199

199
27.6.2020-1.11.2020
Deste Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra
#199 #destefoundation  #hydraslaughterhouse #masonry #gravity#kostisvelonis #poster #deste #indestructible

Young Woman on a Stool

Leon Spilliaert, Young Woman on a Stool, 1909 

Νεκρικό εκμαγείο του Ιωάννη Μακρυγιάννη

Νεκρικό εκμαγείο του Ιωάννη Μακρυγιάννη, 1864.  Φιλοτεχνημένο από το γλύπτη Δημήτρη Κόσσo

Gruas no cais descarregam mercadorias e eu amo-te

Gruas no cais descarregam mercadorias e eu amo-te.
homens isolados caminham nas avenidas e eu amo-te.
silêncios eléctricos faíscam dentro das máquinas e eu amo-te.
destruição contra o caos, destruição contra o caos e eu amo-te.
reflexos de corpos desfiguram-se nas montras e eu amo-te.
envelhecem anos no esquecimento dos armazéns e eu amo-te.
toda a cidade se destina à noite e eu amo-te.

José Luis Peixoto, 2008 - Gaveta de Papéis

Buried Urne (from Urne Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus)

Paul Nash, Buried Urne (from Urne Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus), 1932

Collotype with pochoir

31.5 x 22.5 cm

Ομηρικό Ακρογιάλι

Γεράσιμος  Στέρης, George de Steris or Guelfo Ammon d' Este (Gerasimos Stamatelatos), Ομηρικό Ακρογιάλι.

Daphne and Laura and So Forth

He was the one who saw me

just before I changed,

before bark/fur/snow closed over

my mouth before my eyes grew eyes.

I should not have shown fear,

or so much leg.

His look of disbelief - 

I didn’t mean to!

Just, her neck was so much more

fragile than I thought.

The gods don't listen to reason,

they need what they need -

that suntan line at the bottom

of the spine, those teeth like mouthwash,

that drop of sweat pearling

the upper lip - 

or that's what gets said in court.

Why talk when you can whisper?

Rustle, like dried leaves.

Under the bed.

It's ugly here, but safer.

I have eight fingers

and a shell, and live in corners.

I'm free to stay up all night.

I'm working on

these ideas of my own:

venom, a web, a hat,

some last resort.

He was running,

he was asking something,

he wanted something or other

Margaret Atwood, Morning in the Burned House 

Η Δάφνη και η Λάουρα, και τα λοιπά

Αυτός ήταν, που με είδε
λίγο πριν μεταμορφωθώ,
πριν ο φλοιός του δέντρου /το τρίχωμα/ το χιόνι
μου μπουκώσουν το στόμα,
πριν τα μάτια μου πετάξουν μάτια.

Δεν έπρεπε να δείξω φόβο,
ή τόσο πολύ γάμπα.

Το άναυδο βλέμμα του —
Δεν το ήθελα!
Μόνο που ο λαιμός της
ήταν πιο λεπτός απ’ ό,τι νόμιζα.

Οι θεοί δεν ακούνε τη λογική,
θέλουν αυτό που θέλουν —
το σημάδι της ηλιοθεραπείας
στο κάτω μέρος της ράχης,
εκείνα τα δόντια σαν
αποσμητικό στόματος,
τη σταγόνα εκείνη του ιδρώτα
να στολίζει το πάνω χείλι—
ή έτσι τα περιγράφουν
στα δικαστήρια.

Γιατί ν’ ακουστείς όταν
μπορείς να ψιθυρίσεις;
Θρόισε, σαν τα ξερά φύλλα.
Κάτω απ’ το κρεβάτι.

Είναι άσχημα εδώ, αλλά πιο ασφαλές.
Έχω οκτώ δάχτυλα
κι ένα καβούκι, και ζω στις γωνίες.
Μπορώ να μείνω ξύπνια όλη νύχτα.
Επεξεργάζομαι
τις δικές μου ιδέες:
το δηλητήριο, ένα δίχτυ, ένα καπέλο.
μια τελευταία ευκαιρία.Έτρεχε εκείνος,
κάτι ρώταγε,
κάτι ήθελε.

Margaret Atwood, 2001 

Γέρω Τσιάμης της Χαλκιδικής

Εφοδιαστικό έγγραφο μέλους της Φιλικής Εταιρείας

Εφοδιαστικό έγγραφο μέλους της Φιλικής Εταιρείας 

DESTE Foundation, Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

The DESTE Foundation, as a gesture in response to the 200th commemoration of the Greek War of Independence, has decided to celebrate the 199th anniversary by commissioning Greek artist Kostis Velonis to conceive an immersive presentation of ten funerary masks of fighters of 1821 from the collection of the National Historical Museum of Athens. The exhibition will be on view in the old Hydra Slaughterhouse starting on June 27 and through November 1, 2020.

Conceived as an intense visual and corporeal experience, 199 is an emblematic memento mori. The exhibition is based on juxtapositions and unexpected associations of this special historical material in the setting of the old slaughterhouse and the distinctive topography of Hydra. Steering clear of the traits of a strictly celebratory exhibition or the conventional and moralistic approaches and ideological constructs around the subject, the artist invites viewers to re-examine their relation to the historic event and restore the role of art and artists in the social and cultural processes as well as in the re-evaluation of historical research.

If the year 1821 marks the start of modernity for Greece and its induction into the Age of Enlightenment and its contradictions, 199  explores some of the consequences and implications of this prospect, the contemporary significance of artistic representation, the allegories and memory of the bodies, as well as the questions and emotional turmoil triggered by such an historical event.

In this way, the exhibition repositions the relations between the body and history, between inner experience and collective self-knowledge, identity, and alterity, reality and imagination as well as between man and animals. As Kostis Velonis states, “the mourning of Cyparissus –whom Apollo turned into the evergreen cypress tree out of pity when Cyparissus was devastated by the loss of his beloved stag– is equated here with the loss of hundreds of animals in the Slaughterhouse and the sacrifices of fighters in the Greek War of Independence”.

And he continues: “The phantom that hovers over a rebellious Greece seems to set off from Pontikonissi, Kerkyra, which is almost the archetype for Die Toteninsel, the 1880 painting of Arnold Böcklin. The famous picture of the islet at sunset contributes to this peculiar time machine, travelling to arid Hydra and bringing some particular vegetation into the Slaughterhouse. This temporary sojourn brings together such contrasting concepts as the accessible and the inaccessible, the endless and the finite, the perishable and the eternal, paying tribute to the spectres that seek their new place.”

**Please note that due to the Covid-19 social distancing regulations, there will be no opening event for this exhibition*

  https://deste.gr 

DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

27.6.2020 - 1.11.2020

Daily 11:00–13:00 & 19:00–22:00

Tuesday Closed

A girl

 
The tree has entered my hands, 
the sap has ascended my arms, 
the tree has grown in my breast - downward, 
the branches grow out of me, like arms. 

Tree you are, moss you are, 
you are violets with wind above them. 
A child - so high - you are, 
and all this is folly to the world. 

Ezra Pound

Μίμος

Μίμος, 2019

                                                                   Ceramic, wood, plywood, acrylic, oil

#mime #imp #fool #ghost #beggar #sculpture#kostisvelonis #saltimbanques

Nocturne

Breath of the One Unmoved. Animal face
Frozen with azure, with its sanctity.
Immense the power of silence in stone.

The mask of a night bird. A quiet triad
Fades on one sound. Elai! your countenance
Inclines unspeaking over the pale-blue waters.

O you calm mirrors of the truth.
On the ivory cheeks of the lonely one appears
Reflected the splendour of fallen angels.

Georg Trakl

Nachtlied

Des Unbewegten Odem. Ein Tiergesicht  
Erstarrt vor Bläue, ihrer Heiligkeit.  
Gewaltig ist das Schweigen im Stein; 

Die Maske eines nächtlichen Vogels. Sanfter Dreiklang  
Verklingt in einem. Elai! dein Antlitz  
Beugt sich sprachlos über bläuliche Wasser. 

O! ihr stillen Spiegel der Wahrheit.  
An des Einsamen elfenbeinerner Schläfe  
Erscheint der Abglanz gefallener Engel. 

Georg Trakl

Pierrot in Love

Pierrot in Love, 2020

Wood, plywood, clay, acrylic, marble 

143 x 45 x 60 cm 

Ghost Beggars

Circus Mind, 2020

Ink, pencil and acrylic on paper

100 x 70 cm   

The historic figure of Pierrot, constantly transformed yet always imprisoned in his white look and feckless attitude, is the main inspiration for the sculptures, drawings and paintings exhibited in the show at Kalfayan Galleries. Known for his own passivity, Pierrot is akin to the nameless citizen who vanishes in the crowd. In this respect, the works function as dramatic exercises of introversion in the political realm. The rhetoric of whiteness introduces a dialogue about radical alterity, the absolute Other that may concern the Self as well. At this point, the theatrical figure of Pierrot, with the white powder on his face accentuated by the paleness of a non-radiant moon, becomes a vector of a wide array of references, from sculpture’s relation to the original meaning of the“clown” ( clot/clod )  and the semiotics of white in fashion and clothing design. 

The title of the exhibition is inspired by the appearance of beggars – dressed in white and with their faces painted white- at the central streets of Athens in late 2010. These figures, sad and still, wrapped in a white sheet, begged without the usual acrobatic skill of clowns and other street entertainers. Weakened, mournful and feckless, they ironically contributed to the tradition of Pierrot who strives for his own annihilation and wanders around like a ghost

Duration: 10 June – 26 September 2020
Kalfayan Galleries