Work (All the cigarette breaks)

Pavel Büchler,

Work (All the cigarette breaks), 2007–2014

Aladdin Toys Catalogue

Joaquin Torres Garcia, Aladdin Toys Catalog, 1920's

https://www.flickr.com/photos/migueloks/sets/72157619805175139/ 

How to Read El Pato Pascual: Disney’s Latin America and Latin America’s Disney

 José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros

Organized by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in cooperation with the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA, How to Read El Pato Pascual: Disney’s Latin America and Latin America’s Disney is a Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition of over 150 works by 48 Latin American artists who investigate and challenge nearly one hundred years of cultural influence between Latin America and Disney. Spanning painting, photography, graphic work, drawing, sculpture, video, documents, and the critical responses generated, the joint exhibition explores the idea that there are no clean boundaries between art, culture, and geography, and deconstructs how such notions are formed and disputed.

The exhibition’s curators, filmmaker/writer Jesse Lerner and artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres, thoroughly examined Disney’s long engagement with Latin American culture, from Donald Duck’s first featured role in the 1937 Mexican-themed short Don Donald to the company’s 2013 attempt to trademark the Day of the Dead. Lerner and Oritz-Torres’s research further drew from a pivotal trip Walt Disney took with his team to South America in 1941. Along with a group of fifteen animators, musicians, and screenwriters, Disney flew to over five South American countries as part of a U.S. government-directed effort to promote the “Good Neighbor” policy during the Second World War. In addition to the celebrated film The Three Caballeros, this trip produced the feature Saludos Amigos; a “making of” documentary titled South of the Border with Disney; and propaganda films such as The Grain that Built a Hemisphere.

The infamous 1971 Chilean book by scholars Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, Para leer al Pato Donald (How to Read Donald Duck), was brought to Ortiz-Torres’s attention while studying with artist Michael Asher at the Disney-funded CalArts in the 1990s. The book (formerly banned in Chile and threatened by legal action in the U.S.) provides a structural analysis denouncing the ways in which Disney comic books were used as vehicles to justify and promote U.S. policies and cultural imperialism.

As curators, Lerner and Ortiz-Torres intend to show that Disney cannot be seen as something simply exported to the rest of the Americas, and passively received. Like any other cultural force or mythology in Latin America, Disney imagery has always been quickly reinterpreted, assimilated, adapted, cannibalized, syncretized, and subverted by artists: sculptor Nadín Ospina creates pre-Columbian-like objects portraying Disney characters using carved stone and gold; artist Enrique Chagoya juxtaposes imagery from codices, indigenous iconography, and popular graphics that include Disney characters in a postcolonial critique; Liliana Porter has produced conceptual graphics and photography where Disney toys are juxtaposed with recognizable figures such as Che Guevara. Photographs like Antonio Turok’s show how Disney iconography has been intertwined with daily life in Latin America. Arturo Herrera’s work plays with our almost innate ability to immediately recognize Disney characters, no matter how abstracted: the artist will present a new mural near the Schindler House, on the side of the West Elm building at 8366 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90048, on view through the length of the exhibition.

Due to its size and scope, the exhibition will be presented in two locations: the Schindler House in West Hollywood and the Luckman Gallery at Cal State LA. One is an intimate 1922 modernist historical landmark loved by architecture and design enthusiasts; the other is a large gallery space situated across town and catering to a diverse and young campus audience.

A catalogue published by Black Dog Publishing and designed by Jorge Verdin accompanies the exhibition. Included is an introduction by the curators; essays by Fabián Cereijido, Nate Harrison, Jesse Lerner, Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Darlene J. Sadlier, and Carla Zaccagnini; a reprinting of the English version of Para leer al Pato Donald (How to Read Donald Duck) from 1973; Ariel Dorfman’s reflections on the book; and a checklist of works with full-color images. The publication will be in both English and Spanish.

Jesse Lerner and Rubén Oritz-Torres each bring considerable knowledge to the exhibition project and publication. Both are artists and academics—teaching at Pitzer College and UC San Diego, respectively—whose work explores the boundaries of culture and art; their fields of expertise and methodologies, though distinct, complement each other and often overlap. They previously collaborated in the production of the film Frontierland and in curating MEX/LA, ‘Mexican’ Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930-1985 for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach in 2011. Scholar Fabián Cereijido is the assistant curator of the exhibition.

Exhibition artists: Lalo Alcaraz, Florencia Aliberti, Sergio Allevato, Pedro Álvarez, Carlos Amorales, Rafael Bqueer, Mel Casas, Alida Cervantes, Enrique Chagoya, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Minerva Cuevas, Einar and Jamex De la Torre, Rodrigo Dorfman, Dr. Lakra, El Ferrus, Demián Flores, Pedro Friedeberg, Scherezade Garcia, Alicia Mihai Gazcue, Arturo Herrera, Alberto Ibañez, Claudio Larrea, Nelson Leirner, Fernando Lindote, José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros, Marcos López, José Luis and José Carlos Martinat, Carlos Mendoza, Pedro Meyer, Florencio Molina Campos, Mondongo, Jaime Muñoz, Rivane Neuenschwander, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, Nadín Ospina, Leopoldo Peña, Liliana Porter, Artemio Rodríguez, Agustín Sabella, Daniel Santoro, Mariángeles Soto-Díaz, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Antonio Turok, Meyer Vaisman, Ramón Valdiosera Berman, Angela Wilmot, Robert Yager, Carla Zaccagnini.

On view September 11, 2017–January 14, 2018

Words in the Forms of Poems

Announcement. 
Black offset on one side. For the show at John Weber Gallery, NYC, Jan. 11 - Feb. 5, 1975. 12.7x21.1 cm.

Λουλουδένιες ψυχές

Ελένη Ζούζουλα, Λευκή Βιβλιοθήκη, Εκδόσεις “Τα χρονικά”, Αθήνα

Flower

Carl Andre

One Hundred Sonnets, 1963

Το ναυάγιο που φέρνει την ευτυχία

Ελένη Ζούζουλα, Το ναυάγιο που φέρνει την ευτυχία, Λευκή βιβλιοθήκη, δεκαετία του 30.

Album amicorum

Johannes Torrentius, watercolor drawing, album amicorum of Gerard Thibauld, 1615 

A wooden die

A wooden die can be described only from without. We are therefore condemned to eternal ignorance of its essence. Even if it is cut in two, immediately its inside becomes a wall and there occurs the lightning-swift transformation of a mystery into a skin.

For this reason it is impossible to lay foundations for the psychology of a stone ball, of an iron bar, of a wooden cube.

Zbigniew Herbert, 1968

Emblematic still life

Johannes Torrentius, Emblematic still life with flagon, glass, jug and bridle, signed and dated “T. 1614”, Rijksmuseum

Careful with the table

At the table you should sit calmly and not daydream. Let us recall what an effort it took for the stormy ocean tides to arrange themselves in quiet rings. A moment of inattention and everything might wash away. It is also forbidden to rub the table legs, as they are very sensitive. Everything at the table must be done coolly and matter-of-factly. You can't sit down here with things not completely thought through. For daydreaming we have been given other objects made of wood: the forest, the bed.

Zbigniew Herbert, 1961

What is What in the World of Labor?

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lbc2ic?cc=lbc2ic;page=index;c=lbc2ic    

Number 10

Robyn Sweaney, Number 10, 2011

acrylic on linen, 40 x 50 cm

Παίδες πηγών

Έρχεται πάλι

Τι σημαίνουν εκείνα τα ονόματα;

Και ποια βουνά 
μοιράζουν το κρύο
 σε στόμα και μάτια;

Πάντα υπάρχει ένας Βορράς
 άγρια ποθητός
 με γένια αιχμηρά

και πολύ περπάτημα
 μέχρι τα νερά που καθρεφτίζουν –

η εικόνα τραντάζει το σώμα

Σαν να ’ταν η πρώτη φορά

*

Επειδή δεν είμαι εκείνος

Δεν αντέχω να νιώσω
 ποιος είναι αυτός 
που μου στέλνει τον άνεμο

Τον στέλνει

λέω

αυτή η πλαγιά
 οι κέδροι 
– μπορεί να μου ρίξει και σκόνη

Ωστόσο να

Αρκετά κοντά μου 
είναι τα σπάρτα

Ποια σκοτεινιά 
θα νιώσουν κι αυτά

Ο ήλιος χαμηλώνει
 η ελιά ρίχνει τον ίσκιο της

Φυσάει
 και λυγίζουν προς το φως

Χρήστος Σιορίκης, Παίδες πηγών

https://frmk.gr/2017/07/13/christos-siorikis/

Ulm Stool

The Ulm Stool was designed by Max Bill and Hans Gugelot in 1955 for the influential Ulm School of Design which saw itself as the legitimate West German heir to the Bauhaus School. Minimize design, maximize usage: with this credo Max Bill designed the simple yet perfect Ulm Stool. The Ulm Stool belongs to the movement of concrete art - a movement that promoted sobriety and simplicity of lines and shapes. Max Bill's Ulm Stool (also known as the Max Bill Ulmer Hocker) is a revered Bauhaus icon that has transcended time and space. Light and robust, this Donald Judd-like minimalistic piece of furniture is one of those items that never looks out of place, wherever it is placed. The success of the Ulm Stool lies in its versatility and convenience: it is not just a seat, it can also be used as a side table, shelf unit, box for transportation, a serving tray or a bedside table-top unit. It is easy, simple, minimalist and looks like a little piece of art.

https://www.nova68.com/maxbillulm.html

Untitled

Wind-hounder, mind-rambler, sky-soarer,

maker of autumn storms,

shaper of agitated thoughts,

chasing away the azure!

Hear me, you insane seeker,

race and rush,

hurtle by you unchained

intoxicator of storms.

Elena Guro, 1913

4.543 billion. The matter of matter

Alexandra Navratil, Detail of ‘Modern Magic’ (2013), courtesy the artist and Dan Gunn, Berlin

4.543 billion. The matter of matter’ is an exhibition that addresses works of art, collections and cultural histories in relation to ecological processes and a geological scale of time. It presents a continuum of materials and temporal landscapes – films, works on paper, photographs, sculptures, documents, and other meaningful things – and springs from the CAPC building’s former life as a warehouse for colonial commodities whose limestone walls were once deep in the ground and whose wooden beams were once part of a forest.

A central proposal of the exhibition is that works of art are part of geophysical history as much as art history. ‘4.543 billion’ attempts to take into account both a micro-local and a planetary perspective, and to rethink some of the histories of art as fragments of broader narratives about the Earth and how our place in it has been represented. What is at stake when art and museums take on greater temporal and material awareness? How might they move beyond a spatial framework of “think globally, act locally”, to “think historically, act geologically”?

This exhibition takes a situated view of the past that resists an undifferentiated narrative in which modernity in general is at fault for global ecological disarray, or humanity in an invariably abstract sense must take responsibility. Accordingly, the artists included instead often address the specific roles and purposeful effects of individuals, practices, states or corporations in an account of how mineral agents and organic processes have intertwined with and underpinned culture. Several of the more documentary projects on display trace the relationships between Modern art, the museum, and wealth created through extractive industry, combining approaches framed by Earth sciences with colonial history, sociology and political reportage. Yet other works take a more atmospheric, filmic, sculptural or graphic approach to extraction, economy, energy and global exchange, whether orbiting around sunlight, forests, synthetic materials derived from fossil fuels, or the services and substances entailed in buildings that display art

With the participation of: A.J. Aalders, Lara Almarcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Félix Arnaudin, Amy Balkin, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck in collaboration with Media Farzin, Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher, Étienne Denisse, Hubert Duprat, Giulio Ferrario, Ângela Ferreira, Anne Garde, Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Terence Gower, Rodney Graham, Ilana Halperin (also at the Université de Bordeaux’s zoology department), Marianne Heier, Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, Lucas Ihlein and Louise Kate Anderson, Jannis Kounellis, Martín Llavaneras, Erlea Maneros Zabala, Nicholas Mangan, Fiona Marron, Alexandra Navratil, Xavier Ribas, Alfred Roll, Amie Siegel, Lucy Skaer, Alfred Smith, Rayyane Tabet, Pierre Théron, Pep Vidal, Alexander Whalley Light, Stuart Whipps (also at the Musée des Beaux-Arts) as well as documents and objects lent by the archives of the CAPC, the Archives Bordeaux Métropole, the Archives départementales de la Gironde, and the geology collection of the UFR Sciences de la Terre et de la Mer, Université de Bordeaux.

Curated by Latitudes

CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux

29 June 2017–7 January 2018

http://www.lttds.org/projects/4.543billion/

Desert Rose

Desert roses are crystal-like formations and may produce a rose shape, multiple plates adjoining at 

angles or the formations may look like a cluster

 of cereal flakes

Praying for the Sun

Somebody,

a friend, a bit more than a friend

uses one kind of emoji the most in our WhatsApp

chat. The emoji I mean shows two hands in a

praying position with a shine around it. You imagine

a bright sun behind the hands. She's hidden like

a little piece of gold.

When will

this bit more than a friend,

this friend,

this somebody

open his hands and let the sun shine straight

away? 

Lucia Graf, 2017 

A Certain Blue of the Sea

The history of art is inseparable from the history of colour and in this history, blue has always been associated with vastness, ‘blue has no dimensions. It is beyond dimensions,’ as Yves Klein described.

Ultramarine blue derives from lapis lazuli, a gemstone that for centuries could only be found in a single mountain range in Afghanistan. For hundreds of years, the cost of lapis lazuli rivaled even the price of gold.

Humans with reduced blue sensitivity have difficulty identifying differences between blue and yellow, violet and red and blue and green. To these humans our ecosphere appears as generally red, pink, black, white, grey and turquoise. Blue appears green and yellow appears violet or light grey for humans with tritanopia, namely, for those who lack blue cone cells.

Visual perception is one of the most important mediums for our acquisition of knowledge and for our experience of our environment, of the physical world including our own bodies and others, while, colour is one of the most dominant components of our perception. Nevertheless, the physical world and the world of objects do not contain colour and aren’t coloured as we experience them. Colour isn’t a physical property of objects, thus, our blood is not red, the sea isn’t blue, the trees aren’t green…

The colour appearance of an object can be changed by changing the colour of light that shines on it and the colour of visible light depends on its wavelength. White light is composed of all of the colours of the rainbow, because it contains all wavelengths, and it is described as polychromatic light. Colour glows with the light of the radiant sun and creates a relentless spectacle of sheer visibility, of an intense luminosity that can even be blinding.

Drawing from our different perceptions of colour, colour vision deficiency and even “achromatopsia” (total colour blindness), the 40 participating artists of the Group Exhibition will trace the different interpretations of the notion of colour as sensation, visual and sensorial experience, psychological property of visual experiences, mental property, representation and construction of the brain.

Dimitris Zouroudis ~ Katerina Zacharopoulou ~ Antonis Tsakiris ~ Adonis Volanakis ~ Kostis Velonis ~ Filippos Tsitsopoulos ~ Danae Stratou ~ Aggelos Skourtis ~ Christina Sgouromiti ~ George Sampsonidis ~ Nana Sachini ~ Nikos Navridis ~ Marina Provatidou ~ Artemis Potamianou~ Brigitte Polemis ~ Hara Piperidou ~ Aemilia Papafilippou ~ Antonia Papatzanaki~ Nikos Papadopoulos

~ Margarita Myrogianni ~ Maro Michalakakos ~ Leon Michail ~ Iliodora Margellos ~ Christos Kostoulas (Captain) ~ Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos ~ Peggy Kliafa ~ Maria Katrantzi ~ Irini Karayannopoulou ~ Nikos Kanarelis ~ Sofia Housou ~ Aspassio Haronitaki ~ Cleopatra Haritou ~ Yioula Hadjigeorgiou ~ Kleio Gizeli ~ Maria Georgoula ~ Sandra Christou ~ Venia Bechraki ~ Rania Bellou ~ Evgenia Apostolou ~ Lydia Andrioti

Curator: Sozita Goudouna

Ionian Parliament ~ Island of Corfu

4-31 July 

GOD & SAUSAGES

“After that' said Gargantua, 'I wiped myself with a kerchief, with a pillow, with a slipper, with a game-bag, with a basket - but what an unpleasant arse-wiper that was! - then with a hat. And note that some hats are smooth, some shaggy, some velvety, some of taffeta, and some of satin. The best of all are the shaggy ones, for they make a very good abstersion of the fecal matter. Then I wiped myself with a hen, a cock, and a chicken, with a calf's skin, a hare, a pigeon, and a cormorant, with a lawyer's bag, with a penitent's hood, with a coif, with an otter. But to conclude, I say and maintain that there is no arse-wiper like a well-downed goose, if you hold her neck between your legs. You must take my word for it, you really must. You get a miraculous sensation in your arse-hole, both from the softness of the down and from the temperate heat of the goose herself; and this is easily communicated to the bum-gut and the rest of the intestines, from which it reaches the heart and the brain. Do not imagine that the felicity of the heroes and demigods in the Elysian Fields arises from their asphodel, their ambrosia, or their nectar, as those ancients say. It comes, in my opinion, from their wiping their arses with the neck of a goose, and that is the opinion of Master Duns Scotus too.’

‘The Life of Gargantua & Pantagruel’, Francois Rabelais

God & Sausages brings together a group of works that try out satirical adaptations, purposeless rituals, close-up observations, bodily encounters and micro-jokes. Stemming from personal perplexities and tracing inner entities, the works feast on a type of corporeal knowledge or excess, that can be found in introspective play and that can be revealing.

Lucy Clout

Magdalena Drwiega

Rafael Perez Evans

Maria Georgoula

Paul Housley

Stelios Karamanolis

Kostas Sahpazis

Ian Whitfield

curated by Maria Georgoula

July 6 – July 16

Lekka 23-25 & Perikleous Stoa Zerbini Athens

Abstract composition

Fahrelnissa Zeid, Abstract composition, year unknown

Electricity

Two threads are twined together

Exposed are their hearts.

Those “Yes” and “No” aren’t blended,

Entwined remain apart.

Their dusky intersection

Is lifeless and confined,

There will be resurrection,

And they await that time.

The ends will meet caressing,   

Those “Yes” and “No” unite,   

And “Yes” and “No” are pressing,

While waking and embracing,

In death they’ll turn to Light.

Zinaida Gippius,1901

Πεινασμένος Pinocchio: Το άγχος της εκμηδένισης και η επιθυμία για αδηφαγία στο σχεδιασμό

Στις «περιπέτειες του Pinocchio» όταν o μάστρο-Αντόνιο πήρε το τσεκούρι για να φτιάξει ένα πόδι για το τραπεζάκι του από ένα κούτσουρο, δεν υπολόγιζε ότι είχε ανθρώπινη φωνή. Και όταν θα χάριζε  το  κούτσουρο στον ξυλογλύπτη Geppetto ούτε ο ίδιος και ο φίλος του θα φανταζόντουσαν ότι από αυτό το κομμάτι ξύλο που συνήθως προορίζεται για το τζάκι,  μια μαριονέτα θα κινείται αυτόνομα χωρίς κρίκους και νήματα. Η φιλοδοξία του Geppetto για μια μαριονέτα που θα χόρευε,  θα ξιφομαχούσε και θα έκανε τούμπες για να του εξασφαλίσει κάποια χρήματα δεν είχε καμία σχέση με την κατάληξη του ατίθασου Pinocchio και τη στενή σχέση γιου προς πατέρα. 

Μπορούμε άραγε να υποθέσουμε ότι ο συγγραφέας του Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) μεταβιβάζει στον μάστορα Tζεπέτο την ιδιότητα του να γίνει  ένας μεσήλικας, εργένης πατέρας με την χρήση της μήτιδος, την κατεργαριά και με τη φαντασία των χεριών; Αν ακολουθήσουμε πιστά την αφήγηση του Ιταλού συγγραφέα τα πράγματα περιπλέκονται ακόμη περισσότερο όταν πριν την ολοκλήρωση της κούκλας στα χέρια του ξυλογλύπτη Geppetto εκείνη μετατρέπεται στο γνωστό μας Pinocchio.  

Γνωρίζουμε ότι το παιδί έχει την δυνατότητα να διαχωρίζει τον κόσμο του παιχνιδιού από την πραγματικότητα ενώ του αρέσει να συνδέει τα φανταστικά αντικείμενα και τις συνθήκες που επινοεί με απτά και ορατά αντικείμενα. Όμως στην περίπτωση του εξαθλιωμένου από τη φτώχεια αλλά ονειροπόλου Geppetto αυτή η σύνδεση συνεχίζεται με έναν αναπληρωματικό ή υποκατάστατο σχηματισμό 1.  Πρόκειται για την φαντασίωση, η οποία είναι κοινή σε όλους τους ενήλικες, με τη διαφορά ότι ο μαραγκός από την Τοσκάνη αδυνατεί να τη διαφοροποιήσει από την πραγματικότητα.

Η κινητήρια επιθυμία του Geppetto να γίνει πατέρας οδηγεί στην υποκατάσταση της μαριονέτας με τον Pinocchio που είναι εξανθρωπισμένος. Αυτό το συμβάν έχει σημασία για το υποκείμενο που το υιοθετεί, γιατί είναι μια ύστατη πράξη διόρθωσης της δυσάρεστης πραγματικότητας, που κάνει την έννοια της «ψευδαίσθησης» να έχει βιολογική και οργανική υπόσταση.

http://popaganda.gr/pinasmenos-pinocchio/  

Piano Stool : Footnotes

Simon Cutts, from Piano Stool : Footnotes, 1982 

Marathon Marathon

This event celebrates the publication of Marathon Marathon that brings together the interviews that Hans Ulrich Obrist conducted at the Acropolis Museum in Athens in 2010. The Marathon Marathon project was co-curated by Nadja Argyropoulou and took place between October 31st and November 1st, 2010 so as to coincide with the celebrations for the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon and address emerging concerns on identity, history, and power.

The publication includes interviews and contributions by
 Etel Adnan, Andreas Angelidakis, Athanasios Argianas, Nairy Baghramian, Daniel Birnbaum, Anna Boghiguian, Vlassis Caniaris, Dimitris Dimitriadis, Simon Fujiwara, Phoebe Giannisi, Nikolaus Hirsch, Jeff Koons, Giorgos Koumendakis, Panos Koutrouboussis, Armand Marie Leroi, Natalia Mela, Benedikt Morandi, Sarah Morris, Luigi Ontani, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Leda Papaconstantinou, Yiannis Papadakis, Angelos Papadimitriou, Maria Papadimitriou, Vassilis Papavassiliou, Julia Peyton-Jones, Huang Yong Ping, Angelo Plessas, Aimilia Salvanou, Yorgos Sapountzis, Societé Réaliste & Georgios Papadopoulos, Christiana Soulou, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Nanos Valaoritis, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis, Vangelis Vlahos, and Zyranna Zateli.

Book Launch of MARATHON MARATHON

Sunday, June 18 at 18:30

Benaki Museum, Main Building

http://deste.gr/book-presentation-marathon-marathon/

Antidoron

Kostis Velonis, Life without democracy, 2009

3.90 m x 1.90 m x 42 cm

As documenta 14 continues its journey in Athens, having the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) as its main exhibition venue, an important part of the EMST collection travels to Germany, to be part of documenta 14 program in Kassel (10/6-17/9/17). The exhibition ANTIDORON. The EMST Collection will occupy the whole emblematic building of Fridericianum. It comprises 82 artists and 180 works and it is curated by the Director of EMST, Mrs. Katerina Koskina, supported by Stamatis Schizakis and Tina Pandi, Assistant Curators and Iro Nikolakea in the Architectural design. It is presented in the framework of the Museum’s series EMST in the World.

The exhibition at the Fridericianum marks the first time that the most part of the EMST collection is presented outside Greece, through a double relocation that renders EMST’s home, one of the main venues of documenta 14 in Athens, and the Fridericianum, traditionally the centerpiece of a documenta, the temporary home of EMST’s collection.

EMST began creating its collection in 2000. Its acquisitions now include more than 1,100 works by Greek and international artists from the 1960s onward. The exhibition ANTIDORON. The EMST Collection is an adapted version of the extensive museological study that will be displayed in full at the EMST spaces. Presented in the Fridericianum, the birthplace of documenta and the first public museum in Europe, the exhibition deals with issues of border crossings, diasporas, cultural exchange, existential quests, and mythologies, as well as personal and collective memories. Additionally, the Fridericianum’s brief tenure as Germany’s first parliamentary building makes it the most appropriate venue in which to show the works of several artists, active during the troubled postwar era and the ensuing decades of political upheaval and revolutionary re-imagination of society.

While the presentation of the collection maintains its international scope, it also emphasizes the presence of pioneering Greek artists, highlighting and revisiting their national and international journeys.

The title embodies the mutual respect of both institutions, documenta 14 and EMST independently of their diverse commitments and missions, to discourse and to reinterpret essential issues and visual language. It deals with concepts such as trading, exchanging, sharing, giving and offering Antidoron (αντίδωρον, literally the return of a gift) or Antidanion (αντιδάνειo, the return of a loan either linguistic, cultural, or financial). The prefix “anti” reveals a distinct position and consequently a view, not necessarily opposed to, but departing from a different point in order to communicate, to argue, to bridge, to converge, and to accept each other’s’ stances.

Until September 17, Fridericianum in Kassel becomes EMST’s contemporary home in Germany, and ANTIDORON, a gift in return – when translated – symbolizing the shared benefits of this collaboration.

Dimitris Alithinos, Nikos Alexiou, Andreas Angelidakis, Stephen Antonakos, Janine Antoni, Alexis Akrithakis, Evgenia Apostolou, Athanasios Argianas, Manolis Baboussis, Bertille Bak, Lynda Benglis, Andrea Bowers, Chronis Botsoglou, Yiannis Bouteas, David Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Constantin (Dikos) Byzantios, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Vlassis Caniaris, Chryssa, Chandris Pantelis, Danil, Bia Davou, George Drivas, Eirene Efstathiou, Haris Epaminonda, Koken Ergun, Jan Fabre, Stelios Faitakis, Carlos Garaicoa, Kendell Geers, George Hadjimichalis, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Mona Hatoum, Gary Hill, Emily Jacir, Gulsun Karamustafa, Nikos Kessanlis, Kimsooja, Panos Kokkinias, Dimosthenis Kokkinidis, Joseth Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Piotr Kowalski, Yorgos Lazongas, George Lappa, Ange Leccia, Stathis Logothetis, Maria Loizidou, Andreas Lolis, Danny Mathys, Yiannis Michas, Nikos Navridis, Nina Papaconstantinou, Maria Papadimitriou, Aimilia Papafilippou, Ilias Papailiakis, Rena Papaspyrou, Nausika Pastra, Pavlos, Jannis Psychopedis, Alexandros Psychoulis, Walid Raad, Oliver Ressler, Lucas Samaras, Yorgos Sapountzis, Allan Sekul, Vassilis Skylakos, Christiana Soulou, Aspa Stasinopoulou, Takis, Thodoros, sculptor, Thanasis Totsikas, Nikos Tranos, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Costas Tsoclis, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Costas Varotsos, Kostis Velonis, Bill Viola, Vangelis Vlahos, Pantelis Xagoraris, Georgios Xenos

ANTIDORON. The EMST Collection

Fridericianum, Kassel

10 June- 17 September 2017

Is Our Universe a Fake?

By Robert Lawrence Kuhn
Is Our Universe a Fake?

América invertida

Joaquin Torres Garcia, Inverted America, 1943

Where are we now: Struggling autonomies in closing times

Over a period of a month a DIY exhibition of autonomous experiments, activists actions and cultural interventions will evolve at Green Park. Seeking to generate a public debate on both methods of cultural autonomous initiatives and potential infrastructures appropriate for current conditions this DIY archive will be gradually expanding during this month. The exhibition accompanied with a series of public events and be open to the public only on these days.

A discussion with Jacques Rancière

Participants: Thanos Andritsos, Akis Gavrilidis, Evangelia Ledaki, Eva Prousali, Stavros Stavridis, Kostis Velonis, Despina Zefkili

This action takes place as a pre-edition of second episode of DIY Biennial.

31 May - 21 June 2017

Green Park, Athens 
28 May, 19.00 

Meeting on the Astral Plane

J. Richman | Meeting on the Astral Plane

Book jacket for the New Metaphysical Library no.075

Красный дом

Kazimir Malevich, Red House, Oil on canvas, 1932

Kάτω από τον αριστερισμό του Malevich

Alphonse Allais, Combat de Nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit. Estampe (1897)

Είναι βάσιμο να υποστηριχτεί ότι κάποιοι καλλιτέχνες συνεχίζουν να δρουν κάτω από τον αριστερισμό του Malevich; Τι μπορεί να σημαίνει αυτό πέρα από μια πιθανή εξιδανικευμένη ανάγνωση της άρνησης του τέλους μιας ιστορίας της νεωτερικότητας;

Η τέχνη του Malevich και η συνειδητή του απόκλιση από τις «προπαγανδιστικές» εκτροπές των συναδέλφων του στη ρωσική πρωτοπορία χρησιμεύει και σήμερα ως ένα σημείο αναφοράς σε καλλιτέχνες που δεν ακολουθούν τις σειρήνες της επικαιρότητας. Μια μεταμαλεβιτσική λογική μπορεί να ανιχνευθεί και στον ελλαδικό χώρο και, συγκεκριμένα, στο έργο του Τάκη, της Ρένας Παπασπύρου, του Άγγελου Σκούρτη, του Γιάννη Παπαδόπουλου, της Λητώς Κάττου και της Ευγενίας Αποστόλου, με πολύ διαφορετικό κάθε φορά τρόπο, στην ίδια ωστόσο γραμμή της συνειδητής απόκλισης από τη γλώσσα του σουπρεματισμού. 

Ο Malevich μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί ως ένα παράδειγμα που ενισχύει τον συνδετικό κρίκο με το προνεωτερικό Βυζάντιο, ώστε και οι πιο ερμητικές αποφάνσεις της ελληνικής πρωτοπορίας να μην φαντάζουν απαραίτητα ξεκομμένες από το διάλογο με τον ίδιο τον ελληνισμό και την επέκτασή του «προς ανατολάς». Ωστόσο, δεν πρέπει να στηριζόμαστε τόσο στην επίδραση της βυζαντινής αγιογραφίας στο έργο του Malevich. Ο Malevich πάνω από όλα υπήρξε ένας πολωνικής καταγωγής καθολικός ριζοσπάστης διανοούμενος που ανανέωσε αλλά και αποδόμησε συνειδητά την ορθόδοξη παράδοση.

http://avgi-anagnoseis.blogspot.gr/2017/05/blog-post_44.html#more 

Ο δρόμος προς την κυβόσχημη κατοίκηση : Η έννοια της διαμονής στο έργο του Μalevich

Η διάλεξη επικεντρώνεται στο τρόπο που ο Malevich αντιλαμβάνεται το διάνοιγμα σε μια κοσμολογική κατοίκηση την ίδια χρονική περίοδο που εκπρόσωποι του κυβοφουτουρισμού δίναν έμφαση στη διαδικασία της απόδρασης και της εξόδου.Το έργο του Malevich θα ερμηνευθεί μέσα απο τη χαϊντεγκεριανή κριτική για το έργο του Hölderlin θεωρώντας οτι η ποιητική διαδικασια που ενυπάρχει σε κάθε έκφραση είναι εκείνη που αφήνει να εισέλθει το κατοικείν του ανθρώπου στην ουσία του και να ορίσει με αφορμή το 'μαυρο τετράγωνο' του ρώσου πρωτοπόρου την οντολογική διάσταση του εκπατρισμένου.

In lieblicher Bläue..

In lieblicher Bläue blühet

mit dem metallenen Dache der Kirchthurm. Den umschwebet

Geschrei der Schwalben, den umgiebt die rührendste Bläue.

Die Sonne gehet hoch darüber und färbet das Blech,

im Winde aber oben stille krähet die Fahne.

Wenn einer unter der Glocke dann herabgeht, jene Treppen,

ein stilles Leben ist es, weil,

wenn abgesondert so sehr die Gestalt ist,

die Bildsamkeit herauskommt dann des Menschen.

Die Fenster, daraus die Glocken tönen, sind wie Thore an Schönheit.

Nemlich, weil noch der Natur nach sind die Thore,

haben diese die Ähnlichkeit von Bäumen des Walds.

Reinheit aber ist auch Schönheit.

Innen aus Verschiedenem entsteht ein ernster Geist.

So sehr einfältig aber die Bilder, so sehr heilig sind die, daß

man wirklich oft fürchtet, die zu beschreiben.

Die Himmlischen aber, die immer gut sind,

alles zumal, wie Reiche, haben diese, Tugend und Freude.

Der Mensch darf das nachahmen.

Darf, wenn lauter Mühe das Leben, ein Mensch

aufschauen und sagen: so will ich auch seyn?

Ja. So lange die Freundlichkeit noch am Herzen, die Reine,

dauert, misset nicht unglücklich der Mensch sich

der Gottheit.

Ist unbekannt Gott? Ist er offenbar wie die Himmel?

dieses glaub' ich eher. Des Menschen Maaß ist's.

Voll Verdienst, doch dichterisch,

wohnet der Mensch auf dieser Erde. Doch reiner

ist nicht der Schatten der Nacht mit den Sternen,

wenn ich so sagen könnte,

als der Mensch, der heißet ein Bild der Gottheit.

Giebt auf Erden ein Maaß?

Es giebt keines. Nemlich

es hemmen der Donnergang nie die Welten des Schöpfers.

Auch eine Blume ist schön, weil sie blühet unter der Sonne.

Es findet das Aug' oft im Leben

Wesen, die viel schöner noch zu nennen wären

als die Blumen. O! ich weiß das wohl!

Denn zu bluten an Gestalt und Herz,

und ganz nicht mehr zu seyn, gefällt das Gott ?

Die Seele aber, wie ich glaube, muß rein bleiben,

sonst reicht an das Mächtige auf Fittigen der Adler mit lobendem Gesange

und der Stimme so vieler Vögel.

Es ist die Wesenheit, die Gestalt ist's.

Du schönes Bächlein, du scheinest rührend, indem du rollest so klar,

wie das Auge der Gottheit, durch die Milchstraße.

Ich kenne dich wohl,

aber Thränen quillen aus dem Auge. Ein heiteres Leben

seh' ich in den Gestalten mich umblühen der Schöpfung, weil

ich es nicht unbillig vergleiche den einsamen Tauben auf dem Kirchhof.

Das Lachen aber scheint mich zu grämen der Menschen,

nemlich ich hab' ein Herz.

Möcht' ich ein Komet seyn?

Ich glaube. Denn sie haben Schnelligkeit der Vögel; sie blühen an Feuer,

und sind wie Kinder an Reinheit.

Größeres zu wünschen, kann nicht des Menschen Natur sich vermessen.

Der Tugend Heiterkeit verdient auch gelobt zu werden vom ernsten Geiste,

der zwischen den drei Säulen wehet

des Gartens. Eine schöne Jungfrau muß das Haupt umkränzen

mit Myrthenblumen, weil sie einfach ist

ihrem Wesen nach und ihrem Gefühl. Myrthen aber

giebt es in Griechenland.

Wenn einer in den Spiegel siehet,

ein Mann, und siehet darinn sein Bild, wie abgemahlt;

es gleicht dem Manne.

Augen hat des Menschen Bild,

hingegen Licht der Mond.

Der König Ödipus hat ein Auge zuviel vielleicht.

Diese Leiden dieses Mannes, sie scheinen unbeschreiblich, unaussprechlich,

unausdrüklich.

Wenn das Schauspiel ein solches darstellt, kommt's daher.

Wie ist mir's aber, gedenk' ich deiner jetzt?

Wie Bäche reißt des Ende von Etwas mich dahin,

welches sich wie Asien ausdehnet.

Natürlich dieses Leiden, das hat Ödipus.

Natürlich ist's darum.

Hat auch Herkules gelitten?

Wohl. Die Dioskuren in ihrer Freundschaft

haben die nicht Leiden auch getragen? Nemlich

wie Herkules mit Gott zu streiten, das ist Leiden.

Und die Unsterblichkeit im Neide dieses Leben,

diese zu theilen, ist ein Leiden auch.

Doch das ist auch ein Leiden, wenn mit Sommerflecken ist bedeckt ein Mensch,

mit manchen Flecken ganz überdeckt zu seyn! Das thut die schöne Sonne:

nemlich die ziehet alles auf.

Die Jünglinge führt die Bahn sie mit Reizen ihrer Strahlen

wie mit Rosen.

Die Leiden scheinen so,

die Ödipus getragen,

als wie ein armer Mann klagt,

daß ihm etwas fehle.

Sohn Laios, armer Fremdling in Griechenland!

Leben ist Tod, und Tod ist auch ein Leben

Friedrich Hölderlin

In lovely blue blooms the steeple with its metal

roof. Around the roof swirls the swallows’ cry,

surrounded by most touching blue. The sun rises high

above and tints the roof tin. But in the wind beyond, silently,

a weathercock crows. When someone comes forth from

the stairs of the belfry, it is a still life. And though the form

is so utterly strange, it becomes the figure of a

human being. The windows out of which the bells resound are as

gates to beauty. Because gates still take after nature

they resemble forest trees. Purity, too, is beauty. From within, out

of diverse things, a grave spirit emerges. So simple,

these images, so holy, that one often fears

to describe them. But the heavenly ones, always

good, possess, even more than the wealthy, virtue and

joy. Humans may follow suit. Might a person, when

life is full of trouble, look up and say: I, too,

want to be like this? Yes. As long as friendliness and purity

dwell in our hearts, we may measure ourselves not unfavorably

with the divine. Is God unknown? Is he manifest

as the sky? This I tend to believe. It is the measure

of the human. Deserving, yet poetically, we dwell

on this earth. The shadow of night with its stars,

if I may say so, is no purer than we

who exist in the image of the divine

Is there measure on earth? There is none. For

the creator’s worlds can never contain the clap of thunder.

Because it blooms under the sun, a flower, too, is beautiful.

In life, the eye often finds creatures to call more beautiful

still than flowers. Oh! I know this well!

For to bleed in body and heart and cease to be whole—

does this please God? The soul, I believe, must remain

pure, or else the eagle will wing its way to the almighty

with songs of praise and the voice of so many

birds. It is substance and it is form. Beautiful little

brook, so touching you seem as you roll so clear,

like the eye of God, through the Milky Way. I know

you well. But tears stream from my eyes. A clear

life I see in the forms of creation that blooms around me

because I do not compare them unreasonably with the lonely pigeons

in the churchyard. People’s laughter seems

to grieve me—after all, I have a heart. Would I

like to be a comet? I believe so. For they have the quickness

of birds, they blossom in fire, and in their purity is as children’s.

To wish for more is beyond the measure of human nature.

The clarity of virtue also deserves praise from the grave

spirit that blows between the garden’s three pillars. A beautiful virgin must

garland her head with myrtle, for to do so is simply

her nature and her sensibility. But myrtle trees are found in Greece.

When a person looks into a mirror and sees

his image, as if painted, that is like the Manes.

The human form has eyes, but the moon has light.

Perhaps King Oedipus had an eye too many. This

man’s suffering seems indescribable, unspeakable,

inexpressible. When the drama presents it so, so it is. But how is it with me?

Am I thinking now of your suffering? Like brooks, the end of

Something as vast as Asia is carrying me toward it. Oedipus, of course, suffered like this, too;

and certainly for the same reason. Did Hercules suffer as well? Of course.

Did not the Dioscuri, too, in their friendship bear pain?

As Hercules fought with God—that is

suffering. And immortality in envy of this life—

to divide these two—that, too, is suffering. But it is also

suffering when a person is covered with freckles—

to be completely covered with freckles! The beautiful

sun does that, for it draws out everything. The path

seduces the young with the charm of its rays, like roses.

Oedipus’s suffering is like a poor man

wailing that he is deprived. Son Laios, poor

stranger in Greece. Life is death, and

death is also a life.

Friedrich Hölderlin