us as inhibitors and brakes. Manolis Baboussis presents nine color photographs from the period 2009-2017 with the constant theme of loss, catastrophe, confinement. At an unsuspecting time since 2009, the artist combines a series of objects to create a series of monuments with materials such as: the surgical masks, sterile shoes or syringes, to comment on wounded nature, pollution and tourism. He creates a safety sign, which detects and warns, for the broken shards, the end of the holiday and the risk of future accidents. Just like the Arte Povera artists, Margarita Petrova places a cut tree trunk in the installation site, with scattered natural and building materials, collected during the quarantine from the beach of Marathon. Trunk and pieces of building materials from a demolished house. The nature is transferred as a memory-postcard pieces from palm barks in the shape of a card. Nature and time as a corrosive force. Civilization is eroded by nature and nature by civilization. Preventative metal splinters for birds leave no room for coexistence.
“Which side are you on? Time”, Artemis Potamianou wonders with one of the most characteristic works of the exhibition, a caustic comment in social conditions, which can be for a woman, but also for each of us, protection or inclusion. Time acts differently in relation to the adoption of specific roles in a woman's life. Paintings by well-known artists throughout the art history depict the female figure in front of an open cage releasing the trapped bird, directly identifying the birds with the fragile female sex. The cage of the artwork, by continuing the tradition of the old cages, which were complex constructions, exact replicas of buildings, borrows its form from the deconstruction of the existing building and is a dual symbol of prison or protection. "Passage", a passage for Panagiotis Rappas is “The observation of a world that is constantly changing and the technique of haiku in poetry, have defined my attempt to capture a moment that passes and its uniqueness through painting. Thus, the resulting images cause the viewer a multiple reading, in relation to time, duration, what is important or not, what is left from everything we see and experience and how it is held and shaped or charged by memory”. In “Hypertropia” we are invited by Katerina Rimpatsiou, through a brand-new artwork -created especially for the exhibition- since for her the white canvas, functions as another place waiting for inscriptions, drawings and colors. Successive actions of composition decomposition in different speeds create new rhythms. Until a personal code of symbols occurs that transforms the place into a Hypertopia.
“For Those Who Stay Alert”, the title of the work of Ifigeneia Sdoukou, that urges us to hurry up! And she adds “The last year I have had a strong feeling that we are floating in a fluid universe of uncertainty. I could only describe this feeling with the variable and often threatening nature of water. In an environment of perpetual tide, human figures sink, float, emerge… I embroidered my images borrowing the aesthetics of medieval illuminations. In these the image is intertwined with the text and the fear of the future merges with hope, providing themes of fantasy on the one hand and realism on the other. What does the future hold for us?” Fani Sofologi creates an installation, using an older participatory project in Weimar entitled “Imaginary Public Spaces” (2008), a public exhibition in the windows of a central empty store in Weimar, with the participation of the citizens since the exhibition consisted of painted photographs, various " covers" of two well-known public places, which were created by the local citizens. Most of the proposals of the participants were delivered unsigned and received by Post, while the prints show the ideas of the participants. Through this urban redesign, the artist puts the issue of Dystopia in its most Orwellian form, as we experienced it in March 2020, the first and most cruel period of self-imprisonment. Theodora Tsiatsiou with her new artwork, created for the exhibition “Ceremonial” points to the increase in gender-based violence that affects women on a daily basis and peaked during the incarceration period. #metoo movement that has emerged in recent years has prompted many women from all walks of life to externalize their own incidents of harassment and abuse which in most countries -just like Greece- were for years a well-hidden secret. Placing phalluses around the perimeter of the baptismal font, initially is made a reference in the theory that wants man as the center of human existence and gender stereotypes that a woman must constantly prove her worth and usefulness, and makes her a second-class human being.
"Pandemic" is the title of the work of Voula Ferentinou, who as she claims “I was interested in creating an austere image and with a few elements to distinguish the sense of a dystopian experience like that of the pandemic. Through a frozen frame of a soiled almost monochrome landscape, I emphasize the time limits of a day, which begins and ends in the same frame, as well as the limits of the use of limited objects without the need for human intervention”. Panos Charalambous presents a video-installation entitled “hailstones” that is connected directly with the disaster and the end. The end of an entire era and a story and connects it with a natural phenomenon that can be catastrophic. “In addition to voluntary catastrophe, let’s hope that natural disasters will be contributors-helpers to change the world. Mantalina Psoma creates an ambiguity for a hard work by saying “Everything is perfect! Everything is clear! Everything is straightforward! Past... Nothing needs change, everything is elevated, everything touches holiness, radiance, eternity. She has been awarded completely without requrement. No one can influence, no one can call into question. If see connects, he will be scared. And yet the eye is wide open, on alert, ready to flee that if anyone believes her, she will know that only the real mortals who will not follow are indifferent"
Artists: Christos Athanasiadis, Ada Anastasea, Theodoulos (Gegoriou), Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Dimitris Lempesis, Alexandros Maganiotis, Stella Mourkogianni, Manolis Babousis, Margarita Petrova, Artemis Potamianou, Panagiotis Rappas, Katerina Rimpatsiou, Ifigenia Sdoukou, Fani Sofologi, Theodora Tsiatsiou, Voula Ferentinou, Panos Charalampous, Mantalina Psoma.
Curated by: Efi Michalarou, Art Critic & Independent Curator
The exhibition “Utopia - Dystopia - Atopia” curated by Efi Michalarou, is presented in context to Back to Athens 8 International Arts Festival.
The event considers all public health protection measures, in the context of avoiding the spread of coronavirus (CoV-19).
Back to Athens 8 | 2021 is organized by APART Art Research and Applications, under the Auspices of the City of Athens, with the support of the Austrian Embassy in Athens and the Ministry of Culture of Austria, Zoia, Athens Intersection Cultural Program, CHEAPART and the Offspring Young Artists Program
Back to Athens 8 International Arts Festival 2021
Profiles of the Future: An inquiry into the limits of the possible
Isaiah Mansion
65 Patission & Ioulianou, Athens, 104 33
"Utopia - Dystopia - Atopia", 1st floor
Opening day: Thursday, July 1, 16:00 - 22:00
Duration: July 1 – 4, 2021
Visiting hours: Thursday 1.7, Friday 2.7, 16:00 – 22:00, Saturday 3.7, Sunday 4.7, 12:00 – 22:00
