Making Words - Moscow Poetry Club
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The Making Words - Moscow Poetry Club project includes the works:
Common Cause by Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina Poets Machine by Yioula Chatzigeorgiou Making Words Platform by Giannis Epaminondas The project produced for the Venice Biennale (go) and the presentation in Thessaloniki is part of the Moscow - Thessaloniki project (go). It is a collaborative project bringing together visual art and poetry, especially created for the 53rd International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, under the Artistic direction of Daniel Birnbaum. The starting point for "Making Words" was a performance that took place in September 2008, during the annual visual arts festival Action Field Kodra in Thessaloniki. This was the result of a collaboration between the Moscow Poetry Club and ArtBOX with poets Vassilis Amanatidis and Evgeny Nikitin. For the 2009 Venice Biennale , director Daniel Birnbaum invited us to further develop that initial idea. As a result, the project evolved into a collaborative platform which included two visual art works: "Common Cause" by Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina and "Poets Machine" by Yioula Chatzigeorgiou and the Making Words Platform by Giannis Epaminondas. The project, presented at the Giardini –in the open space between the Brazilian and the Greek pavilions- were used as a stage for poets' readings during the Biennale preview (3-6 June). The Platform and the Common Cause with a documentation of the readings / performances remained in the Giardini till August 30, 2009. In September 2008, a poetry performance took place in the frame of the annual visual arts festival “Action Field” in Thessaloniki, Greece. This project was the outcome of the collaboration between Stella Art Foundation’s Poetry Club and ArtBOX.gr. Poets Eugeny Nikitin (Russia) and Vasilis Amanatidis (Greece) presented live readings of their work within the context of a visual arts exhibition space. After the event, the recordings of the live reading performance were played back within the exhibition space for the duration of the festival. The project was received with enthusiasm by art critics and the public alike.
Daniel Birnbaum’s decision to include this project in his exhibition “Making Worlds”, in the 53rd Venice Biennale opened up new dimensions. This invitation became an opportunity to collaborate with more institutions in order to further expand upon the relationship between art and poetry. For this iteration, the Greek element was represented by poets Vassilis Amanatidis (Greece) and Daphne Nikita (Cyprus). Υioula Hatzigeorgiou was commissioned to create the platform hosting the poets’ actions. Designed in collaboration with architect Giannis Epaminondas, the platform serves as both container and recipient, crate for the project transportation and space for its realization. It is a site on which poets and other artists present their works and actions, as well as the medium used to store and transport the project’s props to other destinations. The work also includes a mechanism designed by the artist that transforms the poets’ voices into water surges projected onto the platform’s surfaces. After its presentation in Venice, “Making Words” is traveling to Thessaloniki (Greece), where it is shown within the framework of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. Here, a documentation of everything that happened in Venice is presented, through a new installation by Yioula Hatzigeorgiou, as well as a two days’ programme of performances and actions by poets. The poetry performances programme is curated by Vassilis Amanatidis and Daphne Nikita, always in collaboration with Moscow Poetry Club of the Stella Art Foundation. Lydia Chatziiakovou, Christos Savvidis co-curators of the project |
2nd Thessaloniki Biennale |
Common Cause III - Igor Makarevich & Elena Elagina
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Common Cause III Common Cause II presented in the Venice Biennial as part of the Making Words/ Moscow Poetry Club project (go) The work was donated by the artists to the State Museums' of Contemporary Art collection |