IntroductionOPEN presents art works installed in public spaces in various locations around Lido. Over the years, the list of participants has come to include a series of established international artists and curators such as, Lois Weinberger, Louise Bourgeois, Niki De Saint Phalle, Richard Long, Marc Quinn, Marisa Merz, Sandro Chia, Yoko Ono, Keith Haring, Pierre Restany, Achille Bonito Oliva, Lorand Hegyi, Beral Madra, Alanna Heiss, as well as Greek artists whose work is known internationally, such as Theodoros, Costas Varotsos and Danae Stratou.
Open is organised by Arte Communications and curated by Paolo de Grandis. Since 2009, Christos Savvidis is the commissioner of the Greek participations. The selected artists from Greece and Cyprus engage with the public space in various, particularly interesting, ways: even though some might not have had previous engagement with public art (Aristotelis Deligiannidis, Venia Bechrakis), they nevertheless deal with issues regarding the politics of art in public spaces as well as with the "promulgation" of the private sphere. For OPEN 12, Christos Savvidis asked the invited participants to create new works or to accommodate older works for public display, thus providing the artists with a challenge and the exhibition with a series of very interesting works. |
Lido, Venice, Italy |
Under Construction: "Beautiful World, Heavenly Creation"The group UNDER CONSTRUCTION is formed by visual artists, architects, art historians and theorists. The work “Beautiful world, heavenly creation”, created especially for OPEN 12, focuses on utopian promises made by politics, religion and advertising. The work’s central piece is a processed photograph shown in the form of a billboard posted on Lido’s Blue Moon. A series of smaller posters around Venice bear nothing but the work’s title, aiming to the public’s reflex reaction to these words. The process of distributing the posters and putting them up around the city is itself an action that completes the work.
In the work’s manifesto, the group writes: “We share the vision that we, for the rest of our lives and the lives of our children, will enjoy a different world, a better world; a world that will aspire towards intellectual, financial, social and political rebirth; a modern world, free from the influences and dependencies of today’s political minorities and the interference of the media; a world where employment and housing will be secured for all; a world that will support maternity, children and the elderly; a world that truly defends the institution of family. We envision a safe and harmonious world; a world where the basic human needs will be met and there will be no poverty; a world where respect for human dignity will be common sense; a world where he, who reports the illegalities and wrong doings of others, will be rewarded and protected; a world where we won’t have to worry about anything because every day will be a glorious occasion. We envision a world where we will be seeking knowledge and truth while gazing at nature; a world where we won’t have any bad or ugly thoughts towards our neighbours and relatives; a world where we will spend more time with our friends and family, while enjoying a beautiful and constructive conversation; a world where life will be a garland made of blissful moments; a world we will be happy to live in. Yesterday has passed. Tomorrow is yet to come. Today is in our hands. Let us begin…” Formed in September 2008, UNDER CONSTRUCTION have since realized a number of works in the framework of large scale events, such as Action Field Kodra annual visual arts festival (Thessaloniki, Greece), or through independent curatorial actions, such as the project Our living Room including a series of installations and discussions in My Living Room project space (curated by Sotirios Bahtsetzis). They have also exhibited in Design 2009 (House of Cyprus, Athens) and more recently at Zoumboulakis Gallery (Athens). UNDER CONSTRUCTION are: Kostas Christopoulos, Giorgos Giannakopoulos, Panos Famelis, Maro Fasouli, Iason Kontovrakis, Xanthi Kostorizou, Alexandros Laios, Spyros Nakas, Nikos Papadopoulos, Chrysanthi Papaxenou, Christina Sgouromiti, Georgia Tourzmouzi. |
Lido, Venice, Italy |
Venia Behrakis: "The Non Lieu"Photographer VENIA BECHRAKIS has created an installation titled “The Non-Lieu”, shown at the famous Hotel des Bains – widely known from Luchino Visconti’s film “Death in Venice”.
Throughout her work, Bechrakis creates photographic documents of an everyday, banal, reality, re-negotiating the role of women and social stereotypes. The female dimension of her photographic auto-portraits, stemming from the peculiar commentary of consumer and domestic behavior and the reversal of indoor / outdoor, private / public, are central elements in her work. Either through digital processing or through real action, during which the artist performs private activities in public space, Bechrakis directs imaginary scenarios where she plays herself, aiming to challenge her own everyday circumstances. Her wider goal however is to show and challenge women’s position in the contemporary world, often through subtle humor and ironic attitude. Her photographs explore the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, truth and lie, aspiring to offer the public a chance to detect the delusion and decide what they would like to believe in. Venia Bechrakis was born in Athens, where she lives and works. She studied painting at the Fine arts School of Athens and received a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for MFA studies in New York University (2000). SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS: “Face to Faces”, 2nd Biennial of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki 2009, “The Water”, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography 2009, “Material Links”, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Shanghai 2008, “Art Photo Expo Miami-Miami Art Basel 2008, Zone D, Athens, and Gallerie Basia Embiricos, Miami 2008, “Environment-Action ‘08”, Villa Kazouli, Athens 2008, “Art Athina 2008”, Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Helexpo, Athens 2008, “Echelon: Who’s watching you?” Polvo Gallery, Chicago 2007, “Bodyconnections” , La Maison de la Photographie, Tachkent 2007, “The Chronicle of the Absurd“, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki 2007, Art Athina - international art fair”, Athens 2004, “11th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean”, Athens 2003, “MFA Exhibition” ,Washington Square Galleries, New York 2003, “The Jack Goodman Award Show “ Rosenberg Gallery, New York 2002, ”Deconstruction” Angel Orenanz Foundation for the Arts, New York 2002. Her works are permanently installed at Eleftherios Venizelos - New Airport of Athens. |
Lido, Venice, Italy |
Aristotelis Deligiannidis: "Layers II"In conversation with art historian and curator Thalea Stefanidou, Deligiannidis creates an outdoor painting installation. Deligiannidis is a young artist whose practice seems to abut on the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. His painterly expression, using strong gestures, also refers to figuration libre, as well as graffiti. On transparent or non-transparent under layer, with feverish laborious gestures, the artist repeats a process of imprinting his mark, similar to a game of free drawing patterns or to a mechanism using energy towards the conquest and organization of space. This is an artistic practice that feverishly admits the ongoing need for expanding the creative process, at the same time enouncing –through infinite repetition– an ironic challenge against the never definitively complete or final character of the work of art. The result appears shapeless, non-figurative, a mapping of landscapes of the mind, that develops a labyrinth-like script which “represents” the non-visible. A dispersion, a continuous zigzag of maneuvers and reciprocations that bring forward an ethic and aesthetic attitude towards the permanent and the ephemeral, remembrance and oblivion, affirmation to life and the compelling need to find an instructions manual to go with it.
Aristotelis Deligiannidis was born in 1984, in Kavala, Greece, where he lives and works. He has participated in various graffiti festivals in Greece and abroad. In 2008 he participated in the annual visual arts festival Action Field Kodra, in Thessaloniki, Greece. |
Lido, Venice, Italy |
Andreas Savva: "Martyrology"For OPEN 12, ANDREAS SAVVA creates an in-situ installation in front of the Hotel des Bains. Titled “Martyrology”, the work is a variation in the serieses “Weather-vanes” and “Anti-kterismata” (in opposition to kterismata (burial gifts), the term anti-kterismata refers to personal objects that one accumulates during one’s life).
Art critic Olga Danyilopoulou writes: “Ropes and objects are geometrically arranged, scrupulously constructing works which signal a figure in space as an image, as an impression of the avoidance of gravity, and as an idea of an allegoric description of human fate. Andreas Savva has long been engaged in an effort to define this complicated relation as an impression which he presents to us with this installment of a mechanism behind the action. His work “Martyrology” evidently carries a type of cross symbol. The cross symbol, combined with the work’s title, leaves no room for questioning. Here, it is dealt with as a symbol and form with a multitude of implications about faith, fear, torture and the exhaustion of the individual. The cross, a religious symbol and a human body in dimension contains rugs again. This time, kterismata and anti-kterismata are selected in a hypothetical relationship. Every interpretation is real. The rope journey sweeps through a global symbol, a universal one in mathematical terms but also a multicultural symbol which exists in every social and philosophical system. Set in Lido, Venice, 'Martyrology' has much to say about human fate.” Andreas Savva was born in Kerynia, Cyprus, in 1970. He studied at the Athens Fine Arts School and at the Fine Arts School of Barcelona, while later he finished his masters in digital art forms. Since 1994 he has widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy. He has represented Cyprus in the Biennale for Young Artists in Rome (1999), in the 1st Seville Biennale (2004) curated by Harald Szeemann. In 2001 he was nominated for the DESTE Foundation’s Prize. Recent exhibitions include: the Delphi European Cultural Festival (Greece, 2009), the Forum Artists-in-Residency programme, curated by Ruth Noack (Thessaloniki, Greece, 2008), the Paris/Chypre-La Saison Culturelle Européenne (Paris, 2008), the project Meeting Europe – Cyprus, La Chataigneraie Contemporary Art Centre, Liege, Belgium and Palais du Rhin, Strasbourg, France (2006-2007). He lives and works in Athens. |
Lido, Venice, Italy |
