Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp



Little wooden seats and the woman of his dreams, 2006
Wood mdf, plywood, metal, lamp, cd, cd player, 2 speakers, amplifier.
Dimensions variable.


The first exhibition that will inaugurate the temporary exhibition spaces of EMST simultaneously with the Program EMST in the World is a coproduction of EMST and the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA).
The exhibition entitled Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp will be inaugurated on October 31, 2016 and last until January 29, 2017, essentially restarting the temporary exhibition activities of the Museum, which had been suspended in 2015 due to the relocation at its permanent home and due to the activities that were taking place for the operation and receipt of the new building.
The exhibition aims to be a theoretical and visual dialogue, based on works from the collections of both Museums, which includes more than 70 works and is structured in 22 thematic units. In April 2017, the exhibition will travel to Belgium on a smaller scale.
Curated by: Bart De Baere, Katerina Koskina, assistant Curators: Stamatis Schizakis, Jan De Vree





         Dimitris Alithinos - Luc Deleu - Allan Sekula-Goshka Macuga - Theodoros - Wout Vercammen-Vlassis Caniaris - Jef Geys - Cady Noland-François Curlet - N.S.Harsha - Costas Varotsos- Costis - Paul De Vree - Sarenco-Jimmie Durham - Danny Matthys- Kostis Velonis-Ilias Papailiakis - Wilhelm Sasnal - Luc Tuymans-Marina Abramović & Ulay - Bernd Lohaus-Stefanos Tsivopoulos-Vlad Monroe - Eleni Mylonas - Hugo Roelandt-Marlene Dumas - Apostolos Georgiou - Koen van den Broek-Bia Davou -Alevtina Kakhidze - Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven-Guillaume Bijl - Chryssa - Johanna Kandl-Kimsooja - Ria Pacquée - Danae Stratou-Hicham Benohoud - Wim Delvoye - Costas Tsoclis-Nikos Alexiou - Yael Kanarek - Guy Rombouts-Douglas Gordon - Jacques Lizène - Lucas Samaras-Francis Alÿs - Charif Benhelima - Nina Papaconstantinou-Rustam Khalfin & Yuliya Tikhonova - Guy Mees - Rena Papaspyrou-Nicos Baikas - Thierry De Cordier - Ivan Kožarić-Stephen Antonakos - James Lee Byars - Philippe Van Snick-Jan Henderikse - Nikos Kessanlis - Panamarenko-Jan Fabre - Almagul Menlibayeva - Maria Papadimitriou


In the Carpet



Ida Kerkovius, Landscape, around 1947, handwoven carpet,125 x 135 cm, Courtesy of Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

The Essay In the Carpet by the curators Salma Lahlou, Mouna Mekouar and Alya Sebti of the exhibition of the same name tells the story of reciprocal historical and cultural influences between the European and Moroccan crafts of carpet making from early Avantgarde and Fauvism to contemporary artists’passion for Berber carpets and Moroccan Pictorial Modernity. The story evolves around Sheila Hicks, a former scholar of Joseph Albers and one of the pioneers of textile art who was invited to Morocco, in the 1970s where the redefinition of the artistic value of traditional arts was at the center of discussion.

Text by Salma Lahlou, Mouna Mekouar & Alya Sebti — Oct 25, 2016




Sunday, October 9, 2016

The Bungler


You glow in my heart
Like the flames of uncontrolled candles.
But when I go to warm my hands,
My clumsiness overturns the light,
and then I stumble
Against the tables and chairs. 

Amy Lowell

Artistic Practices: Housing as social agreement Οngoing archive


Kosmonaut House, 2007. Wood, acrylic, 68 x70 x 27 cm. 

Postwar capitalism in the West has promoted its growth on the ideal of house ownership (with recent catastrophic financial effects) in a process of commodification of necessities of life. Commodification of housing though, more than being just a method of capital accumulation, resulted in the reconceptualisation of public and private space. Pierre Bourdieu describes a person’s existential relation to their position in terms of the social status conferred by the appropriation/possession of a particular extent of physical space: “Each agent may be characterized by the place where he or she is situated more or less permanently, that is, by her place of residence (those who are “without hearth or home,” without “permanent residence” … have almost no social existence—see the political status of the homeless) … It is also characterized by the place it legally occupies in space through properties (houses and apartments or offices, land for cultivation or residential development, etc.) which are more or less congesting … . It follows that the locus and the place occupied by an agent in appropriated social space are excellent indicators of his or her position in social space.
Nowadays, in the wake of the recent housing crises which have subverted the notion of housing as a consumer commodity, co-housing and community projects emerge as answers to the “Housing Question”. This shift towards collective solutions has been addressed by artistic, architectural and curatorial initiatives that over the past five decade have variously depicted and intervened into this unevenly developing urban condition.
Artistic Practices: Housing as social agreement” is an ongoing archive aiming to unfold a cartography of approaches by artists to the notion of the house, investigate and challenge the ways in which housing is not only imagined, but also effectuated by artists. Furthermore intends to point out the ways in which forms of cultural production can be reclaimed as tools with which to design, defend and reinvent social space.
The works featured in the archive are organized around four leitmotifs :‘Housing as utopia”, highlights the transformative, disruptive potential of housing in the social imagination, as the first step to a radical autonomy.“Housing as uneven development “raises the issues of inequalities in the distribution of the right to housing. Housing as dystopic construction” illustrated by a series of projects that explore the conflicts and correlations between the represented space of and the social and political action. “Housing as community building” explores the role of artist as social designer, the statial practices of commons, and arts based revitalization of under-resourced urban areas.
Curated by Giorgos Papadatos & Sofia Dona
Featured works byRebecca Agnes / Jonas Dahlberg / Giorgos Gyparakis / Tea Mäkipää / Artemis Potamianou / Kostis Velonis / Erwin Wurm /Angela Ferreira / Eugenio Tibaldi / Yiannis Theodoropoulos / Mona Vatamanu Florin Tudor / Giorgos Papadatos / Dorit Margreiter / Errands / Taysir Batniji/Kimsooja / Michael Rakowitz / Nicos Charalambidis / Róza El-Hassan / Tudor Bratu / Teddy Cruz / Raumlabor/Ahmet Öğüt / Sofia Dona / Marjetica Potrč / Zafos Xagoraris / Rick Lowe/ Project Row Houses
Parallel to the workshop Co-housing practices/ Ιnventing Prototypes for Athens
organized by Co-Hab Athens & NetHood (Zurich) & INURA Zurich & Athens
Hosted by Greek Pavilion, Giardini.
26 October – 27 November 2016
15th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia



Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Hungry Pinocchio




Hungry Pinocchio, 2016
Wood, acrylic, ceramic 
125 x 50 x 8 cm

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Το πέταγμα της γλαύκας: Μορφές πρόσληψης της αρχαίας ελληνικής φιλοσοφίας στη Γερμανία.



Το ΑΠΘ ("Εργαστήριο Φιλοσοφίας: Κείμενα και Ερμηνείες"), ο Δήμος Θεσσαλονίκης και το γερμανικό ίδρυμα Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung διοργανώνουν ελληνο-τουρκικό φιλοσοφικό συνέδριο (Humboldt-Kolleg) με θέμα
''Το πέταγμα της γλαύκας: Μορφές πρόσληψης της αρχαίας ελληνικής φιλοσοφίας στη Γερμανία''.
Το συνέδριο θα διεξαχθεί στη Θεσσαλονίκη το τριήμερο 7-9 Οκτωβρίου 2016 και αναμένεται να αποτελέσει ένα μείζον φιλοσοφικό γεγονός, αλλά και να λειτουργήσει ως δίαυλος επικοινωνίας ανάμεσα στην ελληνική και την τουρκική φιλοσοφική κοινότητα.
Θέμα του συνεδρίου είναι η πορεία και πρόσληψη της αρχαίας ελληνικής φιλοσοφίας στον γερμανικό χώρο. Στόχος είναι να αναδειχθεί η παγκόσμια και καθολική σημασία της, χωρίς τις στενώσεις που επιφέρουν οι αξιώσεις ‘κληρονόμησής’ της. Οι ανακοινώσεις θα αναφέρονται σε ολόκληρο το φάσμα πρόσληψης και παραγωγικής οικειοποίησης της ελληνικής σκέψης από τη γερμανική φιλοσοφία: από τον 18ο αιώνα και τον γερμανικό ιδεαλισμό μέχρι το τέλος του 20ού αιώνα. Επιστημονική Επιτροπή:Παναγιώτης Θανασάς (ΑΠΘ) Sanem Yazicioğlu (Istanbul)

Saturday, October 1, 2016