The visual arts festival Action Field
Kodra has been organized annually since 2001. Art productions began in
the form of workshops of alternative artistic creation, during which 50
artists worked in situ transforming the barracks into an art workshop.
In 2004 Christos Savvidis became the artistic director of this event and
by preserving its original character in collaboration with esteemed
artists and curators he has offered this institution a fresh inspiration.
The 2007 agenda retains the fundamental successful structure it has had
in the last years while laying emphasis on networking facilitated with
the cooperation of accredited institutions in- or outside Thessalonica,
which is the consequence of the dynamics the festival has come to
acquire locally as well as nationwide. In specific, SMCA has proposed
that Action Field Kodra 2007 be a parallel event, part of the concurrent
programme of the 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art in Thessalonica, so
Kodra has collaborated with institutes such as the Macedonian Museum of
Contemporary Art, the Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica,
European Cultural Exchanges Forum, Margaris Foundation (Thessalonica-Amphilochia),
the French Institute, Stella Contemporary Art Foundation (Moscow),
Santral Istanbul, Ioannou F. Kostopoulou Foundation, Culture 2000 of the
European Union etc.
The programme comprises the following Actions:
RoomsToLet
The exhibition forms the primary basis of actions and gives priority to
young artists from the entire country after an open invitation made to
them.
Artists: BEFORE LIGHT, AUDE CAPONY, ELODIE PETIT, IANTHE AGELIOGLOU,
ADRIANOS AGELOPOULOS, MARIA VARELA, MARO VASILIADOU, SIMOS VEIS, ZOE
GIABOULDAKI, FILIPPOS GOUNTZOS, JOANNA KALI, ELENI KARAKIOULACH,
CHRISTINA KARAOGLANI, ANDREAS KARAOULANIS & GEORGE KARTALOS, KATERINA
KATSIOURA, EUGENIA KODONIDOU, THEOLOGOS LIOULIOS, GREGORY MARCATOS,
ANASTASIA MELEKOU, SOFIA BEBEZA, CALLIOPE NIKOLAOU, GEORGE NIKOPOULOS,
THEOPHANIS NOUSKAS & VASILIS CHATZOPOULOS, MARTIN DONEF, SAVVINA
PATRIKIOU, CONSTANDINOS PATSIOS, ANNIE PAVLIDOU, ELENI RIGA, EMILIA
SERDAKI, THEODORE SPANOS, JOANNA STRATOGLOU, JOANNA FRAGOULI, GEORGE
CHLOROS, EFTHIMIA CHRISTOPOULOU, APHRODITE PSARA
Curator: Efi Chalyvopoulou (visual artist)
Text: Thalia Stefanidou (art historian, curator)
The proposal assessment Committee includes: Fotini Kariotaki (visual
artist, Florina School of Fine Arts), Maria Kenanidou (art historian,
curator of the Action “Attic with a View” 2007), Christopher Marinos (art
historian, curator of the Action ProTasis 2007), Thalia Stefanidou (art
historian, curator), Syrago Tsiara (art historian, Director of the
Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica), Efi Chalyvopoulou (visual
artist, curator of the Action RoomsToLet 2005, 2006, 2007)
ProTasis: “Meatspace”
Art historian Christopher Marinos undertakes the curatorship of this
year’s exhibition-proposal of the Action Field Kodra from which
significant curators and artists have emerged.
Artists: ELENI ATHANASOPOULOU, MANDY ALBANI, IOANNIS GREGORIADIS,
MICHALIS ZACHARIAS, MANOLIS HELIAKIS, TINA KOTSI, ESTHER LEMI, LEONIDAS
LIAMBEIS, LILIAN LYKIARDOPOULOU, NIKOS MANTZIOS, MARGARITA BOFILIOU,
OMIO, RALLOU PANAGIOTOU, KOSTAN POLYCHRONOU, DESPOINA STOKOU, MARIA
CHATZINIKOLAOU, KOSTAS CHRISTOPOULOS
Curator: Christopher Marinos (art historian)
“In 1943, during a lecture on the educational value of art, Ernst
Cassirer stated that the artist’s place is in the realm of pure
aesthetic forms – according to Cassirer, it is precisely this place that
denotes an artist and makes them special, not the “reality of the
empirical world or empirical intentions”, not to mention the “realm of
their inner individual life, with their emotions and passions, fantasies
and dreams”.
The projects of the artists who participate in “MEATSPACE” are based on
the negation of this idea, reversing the bipolar relationship on which
such an aesthetic argument depends: artists in the globalization era can
but move between the realm of real and personal, claiming new spaces of
subjectivity, paving their own paths of expression – “hitchhiking in
galaxies”, like Douglas Adams wrote.
The term “MEATSPACE” was used by science fiction writers –in particular,
cyberpunk writers– to denote actual life as opposed to the world of
virtual reality.
Through their ambivalent images, MEATSPACE artists look into our shared
reality, while contemplating as much on diachronic issues, such as
memory, History, collective unconsciousness (or rather, the moment when
it becomes consciousness), as on the production process of the “work of
art” itself. In this kind of self-referring reportage, the leading roles
are held by parasites of urban spaces in which artists themselves live,
work and visit as tourists. In the context of such mobility, a journey,
as defined by Bruce Chatwin in his Songlines, is apparently the only
alternative available. Equally appealing is the British writer’s view
about History – “as incessant cultural dialectics between culture and
‘alternative options’: a nomad and yet permanently settled, a city and
the wild nature, society and racial group” – or music, for that matter –
“as a memory bank for you to find your way through people”.
Speaking of such issues, “MEATSPACE” exhibition attempts to hark at the
position of the Greek artist today and serves as a cardiogram that
delineates the emotional vibrations of a group of people in times of
incurable crisis.” Christopher Marinos
Artists-in-Residency
Again this year, the project is conducted in collaboration with the
European Cultural Exchanges Forum, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary
Art, 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art in Thessalonica, 9th Ephorate of
Byzantine Antiquities, the French Institute, and is supported by Culture
2000 of the European Union, in the context of Artventure network.
The Artistic Director of MMCA, Denis Zacharopoulos is the curator of
this year's programme of creative residence featuring Greek and foreign
artists.
The autonomous, independent exhibition that will ensue shall be enhanced
by works of art and artists who will be working in the workshop
organized by the Macedonian Museum in Eptapyrgio in the framework of the
1st Biennale of Thessalonica (July 2007).
The artists who will be working in the residency of Action Field Kodra
are: Isabelle Arthuis, Erwan Maho, Guillaume Durand, Xavier Noiret-Thome,
Robert Suermondt, Christina Kalbari and George Sourmelis.
The theme of the exhibition continues to explore the boundaries that
were also the theme of the past two Artists-in-Residency programmes in
Action Field Kodra.
This year the exhibition addresses issues that are related to language
and linguistic boundaries, both in language itself and art idioms.
Boundaries which become more complex due to the involvement of History,
Cosmopolitanism, Globalization and Internationalization. Additionally,
the artist is invited by means of their work to overcome boundaries,
either geographical or those associated with expression, boundaries
related to memory and everyday life.
Most of the artists who participate in this year’s residency are French-speaking,
but not necessarily of French origin. They live around the boundaries of
the European center: in Bretagne, Netherlands, Geneva, in the area of
the Brussels Ardennes. They all come from different cultures, countries,
histories; they process idioms in art and experiences in life that are
so relevant yet also utterly unrelated. As relevant as the historical
origins of the army barracks Kodra which was the barracks and the basis
of the French Army in Thessalonica, yet as unrelated as the history of
Thessalonica appears to be today to the eyes of a young artist from
another country.
The cultural fusions and excitement arising from experience are a tool
outdated and yet profoundly contemporary. From Brussels to Gendi Koule
and from the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art to Kodra the world
passes through a continuous line of contradictions and impressions that
carve languages and places, learning and people.
At this meeting, the curator, Denis Zacharopoulos let the artists resume
their language and place, waiving the contractual term or the boundary
that separates the work of art from its interpretation, production and
knowledge, awareness and comment. Thus the exhibition develops in two
parallel levels. The first level, especially focused on the work of each
artist constitutes and completes a certain place, while the second level
is dispersed in a larger space in such a manner as to facilitate all
places to open up the horizon and allow long and personal meanderings to
the boundaries of contemporary production. Each artist depends on their
individual measure to assess anew the boundaries that necessitate or
cause their attitude towards Kalamaria, Kodra, Thessalonica, through the
experience of an essential getting-together of languages and histories,
today’s people and experiences.
Men part exactly at the point where they can also reunite. This boundary
is both a matter of perspective and mood. It is a matter of stance as
well as one of learning. A matter of language and meaning. A matter of
history and freedom. Creation belongs to language not to the nation, and
language is an active boundary between creation and the nation, for it
constantly and vigorously reconsiders and reestablishes both, beyond
everyday conventions and purposes. That is the stake of this meeting and
this creative residency, a wider opening out to the world and a
recollection of history surpassing prejudice and prevalent ideologies...
simply a taste of the world next to us, offered to us by artists for it
offers itself to the artists' eyes, the concentrated look they cast
around them and the clarity with which they experience their role and
deal with happiness and dramas that do not represent “politically
correct” ideas, but first and foremost human contradictions that resist
every easy way-out, wooden language, conventional technicalities,
predetermined attitude or ideological construct. All of them are
foreigners, hospitable and come together to complete the meaning of
creative residency, dialogue, collaboration, synergy and collectiveness,
as conscious and inseparable units and persons. Denis Zacharopoulos
“Attic with a View”
Art historian Maria Kenanidou is again this year the curator of the
project featuring artists from Thessalonica highlighting the local
artistic production.
Artists: AGELIKI AVGITIDOU, EKATERINI GEGESIAN, GEORGE DIVARIS, SOTIRIS
PANOUSAKIS, LAMBROS PSIRAKIS“Attic with a
View”
Art historian Maria Kenanidou is again this year the curator of the
project featuring artists from Thessalonica highlighting the local
artistic production.
Artists: AGELIKI AVGITIDOU, EKATERINI GEGESIAN, GEORGE BIVARIS, SOTIRIS
PANOUSAKIS, LAMBROS PSIRAKIS
SUMMER CINEMA THEATER – VIDEO ART
In the spinney of the former military barracks a “summer cinema theater”
will be established this year, where videos of Greek and foreign artists
will be shown, and they will be selected by Maria Anestopoulou (of the
Platforma Video Festival), Marina Athanasiadou & Margarita Kataga and
the Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica. The detailed programme
of the performances is to be announced
“Digital Voices”
Selected from the latest plan of the International Cinema Festival
PLATFORMA VIDEO
Curator: Maria Anestopoulou
The project “Digital Voices” was developed as a series of events with
cinema performances in various cities of Greece, in the context of the
promotion of the annual festival PLATFORMA VIDEO. The presentation of
the project “Digital Voices” in the city of Thessaloniki, in the context
of ACTION FIELD KODRA 2007 includes a selection of films on imaginary
stories and cartoons from the recent planning of PLATFORMA VIDEO. The
experimentation of the artists with digital means, although it does not
necessarily result in a visual video, nontheless, it manifests the
current independent production of digital films and the evolution of
audiovisual production in the digital era.
“People”
A selection of video films produced by young Greek artists. The theme of
the works addresses human relationships and lays particular emphasis on
both interpersonal contact and the relationship of man with his own self.
Curator: Marina Athanasiadou (art historian, museologist), Margarita
Kataga (art historian)
Artists: ALEXANDROS AVRANAS, EKATERINI YEYISIAN, GEORGIA DAMOPOULOU,
MARY ZIGOURI, LINA THEODOROU, APOSTOLOS KARAKATSANIS, VASILIKI LEFKADITI,
KOSTAS BASANOS, VASILIS BOUZAS, JOANNA MIRKA, HARRIS PALLAS, TEREZA
PAPAMICHALI, LIA PETROU, ANTONIS PITTAS, ANDREAS SITOREGO, VASILIA
STILIANIDOU
The project was first performed in Art Athina 2007.
“Public Screen”
In collaboration with the Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica a
selection of the works (video and photographs) which will be exhibited
in public places in Thessalonica in the context of the 1st Biennale of
Contemporary Art of Thessalonica is included in this project.
Curator: Syrago Tsiara (art historian, Director of the CCAT.
Fresco & Salty 3: “Misplaced?
In collaboration with Margaris Foundatin (Thessalonica-Amphilochia)
Artists: APOSTOLOS VETTAS, RANIA EMMANOULIDOU, MARIANNA IGNATAKI, ALKIS
BOUTLIS, LIA PSOMA, DIMITRIS FRAGOS, JOHN BICKNELL, JOANNA FOTIADOU,
OLGA CHATZIIAKOVOU, ELLI CHRISIDOU
Curator: Areti Leopoulou (art historian, curator of the Center of
Contemporary Art of the State Museum of Contemporary Art on Thessalonica)
Fresco & Salty (2003) and Fresco & Salty 2 (2006), workshops of young
Greek and foreign artists, were performed in Amphilochia & Thessalonica
and they presented on both occasions and in both cities different
versions of exhibitions that derived from the residency of the artists
involved.
Fresco & Salty 3 starts again this year in Amphilochia and Thessalonica
-in the context of the visual arts festival Action Field Kodra- to
feature artists who use in unexpected ways recognizable mediums of
expression –painting, drawing, video– that keep coming back as
mainstream trends in contemporary art.
A first version of the exhibition Fresco & Salty 3 was presented at
Margaris Gallery in Amphilochia last July, while at the same time a
discussion was organized on the role of the agents of contemporary art
in the field of art. The transcript of the discussion will also be
presented in the context of Action Field Kodra 07.
Fresco & Salty 3 is conducted under the auspices of Ioannis F.
Kostopoulos Foundation.
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
performance based on Edgar Alan Poe’s short story
Manifactura group
Concept-planning: Xenia Aidonopoulou, Olga Chatziiakovou
Director: Xenia Aidonopoulou
Set-costumes: Olga Hatziiakovou
Performer: Erato Pissi
In the framework of the promotion of both local artists and current
trends that test the boundaries between different forms of art, Action
Field Kodra 2007 is presenting the second project of the recently
established theatrical group Manifactura. The performance uses theater
language to convey a non-theatrical text, in a non-theatrical location.
The theatrical group Manifactura was established in May 2007 by Xenia
Aidonopoulou and Olga Hatziiakovou following the performance Waiting
rooms. The group’s objective is to design and perform theatrical
projects based on any form of text (not exclusively theatrical) that can
also be performed in unconventional theater venues, while it takes into
account the particular aspects and the atmosphere of each place. The
Tell-Tale Heart is the group’s second performance.
Transit: “PAPER ARCHITECTURE. Sketch Book”
By concentrating on the concept of mobility and exchanges in art, this
action invites foreign curators to present projects and artists while
take back home the characteristics of the exhibition.
This year, the Russian architect and curator Yuri Avvakumov is
presenting works of the Moscow Paper Architects.
In collaboration with Stella Art Foundation (Moscow)
The drawings are by: YURI AVVAKUMOV, SERGEY BARKHIN, MICHAEL BELOV,
ALEXANDER BRODSKI, NADYA BRONZOVA, DMITRI BUSH, ANDREY CHELTSOV, SERGEY
CHUKLOV, MICHAEL FILLIPOV, ANDREY IVANOV, NIKOLAY KAVERIN, OLGA KAVERINA,
MICHAEL KHAZANOV, ALEXANDER KHOMYAKOV, VLADISLAV KIRPICHOV, IGOR KORBUT,
TOTAN KUZEMBAEV, YURI KUZIN, MICHAEL LABAZOV, STANISLAV MOROZOV,
VYACHESLAV PETRENKO, IGOR PISHCHUKEVICH, ANDREY SAVIN, IVAN SHALMIN,
DMITRI SHELEST, VLADIMIR TYURIN, ILYA UTKIN, DMITRI VELICHKIN, ALEXANDER
ZOSIMOV
YURI AVVAKUMOV is an architect, artist and curator. He was born in 1957.
He studied in Moscow Institute of Architecture and has worked with
AGITARCH studio since 1988. From 1984 to 2000 he was the curator of and
participated in a number of exhibitions on PAPER ARCHITECTURE (a genre
of notional architecture in USSR), in Moscow, Ljubljana, Paris, London,
Milan, Frankfurt, Köln, Brussels, Zurich, Cambridge, New Orleans, Austin
etc.
He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1996 (Sensing the Future.
Architect as Seismograph) and in 2003 (Utopia Station).
Between 2000 and 2003 he was the curator of 36 exhibitions of urban /
architectural photography, in the State Museum of Architecture and the
Moscow Center of Photography.
Some of his works form part of the following collections: Russian State
Museum, Saint Petersburg / Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow / State Museum of
Architecture, Moscow / Frankfurt Museum of Architecture / Victoria &
Albert Museum, London / ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe /
Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana etc.
A4
Greek and foreign artists are invited to produce a plan on an A4 size
piece of paper and send it to the curator in any way they choose. A4
action is an exhibition that is constantly developing, since new works
keep adding to the existing ones. Its starting point was Joseph Kosuth’s
project which was presented in Action Field Kodra 2005.
Curator: Artemis Potamianou (visual artist, curator)
“The project serves as a game of artistic creation in line with specific
rules of participation. These rules are not intended to make a winner of
a curator or an authority, because the ultimate winner will be the
viewer… A4 is the living proof that art can be produced and presented to
the general public without necessarily requiring large sums of money or
complex processes.” Artemis Potamianou
Photography & Theatrical Action
The “Third Studio” – a Civil, non-Commercial Theater Enterprise and
Panic Eye Studio work jointly following different paths and present a
project where photography and theater, image and action are united and
produce a special artistic outcome.
Performances: 15 & 16/09
Photographers: Akis Papadopoulos, John Ioakimidis
Costumes: Maria Voikou
Performers: Despoina Kiziridou, Makis Chaliabalias, Maria Voikou, Rika
Tsitsopoulou, Haris Papadoniou, Christina Oustabasidou
Director: Liana Kotalakidou
Parallel Projec
discussion pannel "on Public Arts”
An international project
titled “Public Arts for new cultural practices and trans-European
dialogue”, an initiative of Santral Istanbul with the suport of the
Culture 2000 programme of the European Union in collaboration with
ArtBOX.gr, Helsinki University of Art & Design and Maison des Metallos,
Paris. In Greece the project is performed in collaboration with the
Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica in the context of Action
Field Kodra 2007.
INFO:
President of COMK: Ioannis
Iosifidis
Artistic Director of COMK: George Kazantzis
Coordinator of Artistic Events of COMK: Maria Voyiatzirganization/Production:
Cultural Organization of the Municipality of Kalamaria
Artistic Director of Action Field KODRA 2007: Christos Savvidis (ArtBOX.gr)
General Coordination: Lydia Chatziiakovou(ArtBOX.gr)
Assistant: Hara Karayannidou (ArtBOX.gr)
Partners:
European Cultural Exchanges Forum
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Arts
Margaris Foundation
Platforma – video festival
The French Institute
Santral Istanbul
Stella Art Foundation
Center of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica
State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessalonica
Ionannis F. Kostopoulos Foundation
Culture 2000
Action Field Kodra 2007 is developed in the context of the concurrent
project of actions of the 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art of
Thessalonica organized by the State Museum of Contemporary Art under the
auspices of the Ministry of Culture.
For further information:
ArtBOX.gr: 2310 22 46 26, info@artbox.gr |
