Art-Athina 26 to 29 May 2016 Faliron Pavilion, Athens, Greece

Platforms Project@Art-Athina 2016 Curated by Artemis Potamianou

Platforms Project@Art-Athina 2016 Curated by Artemis Potamianou

Platforms Project @ Art Athina was started in 2013 with the aim of charting artistic action as it is generated by the collective initiatives of artists who decide to create the so-called platforms and jointly pursue the answers to their artistic concerns. Since then it has become integral to Art Athina as an institution that reflects its genuinely international character. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 Platforms Projects @ Art Athina featured over 120 platforms and 1,600 artists from 23 countries, achieving instances of symbiosis, collaborations and unexpected debates on art as well as forging friendships. Interpersonal relationships aside, in many cases the platforms ended up exchanging exhibitions, actions and artists. Platforms Project @ Art-Athina 2016 will be featuring 51 major platforms and art-group events from 17 countries, involving over 650 artists and making up a programme which will attempt to offer visitors an insight into artistic creation and the experience of collaboration in the artistic practice without focusing on sales. Viewers will be able to see platforms which have honoured this project in previous years as well as platforms presented for the first time in Greece. Above all, however, the Platforms Project @ Art Athina 2016 is devoted to the collaborations established in the three previous events by platforms which, adopting the maxim “unity is strength”, have attained a prominent place on the international art scene, establishing a global network of independent art schemes. Artemis Potamianou Director, Platforms Project @ Art-Athina
Participating Platforms:

(more…)
Salon de Bricolage Exhibition: “Creatures of a Day” Curator: Anna Chatzinassiou

Salon de Bricolage was launched in 2009 by Chrysanthos and Spyros Panas and is, among other things, a platform for artistic creation and exchange of ideas on art. It also boasts an active exhibition program, which for the past seven years has been curated by the art historian Anna Chatzinassiou. In the framework of the collaboration with other cultural organizations, Salon de Bricolage is creating for the second year, in collaboration with Art Athina, a VIP lounge within the premises of the “tae kwon do” stadium, where its members as well as Art Athina’s guests will be able to meet up and exchange their impressions regarding the art fair. In addition, Anna Chatzinassiou is curating a group exhibition titled “Creatures of a day”: “All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike. All is ephemeral—both memory and the object of memory. The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere”. Marcus Aurelius (“The Meditations”) The fear of death, the desire of freedom, the image of ourselves and its constant confrontation, the cruelty of loneliness, the meaning of today, the search for personal truth, the complex of sexuality, the questions referring to the meaning of life. Questions, such as how could art exceed the instantaneous existence, are being approached through different perspectives. Participating artists: Venia Bechraki, Morris Ganis, Alexandros Georgiou, Apostolos Georgiou, Giorgos Gyparakis, Nikos Kanarelis, Elias Kafouros, Panagiotis Kefalas, Panos Kokkinias, George Lappas, Giannis Malegiannakis, Ilias Papailiakis, Mantalina Psoma, Alexandros Psychoulis, Georgia Sagri, Anastasis Stratakis, Takis, Panos Tsagaris, Kostis Velonis and Marina Vernicos. Panos Kokkinias, Theoni, 2007 Digital C – print, ed. 5 158 x 120 cm Courtesy Xippas Gallery, Paris and the artist Alexandros Psychoulis, PanicPainting 11000 (Pileas), 2016 Ball point pen on paper, 49 x 59 cm Courtesy a.antonopoulou.art, Athens, Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki and the artist Georgia Sagri, Diana Very Dog \ Diana speaks to animals, 2013 C-print, 38 x 31 cm Courtesy the artist Kostis Velonis What Color is the Sun? 2016 Wood, acrylic, oil 120 x 63 x 18 cm Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki and the artist Elias Kafouros, Panic room residence, 2016 Acrylics on canvas, 71 x 71 cm Courtesy AD Gallery, Athens and the artist Ilias Papailiakis, Hero, 2008 Oil on wood, 30 x 26 cm Courtesy the artist
Cut The Fence Curated by Das Esszimmer–space for art+

Das Esszimmer – Raum für Kunst+ mechenstrasse 25, D-53129 Bonn | www.dasesszimmer.com Cut the Fence is an initiative of the Swiss artists Copa & Sordes and the art space BBLACKBOXX in Basle (CH) launched 2013, to spread the idea of cutting down the fences in refugee politics. Cut the Fence is presented in the context of Platforms Project @ Art Athina, 2016 by the non-profit, artist-run art space Das Esszimmer from Bonn (GER). Art Athina generously supports the project presentation in Athens. The art space BBLACKBOXX is situated nearby a refugee camp and deportation center in Basle (CH), where refused refugees are imprisoned, expecting their deportation. The art project Cut the Fence is opposing this practice. A copy of the 657 meters fence, surrounding the camp and the deportation center, was printed with a specially designed fence pattern on 657m African damask1 fabric. By inviting everybody to cut the fence, the project postulates the symbolic destruction of not only the fence in Basle, but of every fence, built to prevent refugees from entering other countries. During Platforms Project 20 meters of the fabric fence can be cut in exchange for a don Medecins du Monde Greece ation. 100% of the raised money is going to the charity organization Medecins du Monde Greece. The symbolic cutting of the fence has already taken place here: BBLACKBOXX, Basle (CH) | ein fenster inmitten der welt, Murrhardt (GER) | Gallery Lisi Hämmerle, Bregenz (AUT) | Fabrik culture, Hégenheim (F) | Art Bodensee, Dornbirn (AUT) | Cittadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT) | Reitschule, Bern (CH) | Keine Systeme, BlackBox, Kunstraum, Aarau (CH) | dock:, Basle (CH) | University of Art, Bern (CH) | Shedhalle, Z̈urich (CH) | Motorenhalle, Dresden (GER) | Involvement Requires Perception, Gasthaus zum Bären, Z̈urich (CH) | Mixer Kunst im Werk, Rheinfelden (GER) | Artisthouse S11, Solothurn (CH) | Textile Museum, St. Gallen (CH) | Zeughaus, Teufen (CH) | wemakeit, Kaufleuten, Z̈urich (CH) Links: > http://www.xcult.org/copaetsordes/ > http://www.bblackboxx.ch/ > http://www.dasesszimmer.com > http://griechenland-komitee.ch/ 1 African damask, also called Bazin, is produced in Germany and Austria nearby the Swiss border. It is an exclusive product for the African market, so to speak for countries where many of the refugees in the deportation center originally fled.
Exhibition “Time Matters” Curated by Jordanis Theodoridis

The General Secretariat For Crime Policy of the Ministry Of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights presents the prisoner art exhibition “Time Matters” at the international contemporary art fair Art-Athina. The exhibition curated by Jordanis Theodoridis features artworks from prisons throughout the country, including paintings, poems, a video work with interviews and a performance. “Time Matters” encourages the public to take a second look, inspiring dialogue and awareness. Spending time and serving time have common features –after all, life is measured for everyone in units of time. This show aims to bring together at a given time what is temporary separated: the outside and the inside world. Most artwork is available for sale, with proceeds going directly to the artists. Jordanis Theodoridis Ioannis Lambrakis Evangelia Rogka Sofia Giovanoglou Anastasia Varela
Tribute to a Historical Greek Gallery 2016 : “Kochlias Gallery” Curator: Manos Stefanidis

On Costas Lahas and his “Kochlias” This year the Hellenic Art Galleries Association pays tribute to a special as well as idiosyncratic figure in contemporary Greek art and to the historic gallery he founded in Thessaloniki; an art space that could be seen as something like northern Greece’s DESMOS. It is the painter, writer, poet, actor, journalist and gallery owner Costas Lahas and his Kochlias. Costas Lahas was born in 1936 at Kato Theodoraki, Kilkis. He studied Economics & Political Science at the University of Thessaloniki, at the same time being active in the theatre either as secretary of the State Theatre of Northern Greece or an associate of “Theatro Kipou”, “Theatro Technis”, etc. Self-taught as a painter, he still expressed the special expressionist atmosphere of the so-called School of Thessaloniki. To him, texts and images were mirrors that reflected the same core idea. He presented his first solo exhibition in 1962 at the French Institute of Thessaloniki, and the second one at the “Techni” Macedonian Art School in 1964. The same year he published his first collection of prose, Pedion Osfriseos [Olfactory Field]. This was followed by the novel Meteikasma, Metaisthima [Afterimage, Aftereffect] and the collection Askiseis epi ammodohou [Sandbox Exercises], which won the Greek State’s Short Story Award for 1985, and in 1998 the “9,58” Radio Station of ERT-3 published his Plous Oneirou; from Echedoros to Thermaikos, an autobiographical work. In 1972 he founded “Kochlias”, the first professional art gallery in Thessaloniki. Its inaugural exhibition was that of a series of political works by Yannis Gaitis, followed by a show of Nikos Sachinis, and in March ’73 came the equally subversive prints of Vasso Katraki. Lahas provided a forum mainly for the artists of northern Greece, from Yorgos Paralis and Loukas Venetoulias to Costas Loustas and Phaedon Patrikalakis and from Apostolos Georgiou to Yorgos Kouvakis, and so on. Nevertheless, his reference point was his artistic archetype, Nikos Gavriil Pentzikis, after whose magazine he had named the gallery by way of tribute (the legendary literary magazine Kochlias was published by Pentzikis from 1945 to 1948). Lahas retired from “Kochlias” in 1986, completing a historical cycle. From 1987 to 1995 he was director of the “Vellidion Cultural Centre”, organising such seminal exhibitions as the retrospectives for Chryssa and Theodoros Stamos, among others. His last ‘public’ literary appearance was twenty years ago, when he wrote the lyrics for three songs in the album “In the hut of the century” of Th. Mikroutsikos and D. Mitropanos. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thus ends the dream voyage from Echedoros to the Gulf of Thermaikos…”; this is the closing phrase in his last autobiographical book. He died on December 9, 2014. Manos Stefanidis
Films@Art-Athina 2016

The Athenian Art Fair presents a three-day film screening program, as because it believes in the importance and centrality of the medium film as a means of giving new impetus to an established event: creates a place where video artists and experimental filmmakers show the fascinating world of moving images and talk to the audience. It’s a forum of dialogue and artistic exchange. The medium of film is in interplay with the visual arts since the 1920s. A review of the programs and exhibitions of museums, festivals and fairs confirms that visual arts and film are engaged in diverse and exciting relationships; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) has its own film division, the International Film Festival “Berlinale” presents cinematic art from galleries and museums in its section “Forum Expanded” and the Art Basel has been holding a film screening program for many years. More than such big events, points on models of cooperation and collaboration with different institutions like film archives or art foundations. The program also starts a long term exploration of Greek video art. The selected films focus on the diversity of film on art: the film as a material, as a medium of reflection, as an instrument of artistic researches for visual artists and experimental filmmakers. The program aims at an interested and diverse audience, invites people to discover and discuss exciting forms of seeing. Team Curator: Ingo Starz is an art historian who is working as a curator and journalist. He curated exhibitions on art and literature in Germany and Switzerland and realized research projects at the Zurich University of the Arts. He made two cultural projects in Sarajevo; the radio feature “Burning Memory” (WDR/RBB 2012) and the book anthology “Library Sarajevo” (Sarajevo/Klagenfurt 2012; in cooperation with Goethe Institute). He currently managed a film program about East German Cinema in Athens. Associate Curator: Konstantinos Kardakaris’ studies involve the fields of physics, cinema, theater, scriptwriting and music. He worked as film and theater director, selected and awarded in international festivals.
TALKS@Art-Athina 2016

Saturday 28 May 2016 12.00-13.00 Contempory Art in Norway Scott Elliott, Director of Artist in Residence Programme at Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen-Norway with the support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the Norwegian Institute 13.00-14.00 Financing Cultural operations : Financing through EU Funds Anastasia Tsakatoura, ACEY working Group Financing through crowdfunding Μaria Kouri, KT legal services START Programm of the Bosch Foundation Maria-Louiza Laopodi, Culent 14.00-16.00 Platforms and Cultural Projects funding: 14.00-14.15 KangarooCourt (Greece) 14.15-14.30 Scotty Enterprises Berlin (Germany) 14.30-14.45 Parkingallery Project (Iran) 14.45-15.00 Kallio Kunsthalle (Finland) Coordinator : George Oreopoulos, Art Therapy 15.00-16.00 Collaborative projects Platforms Project 2016: 15.00-15.15 BEASTON projects (UK) – rosalux (Germany) – A Brooks Art (UK) 15.15-15.30 Orizontas Gegonoton (Greece) – En Flo (Greece) 15.30-15.45 A TRANS (Germany) – EX-MÊKH (The Netherlands) Coordinator : George Oreopoulos, Art Therapy 16.00-17.00 Cultural Network «Cyclades Cycle» Marios Vazaios, Coordinator 17.00-18.00 Art and Prison Welcome address : Eftixis Fytrakis, General Secretary of Criminal Policy, Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights Coordinator: Alexis Caniaris General Manager of Art-Athina Jordanis Theodoridis, Curator, Director of Gallery widmertheodoridis Giorgos Nikolopoulos Professor of Criminology, Panteion University – Chairman of “Return” Manolis Charos, Visual Artist Elias Barounis, Retired Prison Officer Sofia Giovanoglou Dr. Law – Scientific Associate at the Office of the Secretary General Criminal Policy 18.00-19.00 Art and Education Coordinator: Marina Athanasiadou Art Historian and museologist Giannis Melanitis, Lecturer, High School of Fine Arts Efi Xalyvopoulou, Head of Visual Arts, Deree Alexandros Asonitis, owner, author, Open Art 19.00-20.30 Tribute to a Historical Greek Gallery 2016: «Gallery Kochlias» Curator: Manos Stefanidis Sunday 29 May 2016 12.00-14.00 Tribute to Panayiotis Tetsis (at Film Room) Panayiotis Tetsis “Playing with Colours” Director-Producer: Yannis Vamvakas 14.00-15.00 The Municipal Art Gallery of Athens Art and modernization : A new approach for the Municipal Art Gallery and the cultural infrastructure of the Municipality of Athens Denis Zacharopoulos, Art Historian, Artistic Director of the Art Gallery, the Museums and the Collections of the Municipality of Athens. 15.00-16.00 Biomimicry in Art Kleopatra Alamantariotou Responsible Organization and Representative NASA CHALLENGE GREECE & CEO biomimicry Greek Research and Innovation Manolis Anastasakos Visual Artisti 16.00-17.00 Platforms in the UK 16.00-16.10 PAPER 16.10-16.20 SCI 16.20-16.30 LUBOMIROV / ANGUS-HUGHES 16.30-16.40 Harrington Mill Studios 16.40-16.50 9th Art Wave Coordinator : George Oreopoulos, Art Therapy 17.00-18. 00 A series of panel discussions as part of the Educational Program of Art-Athina “Βοοm Boom DADA: The Ainigma”, curated by the non-profit company, Very Young Contemporary Art (VYCA). Alexandros Psychoulis, Artist. Professor of Art & Technology, Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly Eftyxia Mpartzou, Art-therapist Harriet Mitrakou, Education Manager VYCA Ourania Kouvou Dr., Art Education, School of Education, University of Athens Spyros Sgouros, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Medical School, University of Athens, Head of Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Mitera Childrens Hospital 18.00-19.00 AICA Hellas: Honorary members announcement 19.00-20.00 I moved to Athens Catriona Gallagher Lee Wells Tjorg Douglas Beer
Institutions, Media, Publications & Companies

INSTUTIONS

AICA HELLAS – INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ART CRITICS – GREEK SECTION AISXYLIA FESTIVAL / ELEUSIS 2021 CENTRE OF CULTURE, RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION OF THE BANK OF GREECE COSTAS TSOCLIS MUSEUM GREEK PRINTMAKING MUSEUM HELLENIC CENTRE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY MACEDONIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART MUNICIPALITY OF THESSALONIKI – DIRECTORATE OF CULTURE & TOURISM
MEDIA, PUBLICATIONS & COMPANIES

ALPHA BANK ATHENS VOICE SA ANTIQUA APOLYTO CREATIVE SPOT ARSENOGLOU ELENA – BEYOND DECORATION ATATHENS ATHINEO – CENTER OF CREATIVE BREWING BETON7ARTRADIO | WE SPEAK ART CLIO MUSE PC CUBE ART EDITIONS CULTURE NOW DEREE-THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF GREECE DEPARTMENT OF AUDIO & VISUAL ARTS, IONIAN UNIVERSITY EL CULTURE GR TISTS CREATORS’ IMAGES INSIDER PUBLICATIONS KARAVIAS UNDERWRITING AGENCY KEY BOOKS ORPHEE BEINOGLOU INTERNATIONAL FORWARDERS S.A. PEPPER 96.6 TA NEA TIS TECHNIS – THE ART NEWSPAPER – GREEK EDITION
The Toc Roundtable “Can Athens Become the Berlin of the South?” Co-organization of Art-Athina & The Toc

Friday 27 May 2016 19.00-20.30 Can Athens become the Berlin of the South? The Toc & Art-Athina 2016 Roundtable discussion
Welcome address: Elli Stai President of The Toc

Coordinator: Katerina Lymperopoulou

Christos Tentomas, President of OPANDA

Katerina Koskina, Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST)

Vaggelis Theodoropoulos, Director of Athens and Epidaurus Festival

Manos Stefanidis, Art Historian, Deputy Professor, University of Athens

Arsen Kalfayan, Kalfayan Galleries

Aggelos Papadimitriou, Visual Artist

Iliodora Margellou, Visual Artist

Honorary Collection 2016: The collection of the Municipal Art Gallery of Athens curated by Denis Zacharopoulos

Honoured Collector 2016: Municipality of Athens The Municipal Art Gallery of Athens is key to the study of Greece’s artistic, cultural and political history. It was founded during the mayorship of Emmanuel Benakis, a prominent associate of Venizelos and member of the modernisation movement. The relation of Venizelos and Clemenceau, dating since the end of the 19th century, contributed to the systematic reformation of institutions and the modernisation of the state. The establishment of the Municipal Gallery bears out the contemporary artist’s status as a professional and an active citizen. The same year sees the reformation of employer-employee relations and the foundations for social and labour legislation. The artists who have broken away from the Art Lovers’ Society, which is controlled by the Palace and influenced by academism, now acquire an institutional space in the spirit of what is internationally known as Secession. This enables us to sidestep the mechanistic clash between Paris and Munich, since the first schism had taken place in Munich (1892) with the establishment of Europe’s first Secession in the spirit of the “Independent” Artists. The artists are designated first as “modernisers” in terms of their approach to the State and then as “modern” in aesthetic or stylistic terms. The Municipal Art Gallery of Athens is run from the outset by major moderniser artists and embraces the new trends and the circle of the Techni group. The most outstanding figure among its directors would be that of the major painter Spyros Papaloukas (from 1940 to 1957). The Gallery’s collection brings together a significant number of works by free artists and modernists who are critically selected among themselves through the exhibitions. Most of these works reflect a heightened sensibility towards everyday life, the love for reality as we know it from Courbet or the impressionists, landscape painting and the recording of our natural and historic wealth, as well as the many new idioms and expressions. One could say that the Gallery’s collection represents the parallel of literature in expressing an artistic “demoticism” and reflecting the modernisation of language and education during the first half of the 20th century. The drive for modernisation of those times consolidates the status of Athens not just as a capital but as a cosmopolitan centre. Unlike the academic institutions, the Municipal Gallery has few omissions in terms of the modernist trends. It is above all a Collection, inscribed in the city not as a building but together with the city’s architectural planning, green spaces and monuments and as part of the social and educational reformation which continues, despite the tragic disruptions of WWII and the Civil War, until the dawn of abstract art. The rupture with the more contemporary trends coincides with the dictatorial regime of 1967. The current selection of works presents some typical examples of secessionism, plein-air painting, post-impressionism, Fauvism and expressionism from the seminal years of the collection, by artists with a key role in the artistic and institutional entrenchment of modernisation. Through this outlook one can understand the true artistic breadth and wealth of Greece’s relation to Europe’s broader cultural developments, and take a fresh look at the interfaces of art history with the universal vision for freedom, progress and education, artistically as well as socially. Today the Organisation for Culture, Sport and Youth of the City of Athens is fortunate enough to bring together a large number of milestones in the history of society and the city; headed by the Gallery, they make up a rich network of Museums, Collections and public spaces which show that, despite the crisis, citizen participation and education are society’s primary tools and the great hope for a free and democratic world. Denys Zacharopoulos Art Director of Pinacoteque, Museums & Collections of the Municipality of Athens