Posts by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

Κατερίνα Ζαχαροπούλου, Το Τραπέζι των Αφηγήσεων

Ex_posure: Κατερίνα Ζαχαροπούλου

Ήταν κάπου ανάμεσα στο 1686 και το 1710 όταν η Petronella Oortman, μια πλούσια σύζυγος ενός εμπόρου μεταξιού στο Άμστερνταμ σχεδίασε και επιμελήθηκε την κατασκευή ενός περίτεχνου και πανάκριβου κουκλόσπιτου, ακριβούς αντίγραφου του πολυτελούς σπιτιού των εννιά δωματίων όπου έμενε με τον σύζυγό της, Johannes Brandt.

Το κουκλόσπιτο αυτό σήμερα αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό κομμάτι της μόνιμης συλλογής του Rijksmuseum.

Εκεί το είδε για πρώτη φορά η Κατερίνα Ζαχαροπούλου η οποία του έδωσε πνοή και το ξαναζωντάνεψε μέσα από το έργο της, αρχικά με το Κουκλόσπιτο της Petronella Oortman – το οποίο πρωτοπαρουσιάστηκε στο Bey Hamam το 2011 και ξαναπροβάλλεται τώρα και μέχρι τις 12 Μαρτίου 2017στην Αθήνα, στο Μουσείο Μπενάκη στην Πειραιώς σε επιμέλεια της Συραγώς Τσιάρα – και στη συνέχεια με Το Τραπέζι των Αφηγήσεων μία περφόρμανς-εγκατάσταση που τρέχει παράλληλα στη Στέγη του Ιδρύματος Ωνάση ως τις 24 Φεβρουαρίου 2017.

Η Κατερίνα Ζαχαροπούλου μας μίλησε για τα δύο αυτά έργα, το Κουκλόσπιτο της Petronella Oortman και την εξέλιξή του, Το Τραπέζι των Αφηγήσεων, καθώς και για την εμπειρία της από τις μέχρι τώρα συναντήσεις της με το κοινό και τη συμμετοχή αυτού στο ίδιο το έργο, μέσα από μια σειρά προσωπικών σκηνογραφιών/σκηνοθεσιών και των αναδυόμενων αναδρομών/αφηγήσεων/προσδοκιών που κάθε φορά οι συμμετέχοντες πρωταγωνιστές καταθέτουν, μοιράζονται.

19 Φεβρουαρίου 2017 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

FLYING OVER THE ABYSS

Thirty four Artists Flying Over the Abyss at the Athens Conservatoire

To enter the exhibition Flying Over Abyss[1] one has to descend the stairs that lead to the first basement – closed and unfinished for four decades and now refurbished and uncovered for the needs of the exhibition– of the Athens Conservatoire. An emblematic building that is among the supreme expressions of the radical modern spirit of Bauhaus and was designed by the architect and professor Ioannis Despotopoulos, who studied under Walter Gropius in Weimar.

The exhibition organized by NEON[2] –the nonprofit organization founded in 2013 by collector and entrepreneur Dimitris Daskalopoulos- reflects upon the panhuman, fundamental philosophical issues of birth, death and the space in between – “the luminous interval life” as Nikos Kazantzakis, the important Greek writer and philosopher, names it in his book The Saviors of God[3], which is the exhibition’s epicenter and source of inspiration.

This is the first time that the manuscript of The Saviors of God is presented along side an exhibition. We read Kazantzakis words from the book’s prologue:

27 Ιανουαρίου 2017 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Γενικά Άρθρα

CJM: FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

Facing memories that are not ours, dealing with Postmemory

Interview with Pierre-François Galpin

According to Dr. Marianne Hirsch postmemory is “the relationship that the ‘generation after’ bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before—to experiences they ‘remember’ only by means of the stories, images and behaviors among which they grew up. But these experiences were transmitted to them so deeply and affectively as to seem to constitute memories in their own right.”

Through their work, the twenty four international artists in this exhibition search, question, and reflect on the representation of truths related to ancestral and collective memory—ultimately attempting to deal with their own past. They remember and recall stories that were never theirs and assemble them in a variety of media to be seen, heard, and experienced by others. At once intimate and shared, the memories they work with are second-hand experiences, culled from a photograph they saw, or a story they heard, or even a once subconscious memory. The artists are secondary witnesses to the past events they use in their works, and it is precisely this distance in time and space that allows them to offer powerful narratives open to a wide range of interpretation and expression.

The exhibition is co-curated by CJM Assistant Curator Pierre-François Galpin and independent curator Lily Siegel.

Working in a variety of media the artists featured are:

Christian Boltanski, Nao Bustamante, Binh Danh, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Bernice Eisenstein, Eric Finzi, Nicholas Galanin, Guy Goldstein, Fotini Gouseti, Ellen Harvey, Aram Jibilian, Loli Kantor, Mike Kelley, Lisa Kokin, Ralph Lemon, Rä di Martino, Yong Soon Min, Fabio Morais, Elizabeth Moran, Vandy Rattana, Anri Sala, Wael Shawky, Hank Willis Thomas and Yamashiro Chikako

Pierre-François Galpin talked to Eleni Zymaraki Tzortzi.

21 Ιανουαρίου 2017 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Γενικά Άρθρα

CJM: FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION / INTERVIEW

Facing memories that are not ours, dealing with Postmemory

Interview with Pierre-François Galpin

The exhibition is co-curated by CJM Assistant Curator Pierre-François Galpin and independent curator Lily Siegel.

Working in a variety of media the artists featured are:

Pierre-François Galpin talked to Eleni Zymaraki Tzortzi.

18 Ιανουαρίου 2017 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

ΘΑΝΑΣΗΣ ΜΟΥΤΣΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ – ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ

Αφετηρία αυτής της διαδικτυακής συζήτησης με τον Θανάση Μουτσόπουλο στάθηκε το κείμενό του για τον κατάλογο της πρώτης ατομικής έκθεσης του γνωστού street artist, STMTS, με τίτλο “Crossing the lines”, που εγκαινιάστηκε στις 8 Δεκεμβρίου 2016, στην Αίθουσα Τέχνης Αθηνών.

Γνωστός στον χώρο της τέχνης για την ουσιαστική και συνεπή παρουσία του σε τομείς όπως η επιμέλεια εκθέσεων και εκδόσεων, η διδασκαλία της ιστορίας της τέχνης και η αρθρογραφία, ο Θανάσης Μουτσόπουλος μοιράστηκε μαζί μας σκέψεις και απόψεις για σημαντικά και επίκαιρα ζητήματα της σύγχρονης τέχνης.

12 Δεκεμβρίου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

Paul Walker, Escape Velocity

Ex_posure: Paul Walker/Escape Velocity

Ο Paul Walker είναι μία ιδιαίτερη περίπτωση καλλιτέχνη: γεννημένος στο Birmingham ζει μόνιμα εδώ και πολλά χρόνια στην Αίγινα. Αεικίνητος και ακαταπόνητος μοιράζει τα τελευταία τρία χρόνια τη ζωή και την καλλιτεχνική του δραστηριότητα ανάμεσα σε Ελλάδα και Σκωτία δημιουργώντας εικαστικά έργα, σπουδάζοντας φυσική και βοηθώντας στην οργάνωση του Printroom, μιας ομάδας χαρακτών (http://www.printroomdundee.scot/), στο Κέντρο Τεχνών του Dundee (DCA ).

Στην ατομική του έκθεση Escape Velocity, που εγκαινιάζεται στις 27 Οκτωβρίου στην Αίγινα, ο Paul Walker παρουσιάζει ένα σημαντικό μέρος της δουλείας αυτής των τελευταίων τριών χρόνων. Έργα ζωγραφικά και χαρακτικά, που με ευγλωττία αποτυπώνουν τις εικαστικές και όχι μόνο αναζητήσεις και εμμονές του καλλιτέχνη αλλά και αποτελούν τη συνέχεια μιας συνεπούς και σταθερής πορείας.

Ο Paul Walker μίλησε στην Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

25 Οκτωβρίου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

Bill Balaskas – Interview

Bill Balaskas was born in 1983 in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he studied economics before moving to the UK in order to study art. His background has influenced significantly his artistic practice, especially ever since the outbreak of the global financial crisis of 2008 that seriously affected his home country. Since 2005, he is a London-based artist, writer and academic working across different media and platforms.

His works have been widely exhibited internationally, in more than 110 solo and group exhibitions. He has received nominations for numerous awards, including the 2013 AUDI Art Award for the most innovative young artist.

In 2012, he represented the UK in the London Cultural Olympiad and in Maribor, the European Capital of Culture, with his video Parthenon Rising.

This period he presents his work in a solo exhibition in Athens at Kalfayan Galleries titled ‘Remains of a Summer Bliss’. The exhibition is curated by Boston-based curator, artist and academic Lanfranco Aceti.

4 Οκτωβρίου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

Gottfried Helnwein, Interview

Gottfried Helnwein, Interview

Gottfried Helnwein was born in 1948 Vienna.

He is an artist well known by his critique of the political situation, the crimes perpetrated during the WWII, Nazism and Holocaust.

The experience from the childhood spent in the post-Nazi Vienna, where nobody ever spoke about these issues irritated Helnwein, and so throughout his artistic career he expressed his critique and revolt against war atrocities and the politics of National Socialism.

“My art is not the answer, it is rather a question”

His installation “Ninth November Night” in 1988, in Cologne, irritated German audience and provoked protests and aggressiveness. The large-scale photomurals were vandalized. After a few days, numerous pictures had been slashed – one even stolen. Gottfried Helnwein however saw the exhibition as a process, which would continue and be reflected in later presentations. The pictures were not renewed, but patched up, so that this reminder of the persecution of Jewish people would bear the traces of a lack of insight and understanding in the present day.

The motif of the child, which prevails his work, is presented in an unsettling way, but also in unrivalled beauty and is his main metaphor of the innocent and helpless people upon whom the cruelty and the violence are being practiced by those in power.

4 Αυγούστου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

Gottfried Helnwein, Interview

Gottfried Helnwein, Interview

Gottfried Helnwein was born in 1948 Vienna.

He is an artist well known by his critique of the political situation, the crimes perpetrated during the WWII, Nazism and Holocaust.

“My art is not the answer, it is rather a question”

4 Αυγούστου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη

Interviews

The Mexican Suitcase

ICP – The Mexican Suitcase

Cynthia Young, Interview

In December 2007, three boxes filled with rolls of film, containing 4,500 35mm negatives of the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim (David Seymour), which had been considered lost since 1939, arrived at the International Center of Photography. These three photographers, who lived in Paris, worked in Spain, and published internationally, laid the foundation for modern war photography. Their work has long been considered some of the most innovative and passionate coverage of the Spanish Civil War (1936–-1939). Many of the contact sheets made from the negatives are on view as part of the exhibition, which look closely at some of the major stories by Capa, Taro, and Chim as interpreted through the individual frames. These images are seen alongside the magazines of the period in which they were published and with the photographers’ own contact notebooks.

The exhibition was organized by ICP Curator Cynthia Young and first opened at ICP in 2011. Since then it has been presented in many museums around the world. This month – July 23 – opens at the Caixa Cultural, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Cynthia Young, ICP’s curator of the exhibition, talked to Eleni Zymaraki Tzortzi, sharing interesting points, views and impressions about the exhibition and the impact it had on people so far.

15 Ιουλίου 2016 by Ελένη Ζυμαράκη