CONTEMPORARY GREEK ART

Contemporary Greek sculpture as a criticism of the socio-political events of the recent years in Greece is a multi-layered subject with various aspects that arise in the attempt to build a cultural identity. „Recent years” here refer to the period between 1974 and 2014. Since the recent history of Greece - Metapolitefsi is a central part of it - is far more complex than is commonly assumed, it would be inadequate to limit it to the dramatic experience of the current crisis. The aim of this research is, first, to trace the history, politics and sociology of Greece in a detailed, informative summary, i.e. those areas that are considered to be major influences on contemporary sculptors. All the artists named in this research have lived and worked both in Greece and abroad and were born in the period between 1968 and 1982. Thus, it is possible to assume a similar range of experiences of these artists who have lived through similar socio-political events and have consequently been affected by comparable influences. Art and especially sculpture is understood as an essential part of contemporary perception and construction of a social critique.

A lot has been heard in recent years about contemporary art in Athens. In the international press it is often portrayed as a vibrant scene that resists the financial crisis. By now there is even a fetishism around experiencing Athens, boosted also by large-scale artistic events that mobilize a mix of international interdisciplinary professionals from the arts and the creative industries, art-activists and so on. In this lecture I will talk particularly about artists' groups and the rise of collectives since roughly 2000. Similarly to other phenomena that the ongoing anomalous social, political and financial situation has accentuated, collectivity in art has also its own continuities and discontinuities with the years before.

Το 1965, στο πλαίσιο του Φεστιβάλ Αθηνών, που οργάνωνε ο Ελληνικός Οργανισµός Τουρισµού, και σε συνεργασία µε το Υπουργείο Παιδείας, πραγµατοποιήθηκε µία έκθεση διεθνούς µοντέρνας γλυπτικής που διήρκεσε από τις 8 Σεπτεµβρίου µέχρι τις 8 Νοεµβρίου. 1 Επρόκειτο ουσιαστικά για την πρώτη µεγάλης κλίµακας παρουσίαση µοντέρνας γλυπτικής στο ελληνικό (αθηναϊκό κυρίως) φιλότεχνο κοινό. Είχε ιστορικό χαρακτήρα, υποδεικνύοντας µια γραµµική εξέλιξη της τέχνης, µε αφετηρία τον Rodin και κατάληξη καλλιτέχνες που γεννήθηκαν στην πρώτη δεκαετία του 20ού αιώνα, προβάλλοντας έτσι µια µορφολογική και ιστορικιστική αντίληψη για την αφήγηση της ιστορίας της τέχνης, η οποία ακολουθεί κάποιους µελετητές του µοντέρνου µέχρι σήµερα. Τα έργα προέρχονταν από ποικίλα ευρωπαϊκά ιδρύµατα και επιλέχτηκαν στοχεύοντας κυρίως στο κοινό της ελληνικής πρωτεύουσας, µε βασικό σκοπό να το επιµορφώσουν. Για την έκθεση ορίστηκε ένας υπαίθριος (open-air) τρόπος παρουσίασης (ενδιαφέρων και για τα δεδοµένα του εξωτερικού της εποχής) και ένας τόπος έµφορτος µε πολιτιστικές και εθνικές σηµάνσεις (Βράχος Φιλοπάππου). Η συγκεκριµένη περίσταση αποτελεί ένα ξεχωριστό γεγονός από πολλές πλευρές, αν αναλογιστούµε ότι ένας κρατικός φορέας (µε άλλο κύριο πεδίο δράσης) αναλαµβάνει τα έξοδα της διοργάνωσης µιας έκθεσης έργων, που ακόµα θεωρούνται πρωτοποριακά στην Ελλάδα (αν και στον τόπο παραγωγής τους ανήκαν ήδη στην ιστορική πρωτοπορία). Επιπλέον, προκρίνεται ένας τρόπος παρουσίασης εξαιρετικά πρωτότυπος ακόµα και για τα ευρωπαϊκά δεδοµένα, αφού δεν αφορούσε µόνο στην υπαίθρια τοποθέτηση γλυπτών, άσχετα από το φυσικό τους µέγεθος, και στο συσχετισµό τους µε έναν από τους σηµαντικότερους αρχαιολογικούς τόπους της χώρας, αλλά στηριζόταν και στη διακριτική παρεµβολή του αρχιτέκτονα-σχεδιαστή της έκθεσης, ώστε να µην 249 Δωδώνη, Επιστημονική Επετηρίδα της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Ιωαννίνων, τ. 33, 2004, σ. 249-300 σηµασιολογείται το κάθε γλυπτό ως αντικείµενο τέχνης εξ ορισµού, αλλά να υπογραµµίζεται η µορφική παρουσία του κάθε έργου, σε σχέση µε τον περιβάλλοντα χώρο. Η παρουσίαση της έκθεσης από τον ηµερήσιο τύπο προσφέρει το πεδίο όπου µπορούν να ανιχνευθούν οι προσδοκίες ενός µέσου και όχι καλά πληροφορηµένου κοινού από τη διοργάνωση. Από την άλλη πλευρά, τα τεχνοκριτικά σηµειώµατα που την αφορούν µπορούν να διαφωτίσουν την υποδοχή, αλλά και την κατάσταση της οµόχρονης εικαστικής ελληνικής σκηνής.

Το Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων γιορτάζει εφέτος τα πενήντα χρόνια λειτουργίας του και η Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών του Ιδρύματος πρωτοστατεί σε μια σειρά εκδηλώσεων, που διακρίνονται για την ποιότητα και το ουσιαστικό τους περιεχόμενο. Θεωρώ ότι ο στόχος μιας σύγχρονης Σχολής Καλών Τεχνών δεν είναι μόνο να παρέχει υψηλού επιπέδου εκπαίδευση στους φοιτητές της, αλλά και να διδάσκει μέσω της εξωστρέφειας του εκπαιδευτικού προσωπικού και των επαφών που καλλιεργεί είτε με άλλα γνωστικά πεδία είτε με άλλους τομείς παραγωγής γνώσης και πολιτισμού. Στην περίπτωση της Σχολής μας, αυτός ο στόχος επιδιώκεται με συνέπεια και σταθερούς ρυθμούς, καθώς διευρύναμε τον κύκλο των δράσεών μας με μια σειρά εκθέσεων του καλλιτεχνικού έργου των μελών ΔΕΠ στη Δημοτική Πινακοθήκη Ιωαννίνων και μια σειρά εκδηλώσεων και διαλέξεων στο Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων.

Through a review of the scholarly and non-governmental organization (NGO) literature, this paper seeks to contribute to an emergent dialogue on the cultural citizenship of children in art museums. A comprehensive search of the current literature on this topic reveals a paucity of attention and understanding in this area, despite an increasing focus on children's services in art museums. In order to bridge this gap, the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is highlighted as an international vehicle for entrenching the participatory rights of children in cultural life and the Arts from birth. Lundy's model for participation based on 'space, voice, audience and influence' is interpreted for an art museum setting. Promoting children's cultural rights shapes museums into more democratic institutions; thereby activating the public art museum's founding principles.

DIONISIS
KAVALLIERATOS
ΑΠΟΠΡΟΣΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΣΜΈΝΟΣ ΧΟΡΟΣ /
ΠΑΡΑΠΛΑΝΗΜΈΝΟΣ ΠΛΑΝΗΤΗΣ
DISORIENTED DANCE /
MISLED PLANET
ΩΔΕΊΟΝ ΗΡΩΔΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑΤΤΙΚΟΥ
ODEON OF HERODES ATTICUS
05.06-03.07 2020

The work, which he stages as an intervention in the emblematic ancient
theater of the historic centre of Athens – the Odeon of Herodes Atticus –
is a circular dance of statues that develops on the main stage at different heights and scales. The in situ installation of about forty sculptures made of various materials (copper, clay, resin, wood, mirrors etc.), features a wide range of visual styles. Iconographically, these works are assemblages of formal elements that refer to different eras and cultures, referencing forms from prehistory and antiquity, modern art, dance, mass culture, folk art and more. For example, we come across the Sphinx and Cycladic figurines, masks and wooden cult images, architectural fragments (stairs, pools) and animals, fruits and vegetables, organic and mechanical parts, everyday objects such as jugs, doors, hats, frames and bottles. They represent and reinvent characters from the western world such as the vagabond, the slave, the homeless man and the drunkard, while in others the autobiographical references are obvious.

Επιμέλεια έκδοσης ‐ Editors:
Αμαλία Τσιτούρη, Εύη – Μαρία Πιτσιάβα 
Amalia Tsitouri, Evi – Maria Pitsiava
Τα άρθρα του τόμου αντικατοπτρίζουν τις απόψεις των συγγραφέων τους. 
Ελληνική Επιτροπή ICOM-CECA 
© Διεθνές Συμβούλιο Μουσείων – Ελληνικό Τμήμα 
Αθήνα 2010
ISBN  978‐960‐99312‐1‐2
http://network.icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/minisites/icom-greece/Ekdoseis/ICOM_-_CECA_proceedings_June_2009.pdf

This article examines the new conditions prevailing in the art world of the early 21st century, which were gradually initiated in the previous decades. Thus, artistic creation is held in an international, globalised context, since limits are no longer restrictive in this age. As art globalization progresses, Greek artists continue to display a particular preference to Paris, as French education and culture undeniably had a decisive influence on Greece. There has been a discussion over the new standards and the country's effort to formulate a cultural policy adapted to the new realities of globalization, the emergence of new artistic institutions, where we encounter the Greek artists, alongside their presence in traditional group or solo events. Articles in the daily and periodical press document the strong bond that still exists between Greece and France, yet its nature is honorary rather than fundamental, as Greek artists no longer choose the Schools of Fine Arts of Paris.

Contemporary Greek sculpture as a criticism of the socio-political events of the recent years in Greece is a multi-layered subject with various aspects that arise in the attempt to build a cultural identity. "Recent years" here refer to the period between 1974 and 2014. Since the recent history of Greece - Metapolitefsi is a central part of it - is far more complex than is commonly assumed, it would be inadequate to limit it to the dramatic experience of the current crisis. The aim of this research is, first, to trace the history, politics and sociology of Greece in a detailed, informative summary, i.e. those areas that are considered to be major influences on contemporary sculptors. All the artists named in this research have lived and worked both in Greece and abroad and were born in the period between 1968 and 1982. Thus, it is possible to assume a similar range of experiences of these artists who have lived through similar socio-political events and have consequently b...

Since the mid-2000s, site-specific interventions in public space by artist collectives have become a frequent phenomenon in Athens. Less known and discussed are the earliest examples of this phenomenon. Three such performative interventions took place in the so-called refugee houses on Alexandras Avenue (construction 1933–1935), two by the group Αστικό Κενό (Urban Void) and another by Λάθος Κίνηση (Wrong Movement). They took place in 2000 and 2003, in parallel with a citizen protest againstgentrification plans for the houses' demolition. Being site-specific meant that they were intervening in the physical, architectural site, as well as in a public debate mobilized by the protest and focused mainly on the site's significance as a monument. The article argues that through the form of their interventions, the groups approached the site through the experience of the past in the present. They foregrounded the experience of time and space in the instant of their actions, in which past and present come together and dynamically interact with one another, but without offering a coherent historical narrative. This approach deviated significantly from the dominant public discourses that saw the houses primarily as markers of national, political, and social history, often characterized by selectively constructed and ideologically laden narratives of historical continuity from the 1930s to the present.

Presentation of the Chloroquine Juggalo show by OFluxo
Original at: https://www.ofluxo.net/chloroquine-juggalo-kostis-stafylakiss-solo-show-at-keiv-athens/

Kostis Stafylakis presents videos, social media posts, tiktok acts, amateur rap music, interviews, online cosplay, and sculptural installations that document his slow immersion into the culture of American Juggalos. Juggalos are followers of the ICP (Insane Clown Posse) rap duet and of other horrorcore bands. The name Juggalo stemmed from ICP's 1992 song "the Juggla", and represents an urban subculture of inclusion and acceptance, governed by the contradictions of a mass social and cultural movement. Juggalos have described themselves as "scrubs"-the sprouts of the deindustrialization of former industrial zones. They speak of serial killers, fantasy, and class-struggle mixed with magic and acceptance. They carry tattoos with the hatchetclown, paint their faces up, greet each other with "whoop whoop", share "much motherfucking wicked clown love" and spray themselves with Faygo. But, beyond this quasifolk depiction, their social perception of the world is inspired by the Dark Carnival, a mythology/ethical system developed around the characters of six jokers, introduced by ICP. In 2017, ICP and friends organized the Juggalo March in Washington DC to protest their criminalization by the FBI. Accidentally, Trump supporters were rallying at the same spot, on the same day. Clashes between juggalos and the alt-right were reported. Chloroquine Juggalo is the persona forged by Stafylakis to socialize online with the communities of this diverse American subculture. Chloroquine Juggalo has a favorite horror gimmick: he consumes chloroquine cocktails. He's "heard a lot good stories about it". Throughout the quarantines, Stafylakis indulged in infiltrating distant, mostly American, subcultures from afar. Today, conspiracy theories like QAnon owe their popularity to the collective enjoyment in horrific fantasies, to the excitement offered by conspiratorial mythmaking. The awkward ideas of Pizzagate and QAnon, materialize fantasies with global reach. Stafylakis thinks with the Juggalos to view horror as navigation through the dark imaginary that apparently mobilizes our fractured reality.

Πρόκειται για μια πρώτη προσέγγιση των στάσεων και των συμπεριφορών απέναντι στο μεγαλύτερο συλλογικό έργο γλυπτικής του μεσοπολέμου. Πρόκειται για τα αγάλματα των Μουσών και των Χαρίτων που κατασκευάστηκαν για να τοποθετηθούν στην πλατεία Ομονοίας και εν τέλει διεσπάρησαν σε όλη την Ελλάδα.

Για την αναδρομική έκθεση της Λιουμπόβ Ποπόβα Χρώμα, Φόρμα, Χώρος στο MOMus- Μουσείο Μοντέρνας Τέχνης- Συλλογή Κωστάκη (επιμ. Μαρία Τσαντσάνογλου, Andrei Sarabianov & Kristina Krasnyanskaya) και την 7η Μπιενάλε Θεσσαλονίκης με τίτλο Στάση/ Taking a Stance

Kostis Velonis Το λεξ ιλόγιο της Μπία ς Ντά βου μέσα α πό τις εφα ρμογές του δυα δικού συστήμα τος στον υπολογιστή, ή την α κολουθία Fibonacci, δεν α ντιμετωπίζετα ι με τη βια ιότητα του κα ινοφα νούς , α λλά α ντίθετα γίνετα ι α ντιληπτό μ' ένα τολμηρό κα ι τρυφερό ενα γκα λισμό. Γι' α υτό κα ι είνα ι έντονη η α ίσθηση μια ς ενα τένισης που είνα ι τα υτόχ ρονα α πόμα κρη κα ι οικεία . Απόμα κρη για τί δεν κα τα γίνετα ι με πα ρα στά σεις του ά μεσα α ντιληπτού κόσμου, οικεία για τί η α ρχ ιτεκτονική α υτών των συνθέσεων κα ι των κα τα σκευών εμπεριέχ ει ένα προστα τευτικό πλα ίσιο, που είνα ι το α φήγημα του πλέγμα τος , ή σε μια μεγα λύτερη θα λπωρή του οίκου πά νω α πό το σύμπα ν.

A discussion with Ian Bruner on the occasion of the Chloroquine Juggalo show at KEIV Athens. We focus on Juggalo culture, monstrification and capital. To view the original publication by soloshow.online follow  http://soloshow.online/chloroquine.html

THE MAD FLURRY of art openings in the wake of Greece's six-month lockdown began with a showdown: an exhibition of sculptures by Blind Adam (Thanos Kyriakidis) in the catacombs of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity was shut down at the last minute by the head priest, Father Synesius Victoratos. "I do not know much about art, but all the works are black and look like pagan talismans," he reasoned. "We apologize for the inconvenience, but our patrons are conservative." Funded by the NEON Organization, the show, titled "The End. After Before," had already wended through a rigorous approval process by the

This article examines the use of humour in contemporary art from two nations understood as "peripheral" states within Europe: Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Focusing on the concepts of "locality" and "visibility", this article makes clear the way artists from both nations are framed as local narrators with a "geopolitical burden". This burden entails the responsibility to represent national histories and trauma, often leading to a reading of art practice as over-determined through the prism of local representation and national identity. Focusing upon the work of two artists from both regions that are highly visible on the international art circuit (Stefanos Tsivopoulos and Mladen Miljanović), this article investigates the way that humour in contemporary art mediates this burden by establishing a local identity "code", which serves to mobilize anti-nationalist politics, and problematize external normative perceptions of regions in "crisis". In so doing, this article aims to demonstrate how humour harnesses a performance of marginality to undermine stereotypes of life under crisis, whilst offering alternative views both of each nation's past, and its way forward into the future.

An appropriate setting for a show titled "Anatomy of Political Melancholy," curated by Katerina Gregos, the Athens Conservatoire was envisaged as part of an ambitious Bauhaus-style cultural complex designed by architect Ioannis Despotopoulos, much of which was left unbuilt; in 1976, not long after the fall of the Greek military junta, construction was halted for lack of funding. The show's portrayals of individual desperation and collective surrender by twenty-four artists imparted a widespread sense of hopelessness as a political affect: an emotional disorder encompassing disorientation, disillusionment, disenfranchisement, disaffection, and resignation triggered by pervasive sociopolitical contradictions.

This paper examines Greek visual arts production during the " crisis " ; a period when the country's contemporary art scene gained international attention. Our research focuses on emerging young artists studying at the Visual Arts Department of the Athens School of Fine Arts between 2010 and 2013. We present several works, mostly exploring issues of national identity and the politics of " crisis " that we consider as exceptional in the sense that the majority of students and academic staff of the School consciously distance themselves and their art from current and " trendy " sociopolitical matters. A number of these artworks incorporate contingency in their own way and may entrap the viewers into a perplex web of meanings concerning " crisis " that critically subvert stereotypes. We address our subject directly through such an artwork created by one of the paper's authors, Io Chaviara, and conclude by giving the floor to the artist in order to demonstrate how her entrapping " device " works.

"Ta Demosia" are proposed by epitelesis - Performance Art Foundation as a series of live performances in public spaces, in collaboration with the project "Gradient: From Gray to Color Scale" based on the theme of public intervention. These live performances took place at Tzami Kaloutsianis in Ioannina on the 7th of July 2014, with a total duration of three hours.

"Dirty Works Greece", created by the sculptor Dimitris Fotiou, is the only internet art work in Greece to date that has transcended the virtual world and has affected everyday reality. It led to the arrest of its creator, after it was presented as a fraud by the press and television. This crossing over from the Internet to the real world, from art to life, and the issues raised by Fotiou’s and other, potentially comparable cases are the subject of this paper.

Keywords: internet art / Dimitris Fotiou / Dirty Works Greece / virtual space

The chapter deals with the 2008 Mixed Media exhibition by Marios Spiliopoulos in a huge destroyed industrial remain of the early 20th century in Eleysina – Athens, “Traces of Human Beings”, a reference to the local culture of Eleysina, that has been abruptly inhabited since Antiquity, a reference to memory through the recent history of groups of people (the workers for example) or personal memoirs and narratives, old films and photographs, folk music, e.t.c., intertwined with new media as video and digital photographs. Deeply humanistic in its approach, the exhibition can require an identity and a place within contemporary Greek art only if we discover its posthumanistic ideas and values that support its context and also give this work a place among other European or international works that share its ideologies, sensibilities and views to the past, the present and the future of local communities in a multicultural world.

https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/18161