ACTION FIELD KODRA 2008 
Annual Visual Arts Festival
[festival] [exhibitions] [publication] [residency]
About Action Field Kodra
Action Field Kodra is an annual visual arts festival that takes place in a former military camp in the area of Kalamaria in Thessaloniki. Between 2004-2008 Christos Savvidis undertook the festival's Artistic Direction and ArtBOX was in charge of the General Coordination. During those years, the festival underwent major transformation and became one of the most important and vibrant visual arts events of international acclaim in Greece, having as main focus the communication between the local and the international arts scene. more

Introduction


For the 8th time in 2008, the abandoned military camp Kodra is occupied by artists, overwhelmed by art, bustling with life. Every year takes us a step further. 

The basic axis of the festival remains the same, however new ideas enrich the programme. 

It is the first time that we are paying tribute to a country, Cyprus. Numerous Cypriot artists participate in different projects, giving us the chance to present great and significant part of the country's contemporary arts scene. 

Another new element is the achievement of an older goal: to expand the boundaries of Action Field Kodra beyond the former military camp and the area of Kalamaria and to establish direct communication with the city. Consequently, actions take place not only on Kalamaria's seafront and on its main pedestrian street, but also in the centre of Thessaloniki. Towards the same goal, the project curated by Stephanie Bertrand and Lydia Chatziiakovou, even though set within the area of the camp, broadcasts messages to the surrounding area and the passers by. Artist Ines Doujak from Austria deals with the tradition of the Pontiacs - a large percentage of Kalamaria's population. Furthermore, a theatrical performance, written by Akis Dimou especially for Action Field Kodra will run throughout the festival's duration. 

The Forum Artists-in-Residency programme (F.A.R.) remains the most daring -in  many respects- action. It provides the opportunity to artists from different parts of Europe to work in situ and to produce works especially conceived for Action Field Kodra, this year in collaboration with curators Ruth Noack and Thalea Stefanidou. In the framework of the residency programme, a theoretical workshop also takes place, led by Roger Buergel. 

Christos Savvidis 
Artistic Director

Former Military Camp Kodra
5-15 September 2008
Thessaloniki, Greece

Production:
Cultural Organization
of the Municipality of Kalamaria (COMK)

Artistic Director:
Christos Savvidis (ArtBOX.gr)

General Coordination:
Lydia Chatziiakovou (ArtBOX.gr)

Coordination Assistant:
Despi Devetzidaki (ArtBOX.gr)

Catalogue Editor & Coordination:
Lydia Chatziiakovou

Collaborating Institutions:
Forum European Cultural Exchanges
Stella Art Foundation
Margaris Foundation
National Museum of Szczecin (Poland)
“Entefktirio” Magazine - Giorgos Kordomenidis
Ergo Design - Apostolos Balakanakis

Beaux Arts Magazine, France, 2008

RoomsToLet: "Everything begins with the future"
[workshop] [exhibition] [young artists]

This year's participants deal mostly with reflections on our social space and psychographs of the self, all attempts to contextualise the contemporary life of multiple tensions, are recorded in the workshop. Through their sensitive antennas, the participating young artists approach (in their own words) “the memories of senses”, “desolation of contemporary metropolis”, “cloning and hybrid environment”, “management of personal data”, “everyday illusion and absurdity”, “webs of communication”, “falling from the truthful to the false”, “internal struggle”. Their introspections reveal an enormous spectrum of concerns, illusions and expectations. As a whole, they reflect upon the forms and phenomena of life. If everything begins with the future –where the past is integrated, then this year's workshop RoomsToLet –a cauldron that boils, for eight years now– appears –not only in the artists' works but also in their writings– as a landscape where ruptures take place.

Once more, as in previous years, most works presented in RoomsToLet take its final form in situ. The integrated experience of the artists, the traces of their presence and their dynamic energy, comprise a valuable creative force that drips down on their viewers.

Effie Halivopoulou 
Artist, curator RoomsToLet

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Effie Halivopoulou

Selection Committee:
Effie Halivopoulou (artist, curator RoomsToLet 2008), Apostolos Kalfopoulos (architect, curator), Maria Kenanidou (art historian, curator), Anna Mykoniati (art historian, curator, Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki), Thouli Mysirloglou (art historian, curator, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art), Thalea Stefanidou (art historian, curator), Vassilis Vassilakakis (artist)

Artists:
Christina Angelou, Vassiliki Anastasiou, Efrosini Asteri, Beforelight, Pinelopi Deiktaki, Tatiana Doglopolof, Martin Donef, Christina Doumani, Expendable Group, Konstantinos Fazos, Zoe Giabouldaki, Vassilis Hatzopoulos, Elisavet Helidoni, Giorgos Hloros, Giuseppe Licari, Evangelia Marathaki, Grigoris Markatos, Eli Matzourani-Koutsoukeli, Eliza Moshopoulou, Giorgos Nikopoulos, Anna Papalexandrou, Vassilis Paspalis, Hara Piperidou, Torsten Rackoll, Laoura Rapti, Georgios Siskos, Thodoris Spanos, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Alexandros Tsamouris, Ino Varvariti, Eleni Ypsilanti

Special participation: Aristotelis Deligiannidis

Protaseis: "Looking forward to hearing from you..."
[group exhibition] [focus Cyprus]

The concept for the exhibition “Looking forward to hearing from you…” was originally developed for an exhibition of Cypriot artists in Athens. It is now expanded and enriched with new proposals that were initially developed in Paris, as Cyprus’s representation in the frame of the Saison Culturelle Européenne, introduced during the French presidency of the European Union. This final exhibition finds in “Action Field Kodra” a conceptually significant conclusion. Visiting the space during the exhibition preparations came as a revelation for me. It immediately reminded me of an important statement by Tony Smith during an interview in the ‘60s, when new practices had not yet become concretely defined in the art world. In that interview, Smith describes his experience of a journey on an under construction motorway of New Jersey, that made him feel something he had never before felt in the art world: something concrete, but not socially acceptable. It then became clear to him that that was the end of formalist thought on art. The space of Kodra and “Action Field Kodra” –that taking place in a former military camp produces associations to a shooting range– escapes common exhibition spaces and activates a new and interesting dynamic for this presentation.

“Looking forward to hearing from you”, a common phrase we use in everyday communication, expresses expectation on a personal level as well as the desire to communicate. “Looking forward to hearing from you…” implies action and involves both time and place. It encompasses the concept of movement, and reactivates the dialectics of settlement and nomadism. “Looking forward to hearing from you” refers to something that I am not yet sure of but fervently wish to find out about, it is an extension of myself in relation to the other person and unites my personal world and home with the external world and that other person.

“Looking forward to hearing from you” is also a simple and very human statement expressing the excited anticipation with which one expects news that he or she knows will never come. Waiting encompasses the concepts of continuance in time, change and deterioration. As a synonym of loss and nostalgia, it takes on a special undertone, where Cyprus is involved. For years now, this island has been continuously awaiting political developments and positive news about the fate of those that have gone missing, those that are imprisoned, the various plans to solve the Cyprus Problem and the negotiations between the foreign powers… Artists handle these issues with critical thought, which does not always preclude irony. They do not passively wait for news from international centers of art but propose their own versions of the relation between center and periphery. After Manifesta 6, the cancellation of which, as the curators had stated, would have been catastrophic for the art scene on Cyprus, something which was of course untrue, artists once again overcame the shock with amazing courage and impetus and centered on politically incorrect taboo subjects without remorse.

“Looking forward to hearing from you” is contemporary man’s, as a discerning observer, appeal to the artist to hear his explanation about the situation, not only insofar as art but about the world today, a post-modern, globalized time, about the reversal of the relation between center and periphery and the multilayered, dark labeling of the world.

The dadaists, surrealists and the artists of the 1960s tried to bring art so close to life that it became entangled in life and even became identified with it and allowed spectators to play a significant role in completing their work. The spectator became more and more involved in the work, either as an active member as part of the relational aesthetics, as Nicolas Bourriaud propounded, or as the recipient of a message. “Looking forward to hearing from you” is the artist’s way of reaching out to the spectator-observer, of whom he asks to continue the process of completing the work. Marcel Duchamp said that the creative act is not performed by the artist alone but with the participation of the spectator and it is this interpersonal relationship that delineates an act in the world of art. By purging himself of all types of absolutism, an artist opens many directions through which spectators can create their own reality, thereby projecting creative thought beyond the realm of the exhibition area. The spectator is asked to renew his trust in the work and act as the connecting link between the work, art and life.     

“Looking forward to hearing form you” as the beginning of a dialogue between a sender and a recipient is a characteristic of an open work of art because of its open structure as well as the open relationship it proposes to the recipient. In this sense, the contemporary work, its installation and the work in progress, confirm their experiential relationship with the outside world, the social and political milieu and the experience of life in general. “Looking forward to hearing from you” can also be the expression of an artist’s new propensity towards humanitarian, social action. By supporting the poor and homeless, the exiled and oppressed, an artist incorporates a form of activism and social assistance into his art. In a way he reconnects his activity with the utopian ideal of change in the world and in life. “Looking forward to hearing from you” can sometimes contain a dose of frivolity and irony which dedramatizes the hypothetical social role of an artist in contemporary society.

“Looking forward to hearing from you” also highlights the workshop style with which the curator of the exhibition worked with the artists. This phrase which is often used in closing a communication promotes and activates the continuation of that communication. The conversational character of the preparation for the exhibition stresses the importance placed on the productive procedure throughout all phases: before, during and after. The title, which may initially surprise a novice to the contemporary art world, indicates the existence of a rich, open semiotics. It played an important role in the selection of the art works and guided the artists as well as the curator towards new channels of interpretation.

Some of the works that were selected directly and explicitly refer to the problem of awaiting “news” while others have a less obvious perspective. However, all the works trigger the dialectic of the communication relationship with the spectator, activating combinations that are far from trite. In this way, they become the best bearers of “news” to the world surrounding us.

Andre Michael 
Art historian, Curator

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Andre Michael

Artists:
Klitsa Antoniou, Katerina Attalidou, Emin Cizenel & Anber Onar, Nikos Charalambides, Yioula Chatzigeorgiou, Theodoulos Gregoriou, Melita Kouta, Fanos Kyriakou, Lia Lapithi, Toula Liasi, Panayiotis Michael, Dimitris Neokleous, Lefteris Olympios, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Polys Peslikas, Andreas Savva, Socrates Sokratous, Giannis Toumazis, Two Four Two

Local Heroes: "A place by the window …"
[exhibition]

For the third year in succession the exhibition showcasing artists living and working in Thessaloniki is not intended to highlight any local classification of the city’s artistic scene, but simply to offer a representative selection of art works, without favouritism, factional feeling or extreme subjective tastes, perhaps offering simply some of the idiomatic forms of expression of the local environment.

In the era of the excessive convenience of fast food –fast art, the minimalization of effort, the idea of a laborious spiritual journey seems remote, the Introisse Victoria fuit has the sound of a distant spell. How should we read a work of art today, and what does it have to tell us? How does the art work come about and in what way does it engage with the spectator? How does it activate the ‘vital spirits’ of Descartes? To what extent does each individual spectator recognize the vehicles of structural elements in the work of art and how far can he decipher hidden relations and correlations? What is the state of ‘initial credibility and the process of verification through the maximization of the credibility of the entirety of our judgments’? How does Reason made image lead to what Kant and Irwin call ‘self-awareness’, following on ‘awareness of the world’? Does Reason, reaching the depths of the spirit, soften harshness, heal wounds, correct excesses and calm the mental storm? 

The impressions made on our senses, in combination with cognitive and empirical-theoretical tools, make up the perceptive capacity of each individual. In his remarks on Goethe’s theory of colours, Rudolf Steiner comments that ‘Physiology demonstrates that sensation is the final product of a mechanical process which, commencing with the object, is transformed into  sensation through the organs of perception’. What is, in reality, ‘man himself’? This is the question posed by Danto – ‘systems of re-creation, ways of seeing the world, embodied representations?’ And finally, what is art? For Plato, art is ‘the imitation of imitation’; for Aristotle it is the source of the good, with rhythm, symmetry and harmony; for Heraclitus, hidden harmony; for Kant, the criticism of taste (Geschmack); for Hegel the place or medium of truth; for Freud, a neutering of the libido; for Adler, a form of compensation for mental pain or feelings of deprivation; for Heidegger, the revelation of being; for Adorno, reality itself; for Ruskin, the expression of reason and disciplined joy; for Spinoza, any human activity which contains an idea removed from its practical purpose; for André Malraux, the only place where the divine is visible; for William Blake, the tree of life; for Vladimir Mayakovsky, the hammer we use to give matter shape; for Herbert Spencer, the venting of surplus mental forces; for William Shakespeare, the endowing of life with an intelligible pattern; for Kenneth Tynan, a parasite feeding on life; for Helmholtz and Reiner, the adequate power of the language of the senses…

[...]

Perhaps with art as personal defence, resistance and refuge, we might seek a more meaningful penetration of the past, using this as a legacy with which to confront the future, retaining balances in the relationship of the opposing forces of amity-strife, in our contemporary world. Like Antaeus drawing our strength not from the earth, but from art, so as to give ourselves to our fellow man through such a personality as Rainer Maria Rilke describes as the final objective: ‘strengthened by our solitude, which shall no longer be empty, it will become instead a sanctuary in which to dream, where no sound from outside will penetrate’.

Maria Kenanidou 
Art historian, Curator

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Maria Kenanidou

Artists:
Giorgos Efstathoulidis, Spyros Kokkinos, Angeliki Makri, Eleftheria Roussou, Eleni Theofylaktou, Vassilis Vassilakakis

Transit: “The Sleep of Reason”    
[exhibition]

Transit supports artistic mobility, presenting works that can be transferred in the curator’s suitcase. 

Bakhchanyan’s works that Stella Art Foundation has the privilege to present at Action Field Kodra touch upon very sensitive political questions, such as the aggressive policies of the US and Stalin’s totalitarianism in Russia, two facets of the same global problem of physical and mental unfreedom. However, the artist could not be further from the intention of instructing and re-educating his audience, inspiring it to join ranks with the Good in order to confront the Evil. Quite unlike the official Soviet art, he does not make his work into a source of propaganda of anything whatsoever. Sadness, coarseness and stupidity, as soon as they get caught in the nets of the artist’s indefatigable wit, become hilarious and no longer scary at all. This is the clue to the true freedom of existing in this world that he shares with us so generously. 

Stella Kesaeva 
President, Stella Art Foundation

Vagrich Bakhchanyan perceives the world as a paradox and, being a true avant-garde artist, he delights in it. [...] A true player, Bakhchanyan is not content with pointing to a phenomenon; he needs to enjoy it fully. In his series of drawings entitled “Americans as seen by Russian”, he explores in great detail every possible variation of aggression, dullness, self-conceit and belligerence. In another series of drawings dedicated to Stalin and stylised to match the up-beat and simplistic style of Soviet textbook illustrations, the face of the Leader of the People shines upon the entire Soviet universe never leaving it unattended even for a minute, like the Sun during a polar day. The sleep of reason produces monsters, and Bakhchanyan displays them in the merry circus show of his wit. 

In the framework of the exhibition and during the festival’s preview, a poetry performance by poet and author Vasilis Amanatidis and Evgeny Nikitin (himself a poet and Amanatidis's translator into Russian) takes place in collaboration with Stella Art Foundation’s Poetry Club and literary magazine Entefktirio, under the supervision of the head of the Literature Department of the Cultural Organization of the Municipality of Kalamaria, Kyriaki Theodoridou. 
The performative reading is based on Amanatidis's poetry collection “The Hair and The Countryside” (O Lagos kai I Exohi) and it is an integral part of the exhibition. The live voices of poets reading one after another, the paradoxically absurdist and calm verses in Greek and Russian, transfer the image of perilous thoughts and transformations into the surrounding space and establish in this way liaisons between still visual art and temporal sounds, between languages, between ideas, between art and public. 

Anastasia Dokuchaeva 
Art historian, Curator, Art Director, Stella Art Foundation




Related project:

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Anastasia Dokuchaeva (art historian, curator, Artistic Director of the Stella Art Foundation)

Artist:
Vagrich Bakhchanyan

Poetry performance by:
Vassilis Amanatidis (poet and author)
Evgeny Nikitin (curator, Moscow Poetry Club)

In collaboration with:
Stella Art Foundation, Moscow
Moscow Poetry Club
"Entefktirio" Literary Magazine

This performance led the Director of the Venice Biennale 2009, Daniel Birnbaum, to invite us to co-curate with him an arts and poetry project within the Biennale's 2009 international exhibition "Making Worlds". MORE

Fresco & Salty 4: "Neoerotica Boudoir Street Stories"
[exhibition]

Fresco & Salty is organised by the Margaris Foundation since 2003. Its fourth edition was first presented at the 1st Elementary School of Amfilochia (19 July - 17 August 2008). On the occasion of its presentation at Action Field Kodra, the exhibition is revisited, in order to respond to the festival's background and location. 

The exhibition started with a redefining mindset regarding the perception of eroticism in contemporary reality. It negotiates the meaning of pleasure and its aim is the creation of a simultaneous impression of universality, under the umbrella of which everyone separately would be able to project the hedonistic pleasure and sentimental priority of his own microcosm. In my effort to come face-to-face with the “art of enjoying”, I gave the artists narrated stories, which also make up my personal exhibition alongside them. The aim was, on one hand, to move toward a “harsher” and more sincere exchange regarding the subject of pleasure and on the other hand, toward the creation of art and words without surgical gloves or otherwise liberated from the guilt against knowledge, with a more authentic creativity as purpose. A fact that led to the creation of original works with a feeling of personal transcendence to the established way of thinking and expressing oneself. Therefore, the selected group of artists thrust aside the ordinary and the everyday or, more accurately, align them according to their personal needs indicating that pleasure is subject to mood, personal responsibility and contention; and this precisely is the most erotic part of the process. Essentially, the exhibition invests in people and personalities, and by extension in their attributes as artists.

Eleni Garoufalia 
Curator

Excerpt from the catalogue essay

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Eleni Garoufalia

Artists:
Alkis Boutlis, Pantelis Chandris, Pania Emmanouilidou, Nikolas Evgenios, Theodoros Giannakis, Marianna Ignataki, Petros Moris, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, & Simona Moundrouvali, Vassiliea Stylianidou & McLovla, Maria Zervou

In collaboration with:
Margaris Foundation (Thessaloniki-Amfilochia)

A4 Project II
[project-in-progress]

The Α4 Project is now in its fourth year. Once again the purpose is to offer an open invitation to artists to create a work of art within the strict confines of a sheet of A4 paper.

The Α4 Project began in 2005, taking its starting point in the work of Joseph Kosuth, father of conceptual art. The choice of the specific artist to create the first work of art was not random. The use of a simple sheet of A4 paper, one of the most commonplace, ordinary and easily accessible objects in contemporary culture, at a time characterized by the use of varied means and complex installations and constructions, was intended to focus attention on the artistic message rather than the form. The artistic message is thus conveyed in a simple manner, doing away with the watertight compartments of art, while offering alternative forms of presentation.

The invitation has since been accepted by many artists, creating a broad range of works with a diversity of concepts, forms and expressive means which shows that to the artist there are no limits and no barriers. The presentation of all works submitted, without judgment or discrimination, entails complete freedom of expression. The Α4 Project has never involved selection of a winner or favoured artist by a curator, specialist or other artist. It is the spectator who is the final judge.

Over the last four years we have assembled more works than have actually been shown. Every year nine works are added to those already presented, thus representing a dynamic project permanently in progress, the final objective being the transfer and presentation of all the A4 works in a series of exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

Artemis Potamianou 
Artist, Curator

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curator:
Artemis Potamianou

Acrtists (2005-2008):
Joseph Kosuth, Seamus Farrell, Alexandros Georgiou, Yiannis Grigoriadis, Pietro Sanguineti, Wolfang Berkowski, Chistoph Raitmayr, Yiannis Melanitis, Marko Blazo, Peter Suchin, Magnus Thierfelder, Kostis Velonis, Katerina Kana, Guerrilla Girls, Yiannis Christakos, Erika Baglyas, Dimitris Zouroudis, Nikos Charalambides, Mark Titchner, Nikos Tranos, Nikos Papadimitriou, Harris Kondosphyris, Guillaume Durand, Giorgos Kazazis, Angela Svoronou, Andreas Sitorengo, Maria Lianou

Letters from a Front
[project]

The curators have commissioned three artists to create works that explore the connotations of the former camp’s location and history. The works, installed on a 4x6m billboard on the camp’s highest location, address both the festival’s participating artists and the community, attempting to expand the natural borders of the festival and to explore Kalamaria’s relationship with contemporary art.

“Letters from a Front” is a project that has been conceived to bridge the gap between the actual site of Action Field Kodra and the municipality of Kalamaria that hosts the festival every year. It was initially imagined as a platform that would simultaneously address the particular location of Kodra while occupying the municipality’s public sphere. This platform has taken the shape of a billboard, which has been specifically built for the project on the highest point of the old military base, facing the municipality so that its content occupies the local community’s public space while drawing upon the particular history and politics of the site.

The project borrows its title from the wartime expression: ‘letters from the front’, which refers to the messages that soldiers stationed on the front lines sent home to those in waiting, disquietly following the battle from a safe distance. It acknowledges the historical significance of Kodra, which has alternatively served as an active military base and a refugee camp, while recognizing its current use as a site of artistic production, by playing upon the outdated notion of the avant-garde, the idea that art single-handedly occupies the forefront of contemporary thought. By shifting the original expression from “the front” to “a front”, thus phonetically implying ‘affront’ or conflict, the title suggests that Kodra is but one among many sites of creative production, all actively engaged in questioning the state of things as we know them.

The artists Claire Fontaine, Christodoulos Panayiotou and Bik van der Pol have each been specially commissioned to produce a work for the billboard. Presented sequentially over a period of three weeks, each work will individually occupy the loaded conjunction between the historically charged site of Kodra and the residential municipality of Kalamaria, which emerged as a result of early twentieth century conflicts following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Suspended over the camp on a billboard, a largely accessible medium providing direct unmediated communication with the public, each work will invite viewers, in its own particular way, to rethink the place of Kodra within the local community of Kalamaria, as well as question the stakes globally waged around the public sphere, a battlefield where public and private interests still collide. 

Stephanie Bertrand & Lydia Chatziiakovou 
Curators

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Curators:
Stephanie Bertrand
Lydia Chatziiakovou

Artists:
Claire Fontaine, Christodoulos Panayiotou,
Bik van der Pol

Projected Visions: Balkans
[video art exhibition]

In the framework of Artventure's project Baltic-Balkans and in collaboration with the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Szczecin, Forum invited curator Christiana Galanopoulou to compile a video selection of works by Balkan artists, to be shown in Greece (Action Field Kodra visual arts festival, Kalamaria) and Poland (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin). During Action Field Kodra, the selection was also screened on the window of architects' firm ERGO Design, in the centre of Thessaloniki.

"My Balkans-your Balkans: The history, the stories and the images of reality"

A common past does not guarantee a common present. [...] Collective memory, history, as national cultural collateral, as well as elements of national cultural identity or tradition seen through a contemporary critical gaze, are used as raw material in videos by Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor from Romania (“August”), Robert Dragot from Albania (“Discreet elements”), Ana Husman from Croatia (“The Market”), Branko Istvancic from Bulgaria (“Berac Kamena/The stone picker”) and Tassos Langis from Greece (“Drawn from the bones”). As allegory of history, the meaning of time, which causes all the changes on an individual but also a social level, is the subject of two additional videos from Romania (“Studiu of du timp” by Bogdana Pascal and “August” by Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor). Its image after the socialism of the social reality of Romania is depicted through dark colors. The video “Substitute city” by the Italian group Ogino Knauss, Greek co-production and commission by the festival VideoDance, throws a clear look into the relationship of history, contemporary political and cultural reality and to how this correlation shapes the contemporary image of the urban landscape of Thessaloniki.

The economic exploitation of the Mediterranean through tourism and its ecological and cultural destruction is negotiated in a visual way but also through the text that accompanies the video “Little Lake/Küçük göl” by Ethem Özgüven from Turkey. The influence of American models and the political dependence from the USA is castigated with humor by Marina Gioti from Greece (“B-alles”) and Andrej Tisma from Serbia (“Positive-Negative”). The phenomenon of hunger and the always-increasing degradation of the lower social strata in Europe in contrast to the hyper-consumeristic models that are projected are commented on by the Slovenian artist Jelka Milic with the video “First I have breakfast”. And Ethem Özgüven contributes to the dialogue pointing out the effect of advertisements on our life with the video “Delirium”.                                

This small collection of artistic video works reflects to some degree the tendencies that predominate and to international production: besides the artistic gaze that characterizes the videos, someone might observe the flexible and multidimensional use of technical animation, the use of material from older films (found footage), and the without bias drawing on models from the techniques of mythopoetic films and –particularly the documentary. Video art ceased a long time ago to be solely a field of visual experimentations with the technical possibilities of the medium and has been reduced to a medium of comprehensible expression of questions aiming to challenge the viewer and his reaction to the reality that surrounds him. Also no one should forget that in many of the Balkan countries the recent artistic past, shaped by important and internationally recognized artists, comprise an important point of reference for young artists.

Christiana Galanopoulou 
Curator

Action Field Kodra
Former Military Camp Kodra
&
Window of architects' firm ERGO Design at Tsimiski street
Thessaloniki, Greece
3-15 September 2008

Organised by:
Forum European Cultural Exchanges

In collaboration with:
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin (Poland) and
Cultural Organisation of the Municipality of Kalamaria (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Coordination:
ArtBOX

Curator:
Christiana Galanopoulou (art historian, curator, Artistic Director of MIR Festival, Athens)

Artists:
Robert Aliaj Dragot, Marina Gioti, Ana Husman, Branko Istvancic, Ogino Knauss, Tasos Langis, Jelka Milic, Ethem Ozguven, Bogdana Pascal, Andrej Tisma, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor

Printed material: 16 pages, colour, included in the Action Field Kodra catalogue (copies: 1000)

In the framework of the project Artventure

Sandra under the lights
[performance]

An exhibition. A murdered artist. One of his works exposed to public view. A woman among the spectators, silent until she begins to speak. Mistress, perpetrator, defendant. 

Starting with a short video, we follow the steps of an emotional journey to the limits of real life and its images. An episode from the history of art, an episodic relationship without history or, simply, the epilogue to a murder motivated by an image and its errors. Perhaps none of the above – just a warning signal. 

Akis Dimou 
Author

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Text:
Akis Dimou

Actress:
Aglaia Pappa

Video installation:
Marios Spyroglou

Cast (video):
Popi Sfika, Anna Sanchez-Couso,
Panos Mylonas

Under Construction
[project]

A collaborative artistic experiment based on the idea of re-construction. 

Using improvisation as the central process, a group of artists embark on an adventure, constructing a building using the remains found in the surrounding area. The final construction, while housing a common idea, simultaneously "houses" differing artistic worlds and values. The whole process remains open to additional intervention and elaboration once the initial construction has been completed. Thus adding elements, which will determine the form and value of this experiment and symbolic cohabitation.

Former Military Camp Kodra
Thessaloniki, Greece
5-15 September 2008

Coordination:
Panos Famelis

Documentation:
Haris Pallas

Artists:
Kostas Christopoulos, Panos Famelis, Maro Fasouli, Iason Kontovrakis, Xanthi Kostorizou, Alexandros Laios, Spyros Nakas, Chrysanthi Papaxenou, Georgia Tourmouzi

Forum Artists-in-Residency (F.A.R.) 2008
[residency]

F.A.R. was initiated in 2005 in collaboration with Forum European Cultural Exchanges and run every year until 2008. This is one of the few serious attempts to establish a permanent residency program in Greece. F.A.R. collaborated with established Greek and international curators and with interesting emerging artists from Greece and abroad. In 2006, F.A.R. was presented by the Periphery of Alsace (France) as a model for cultural development. 
For more information follow the link on the right. 

Action Field Kodra Catalogue #5
[publications] [catalogue]

Design
Katerina Stafylidou, Vaso Pantoleontos
Coordination - Supervision:
Lydia Chatziiakovou
Translations:
Heather Kouris, Lydia Chatziiakovou

Colour, Greek & English, 24x7 cm, 218 pages