The show turns around the work of Vlassis Caniaris, not as an exhaustive retrospective nor as a solo show but as a comprehensive presentation that will be augmented by works of international artists from the younger generation. As such, it will provide a wider context for Caniaris’ oeuvre and simultaneously indicate the way to the future, as a continuation of the issues that occupied him. The exhibition will include works from the different periods of his artistic life, primarily dated between the 50s and 90s. It will be built up around two charts: one following the changes in material, texture, and form that Caniaris worked on as an artistic process, the other underlining the love, passion, and concern Caniaris shows towards humanity and the human condition. The artist starts out from the city of Athens during WWII, the occupation and the civil war, the texture of the city, its walls and facades that become painterly surfaces that in turn pose artistic questions. Surfaces become reliefs, break out of the frames, take their place into space, become sculptural, and eventually develop into fully fledged installations. Underlying are political and social issues, from the nostalgia for one’s own country and city to the feeling of displacement and alienation shared by all emigrants.
Works by:
Nikos Charalambidis, Francis Alijs, Kai Althoff,
John Bock, Tony Cragg, Helmut Middendorf,
Christopher Wool, Jimmie Durham, Michael Bevilacqua, Franz West, Georg Herold, Isa Genzken,
Angus Fairhurst, Santiago Sierra, Annette Messager, Miroslaw Balka, Kostis Velonis, Adam Chodzko,
Dryden Goodwin, Georgia Sagri
Exhibition Concept and Co-Ordination: Els Hanappe
Exhibition in cooperation with MIET, National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation.
The National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation
Eynard Mansion
13 May - 19 July 2009
