Peggy Kliafa

Opening: 8 February 2024

Exhibition Duration: 8-25 February 2024

Location: Athens Municipality Arts Center, Parko Eleftherias, Athens, Greece

Curator: Dr Eva Kekou

Participating Artists: Aggelos Antonopoulos, Panos Charalambous, Thalia Chioti, George Drivas, Chloe Akrithaki, Peggy Kliafa, Christina Mitrentse, Panos Papadopoulos, Diamantis Sotiropoulos, Tolis Tatolas, Augustus Veinoglou

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork:

Armory – Color, Homage to Josef Albers

2023, plastic colored pills blisters and aluminum pills blisters on aluminum surface, silicone, 110 x 110 x 5 cm

Press Release-Dr Eva Kekou’s text:

The exhibition deals with the condition of infinite possibilities in an initially mathematical framework, within which there are infinite new possibilities. It is a fact that the changes issued from the developments of recent years (the COVID-19 pandemic, military conflicts, natural disasters and climate change) have changed and sometimes intensified political, economic and social relations, giving them a new dimension. The theme of the exhibition is any new condition, event, or incident that invades or may potentially invade our lives. An ongoing situation/circumstance is unknown whether it will have an overall positive or negative sign/connotation. Given the nature of the transition that our time and society is going through and the inability to define itself, the exhibition aims to question but also to investigate the nature of these changes and how they are perceived.

Peggy Kliafa’s text on her artwork in relation to the exhibition’s theme:

It is a work that combines the concepts of the medicine and its packaging with the concepts of the infinite combinations of colors and their interaction in human perception through the research and testing of the legendary Josef Albers.

Albers experimented with the square shape as a guide but also with other parallelograms on the infinite combinations of colors and the way they are perceived by humans. He created numerous works to this effect. Based on one of them, but without following it completely, I applied an experimentation of my own.

For years, the pharmaceutical industry has been using colors either in the pills themselves or in their packaging (both in their blisters and boxes) for practical and marketing reasons. Science has been particularly concerned with the effect of medicines’ colors and the market is taking advantage of this knowledge.

A health problem is an event that suddenly invades our life and its outcome is always uncertain. Fragile human health and its preservation with the help of medicines fall under the subject of infinite possibilities and infinite potential developments. Each organism reacts differently to diseases or injuries, as well as to the use of each medicine which ranges from complete recovery to death. The dual dimension of medicines – Remedy and Poison- and the uncertainty of each organism’s reaction create a multitude of possibilities.

If we leave the individual health problem and focus on society at a local and international level, we witness the reversals that resulted from the recent example of the pandemic. The microcosm – the Covid 19 virus – invaded the big real world and disrupted it to an extreme degree. The enormous health problem that it created had an impressively large impact on all aspects of life, society and the economy worldwide. Only the discovery of vaccines and some other medicines allowed a return to a new normality.

Opening: Friday 3 November 2023

Exhibition duration: 3 November – 3 December 2023

Location: Athens School of Fine Arts (Nikos Kessanlis Hall), Athens, Greece

Organization: AICA Hellas (International Association of Art Critics)

Under the support and auspices: Ministry of Culture

25 Art Critics propose 58 Visual Artists!

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork “SILENT CELLS” which was proposed by the Curator/Art Historian Stratis Pantazis, together with the artworks of the visual artists Eleni Lyra and Aemilia Papaphilippou

SILENT CELLS

2020, Aluminum pills’ blisters, aluminum sheets, plexiglass, silicone, acrylic transparent tubes filled with aluminum foils (waste of medicines’ packaging), led light, cable, 210 x 85 x 10,5 cm

Curators: Emmanouil Mavromatis, Fay Tzanetoulakou, Elli Levendaki, Niki Papaspyrou

Participating artists: Marina Provatidou proposed by Dionysia Giakoumi, Jonah Sachpazis proposed by Gelly Gryntaki, Annie Kaltsidou proposed by Maria D. Kagiadaki, Kostas Stavropoulos proposed by Katerina Kazolea, Sofia Damala, Dimitris Zouroudis, Ioanna Sideris proposed by Artemis Kardoulaki, Charikleia Papapostolou, Tolis Tatolas proposed by Eva Kekou, Antonis Pavlakis proposed by Alexandra Kouroutaki, Konstantinos Kontogeorgos, Eleni Moraiti proposed by Ellie Leventaki, Ersi Venetsanou, Kostas Vrouvas, Evi Kyrmakidou proposed by Emmanuel Mavrommatis, Filippos Tsitsopoulos proposed by Efi Michalarou, Kostis, Angeliki Loi, Manos Pontikakis proposed by Konstantinos Basios, Aspasia Bourcha proposed by Lambrini Benatsi, Yorgos Drivas, Alexandra Petranaki proposed by Maria Ksypolopoulou, Peggy Kliafa, Eleni Lyra, Aimilia Papafilippou proposed by Stratis Pandazis, Nikos Vrouvas, Despoina Meimaroglou, Vivetta Christouli proposed by Bia Papadopoulou, Fotini Poulia, Dimitris Skourogiannis, Marios Fournaris proposed by Niki Papaspyrou, Nikos Giavropoulos, Maria Maragkoudaki, Labrini Boviatsou proposed by Konstantinos V.Proimos, Antonios Panagopoulos proposed by Irini Savvani, Dimitris Anastasiou, Andreas Deventzis, Ilias Kafouros proposed by Athina Schina, Niki Zachari proposed by Julia Sysalova, Katerina Diakomi, Vasiliki Sagkioti, The Snipers/ Aghios Sevastianos: Yorgos Oybak, Akis Batzianas, Dionisis Christofilogiannis proposed by Faye Tzanetoulakou, Dimitrios Antonitsi, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Stefania Strouza proposed by Dimitris Trikas, Andreas Savva, Eva Stefani, Indoors Group: Marigo Kassi, Vallie Nomidou, Spyridoula Politi, Mary Christea proposed by Lina Tsikouta, Christina Thalasa, Katerina Cassavetis, Tassos Triandafyllou proposed by Markella-Elpida Tsichla, Babis Venetopoulos, Gioula Papadopoulou proposed by Anna Chatzigiannaki

CATALOGUE TEXT

Many contemporary artists like Damien Hirst, Joanna Rajkowska and Marc Quinn use materials related to the pharmaceutical industry, in order to comment on the fragile, ephemeral and self-destructive side of human existence, as well as on the relation of society with medicines, which has its roots in the ancient times.

Likewise, Peggy Kliafa works mostly with drugs and their packaging. Her sculpture Silent Cells (2020), created during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a natural size closed prison door, made out of blister packs. Inside the Plexiglass bars of the small window, remains of these packs can be detected. The “strong” door is placed on the wall, and in coordination with the light that comes out of its window, gives the illusion of a space that exists behind it.

The English word “cells” in the title, offers a double meaning to the artwork. It is referred to the prison cells and the body cells. For Kliafa “a door is a limit and a symbol of duality, just as the drugs can be therapeutic and poisonous at the same time.” The work deals with the different forms of confinement and imprisonment, the visible and invisible bars and the bolted doors that isolate us from our environment. The continuous and increasing shift of people to psychotropic drugs and sedatives, on the one hand offers tranquility to the body cells, but on the other, often leads to a cloaked addiction, a form of internal imprisonment.

Kliafa’s door, based on the human scale, reminds us that people are called to rediscover the measure, which according to the philosopher Protagoras from Avdira, has at its center the human being. They have to lean on their own strength, away from substitutes and crutches. The person that “dwells” behind the drugs is the real measure of knowledge and truth, the “light” that spreads inside the cell and fights to come forward.

Stratis Pantazis

Opening: Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Exhibition duration: June 29-July 2, 2023

Location: Isaiah Mansion, 65 Patission & Ioulianou, Athens, 104 33, Greece

Back to Athens’ Curator: Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp

Disorientation’s Curator: THE KRANK

With the participation of 181 artists in 40 group exhibitions

Peggy Kliafa participates in the group exhibition “DISORIENTATION” curated by The Krank with the artwork:

Armour or Slimming Dress, 2019/22, empty aluminum pills blisters and transparent pills blisters with pills for losing weight and for other metabolic problems on surfaces made of aluminum and plexiglass in a shape of hanger/question mark, silicone, led light, cable, 105 x 60 x 4,5 cm

Participating artists in the Disorientation exhibition: Ioannis Avgoustis, Haotique, Peggy Kliafa, Dimitris Kontodimos, Marilena Kranioti, Thanassis Mylonas, Giannis Pappas, Dimitra Stavropoulou, The Bad Poetry Social Club, The Krank

For its 10th edition «Back to Athens 10 International Art Meeting 2023: Geometry of racional» opens in the heart of the Athenian centre at the monumental Isaiah Mansion.

This year’s meeting unfolds 40 group exhibitions and curatorial proposals, installations and performances with the participation of more than 185 artists and curators, aiming at representing the widest possible range of artistic ideas.

Since 2012, Back to Athens has created a cultural mapping of Athens by re-opening important buildings and distinctive landmarks which reveal their own Athenian story.

This year’s edition is hosted within the building of G. Isaiah in Patission Avenue which was built in 1923 in a late eclectic style.

In a contemporary, interconnected world, Back to Athens 2023 entitled “Geometry of racional, a review” organises a group of exhibitions exploring relationships within the art community, as well as the impact of artistic creation on society. Back to Athens places artistic research and artistic production on a countable scale.

Back to Athens explores 5 points and creates a value system that connects them, as well as their mutual relations. Its goal is to use concrete examples in the form of exhibitions to discuss how these values connect and how each one of them enables a new hybrid of projection and communication to develop.

Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp

«Disorientation» is realized in the context of Back to Athens. At the core of the exhibition, we explore the intricate relationship between socio-political issues that concern contemporary society and the widely prevalent experience of disorientation.

Through a comprehensive observation of society, we identify patterns, trends and interactions dealing with the role of mass media in relation to political propaganda, which distorts our understanding of reality. By critically examining the mechanisms through which information is disseminated, we observe the phenomenon of constructing narratives that influence collective memory.

Can we retrieve information about a significant event from our memory? And to what extent does our memory still align with reality?

THE KRANK

Opening: Thursday, May 4, 2023

Exhibition duration: 4 – 27 May 2023

Location: Zoumboulakis Gallery, 20 Kolonaki square, Athens, Greece

Participating artists: Alexandra Athanassiades, Katerina Zacharopoulou, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Marina Karella, Peggy Kliafa, Nina Papaconstantinou, Elpi Saranti, Christiana Soulou, Sofia Stevi, CHRYSSA, Farida El Gazzar

Beneficiary Association: Eliza – Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Opening Sponsors: Mr. Vertigo, Kontogiannis Family

Communication Sponsors: Athens Voice, culturenow.gr

Peggy Kliafa participates with two artworks:

Armour or Slimming Dress – Blue, 2019/22, empty aluminum pills blisters and transparent pills blisters with pills for losing weight and for other metabolic problems on surfaces made of aluminum and plexiglass in a shape of hanger/question mark, silicone, led light, cable, 105 x 60 x 4,5 cm

Armory Square – Placebo Series, 2022, empty aluminum pills blisters on plexiglass surface, silicone, led light, cable, 70 x 70 x 4,5 cm

Zoumboulakis Galleries presents the collective exhibition “11 Women Artists United for Children”, in support of Eliza – Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

On the increased numbers of incidents of domestic violence, including extreme neglect, physical and sexual abuse of children, in recent years in Greece, Zoumboulakis Galleries joins forces with Eliza Society to raise public awareness and contribute to Eliza’s aim to educate professionals who work with children, so as to detect and identify cases of suspected child abuse. More specifically, the exhibition “11 Women Artists United for Children” supports Eliza’s initiative to create a National Training and Empowerment Program for Preschool Teachers for the prevention of child abuse.

The exhibition “11 Women Artists United for Children” focuses on women artists to create a collaborative project that is aligned with Eliza’s action plan and conveys the necessary sense of optimism to achieve the prevention of this poignant phenomenon.

The resounding artistic force of the participating artists intents to highlight the need for action by the competent bodies in making prevention policies against child abuse a priority. Taking drastic preventive measures would be beneficial in ensuring the better future of every country by safeguarding the future of its children.

The participants unite their voices and their work to raise awareness of this important social issue that is often perpetuated from generation to generation, without being effectively addressed.

Art can be a valuable tool to shift public opinion and attitudes/actions, to reinforce the need for awareness, but also to cultivate a fertile ground for early identification, intervention, and treatment of child abuse.

Since 2020, Zoumboulakis Galleries has established a tradition of devoting part of its annual exhibition program to a social project, turning its audience into active supporters to social issues.

Part of the proceeds of the exhibition will be donated to Eliza for the implementation of the aforementioned cause.

Opening: April 27th 2023

Exhibition duration: April 27 – 25 May 2023

Location: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Manoli Andronikou 6, Thessaloniki 546 21, Greece

Curator: Machi Pesmatzoglou

Participating artists: Alexandros Avranas, Andreas Agelidakis, Nikos Alexiou, Artemis Alkalai, Aggelos Andonopoulos, Kostis Velonis, Christos Venetis, Zoe Gaitanidou, Apostolos Georgiou, Steve Giannakos, Paris Giahoustides, Vasso Gaivase, Vaggelis Gokas, Giorgos Gyzis, Giorgos Gyparakis, Daniel (Panagopoulos), Giorgos Zogolopoulos, Lina Theodorou, Eleni Theofilaktou, Nikos Kanarelis, Vlassis Kaniaris, Nikos Kessanlis, Peggy Kliafa, Athina Koubarouli, Giorgos Lappas, Panagiotis Loukas, Tassos Mantzavinos, Nikos Moshos, Eirini Bachlitzanaki, Rania Bellou, Venia Behraki, Emmanouil Bitsakis, Apostolos Delakos, Aggelos Papadimitriou, Maria Papadimitriou, Nikos Papadimitriou, Tassos Pavlopoulos, Aggelos Plessas, Artemis Potamianou, Rania Ragou, Ilias Sipsas, Takis (Vassilakis), Dimitris Tzamouranis, Thanassis Totsikas, Pavlos Tsakonas, Pandelis Handris, Chryssa (Vardea), Lambros Psyrrakis, Alexandros Psychoulis, Mandalina Psoma

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork which belongs to the collection:

Vitrail Orleans

2020, empty transparent pills’ blisters on clear plastic sheet and MDF with metallic paint, led light, cable, 142 x 88 x 5 cm

The Collection of Polly and Christos Kollialis has become widely known owing to its prominence in the genre of Greek naïve painting. Its formation was initially modeled after the museum classification set forth by Stelios Lydakis in his compendium Greek Naïve Painters. The limits, however, were quickly surpassed thanks to Polly Kolliali, the mastermind behind the collection, whose thrill of the hunt and discerning eye led to the acquisition of works by previously unsung creators, resulting in the completeness and establishment of the collection within and beyond Greek borders.

Yet, if prestige and recognition are essential motivations for collecting activity, according to Susan M. Pearce, then collections reflect the way we structure our world and are an extension of ourselves. The restless and multifaceted personality of Polly Kolliali is therefore even better perceived in another part of the collection, that of contemporary art. Here, setting aside a “politically correct” collecting process, she enjoys absolute freedom. Here, her unconventional character, her subjective look at things and her courageous, beyond ideological anchoring, choices result in a charming, cool body of works centered on young visual artists.

In this exhibition, which is a very limited, indicative but representative subset of the collection, young visual artists mingle with iconic artists who have left their mark. Works from different periods and genres come together in the presentation, shape it and are shaped by it. They comprise a surprisingly interesting, anarchic set, which reflects the collector’s preference for works with thematic focus on the existential question, seen however from its optimistic side.

Although exhibition curation is generally understood as the production and organization of invented narratives, in this exhibition the axis of the curatorial approach is to underline the characteristics of the collection. Thus, following the model of Lucy R. Lippard, the theoretical background, conventionally considered as the basis of the curatorial process, was set aside, and a deliberate assemblage, like an art collage, was adopted. The result is an open exhibition which is offered to the viewer as a field for appropriating visual stimuli, provoking free associations, subjective meaning-making and interpretation, with the aim of compelling him to rely solely on his own ability to engage and evaluate.

Finally, according to Baudrillard, if the collection emerges as a cultural event, its exhibition in the institutional framework of a museum marks its transfer to the category of cultural heritage material. Even more so, since it is hosted in the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

Mahi Pesmatzoglou

Architect – Museologist

Curator of the exhibition

Opening: October 15th 2022

Exhibition duration: October 15 – November 19 2022

Location: IFAC Athina, Galaxia 11, Neos Kosmos, Athens 117 45

Curator: Alia Tsagkari

Under the auspices: Platforms Project and Artsy.net

Participating artists: Dafni Atha, Christos Botsis, Alexandros Georgiou, Peggy Kliafa, Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos, Melina Kremezi, Miltos Manetas*, Leandros Pigades, Arianna Darvis Tabar, Katerina Skassi, Lydia Venieri, WOOZY
*The site-specific installation by Miltos Manetas, involves works by the artists: Loukia Alavanou, Lizzie Calligas, Sokratis Fatouros, Yorgia Karidi, Kalliopi Nikolou, Leda Papacostantinou, Maria Papadimitriou, Angelos Papadimitriou, Aemilia Papaphilippou, Ilias Papailiakis, Panos Papadopoulos, Theokritos Papadopoulos, Eva Papamargariti, Madalina Psoma, Poka Yio, Angelo Plessas, Danae Stratou, Panos Tsagaris, Jannis Varelas, Costas Varotsos, Kostis Velonis, Vana Xenou, Yioula Xatzigeorgiou, and the writer Apostolos Artinos

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork:

CUBE TOWER I – SOFT ANTISTRESS PILLS

2021, 3 plexiglas cubes filled with soft “anti-stress” pills – sculptures made of fabric and filler

56 7/10 × 21 7/10 × 21 7/10 in | 144 × 55 × 55 cm

In October 2015, IFAC Athina was established as a satellite studio/project space at 11 Galaxia Street, in the Neos Kosmos neighbourhood of Athens. Having run a seven-year trajectory of tracing and engaging with the multi-layered cartographies of contemporary art, IFAC Athina returns to capturing the uninterrupted immediacy of now through The October Show.

Defining our present-day Octobers, the show brings together theoretical inquiry and art practice to re-address the curatorial process and articulate the historical – social, political, and aesthetic – realities which encompass it.

Under this prism, The October Show is set out as a meta-situationist environment which embraces the uninterrupted flow of energy as the unifying element and appropriates free association as the methodological link between the works and the viewers. In this curatorial endeavour, Athens is the catalyst that communicates the essence of unity of a diverse cross section of artists.

Throughout the exhibition, we will be hosting discussions, screenings, performances.

Opening: Tuesday October 4th 2022

Exhibition duration: October 4th – November 27, 2022

Location: The Opening Gallery, 42 Walker Street, New York

Curator: Sozita Goudouna

Participating artists: Alina Bliumis, Jeff Bliumis, Veronique Bourgoin, Alexandros Georgiou, Mat Chivers, Raúl Cordero, Yioula Hadjigeorgiou, Steven C. Harvey, Peggy Kliafa, Artemis Kotioni, Jessica Mitrani, Paula Meninato, Eleni Mylonas, Margarita Myrogianni, Warren Neidich, Alexander Polzin, Juli Susin, Dimitris Tragkas, Adonis Volanakis, Hans Weigant, Vasilis Zafiropoulos

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork:

COLONY
2018, Acrylic colors on canvas, wooden frame
44 x 34 cm

Opening Gallery is pleased to announce Collective Brain, a group exhibition of works by Alina Bliumis, Jeff Bliumis, Veronique Bourgoin, Alexandros Georgiou, Mat Chivers, Raúl Cordero, Yioula Hadjigeorgiou, Steven C. Harvey, Peggy Kliafa, Artemis Kotioni, Jessica Mitrani, Paula Meninato, Eleni Mylonas, Margarita Myrogianni, Warren Neidich, Alexander Polzin, Juli Susin, Dimitris Tragkas, Adonis Volanakis, Hans Weigant, Vasilis Zafiropoulos curated by Sozita Goudouna. Installed across the first floor of 42 Walker St, Collective Brain attempts to challenge our perception of mental processes with an arrangement of corporeally provoking art pieces, connecting artists who work in divergent media and are convening from diverse localities.

Contemplating the notion of the mind as a mechanism – a brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation – Collective Brain offers different viewpoints about the brain and its million neurons by centering neurodiversity as the fundamental concept about how we can understand the physical and biological origins of human emotion in the brain, as well as the conception, exhibition, and reception of the artworks. A section of the exhibition also attempts to comprehend and challenge perceptions about the operations of the non-human brain.

The revolutionary field of optogenetics allows us to decipher the brain’s inner workings using light, however, we still seem to know little about the human mind and certain theorists argue that it is much too complicated to be controlled, while brain and electrostimulation experiments of the 60s and 70s were often unable to clarify which parts of the brain are stimulated by stimoceivers or electro-magnetic radiation.

Further to the notion of mind control, current scientific research attempts to illuminate the biological nature of our inner worlds and our “projections” namely the ways aspects of the self are experienced by the individual as residing outside the self (Deisseroth K.). Drawing from Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the founder of modern neuroscience, and his claim that “knowledge of the physicochemical basis of memory, feelings, and reason would make humans the true masters of creation, that their most transcendental accomplishment would be the conquering of their own brain,” the exhibition attempts to trace the visualization of the brain’s inner circuitry with a deep empathy for mental illness.

Cajal ventured into science as both an artist and a pathologist, while he became the first person to see a neuron. The scientist visualized the inner workings of the mind with thousands of stunning pen-and-ink diagrams and his exquisite, meticulous drawings of neurons in the brain and spinal cord proved that every neuron in the brain is separate and that neurons communicate across synapses.

There is an on-going parallel between the ‘visualization of the brain’ in the scientific and in the artistic domains and a fascination with the visualization of the neurons, but how can this visualization help us understand the invisible synapses of the collective brain and especially the ways human societies can resist mind control with actual free will.

Opening: Friday 9 September 2022

Exhibition duration: 9-17.9.2022

Location: Mercato Centrale Milano, Italy

Curator: Sabino Maria Frassà

Participating artists: Marta Abbott, Anouk Chambaz, Benedetto Ferraro, Gaetano Frigo, Simone Giai, Rossana La Verde, Giovanni Longo, Martina Merlini, Giulia Nelli, Lucrezia Zaffarano.Letizia Cariello, Stefano Cescon, Franco Guerzoni, Peggy Kliafa, H.H. Lim, Franco Mazzucchelli, Fulvio Morella, Luca Pignatelli, Francesca Piovesan

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork:

“ARMORY SHIELD – PLACEBO SERIES”

2018 • Aluminum pills blisters, aluminum sheet, plexiglass, silicone, led light, cable

Φ100cm x 4,5 cm

The international exhibition “La Caduta” (The Fall) is open from 9 to 17 September 2022 at the Mercato Centrale Milano (inside the Central Station). The exhibition is curated by Sabino Maria Frassà and it presents 10 works by the finalists of the 9th Edition of the Cramum Prize alongside those of internationally renowned artists (out of competition). This year the artists invited are: Letizia Cariello (Letia), Stefano Cescon (winner of the previous edition Cramum Prize), Franco Guerzoni, Peggy Kliafa (Greece), H.H. Lim (China), Franco Mazzucchelli, Fulvio Morella, Luca Pignatelli and Francesca Piovesan.

On 9 September the Jury will also name the winner of the Prize, who will enjoy a series of exhibitions and publications. The winner will also receive the “cube”, symbol of the award, this year made by Marini Marmi in Ceppo di Gré. Thanks to the new collaboration with ArtBite, the Special Prize Bite&Go&Cramum will also be awarded on 9 September.

The finalists of the Award are: Marta Abbott (Czech Republic), Anouk Chambaz (Switzerland), Benedetto Ferraro, Gaetano Frigo, Simone Giai, Rossana La Verde, Giovanni Longo, Martina Merlini, Giulia Nelli, Lucrezia Zaffarano.

The exhibition and its related publication “THE FALL, How to Fall High” were conceived as a choral reflection on today starting from the novel The Fall written by Albert Camus in 1956.

The curator of the exhibition Frassà explains that “as in the early years of the Cold War we relive in a crescendo of tension for which the fall seems looming, inexorable and inevitable. What to do: close your eyes, record what’s happening or intervene? This exhibition tries to make us reflect on these sensitive issues, without giving certain answers, but wanting to stimulate “good doubts”.

Especially, Peggy Kliafa’s artwork entitled “Armory Shield” approaches the subject of fall through the phrase “Return either with your shield or on it” (Plutarch, Moralia 241). It is a very famous quote from the rich Greek ancient history referring to the saying of mothers to their sons in Sparta when going to war. Spartan warriors could either return from the battle victorious or dead in order to be respected. In other words, they could either win or “fall” on the battlefield. The loss of Self-respect is also the cause of “The Fall” of the main character in the famous Camus’ novel. Self-respect is the ultimate medicine, the shield which encourages and motivates us to face life’s challenges.

This edition of the Cramum Award is made possible thanks to the collaboration of Cramum with the Mercato Centrale Milano as well as: Istituto Confucio dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, Associazione Marmisti della Regione Lombardia, Marini Marmi Srl, Studio Museo Francesco Messina, The Art Talk, ArtBite, Cantina Giacinto Gallina and Ama Nutri Cresci.

Opening: Thursday, September 8^th, 2022

Exhibition Duration: 8/9 – 30/9/2022

Location: Lola Nikolaou Gallery – Thessaloniki (in cooperation with Alma Gallery –Athens)

Curator: Stephanos Tsitsopoulos

Participating Artists: Diamantis Aidinis, Andreas Vousouras, Melina Georgouda, Thalia Gatzouli, Kostis Damoulakis, Thanasis Dapis, Stamatis Theocharis, Giannis Kalyvis, Christos Kalfas, Capten, Nikos Kaskouras, Michalis Kiousis, Peggy Kliafa, Dimitris Kokoris, Marina Krontira, Nikos Kryonidis, Dimitra Lazaridou, Stamatis Laskos, Kyriaki Mavrogiorgi, Katerina Mertzani, Fotios Balas, Manolis Bitsakis, Konstantinos Patsios, Rania Ragou, Νikos Stamatiadis, Vana Fertaki

Peggy Kliafa participates with two artworks:

“LOVE – POWER”, 2022, Light box made of plexiglass, empty medical vials of carnitine, led light, cable, 50 x 100 x 10 cm

“LOVE”, 2022, Assemblage of small round aluminum foils from the back side of the pills΄ blisters on canvas, acrylic spray, frame and museum quality glass, 50 x 100 x 7 cm

A group exhibition about desire, identity and acceptance, based on a magnificent ode to love and tenderness.

1977, forty five summers ago: Elvis has left the building, universal lament, the king of rock’n’roll is dead. The news rapidly travels all across the world, a world used to communicate through radio, (which kept transmitting his music for days on end), via television, (that kept broadcasting snippets of his numerous films), and newspapers, all of them lamenting his loss

Under general consensus by audiences and critics alike, the music performed by Presley, a farm boy hailing from Memphis that went on to conquer the world, united black gospel and blues with white country. The equally black in origin jazz and swing were combined with the primarily white rockabilly in a way that brought together an interracial, humane and multidimensional sound. Elvis’ repertoire and all around persona ran away from identity barriers and his voice became a multiracial, multireligious and unifying symbol. Beyond the youthful revolution in ethics, the liberated sexuality and an overall rebellious attitude, expressed through lewd language, eccentric clothes and hairstyles and an image that caused an earthquake, Elvis’ music united a divided America in more ways than one, acting as a prelude for the civil rights movement, feminism, the struggles and radical themes that a few years later, during the sixties, transformed the deeply conservative and dark face of the United States and beyond.

Love me tender: Forty five summers after that fateful summer of 1977, Elvis returns. Naturally not in the form of a conspiratorial scenario, one among many that want him very much alive somewhere between Sirius or Hawaii, but rather through an exhibition that pays tribute to his ideas and radicalism. Love me tender: The Alma Gallery in Athens, in cooperation with Thessaloniki’s Lola Nikolaou Art Gallery, have invited 30 artists to think and act upon Elvis’ ground breaking persona, and particularly on the message delivered by Love me Tender, a song which carries a vital history lesson.

Love me Tender was composed in 1861, amidst the tortuous civil war. It was however sung by Northern and Southern forces alike. The original song was entitled Aura Lee and the tune succeeded in surmounting the division between pro and anti slavery sides, and was hummed along the camp fires of both Northern and Southern troops. When Elvis rearranged the tune with new lyrics in 1956, he did so in full intention of abolishing all sorts of barriers. Tenderness is the message and love is both the signifier and the signified in the context of the song. Particularly here, in Love me Tender, Elvis’ appropriation of Aure Lee, the mellowness of his delivery and the re-imagined lyrics transform the civil war era subject into a hymn to love and tenderness.

In the words of Stefanos Tsitsopoulos, who has curated the exhibition, “one can simply replace the letter t with a g and Love me tender becomes Love me gender. Half a century after its initial rendition, the song is timely again. Love me tender: Desire, tenderness, inclusion, respect and equal rights. The struggle of all sexes and identities, whether it’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, non binary, queer, pansexual, asexual, intersexual or cisgender commands an end to all biases imposed by a heteronormal establishment. That’s the idea of the Love me Tender exhibition: Visibility, respect, love and the right to self-definition without mockery or any kind of constraint. This idea, encompassed by this particular song is served by the guest artists, by whatever creative means one deems necessary”. More images, more love, more tenderness and more freedom at Alma gallery, which presents for its last exhibition of the season a unique song in marvelous interpretations, translations and “arrangements”.

Stefanos Tsitsopoulos is a journalist for the Athens Voice newspaper, as well as a fiction writer and radio producer.

Opening: Saturday, 9 July 2022

Exhibition duration: 9– 29 July 2022

Location: Art Space / Studio 265, Paroikia, Paros

Curator: Alexios Papazacharias

Participating artists: Chloe Akrithaki, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Peggy Kliafa, Marianna Lourba, Efi Haliori

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Armour or Slimming Dress – Blue, 2019/22, Empty aluminum blisters and full transparent blisters with slimming and other metabolism issues pills on aluminum and plexiglass surfaces with hanger/question mark, silicone, led light, cable, 105 x 60 x 4,5 cm

Armory Square – Placebo Series – Blue, 2022, Empty aluminum blisters and full transparent blisters with pills on plexiglass surfaces, silicone, led light, cable, 71,8 x 71,8 x 4,5 cm

Microbial Colony – Blue, 2022, Small round printed aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, wooden frame, 65 x 65 x 4,5 cm

Microbial Colony – White, 2022, Small round printed aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, wooden frame, 65 x 65 x 4,5 cm

Every summer, Art Space / Studio 265 invites old and new friends to Paros to present and admire artworks connected with the island’s unique characteristics. The wind and the waves, the glowing sun, the well-defined shadows, as well as the crisp nights, the cocktails and the music served as inspiration for this exhibition that takes its title from Madonna’s album, “True Blue”. The album came out in the summer of 1986 and its massive hit “La Isla Bonita” talks about how fast the holidays go by on an imaginary island.

But blue is a colour.

True Blue. Azure or cyan, light, dark, deep. Turquoise (almost green), midnight (almost black), cobalt, prussian, ultramarine, indigo. From sky to sea and from night to day, blue can be found in countless variations and in obvious abundance. At the same time, this wide range of blue pigments that we are so used to in our daily life is very rare in nature. It can be found in very few mammals, some exotic birds, several exotic fishes and flowers and it is pretty uncommon in nuts, minerals, precious stones and metals. Even though it is rare as a real material, blue can be found in abundance when we look at the crystal clear water or the bright blue sky. It seems that, in its absence, it never ceases to pour out. Blue probably owes its symbolic meaning, representing infinity, aloofness or the supernatural, to this feature. So it’s no surprise that these uncommon and expensive pigments were used to depict and highlight either divinity or authority, power and wealth. In “True Blue” exhibition the artworks are placed on this particular piece of land surrounded by water called island. A mountain top amidst the dark blue sea that touches the pale blue sky. Photography, painting, assemblage, sculpture form the tools required to measure the distance from the blue colour of infinity to the one visible to the naked eye, as well as from the blue colour of the landscape to the one of the human civilization.

Marianna Lourba’s work approaches formalism through the kaleidoscope. She combines opposed positions in nature but flirty in terms of behaviour like light and darkness, textured or smooth, glossy or mat. Efi Haliori creates clear-cut images that move gracefully between the ambiguity of small and big, far and close, soft and hard. Nikomachi Karakostanoglou follows two different directions. In the first one, she creates images that look like they are made of no more than two brushstrokes which are enough for the whole surface. In the other one that includes three-dimensional objects, she uses the memory of the object as the starting point from which the sculpture gradually takes form through dramatic improvements or divergences. Peggy Kliafa’s work focuses on man’s greatest agony. In her eyes, medicines reveal today’s human condition at its best and at its worst, as well as human achievements and failures. Finally, Chloe Akrithaki’s photographic work mainly explores the issues of time and experience. Her photographs exist either as moments or as durations, like real memories do.

Opening: Thursday, June 23 2022

Exhibition duration: 23 June – 23 July 2022

Location: Alma Gallery – Athens (in cooperation with Lola Nikolaou Gallery – Thessaloniki)

Curator: Stephanos Tsitsopoulos

Participating artists: Diamantis Aidinis, Andreas Vousouras, Melina Georgouda, Thalia Gatzouli, Kostis Damoulakis, Thanasis Dapis, Stamatis Theocharis, Giannis Kalyvis, Christos Kalfas, Capten, Nikos Kaskouras, Michalis Kiousis, Peggy Kliafa, Dimitris Kokoris, Marina Krontira, Nikos Kryonidis, Dimitra Lazaridou, Stamatis Laskos, Kyriaki Mavrogiorgi, Katerina Mertzani, Fotios Balas, Manolis Bitsakis, Konstantinos Patsios, Rania Ragou, Νikos Stamatiadis, Vana Fertaki

Peggy Kliafa participates with two artworks:

“LOVE – POWER”, 2022, Light box made of plexiglass, empty medical vials of carnitine, led light, cable, 50 x 100 x 10 cm

“LOVE”, 2022, Assemblage of small round aluminum foils from the back side of the pills΄ blisters on canvas, acrylic spray, frame and museum quality glass, 50 x 100 x 7 cm

A group exhibition about desire, identity and acceptance, based on a magnificent ode to love and tenderness.

Stefanos Tsitsopoulos is a journalist for the Athens Voice newspaper, as well as a fiction writer and radio producer.

Opening: Tuesday 7 June 2022

Exhibition duration: 7 – 29 June 2022

Location: Neoclassical building (Veniami ‘s family), 24, Perikleous Str., Piraeus, Greece

Curator: Marilena Koutsoukou

Host: Eirini Veniami

Organization: ICC Women Hellas – Clusters of Shipping and Culture

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Shipping, Municipality of Piraeus, Chamber of Shipping

Participating artists: Kalliopi Lemos, Chloe Akrithaki, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Peggy Kliafa, Anna Fafaliou, Efi Haliori

Peggy Kliafa participates in the exhibition with an installation comprising of the artworks:

Chandelier II – Placebo Series, 2016, 170 x 90 cm, Gelatine transparent capsules (pills), fishline, bronze, cables, light bulbs

Armour or Migraine Killer Dress – Homage to Andy Warhol, 2021, 176 x 69 x 2,5 cm, Migraine empty pills’ blisters & painkiller pills, aluminum sheet, plexiglass, screws

As part of Posidonia 2022, the ICC Women Hellas presents NEOMAI, travel/return, an exhibition inspired by the notions of sea and journey. The exhibition’s curator, Marilena Koutsoukou, chose a group of Greek women artists who present their artworks in the heart of Greece’s biggest port that is closely connected to the history of Greek shipping. The NEOMAI exhibition, with an undeniable feminine touch, takes place at the magnificent neoclassical building of 24 Perikleous Str. in Piraeus that belongs to the Veniami family. The unexpected combination of shipping and art is definitely eye-catching.

At the opening of the exhibition on June 7th, the ICC Women Hellas together with the Clusters of Shipping and Culture, under the leadership of Eirini Veniamis and Marilena Koutsoukou, organize an event about Women in Shipping, in particular women’s journey to success. Speakers include many renowned women from the shipping sector joined by the prominent historian Maria Efthymiou. The exhibition illustrates the imaginary, abstract, realistic journey, whatever way one may want to consider it, as well as the deeply human need to return home.

The exhibition features artists whose work is connected with sea, Piraeus, shipping and traveling in a more abstract way. As a result, the viewer feels free to imagine and travel through the artworks.

In an interview with The Art Newspaper Greece on June 6, 2022, the exhibition’s curator, Marilena Koutsoukou, guide us around the exhibition in her own words:

“Kalliopi Lemos’ Boats full of Secrets made of tulip wood and vertically placed lead the viewer to an existential journey. Chloe Akrithaki captures fragments of everyday life in a series of photographs under the title I Know I Dream, showcasing the continuous journey through time. Nikomachi Karakostanoglou’s diptych called Intimately Close makes us feel like we are floating in the dreamy shades of blue reminiscent of water as well as light. Through her neon work entitled I AM, Anna Fafaliou explores the journey within the self, creating a dialogue between object, memory and identity. Efi Haliori’s photograph of Piraeus is dreamlike, foggy, faint and free of disturbing noises.

After all, Piraeus is the main theme of the exhibition. The artworks are presented in the heart of the city, in the neighbourhood of captains, at Ernst Ziller’s listed building, looking back at Greek maritime history, while breathing new, artistic life into the mansion. As an epilogue, Peggy Kliafa’s works, a dress/armour made of pills’ blisters and a chandelier made of gelatine capsules, create a homelike atmosphere, while bringing together the notions of shipping, travel, home and return”.

Opening: Friday, May 6th 2022

Exhibition duration: 6 – 15 May 2022

Location: Amphicar Studio, 7 Ekatis Str., Athens

Curator: Foteini Vergidou

Exhibition Designer: Athina Tsigarida

Art Direction: Eleni Simantiraki

Press & Publicity:Yorgos Katsonis

Audiovisual Design: Constantine Nisidis

Participating artists: Mediengruppe Bitnik, Angelos Akrida, Natalia Astraea, Margarita Athanasiou, Pirro Caridha, Jean-Damien Charmoille, Maria Diamantidou, Charlotte Eifler, Kyriaki Goni*, Tatiana Kallergi, Iasonas Kampanis, Anton Kats, Peggy Kliafa, Marilia Kolibiri, Danai Nikolaidi-Kotsaki, The Krank, Maria Mavropoulou, Yorgos Papafigos & Kostis Spanopoulos, RIZOM Athens (Grigoris Myrgiotis, Thalia Paraskeva, Vincent Theunissen), Molly Soda**, Kyvèli Zoi Stenou, Iakovos Volkov, Dimitra Zervou

Peggy Kliafa participates with the artwork/sculpture:

CUBE TOWER I-SOFT “ANTI STRESS” PILLS, 2021, 145 x 55 cm (3 cubes: 55x55x55cm, 50x50x50cm, 45x45x45cm), 3 plexiglass cubes filled with soft “anti-stress” pills – sculptures made of fabric and filler

The group exhibition The Root explores the formation and development of underground networks as well as the importance of connectivity in the city, the environment, technology, personal experience and art. The participating artists focus on unexpected places and use different media to share their stories around sub-surfaced webs and unseen worlds.

The works on view reflect the way Amphicar’s resident artists operate in the studio space; they form a network, where each node connects with the other ones around it. The exhibition develops without a focal point or a linear narrative. Therefore, the connections formed between human and non-human networks are unexpected, heterogeneous and yet equal.

What could be the link between urban foundations, memory and intimate experience? Can we imagine new ways we could interact with nature? Where does technology stand in a reality that becomes exponentially immaterial?

If we take a look outside ourselves, we encounter contemporary architecture and urban planning, forces that define the pace of everyday life and the way citizens navigate the city. Tree roots generate an underground network of the urban web, inviting us to reevaluate our relationship with nature. However, the ecological footprint of a collapsing world as well as the techno-fossils that are being created, reflect current events, while leading us potentially into a new geological era.

Accelerating technological development and our constant interaction with the Internet define new behaviors and allow, through our senses, the embodiment of intangible experiences. At the same time, underneath the surface of the web accessed daily by millions, lies the dark web, allowing information decentralization and user anonymity.

The artists experiment with even smaller worlds, shifting from the material to the immaterial, from the permanent to the ephemeral and finally from the body to the psyche. There, archetypal symbols, memories, instincts and subconscious truths are unraveled through artistic practice and expressed with a variety of tools and materials.

Through installations, paintings, video and web-based works, digital prints, murals and sculptures, the exhibition The Root invites us to consider our own place within these networks and to imagine new ways of navigating the spaces that lie under the surface.

* Kyriaki Goni’s work is part of her Data Garden installation and is commissioned and produced by Stegi Onassis Foundation

** Molly Soda’s work is commissioned by Stegi Onassis Foundation and curated by NEW INC

Opening: Friday, 16 February 2018

Exhibition duration: 16 February – 20 May 2018

Location: Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece

Curators: Thouli Misirloglou, Art Historian, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Director

Giannis Bolis, Art Historian – Collections Responsible of the State Museum of Contemporary Art

Curatorial Team – Texts:
Domna Gounari (SMCA)
Areti Leopoulou (SMCA)
Thouli Missirloglou (MMCA)
Giannis Bolis (SMCA)
Eirini Papakonstandinou (SMCA)
Katerina Syroglou (MMCA)
Syrago Tsiara (SMCA)

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Armory Square – Placebo Series, 2013/2016, 140x140cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass, led light tape

This exhibition, which takes place in the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (in ΔΕΘ) from the 16^th of February until the 20^th of May 2018 (there has been an extension), presents for the first time a wider number of artworks of Greek and foreign artists which come from the collections of the two museums. In view of the two museums’ functions union, this presentation has a symbolic dimension, since it suggests a first collocation of artworks and artists from the two collections, which creates new correlations and interpretations.

The new exhibition, that the two museums co organize, comprises of almost 200 artists, while it opens a prospect of new exhibitions, so that the whole collection and artists who enrich them be presented gradually. The State Museum of Contemporary Art and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art hope that the meeting of Greek and foreign artists in the future will find its perspective dimension, within the role that the united Metropolitan Organism of Visual Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus) will be called to play in the Greek society and the social, cultural and artistic reality of Thessaloniki, Greece, the European and the Balkan countries.

Through this exhibition a view of the two collections’ history comes up:

The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA) collection is the Museum’s heart and comprises of 2300 artworks. The MMCA was established end ‘70s, as the result of the common effort of a small group of people and the initiative of Alexandros Iolas. The internationally renowned gallerist and collector donated a number of artworks which reveal the relationships of the ‘60s generation with France (Tinguely, de Saint Phalle, Raysse, Raynaud ect), Italy ( Pascali, Mattiacci, Fontana). Several other donations were made after this from artists as well as collectors (Takis, Pavlos, Tsoklis, Akrithakis, Bouteas, Alithinos, Tzivelos, Lazongas ,as well as Kessanlis, Kaniaris, Daniil, Andonakos, Chryssa, Perdikidis, Philolaos, Zoggolopoulos, Koulendianos, Loukopoulos etc). Then many artists contributed with donations and the important art critic Alexandros Xidis, who also donated a big part of his personal collection played a significant role. At the same time the systematic registration of the contemporary art, encouraged a big number of new donations, as all the artworks of Achilleas Apergis, and the artworks of collectors like Charis Andoniou, Manos Pavlides, Leonidas Beltsios and many others.

The opening of the new building in 2002, gave new perspectives with artworks of the ‘80s and ‘90s as well as artworks of contemporary photography and engraving and made its collection one of the biggest collections of Greek and international art in a Greek museum.

The contemporary artworks Collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA).

The initial core of the State Museum of Contemporary Art collections (apart from the internationally renowned Kostakis Collection with artworks of the Russian avant gard artists) is a series of approximately 200 artworks donated to the museum from the Organism “Thessaloniki – Cultural Capital of Europe 1997”. This donation comprises of famous artworks of Stephen Andonakos, Chris Giannakos, Ioannis Avramidis, artworks of the painting workshop “Pictor”, the sculpture workshop “Traces and Prospects” and the Engraving Center “Helios”. Today the museums’ collection comprises of more than 900 works of contemporary art, which cover a big variety of means. Most of them derive from artists’ and their families’ donations. A special reference should be made to the paintings and drawings of Theoharis Mores, the prints of Stephen Antonakos, the collections of Alexandros Tzonis and his wife’s Liane Lefaivre (among them a unit of Chryssa Vardeas’ drawings).

Opening: Tuesday 29th May 2018

Exhibition duration: 30th May – 2nd September 2018

Location: Salone degli Incanti, Trieste, Italy

40 Imago Mundi Collections with 6,354 works in Trieste trace a red thread of contemporary Art that unites the Mediterranean and Mitteleuropa, the Balkans and the Middle East

May 2018. The art of Imago Mundi comes to Trieste, like a ship of Ulysses that brings together and unites peoples and lands, ideas and religions. The imaginative realities of the Mediterranean basin, the variegated culture of the Balkans, the Nordic inspirations of Mitteleuropa, the legends of the beautiful blue Danube, the spiced colours of the Middle East: a glimpse of the world that only art can provide through the creative gestures of thousands of artists, brought together in the extensive exhibition Join the Dots/Unire le distanze, which showcases 40 Imago Mundi collections.

An unprecedented itinerary of sea and land, captivating and colourful, passionate and at times heart rending, that can be viewed at the Salone degli Incanti, from 29th May to 2nd September 2018.

In the ex Pescheria Centrale on Riva Nazario Sauro, overlooking the sea, in a Trieste which today is enjoying a renaissance as a centre for the exchange of goods and ideas on the modern Silk Road, the 6,354 Imago Mundi artworks illustrate a central part of our world through the red thread of the imagination that, literally, constructs a vision of the world with its images.

In the Trieste exhibition each collection dialogues with the others proposing a connotation of exchange: of poetics, styles, techniques and ideas that cross boundaries and create connections.

Through the 40 Imago Mundi collections the viewer can “join the dots”, bridge the distances, discover travel as an adventure in the world, as an exploration of cultures and identities and, at the same time, as an intimate reflection in one’s own inner space. Because Join the Dots/Unire le distanze is an exhibition that comes from afar, from the contemporary passions of Luciano Benetton for art and travel. And, notionally, from Gauguin’s inscription on his 1897 masterpiece “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”, a fervent and obsessive meditation on the meaning of the most important human journey – life.

For more information:
Imago Mundi external relations
martina.fornasaro@imagomundiart.com / +39 338 6233915
barbara.liverotti@fabrica.it / +39 0422 51 5372 – 334 990 1269
www.imagomundiart.com

Opening: Tuesday 19^th of April 2022

Exhibition duration: 19.04 – 21.05.2022

Location: Gallery “7”, 20, Solonos str., Kolonaki, Athens

Curator: Chloe Akrithaki

Participating artists: Dimosthenis Avramidis, Christos Athanasiadis, Alexis Akrithakis, Chloe Akrithaki, Evgenia Apostolou, Kostis Velonis, Alexis Veroukas, Martha Dimitropoulou, Athina Ioannou, Lizzie Kalliga, Ekaterini Kanakaki, Apostolos Karakatsanis, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Peggy Kliafa, Harrie Kourkoulis, Vasiliki Lefkaditi, Marianna Lourba, Kleopatra Moursela, Liana Markaki, Irini Miga, Christos Bouronikos, Nikos Papadopoulos, Ilias Papailiakis, Alexios Papazacharias, Hara Piperidou, Lila Polenaki, Dimitris Rentoumis, Georgia Sagri, Ivi Samara, Nana Sahini, Kostas Sahpazis, George Stamatakis, Magda Tammam, Tolis Tatolas, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Kostas Tsolis, Efi Haliori, Mantalina Psoma, Capten, Paolo Colombo.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the exhibition with the artwork/installation:

“Nature is Innocent”

Comprising the wallpaper entitled “Nature is Innocent” and 2 aquarelles-paintings entitled “Canabis Sativa L” (Marijuana) and “Papaver Somniferum L.” (Opium)

Curator’s Text:

Spring may be late this year but it is here for good. We close our eyes for a while and listen to this little flower that springs up in the most unexpected places and whispers tender words to us about love, passion, the beginning of a new life. For all those things that make our life beautiful, special and unique. All these and many more secrets that we ignore and may never know, no matter how much we look at a blooming flower or a field of poppies.

In Boris Vian’s “Froth on the Daydream”, when a lily grows in the lung of the main character the doctor recommends that she surrounds herself with flowers. Flowers are both medicine and poison. The walls are rounded. The room narrows. The world around us is dangerously shrinking. One more time the sound of war is getting closer.

Spring, flowers everywhere.

Honeysuckle, amaryllis, anemone, azalea, violet, gardenia, carnation, jasmine, gladiola, sunflower, hyacinth, iris, bellflower, lily, orchid, daisy, forget-me-not, mimosa, begonia, daffodil, buttercup, dahlia, pansy, petunia, snapdragon, tulip, rose, freesia, sambac jasmine, chamomile, chrysanthemum…

Garden flowers or wildflowers, humble or aristocratic, exotic, small or big. They grow on the roadside or decorate a vase. Their main purpose is to reproduce and perpetuate the species. Their colours attract not only bees, butterflies and ants but also us, humans. Not only they beautify our life but over the centuries they have become an integral part of art and have inspired artists all around the world.

The exhibition “Froth on the Daydream” presents works by 40 contemporary Greek artists inspired by the flower. Since our childhood we have all painted flowers. At some point, all artists have engaged with flowers, either exploring their symbolism or simply capturing their beauty. Some works already existed, some were adapted and many were created especially for this exhibition. Thus, all the works of the exhibition are “flowers from my friends”*, whose importance lies not only in their multifaceted symbolism but also in the act of giving itself. Works as diverse as their creators.

The exhibition includes works on paper, on canvas, collages, crafts, installations, ceramics and photographs.

Works that represent spring, the joy of sight or smell, the coolness of dew, the warmth of earth or the passion of fire. Works that confront memory, pain and healing, war and peace.

The whole, an imaginary garden in bloom from April 19 to May 15 at Gallery 7.

Chloe Akrithaki

*In 1990 Alexis Akrithakis presented the exhibition “Flowers for his suicidal friends” at Gallery 7.

Opening: Thursday 31^st of March 2022

Duration: 31.03 – 07.05.2022

Location: Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Tsimiski 52, Thessaloniki, Greece

Participating Artists: Alexis Akrithakis, Dimitris Alithinos, Spyros Vasileiou, Giannis Gaitis, Kostis Damoulakis, Thanassis Dapis, Opy Zouni, Peggy Kliafa, Nikos Kryonides, Giorgos Lappas, Stamatis Laskos, Giorgos Bouzianis, Giorgos Tsakiris, Giannis Tsarouchis, Costis, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Pavlos, Pablo Picasso, Takis, Andy Warhol

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

“Heartbeat” Armour/Dress after Mondrian & YSL, 2022, 105 x 60 x 4,5 cm. Pills Blisters and Real Pills for heart and other relevant health issues, black adhesive elastic tape for physiotherapy treatments, aluminum sheet, plexiglass, led light and cable

It is with great pleasure to participate in this exceptional exhibition of @lolanikolaou_gallery – Thessaloniki, with my artwork “Armour/Dress – Heartbeat” among so important artworks and artists!!! I am so honored that my artwork is placed in “conversation” with the artwork of Professor George Lappas and the ones of legendary Andy Warhol!

Opening: 23rd of October 2021

Exhibition duration: 23/10/2021-10/1/2022

Location: E. Averoff Museum, Metsovo, Greece

With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports

Sponsors: Baron Michael Tossizza Foundation • Katogi Averof S.A.

Curator: Dr Lina Tsikouta – Deimezi, Curator, National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens

Participating artists: Yiannis Adamakos, Vassilis Gerodimos, Annie Zavitsanou, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Angie Karatza, Michalis Katzourakis, Takis Katsoulidis, Peggy Kliafa, Apostolos Kotoulas, Maria Ktistopoulou, Aris Liakos, Thodoros Papagiannis , Katerina Papazissi, Kyriakos Rokos, Xenis Sachinis, Angelos Skourtis, Vassilis Sperantzas, Marios Spiliopoulos, Takis Stefanou, Costas Tsolis, Christos Charissis, Manolis Charos, Giorgos Houliaras, Vivetta Christouli, Alexandros Psychoulis and the Indoors team (Marigo Kassi, Vally Nomidou, Spyridoula Politi, Μary Xristea), Kostas Malamos, Giorgos Menoudakos, Nikos Sahinis, Kostas Balafas

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Armory Shield – Placebo Series, 2016, Φ110 cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, aluminium “foil”, plexi glass, led light

The artwork belongs to the E. Averoff Museum’s permanent collection.

The show entitled “New Acquisitions 2008-2021” is opening in the E. Averoff Museum on the 23rd of October 2021. Fifty Greek visual artists are represented with their artworks covering a wide time period, from the 19th century (Nikif. Lytras, K. Volanakis, N. Xydias, P. Pandazis, P. Prosalendis etc) until today. These are works of a diverse style and medium, important works which enhance the historical continuity of the collection or extend its chronological range to encompass even the most contemporary Greek art. The provenance of these artworks is from donations of the artists Yiannis Adamakos, Vassilis Gerodimos, Annie Zavitsanou, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Angie Karatza, Michalis Katzourakis, Takis Katsoulidis, Peggy Kliafa, Apostolos Kotoulas, Maria Ktistopoulou, Aris Liakos, Thodoros Papagiannis , Katerina Papazissi, Kyriakos Rokos, Xenis Sachinis, Angelos Skourtis, Vassilis Sperantzas, Marios Spiliopoulos, Takis Stefanou, Costas Tsolis, Christos Charissis, Manolis Charos, Giorgos Houliaras, Vivetta Christouli, Alexandros Psychoulis and the Indoors team (Marigo Kassi, Vally Nomidou, Spyridoula Politi, Μary Xristea), Kostas Malamos, Giorgos Menoudakos, Nikos Sahinis, Kostas Balafas.

The exhibition has the intention/goal to give to the public the opportunity to enjoy the new acquisitions of the E. Averoff Museum in the period 2008-2021, as well as to highlight the importance of donating and honour its donors.

The show is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue of the same name with coloured pictures of the artworks.

The opening will take place at the renovated building of the Museum, which thanks to a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), is now completely accessible mobility impaired people.

The project to make the Art Gallery accessible to visitors with mobility impairments was mede possible thanks to a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

Opening: 17 June 2021
Duration: 17 June – 3 July 2021
Location: Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens, Greece
Participating Artists: Antonakis, Cacao rocks, Georgia Fambris, Stella Kapezanou, Vasilis Karouk, Peggy Kliafa, Vasiliki Koukou, Nikos Lagos, Olga Migliaresi-Phoca, Anastasia
Papaleonida, Stefanos Rokos, Valinia Svoronou, Philippos Theodoridis, The
Callas, Pavlos Tsakonas, Jannis Varelas, Kyveli Zoi

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the boards:

BACTERIA – SKATES, 2021, 81×20 cm. Aluminum parts from the back side of the pills blisters and acrylic spray on Canadian maple wood of the skateboards, which provided THE SKATEROOM to the artists

Zoumboulakis Galleries and THE SKATEROOM present -for the first time in Greece- the Greek edition of the successful Art-For-Social-Impact project, Art οn boards | The Skate Project, that collaborates with high profile representatives of the contemporary art worldwide. Limited editions of the world’s biggest artists are on collective skateboards, each of them is supporting a social project.

For the Greek project, 17 multidisciplinary, emerging & established, Athens-based artists create collective artworks on 51 limited edition skateboards. Forming a group exhibition where the profits of which, are donated to two not-for profit organizations supporting youth at risk in Athens:
• Free Movement Skateboarding supports and promotes the wellbeing,
empowerment and social cohesion of youth in Athens through
skateboarding. It builds community via skateboard sessions, operating
inside refugee camps, community centers and children shelters. Its
weekly skateboarding workshops focus on creating a safe place to
welcome a diverse Athenian skate scene and society, with high female
participations for the most isolated youth.
• The charitable organization Mum Institute, focuses on the strengthening
of the therapeutic framework and the social integration of youth living
in institutional care, through educational activities based in art, food
supply programs, professional empowerment as well as architecture
and interior design renovations.
• As well as, all the synergies that have already developed between the
FMS and MI since the birth of Art on Boards, aiming to the development
of happiness of children that have limited to zero access to public
spaces and affordable entertainment.

Embracing the philosophy of skateboarding as an activity that can dissolve boundaries of gender, race, class, religion, and ethnicity, Art οn boards | The Skate Project encourages self-empowerment and diversity, transmitting that into art works and aiming to raise awareness and to support social projects through art.

About THE SKATEROOM:
The Skateroom -a certified B Corporation -unites art buyers, artists, galleries, museums, foundations, retailers, and non-profits around the world in a new economic model – « Art for Social Impact » – turning consumers into active contributors in socially engaged projects.
So far, The Skateroom funded over $1,000,000 to support 37 social skate projects dedicated to empowering at-risk youth around the world. There have been 167 skateboard editions made by artists like Jenny Holzer, Ai Weiwei, Steven Harrington – among many other. By placing works of art on responsibly made skateboards, The Skateroom connects people to the reality that Art for Social Impact is something achievable right now. The Skateroom exists to bring art into your life while bringing brighter possibilities to the lives of all.
More information on http://www.theskateroom.com/
Since 2014 Zoumboulakis Galleries’ art shop supports the vision of The Skateroom, by providing the 10% of the sales of each skateboard at the nonprofit organization Skateistan.

Opening: 30^th of December 2020
Duration: 30^thof December 2020 – Saturday 31^st July 2021
Location: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, City University of New York and other cultural venues
Curator: Dr. Sozita Goudouna
Organized by the non-profit platform GREECE IN USA, which is under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture

Participating Artists: Antelman Maria, Antonakos Stephen, Antoniou Klitsa, Athanasiou Margarita, Balaskas Bill, Bofiliou Margarita, Bourgoin Veronique, Charalambidis Nicos, Chatzipavlidou Despina & Mouriadou Anthi, D’Agostino Tim, Dimitriadi Christina, Drivas George, Finley Karen, Frangouli Nayia, Georgiou Alexandros, Geyer Andrea & Hayes Sharon, Giannakopoulou Eva, Gizeli Kleio, Hadjigeorghiou Yioula, Haritou Kleopatra, Harvey Steve C., Hunt Ashley, Inglessi Marion, Kamler Richard, Kavalieratos Dionysis, Kliafa Peggy, Kokkinias Panos, Kotretsos Georgia, Lappas Aristides, Lemos Manolis, Linardaki Eirini, Logothetis Aristides, Magnati Renee, Manouach Ilan, Mattis Daina, Migliaressi-Phoca Olga & Damaskou Despoina for SPAGHETTO, Papafigos Yorgos, Piperidou Hara, Salpistis Vassilis, Sklavenitis Panos, Spyrou Efi, Stagouraki Marilia, Stamatakis George, Stathacos Chrysanne, Susin Juli, Tsagaris Panos, Tsivopoulos Stefanos, Twitchin Mischa, Venieri Lydia, Vlahos Vangelis, Volanakis Adonis, Zygoury Mary

GREECE IN USA has also invited curator and professor Thalia Vrachopoulos to respond to the theme with a focus on Asian Artists and curator Tressa Berman to propose a historic American artist.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the exhibition with her artwork:

Silent “Cells”, 2020, 210 x 85 x 10,5 cm. Aluminum pills’ blisters, aluminum sheets, plexiglass, silicone, acrylic transparent tubes filled with aluminum foils (waste of medicines’ packaging), led light, cable

About Peggy Kliafa’s artwork:

It seems that in prisons and other forms of confinement there are apparent bars, locked doors and guards everywhere, but there are also invisible fetters. A systematic providing of mainly psychotropic and other drugs, affects the body cells and achieves the necessary silence and calm in prison cells, raising even more powerful barriers for the prisoners. Medicines can be a prison themselves even for the “free” people sometimes. Whether imposed for various reasons or asked by the prisoners as a need for escapism, they may become an addiction and addictions can be a prison too. Especially this particular kind, which is legal and rewarded.

Peggy Kliafa’s entitled SILENT “CELLS” for the exhibition “The Right to Silence?” is a sculpture representing a closed prison door in actual size, covered with aluminum pills blisters, with a small illuminated window behind transparent “bars” filled with the waste of pills blisters. The windows light seems to be coming from the inside of the cell. The title of the artwork refers to both the jail cells as well as the body cells.

A door is a border and a symbol of duality exactly like the medicines can be remedies and poison simultaneously. A closed door, heavily fortified with metallic pills’ blisters in the era of the covid 19 pandemic can have a variety of other references too. The visualization of successive lockdowns all over the world, of living and working in our houses, of the increase of drugs’ consumption combined with the psychological, social and economic problems intensified by the confinement.

About the exhibition “The Right to Silence”:

“The Right to Silence?” addresses issues of criminal justice and consists of a survey and two parallel streams addressing different political and geographical contexts, focusing on Greece/Cyprus.

The curator’s text:

A number of contemporary compositions seem to deny the presence of the beholder in their arrangement nevertheless what primarily matters to the canon of art today is its dialogue with the beholder. Acknowledging the beholder’s presence and the “to-be-seenness” of the artworks has also been the decisive contribution to the ongoing visual discourse on modernism. But how can the limits of this canon be tested in relation to the broader society. What if the beholder remains hidden from the public unable to be in any kind of dialogue with the artwork. Facing the wall, in a concrete cell with no windows or sitting blindfolded in a tiny concrete cube in perfect silence, waiting for an interrogator. A constitutive element of the prison is silencing – the silencing of lives, often of justice, of suffering and political expression.

Mass incarceration has been discussed in terms of degrees of in/visibility but not so much in terms of the range of processes that reveal the in-between of representational languages that could be called in acoustic terms silence and in visual terms invisibility. Is silence connected to invisibility in a cause and effect relationship? The prison’s status as a silent and invisible space was challenged and is still being challenged today primarily by incarcerated artists who are working with communities most affected by prisons and policing so as to examine prison privatization and the politics and economics of the massive increase of the U.S. prisoner population since the 1970s. Prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families, social activists, academics, and professionals founded in the ‘70s a voice-magnifying attack on the prison’s own foundations that was called GIP (or the Prisons Information Group) and aimed to relay information about prisons between prisoners themselves, as well as from prisoners and the outside world. They lifted the veil that obscured their experiences from public view.

Featuring pieces by visual and performing artists the group exhibitions attempts to uncover the profound and complex sense of silence that characterizes the prison industrial complex so as to examine whether art and aesthetics can break the silence about crucial political issues such as mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, as well as corruption/abuse, transgender-juvenile rights and solitary confinement in prisons. The exhibition also addresses the relationship as well as the discrepancies between the current self-confinement and self-isolation conditions and actual incarceration by examining the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual tensions that humans have to endure while in isolation. As Mischa Twitchin notes ‘what might be the “echoes” of silence, in what social space or locations might that be pertinent (or, in the privilege of “privacy,” how might it be resisted)… and what is to be understood by “remote” in these circumstances, after all?” Acknowledging the impact of practices that encourage the wider public to empathize with prisoners through art or the ways that art can heal incarcerated people the exhibition will also draw on forms of representation that have the potential of pointing beyond themselves to the unseeable and the unsayable.

About the platform GREEECE IN USA:

Greece in USA is a non-profit organization with a global reach that promotes knowledge of contemporary and ancient Greek Culture while fostering international cultural cooperation, experimentation and social engagement. The organization’s extensive programming includes commissioned artists’ and curators’ projects, residencies, educational and ecological initiatives and the commitment to cultivating a sensible culture of innovation and thought leadership. We are dedicated to offering innovative and unique programs in education and the arts, all exploring the evolving diversity and richness of Greek and Cypriot cultures. The non-profit organization seeks to generate new thinking about the arts and promote cross-cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of creation. The organization promotes international exchange of practice and knowledge in the arts – visual and sound art, dance, architecture, theatre – research on the methods used in curatorial and performing practices and investigation of points of intersection between the arts, science and the public sphere by means of interventions, collective actions, educational programs and publications.

Opening: Thursday 2 July 2020
Duration: 2^nd July – 8^th August 2020
Location: Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece

Curator: Dr Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi

Participating Artists: V. Alexandrou, D. Ameladiotis, G. Vavatsis, L. Vasileiadi, L. Venieri, Th. Gatzouli, K. Damoulakis, Th. Dapis, D. Efeoglou, V. Zografos, E. Theofylaktou, H. Kalfas, P. Kliafa, H. Kondosfyris, N. Kryonides, G. Lazongas, D. Lambrou, G. Lappas, S. Laskos, A. Liti, Th. Makinatzis, E. Mavrides, K. Mavrogeorgi, F. Balas, V. Nomidou, G. Xenos, A. Palavrakis, D. Palantzas, G. Pandazis, L. Papakonstandinou, Ch. Sarandopoulou, E. Stoikou, S. Tavlarides, G. Tsakiris, Ph. Tsitsopoulos, G. Flektopoulos, M. Charos, M. Jankulovski, L. Jaric, W. Stiller

Peggy Kliafa participates in the exhibition with the artworks:

“Armory Square”, 2019, 76 x 76 cm. Empty used Aluminum pills’ blisters on plexiglass surface, silicone,

It belongs to a series of artworks entitled “Armory”:

The series of abstract artworks entitled “Armory” (from the resemblance in form with the middle ages armors and the relevant symbolism) and which are made with the use of empty used aluminum pills’ blisters, on surfaces of two or three dimensions in formations of geometrical abstraction with a strict inner rhythm. The relief of these blisters creates a game of light and the plethora of the material several associations with medicines and everyone’s experience with it…

As the curator Dr. Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi wrote in the prologue of the catalogue of my solo exhibition entitled “Pharmakon”: “… the body of her work has affinities with Minimal Art, Op Art, and of course Conceptual Art. … The visual interplay of lines, surfaces, planes, colours, where applicable, as well as the harmonious linear layout with flawless combinations of positive and negative, concave and convex, in a luminous polysemy… The simulation of the gaze engenders an aesthetic interplay of light. … the strictly organized groups highlight the relationship of light, shapes, and forms, resulting in a visual experience with a quality of motion and change, despite the stillness of the whole.”

“Bacteria VIII”, 2019, 64,5 x 64,5 cm. Round small aluminum foils from the printed back side of the pills’ blisters on prepared canvas with acrylic spray

It belongs to a series of artworks entitled “Bacteria”:

The series “Bacteria” comprises of artworks made of the round or oval small aluminum foils from the back printed side of the pills’ blisters pasted on canvas. This artworks’ series is inspired by biology and especially by the impressive formations that the bacteria colonies create, as they are seen through the microscope. The magnification of these infinitesimal shapes highlights their huge power and their representation through assemblages made of small aluminum foils of the pills blisters on the prepared canvas allows the coexistence on every artwork of the problem and its solution, of the illness and its healing, probably of life and death.

Opening: Saturday 23^rd May 2020
Duration: 23^rd May – 6^th June 2020
Location: Skoufa Gallery, Athens, Greece

Participating artists: Nikos Aggelidis, Kalliopi Assargiotaki, Maria Giannakaki, Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Irini Iliopoulou, Irini Kana, Peggy Kliafa, Andreas Kontellis, Alexis Kyritsopoulos, Alexandros Magkaniotis, Thanassis Makris, Tasos Mantzavinos, Panayiotis Beldekos, Lamprini Boviatsou, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, Kostas Papanikolaou, Achilleas Razis, Gerasimos Rigas, Pavlos Samios, Vassilis Selimas, Vasilis Soulis, Antonis Staveris, Giorgos Stathopoulos, George Hadoulis

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Viagra Portrait, 2013, 75,5×63,5cm. Acrylic colors on canvas, wooden frame, metallic label with carved out name

It belongs to a series of artworks entitled “Pills Portraits” with painted pills on canvas, with “baroque” wooden frames and small metallic labels with their “name” carved out, the way a portrait would exist on a museum’s wall. The idea is that medicines have a life cycle, they affect people’s lives, they have a “personality”. The idea is also that knowing what kind of medicines a person takes or does not take one can “draw his/her portrait”.

Opening: Friday 20 December 2019
Duration: 20 December 2019 – 29 February 2020
Location:Municipal Museum of Malevizio, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Curators: “Dipola” group – Efthimis Lazogas, Dimitris Karatzas, Dimitris Lambrou

Co-curator: Chrysa Vathianaki – Director of the Municipal Museum of Malevizio

Supported by the Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece

Honorary participation of artworks by Nikos Kessanlis and Pavlos (Dionyssopoulos) – Courtesy of the Roma Gallery, Athens

Design – poster – invitation – catalogue: Chrysanthi Nika

Participating Artists:N. Kessanlis, Pavlos (Dionyssopoulos), G. Lappas, G. Lazogas, P. Charalabous, G. Charvalias, Th. Chioti, G. Tsakiris, A. Liti, A. Voutsas, V. Betsou, P. Siagris, A. Skourtis, H. Kondosphyris, N. Kryonidis, H. Kalfas, P. Kliafa, Σ. Καραλέκα, G. Androutsos, D. Ameladiotis, D. Efeoglou, D. Karatzas, M. Petrova, E. Martinou, A. Petranaki, K. Damoulakis, V. Alexandrou, H. Papaioannou, H. Nikolaidou, B. Ralli, M. Kalognomou, S. Laskos, Th. Gatzouli, G. Ieromonachou, G. Pandazis, A. Shena, S. Bakirtzi, O. Soulachaki, A. Triandopoulou, S. Mavridis, L. Misiou, L. Christina, Th. Makinatzis, F. Balas, K. Koletsos, G. Trouli, M. Parlamas, M. Papandoniou, S. Kallias, E. Zinonos, M. Provatidou, K. Stasinopoulou, S. Michalakopoulou, L. Charitou, S. Koukoulaki, A. Papageorgiou, L. Jaric, G. Politopoulos, K. Androulaki, E. Vardaka, E. Stoikou, M. Tsiblaki, O. Fthenaki, E. Berdousi, K. Kalatzidou, K. Grigoriou, K. Paraskevopoulou, M. Kaloudas, A. Katsabani, N. Panagopoulou, M. Dimitropoulou, M. Milioti, N. Stergiou, D. Bogiatzis, T. Karamanou, D. Palantzas, V. Koskiniotou, G. Brouzos, H. Adam, S. Petsoura, D. Triandaphyllopoulou, H. Skepetzi

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

“Bacteria VII or Map”, 2019, 84,5 x 84,5 cm. Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone.

…the central notion of the exhibition is how the past slips into the present in a way that the future is produced. James Joyce emphasizes: “If there is a future in every past, that is present”…

…Artworks of established visual artists will be exhibited with the work of emerging artists of the new generation…

Efthimis’ Lazogas text about the exhibition:

The Greek creators of the decades ’60 – ’80 affected indelibly the visual arts imprint of the visual arts reality until today. They have been the communicator of the new modernity, the revolutionary movements in the art during that period and despite the cultural shock of the Junta which put first of all in plaster the aesthetics and the occurring in Europe and in America, they were undoubtedly the first ones who dared to end definitely the introversion and the false Greekness which characterized the domestic cultural events at the time.

They participated dynamically in the international art scene, mainly the European one, shaping a new visual arts identity that tasted the fruits of the French May and that was seduced by the charms of questioning, of the rupture with the authority, of the sexual revolution, the overthrow, the Utopia.

These new generations of artists, which disposed of a new visual arts narrative with bold sometimes openings, they listened to the international movements, they fought between abstraction and realism, the form and its deconstruction, the dynamics of the writing, the dilemma of the narration or its total denial, they experimented with the performance art, the space and the installation, they converted critically the society’s consumerism into art. Simultaneously they opposed to the commercial character of the art, the galleries circuit, the academicism of the schools of Fine Arts.

Efthimis Lazogas

About Peggy’s Kliafa participation:

Peggy Kliafa participates in the exhibition with her artwork entitled “Bacteria VII or Map”, 2019, 84,5 x 84,5 cm. It represents the image of a bacteria colony as it is viewed in the microscope, but enlarged. It is an assemblage made of the small round aluminum foil pieces taken from the back side of the pills blisters, which are placed on a canvas prepared with acrylic spray.

Opening: 19 October 2019
Duration: 19 October 2019 – 9 March 2020
Location: E. Averof Museum, Metsovo, Greece

Curator: Dr. Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi, Curator, National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum

Under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

Sponsors: Baron Michael Tossizza Foundation

Participating Artists: Adamakos Yannis, Velonis Kostis, Venetopoulos Babis, Gerodimos Vassilis, Gavaisse Vasso, Goulakos Perikles, Grammenos Kornelios, Gyparakis Giorgos, Damopoulou Georgia, Zamboura Marilena, Zafeiropoulos Theodoros, Zacharioudakis Manolis, Zouroudis Dimitris, Indoors (Marigo Kassi, Vally Nomidou, Spiridoula Politi, Mary Christea), Captain (Christos Kotsoulas), Karatza Angie, Kliafa Peggy, Krithara Rika, Costis (Triandafyllou), Liti Aphrodite, Makarounas Nikos, Manousakis Michalis, Matsouki Irene, Missouras Tassos, Betsou Vicky, Bitsikas Xenofon, Bonatsos Stavros, Bouronikos Christos, Mytilinaiou Efrosini, Xagoraris Zafos, Papadimitriou Nikos, Papadopoulos Kriton, Papazissi Katerina, Papailiakis Ilias, Patsourakis Eftihis, Zafeiropoulou Katerina, Prodromidis Theo, Raftopoulos Theodoros, Rorris Giorgos, Savva Andreas, Sahcinis Xenis, Skourtis Angelos, Spiliopoulos Marios, Spyrou Efi, Stratou Danae, Tranos Nikos, Tsakiris Giorgos, Tsolis Costas, Faros Makis, Halivopoulou Effie, Chandris Pantelis, Charalambous Panos, Harvalias George, Charissis Christos, Charos Manolis, Hatziargyrou Ersi, Hadjigeorghiou Yioula, Chioti Thalia, Christopoulos Kostas, Christouli Vivetta, Psychoulis Alexandros

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

PILLOW, 2019, 63 x 107.5 cm. Real pills and acrylic colors on MDF surface, plexiglass cover

From the exhibiton’s catalogue, written by the curator Dr. Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi:

In Peggy Kliafa’s art, the idea – the conceptual framework – is dominant, with many connotations and readings by the artist, and an astounding technical mastery.

She arrives at her topic, content, and pictorial framework through research, study, and documentation.

The uniqueness of her art lies in the fact that – inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s readymades – she chooses as a key component of her work the pill, or the blister, medicine packaging, or other, lighter and smaller elements, such as foil.

Peggy Kliafa’s work, titled “Pillow”, made especially for this exhibition, is made of pills. It is a pillow made of actual pills and acrylic paint, mounted on MDF, and enclosed in Plexiglas, measuring 63 x 107,5 cm.

Inspired by Metsovo heritage pillows and woven fabrics, it is a horizontal work, as is common for Kliafa; she uses pills of different colours and acrylic-painted sections on MDF. The composition, inspired by pillow patterns, features geometric shapes that create a beautiful, radiant geometric composition. The pillows served many different functions in villages, such as for rest, health, and to decorate house interiors. There is inherent contrast in this work, since pillows are made of soft fabric, whereas this
work is made of hard materials, such as the wooden base and the solid pills, which evoke the patterns of threads and yarns in pillow cases. Peggy investigates the concept of healing through the return to the roots, the search for patterns and shapes through folk pillowcase geometric patterns, featuring colourful triangles, rhomboids, rows of lines, squares, and more. During her investigation, she discovered that shapes and patterns on woven fabrics in fact employ a language rich in signification and symbolism, imbuing meaning and importance to each pattern, small or large, which was handed down as a way to express everyday joys and concerns, habits and practices through art.

The structured, total symmetry and perfect finish contribute to creating a hallucinatory image, with a proliferation of connotations and associations. The pill and the medicine certainly makes us think of Damien Hirst, but Kliafa’s works are personal in nature and achieve a pleasant, poetic surprise. The impeccable technique, application, and aesthetic effect result in a simulacrum, a tromp l’oeil who’s appeal – especially when the viewer realizes its physical nature – transcends, perhaps even confronts reality.

The body of the artist’s work has affinities with Minimal Art, Op Art, and of course Conceptual Art. Her work has a direct, sincere relationship with the minimal, the common, as well as geometric forms. In Kliafa’s hands, the commonplace becomes strongly evocative, as her work interrogates the ephemeral, the relationship of high and low art, through aesthetic enjoyment.

Exhibition – Anniversary entitled “Lands of Creation”

The opening of the exhibition entitled “Lands of Creation” at the E. Averoff Museum takes place on the 19^th of October 2019 by the President of the Parliament Mr Konstandinos Tassoulas. It is an ambitious visual arts production, in which 64 important Greek artists participate with their original artwork.

The standard autumn events of the E. Averoff Museum are marked this year by the celebration of a double anniversary: the completion of 30 years from the establishment of the Museum in Metsovo, on the one hand, and the completion of 60 years of planting the vineyards at the barren slopes of the area and the creation of the well known today “Katogi” wine by Evagelos Averoff, on the other hand.

A tribute to the place, the creation, the vision and the continuation, the exhibition “Lands of Creation” has the ambition to promote the diversity of the research and the dynamics of contemporary art of our creators and to contribute to the understanding of a particular cultural entity –a distinct “Land of Creation”-, searching simultaneously the deepest identifications which define the “lands of creation” of the participating artists.

The exhibition is curated by the art historian and curator of the National Gallery, Dr. Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi, who signs the texts in the bilingual big catalogue of the exhibition as well.

As she, herself, explains in the Introduction of the book: “The sheer volume of creative output in recent decades makes decisions especially challenging for curators, researchers, art historians, involving a lengthy decision process due to the large number of important active Greek artists.. (…) Aiming for quality, personality and diverse representation, we came up with 64 important artists, who produced 60 works especially for this exhibition. (…) They span many different genres and media – from traditional ones to the most innovative ones, including multimedia and advanced digital applications. Specifically, on view are 19 paintings, 13 wall works, 20 installations/sculptures, 11 videos, and 2 performances. (…) Both the image itself and conceptual context have played a role in the artist’s choice of subject. Certain artists were inspired by Evangelos Averoff specifically; others, by the region’s unique natural environment: the vineyards, the bears, the immensity of the landscape, the rich heritage, customs and habits, the role of women in local community, heirloom crafts, ornaments, embroidery, wine, history. Their juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern is fascinating. These are all captivating works, while also providing an exciting and objective overview of the Greek contemporary visual art scene. Their recurring themes, unmistakable styles, and personal choices that determine the individuality of their work, are all reflected in this exhibition. Finally, conceptual art, minimalism, philosophical concerns, originality, familiarity with both the history of art and contemporary movements around the world, awareness of the region’s rich heritage and, ultimately, the profound mastery of their media, all make each of these 60 works of art uniquely compelling. (…) From one point of view, this exhibition comes as a continuation and expanded new edition of the earlier exhibition for which we collaborated in 2002, in which 51artists from all medium and technique created one artwork-tribute to the Ioannina region, offering for the first time in Greece a landmark for the documentation and diversity of the contemporary Greek art. (…) Without any exaggeration, the exhibition “Lands of Creation – A Tribute to Metsovo”, just like the 2002 exhibition, will be a landmark in the documentation of contemporary Greek art, which, though equally valid as any around the world, lacks the public infrastructural support required to make it better known outside Greece’s borders”.

* Katogi Averoff S.A. * Alpha Bank

Opening: Wednesday 25 September 2019

Duration: 25 – 30 September 2019

Locations: Epivatikos Stathmos, Chora, Mykonos (25-30/09)
Yellow Tower, Ano Mera, Mykonos (26/09)
Delos Island (28/09)
Marathi, Mykonos ( 29/09)

Founder and Art Director of Mykonos Biennale: Lydia Venieri

Program Manager: Ellie Skreta

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

ANTIDOTE, 2019, 20 x 15 x 8,5 cm. Metallic box, Aluminum pills blisters, Silicone, Mirror

About Peggy Kliafa’s ANTIDOTE:

“This pharmakon, this “medicine”, this philter,

which acts as both remedy and poison…”

PLATO’S PHARMACY

Jacques Derrida

Poison manifests in many forms namely in substances and situations that infect our body and psyche. Medicines can be both the poison and the antidote. A box dressed with used aluminum pills’ blisters with an internal mirror suggests the power of medicines, the power of facing the truth in self discovery and the power of art as the antidotes to poison and to other unpleasant situations. The ambivalence, which characterizes medicines and the mirrors in art history, is extended in the creation of a precious little box shinning with its symmetrical crooked round shapes made of totally unworthy materials, that has various associations related to the best and worst moments in life.

Peggy Kliafa

Mykonos Biennale

Press Release

Apathia is the subject of the 4th Mykonos Biennale which starts on Wednesday the 25^th of September in the Chora of Mykonos. There will follow five days full of visual arts, music and dance activities, video art projections as well as an international festival of short films with the participation of artists from all over the world, where tradition meets contemporary art.

In the “Metavatikos Stathmos” of the biennale, the first passenger station of the islands’ Chora, activities/actions will be hosted and the following artists will exhibit their artworks: Francisco Alvarado-Juárez, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Lydia Venieri, Anna Vekri, Giorgos Vdokakis, Loreto Buttazzoni, Giannis Gazetopoulos, Khadim Dai, Karl Grümpe & Rene P.G., Giannis Iliopoulos, Vasilis Kavouridis, Haris Kondosphyris, Alexandros Maganiotis, Konstandinos Bouras, Margarita Myrogianni, Polly Patsy, Vicky Stamatopoulou, Agelos Spyropoulos, Vasilis Tsokopoulos and Kleopatra Charitou.

At the same space the short films festival will take place entitled Dramatic Nights in the frame of which the following films will be presented: BATHERS by Florian Goralsky (FR), BURQA CITY by Bracq Fabrice (FR), DESOLATION by Thomas Giannakis (GR) , DIRTY WHITES by Joseph Laguidice (USA), ESCAPE by Amr Singh (NOR), GO BACK 3 SPACES by Stefano Schiavone (IT), KOPACABANA by Marcos Bonisson & Khalil Charif (BR), LITTLE MAID’S DOLL by Dima Proykova (BGR), PEEPING NICHOLAS by Emanuel Cossu (IT), PRISON by Ramazan Çardak (TUR), STILL BORN by Leila Abdelrazaq (USA), SUNSHINE VICE by Joseph Laguidice (USA), THE PASSPORT by Hanieh Bavali (IRN).

Alongside, at the narrow roads of the chora and around the Epivatikos Stathmos, projections will take place, Video Graffiti and the following works will be presented: EMBRACES & THE TOUCH OF SKIN by Sara Koppel (DNK), DIVINE COMEDY by Behnaz Zahmatkesh (IRN), HOLIDAY COLORS by Marco Cucurnia, IN THE RIVER’’ FLOW by Alexandria Searls (USA), INVISIBLE SCULPTURE 019 by Capitana F (GER), KOMPONG KHLEANG FLOATING VILLAGE by Matthew Gibson (Cambodia), RIVANNA RIVER DIARIES: THE SCHOOL by Alexandria Searls (USA), ROOFTOP REFUGEE by Alexandra Brodski (UK), SEVEN KINDS OF SATISFACTION by Amir Monfared (GER), STORMCHOIR – SPAWN OF ERDENVOLK by Matthew Gibson (RUS), WOUND by Nima Valibeigi (IRN), A DECLARATION OF ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE by Esmeralda Momferratou (GR), and the AUTANT EN EMPORTE LA MER by Olia Verroiopoulou (GR).

For one more year the magical treasure hunt in Delos island will be realized with the participation of artists from all over the world: Francisco Alvarado-Juárez, Michelle Andrade, Tjorg Douglas Beer, Kostis Velonis, Ioanna Vlachou, Aruro Brena, Medri Davide, Peter D. Gerakakis, Maria Georgoula, Thalea Gatzouli, Chris Giannakos, Zhen Guo, Vasilis Kavouridis, Zoe Keramea, Amanda Kyritsopoulou, Peggy Kliafa, Barbara Knight, Konstandinos Ladianos, Thanassis Lalas, Eirini Linardaki, Aphrodite Liti, Tzeni Marketou, Steve Miller, Dimitris Barouchos, Margarita Myrogianni, Valia Papastamou, Ilias Papailiakis, Hara Piperidou, Sebastian Piras, Patsy Pitts, Joanna Przybyla, Hamid Razmkhah, Georgia Sagri, Nikolas Sarlis, Vicky Stamatopoulou, Agelos Spyropoulos, Nikos Tranos, Kleopatra Haritou, Manolis Charos and Dionysis Christophilogiannis. The artists’ Antidotes will be exhibited closed before the treasure hunt and their revelation will take place the last day of the Biennale at the Epivatikos Stathmos of Chora.

The Biennale activities comprise also: the dance performance of Maria Christara on Wednestay the 25^th of September, the unique musical performance of the composer and musician Vasilis Tzavaras at the Epivatikos Stathmos on Friday the 27^th of September, the Secret Party in Ano Mera on Thursday the 26^th of September with the musicians Lefteris Likiniotis – Kandanaso (toubaki and tsabouna musical instruments) and Michali Babeli (tsabouna musical instrument) accompanied by the local dance groups: Windmills. Mando, Mykonian Bengara (Mykoniatiki Vengera) and Ano Mera. On Sunday 29 September, a Mykonian Feast will take place at the Church of Cross at the Marathi, that the Apollonian Group is organizing and the Mykonian Bengara will dance, the Biennale will be there strengthening the island’s local activities. At the closure of this year’s Biennale, on Monday 30 September, the projection of the video that we created in honor of the sculptor Takis will take place. Later an artists’ procession will free lanterns in the night sky in his memory, accompanied by the distinguished saxophone player and musician Dimitris Vasilakis and the dancer Silvia Macci.

Website: www.mykonosbiennale.com

Opening: 15 September 2019
Duration: 15 – 30 September 2019
Location: Cultural & Conference Centre of Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Curator: Stella Kukulaki
Assistant Curator: Dimitris Lambrou
Support: Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Thessaloniki and the Municipality of Heraklion

Participating Artists: Agapitou Tatiana, Adam Christina, Alexandrou Vasilis, Androulaki Katerina, Androutsakis Stathis, Antonopoulos Stavros, Argyraki-Asargiotaki Theodosia, Vasilakou Margarita, Gaitis Giannis, Gartsea Elena, Grigoriadi Maria, Pavlos, Douzenaki Markella, Zaronakis Nikos, Kaliakatsos Tassos, Kamenou Vicky, Karatzas Dimitris, Kessanlis Nikos, Kliafa Peggy, Koletsos Konstantinos-Nektarios, Kondosphyris Harris, Kukulaki Stella, Kounalis George, Kounalis Kostas, Lazongas George, Lamprou Dimitris, Lappas Giorgos, Linardaki Eirini, Liti Afroditi, Maltezou Marina, Mara Magda, Matalliotaki Rena, Markantonakis Yannis, Mavridis Stathis, Moudatsos Costas, Bakalouma Jenny, Boviatsou Lamprini, Bogdanou Olga, Brisnovali Angela, Brouzos Yiannis, Mytaras Dimitris, Nikolaidou Charoula, Nikolakaki Evaggelia, Ximeri Ioanna, Pagomenos Costas, Papayiannis Evangelos, (Papadakis) Aristodimos, Papadoperaki Aspasia, Papaioannou Christina, Petranaki Alexandra, Politopoulos Ioannis, Politopoulou Eleni, Pytikaki Eleftheria, Ralli Bessie, Riga Nafsika, Sarlis Nikolaos, Siampakoulis George, Skepetzi Chrysoula, Solidakis Vasilis, Spyridakis Stelios, Stamos Theodoros, Stasinopoulou Kanella, Stavrianoudakis- Kambas Andreas, Stefanakis Yiannis, Sfakianaki Christina, Triantopoulou Angeliki, Tsakiris Giorgos, Tsamandouras N. Zacharie, Tsampourakis Manolis, Tsoclis Costas, Fassianos Alekos, Philippou Apostolis, Fragiadakis Manolis

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Armory Shield – Placebo Series, Φ110 cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, aluminium “foil”, plexi glass, led light

TEXTS FROM THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE:

In place of an introduction:

The CulturaHer exhibition is being held as part of the Heraklion municipal “Art en Route” festival. Featuring numerus artists of different techniques and views on art, the exhibition aims to highlight the multiple potentialities of artistic creation.

Visitors will have the opportunity to come into contact with outstanding works, in an artistic itinerary originating in cultural heritage and ending in a contemporary perception of art…

Aristea Plevri

Deputy Mayor for Culture,
Volunteering & Monuments

Intersections of Art

One year after successfully holding ActaρικART, the ”Art en Route” Festival is playing an active part in the continued effort to promote contemporary art through new artistic forums. In doing so, the festival warmly welcomes the CulturaHER exhibition…

…the participation of 73 creators aims to underline the universal face of art, mirroring our culture in general.

… As genuine products of art, the works on display constitute a microcosm of everything occurring at the present time, thus condensing a variety of emotions, preoccupations and concerns which an innate calling triggers the artists to flesh out, so that they live on in collective consciousness. Art plays a catalytic role in raising awareness of how progress is attained, while at the same time cultivating the quest for beauty… This pluralism is vital if art is to be capable of bearing fruit, and of acting ever more positively on society in each of its forms.

Stella Kukulaki

Visual artist – Exhibition curator

Opening: 12 July 2019
Duration: 12 July – 4 August 2019
Location: Building Beau Rivage, Loutraki seaside, Greece
Curators: Makis Faros, Zoi Pirini, Foteini Vergidou, Takis Zervedas

Participating artists: Margarita Athanasiou, Browser Based (Bjørn Magnhildøen, Alex Zakkas and Zsolt Mesterhazy), John Butler, Yvon Chabrowski, Ted Davis, Stelios Dexis and Myrto Vounatsou, for cancel (Makis Faros, Zoi Pirini and Takis Zervedas), Kyriaki Goni, Ben Grosser, Peggy Kliafa, Mari Massouridou, Vally Nomidou, Eva Papamargariti, Nektarios Pappas and Anna Papaeti, Janis Rafa (Rafaelidou), Jasmin Rapti, Refrakt (Alexander Govoni & Carla Streckwall), Louise Schmid, Spiro Stergiou, Lina Theodorou, Babis Venetopoulos and Liam Young.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Change, 2016, 90x90x13 cm. Led Pharmacy Cross with digital moving message, perimeter aluminum profile, plexiglass surfaces with visible led light, hooks

Dissolution, 2011. 2 versions lasting 2,45’ and 3,05’ each. It is a video which shows the dissolution of the effervescent sculpture (“Man”) in a plexi glass cube filled with water, its fall and its disappearance. A piece about the ephemeral and the self-destructive of the human existence.

The second edition of TILT platform, titled Iasis, unfolds a problematic around our relationship with nature, our body, our psyche, the Other, the technological disruption into our daily lives and what we perceive as the “norm”.

TILT platform, continuing to focus on nature, indeterminacy and the dynamics of boundaries, presents works by contemporary Greek and international artists, who deal with the healing methods we develop through art and research, from the perspective of the social, scientific and existential level as well as the illnesses and the challenges of our time. Besides, the exhibition takes place in Loutraki, a city that is mainly remedial.

How do we define what is normal and what is ill? What can we learn from our tendency to simulate the machine rather the vice versa, when all the characteristic of human nature, like, mistakes, fatigue, the right to choose, are considered to be bland? Can we see humans like the virus that destroys the ecology of the planet? What are the boundaries between the real and the virtual in times of global surveillance? And yet, what does Art stand for in an era so traumatic and so traumatised? The exhibition aims to approach, through four areas of investigation, the concept of Iasis and the way we define it today.

In the first section of Iasis, we question the concept of normality as a social construct. Through a series of works that refer to situations and treatment experiences in contemporary times, TILT platform focuses not only on our personal relationship with the sick body and the perception of diagnosis as an expression of aversion or even racism, but also on the concept of trauma and pain at an existential level.

The second area of the exhibition outlines the political and social dimension of the Medical Speech, both scientific and political arguing in therapeutic terms, while coexisting with the magical functioning of healing, the spell, exorcism, fasting and, of course, the placing the patient’s health on divine favor and Luck.

In the third thematic, we find our relation towards nature, our removal from all that is natural and the exploration of the urban landscape, the industry and cyberspace as the new form of techno-nomadism, while in the fourth area of investigation, we attempt to approach the healing properties of Art, as an omnipotent healing tool.

We are happy to host two artistic platforms, namely festival Miden represented by the curator Gioula Papadopoulou and the artists Katerina Athanasopoulou, Apotropia, Roch Forowicz, Fan Tzu Liu, Jung Hee Seo, Rosary Solimanto and Sven Windszuss, and the Museum of Forgetting (Sweden) represented by artists: Konstantin Economou, Per Hüttner, Yioula Hatzigeorgiou and Klitsa Antoniou.

* The work of Eva Papamargariti is courtesy of Polyeco Contemporary Art Initiative.

Digital Platform QR Walks:
The platform QR Walks parasitizes and spreads in the public space. A real but also a conceptual connection of physical space to the Internet. Site-specific images, videos and music will come up to your mobile or tablet screen via a custom designed application. A drop of the uncanny in the daily life of the city. The first three experimental QR Walks were realized with the collaboration of the Focus School students: Eirini Aggelidi, Lea Abatzoglou, Stella Anastasopoulou, Panos Mazarakis, Eva Besleme, Nadia Panagopoulou, Rita Tsela, Fillipos Ferentinos and our artist friends: music band Sister, Gioula Papadopoulou, Makis Faros, Yasemi Rapti, among others.

This year, Festivart and TILT platform collaborate with the Municipality of Loutraki and continue the QR Walks platform, offering a stroll in the city of Loutraki with successive surprises. It only takes a cell phone to see, through an application, aspects of the city and everyday life from a different perspecitve. This year, for the expansion and renewal of QR Walks, we collaborated with Focus and Photography School and Deree’s visual department. Artists: Eirini Velaora, Aliki Papadimitriou, Xara Athanasopoulou, Katerina Giamarellou, Marianna Natsi, Sophia Marshall, Alex Rokadakis, Lydia Tsenta and Nadia Elgazzar.

Finally, the TILT platform will have a small tribute to the “Psiloritis Biennale”, with which, from the first moment, we felt we had an affinity.

More info here:

https://tiltplatform.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tiltplatform/

https://www.instagram.com/tilt_platform/

Opening: Tuesday 9 April 2019

Duration: 9 – 12 April 2019

Location: TO SPITI TIS KYPROU (Cyprus Embassy in Athens), Greece

Curator: Nora Okka

Coordination: Ioannis Poulios

Organization: Elena Gotsi, Maya Karahaliou (A.G. Leventis Scholars Association in Greece)

Curators: Takis Voilas, Maria Raya

With the support: A.G. LEVENTIS FOUNDATION

Participating scientists/artists: Antonios Geropoulos, Evi Goggolidou, Maya Karahaliou, Athina Keramidiotou, Peggy Kliafa, Maria Paraskevi Kotini, Panayotis Maghsoudlou, Krystallia Boura, Argyro Papathanassiou, ΤΑΝΟ, Tolis Tatolas, FAME Lab, Vassia Hatzi, Louis Chatziioannou

Bacteria I or Map, 2013, 140×140 cm. Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone.

Bacteria II or Vortex, 2013, 140×140 cm. Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone.

Bacteria V, 2015, 140×140 cm. Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone.

The aim of the event is to promote the need and the difficulties in communicating the scientific work to a broader audience, as well as to seek the limits between science and art. In the first section of the event «Public Engagement with Research», organizations and initiatives which connect the scientists – researchers with a broad audience, are presented.

The second section of the event comprises of the visual arts exhibition entitled «Beyond Science», where new/young scientists talk about their research project/work through photography, video, graphs, painting, assemblage and jewels. Through the organic structures that one can see in the microscope, the underwater forms that one can capture with his photographic lense and the compositions inspired by the scientific research, science meets the art – with common starting point the observation, as well as the creative “perplexity” towards the beauty of nature, the (a)symmetry, the complexity or the simplicity.

Peggy Kliafa participates with the triptych Bacteria (“Bacteria I or Map”, “Bacteria II or Vortex” and “Bacteria V”), which consists of 3 big size canvases (140 x 140cm), made from the small round aluminum foils from the back side of the pills blisters, sticked on the canvas . The Bacteria series of artworks is inspired by Biology and more specifically from the impressive forms that the bacteria colonies create, when seen from the microscope. The enlargement of these infinite minimum forms highlights their huge power and their representation with assemblage of small aluminum foils of the pills blisters on the prepared canvas allows the existence, in each artwork, of the problem and its solution, of the sickness and the cure, probably of life and death.

Opening: Monday 25 February 2019

Duration: 25 – 27 February 2019

Location: ATHENS CONCERT HALL – Foyer of the “Nikos Skalkotas” Hall, Athens, Greece

Curator: Dr Sozita Goudouna

Production Assistant: Georgia Kalogeropoulou

Production: Out of The Box Intermedia

Participating Artists: Trajal Harrell, Maria Papadimitriou, Mary Zygouri with Michelangelo Pistoletto, Chrysanne Stathacos, Twin Automat, Peggy Kliafa, Margarita Myroyianni, Hara Piperidou, Nikos Charalambidis, Yioula Chatzigeorgiou

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

ARMOUR or MIGRAINE KILLER DRESS – HOMAGE TO ANDY WARHOL, 2019, 190 x 65 x 12 cm plus base (40 x 40 x 2 cm), Migraine empty pills’ blisters & painkiller pills,
aluminum sheets, plexiglass, screws

The group visual arts exhibition UN/FASHION – RETHINKING FASHION takes place in the Athens Concert Hall in the context of AFFF and presents – curated by the art historian Sozita Goudouna – different versions and challenges in the notion of fashion.

Nowadays a large part of the fashion industry is based on the production and consumption of huge quantities of clothes. The collections are manufactured at terrific speeds and are sold for extremely low or incredibly high prices. This rapidly changing industry affects and defines other creative industries in complex and versatile ways. ‘I think fashion and art meet together like a finely knit sweater,’ writes visual artist Raymond Pettibon, who also considers that Punk’s anti-fashion ideology is fashion to the extreme…

At a time of continuous experimentation with fashion, the relationship between art and fashion is vital perhaps more than ever. UN / FASHION is a group art exhibition as part of the 1^st Athens Fashion Film Festival at Megaron Athens Concert Hall, curated by art historian Sozita Goudouna that presents different versions and visual challenges to the concept of fashion and seeks to redefine the timeless role of fashion as a form of art, with the participation of artists.

Opening: 15 November 2019

Exhibition duration: 16 to 18 of November 2019

Location: The John Atanasof Innovation Forum at Tech Park, Sofia, Bulgaria

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

“DISSOLUTION”, 2011, video in 2 versions lasting 2,45’ and 3.05’ each.

It is a video which shows the dissolution of the effervescent sculpture (“Man”) in a plexi glass cube filled with water, its fall and its disappearance. A piece about the ephemeral and the self-destructive of the human existence.

SYMBIARTIC is an ambitious initiative aiming to bridge conceptual art and fundamental science. The main focus of the project will be to develop a cross-disciplinary platform providing insight into the recently founded global SciArt movement, which proclaims that both Art and Science are rooted in “an unquenchable thirst for understanding the nature of our existence”. SYMBIARTIC will be seeking to initiate a movement of its own kind. With the ultimate goal of empowering local artists and scientists to contribute to the cause with relevant artwork to raise public awareness of the underfunding of science and art projects in Bulgaria.

Is there a link between SCIENCE and ART? Is Scientific Illustration more of a ’Science’ rather than a pure, unadulterated ’Art’?

Are modern scientific imaging technologies (MRT, microscopic photography, PET/CT, etc.) only soulless servants of their respective scientific fields, or can they perhaps also be a source of Art? Are scientists merely dispassionately decoding images, or do they also perceive the beauty beyond the dry scientific data encoded in them? And, in general, is science merely science – and is art merely shallow delight for the senses?

In endeavoring to reveal to the Bulgarian public the missing link in the ever-so-important connection between these two realms, we strive to join together the viewpoints of artists and scientists in order to glean just how varied and insightful the resultant inspiration can be, and also to show how much creativity is required in both of these fields.

The event is part of the 3^rd International Biomedical Congress.

More information:

http://ibc-sofia.org/sci-art

http://ibc-sofia.org/

Opening: Friday 28 September 2018

Duration: 28 September – 5 October 2018

Location: Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), (renovated) Old Library, 256, Piraeus Ave, 182 35 Athens, Greece

Curators: Fiona Mouzakiti, Despoina Stavrou

Participating artists: Aggeliki Douveri, Aggeliki Bobori, Aggeliki Brisnovali, Aggelos Skourtis, Agni Chronopoulou, Emilia Tsekoura, Athina Charatsi, Alexia Kokkinou, Amaryllis Siniosoglou, Andromachi Giannopoulou, Aanna Meli, Anna Tzortzi, Anna Maria Chatzistefanou, Annetta Spanoudaki, Antigoni Manolidou, Andreas Tomblin, Argyro Koufopanou, Aris M. Klonizakis, Vaya Politi, Vasilia M. Anaxagorou, Vasiliki Koskiniotou, Vasiliki Spyrou, Voula Ferentinou, Yiannis Kardasis, Yasemi Rapti, Youla Chatzigeorgiou, Giorgos Lyntzeris, Panagiota Pitsiri, Gogo Papavasileiou, Despina Manolarou, Despina Pantazi, Eleni Glinou, Eleni Gounari, Eleni Kastrinogiannaki, Eleni Politopoulou, Elisavet Kechagia, Erieta Voulgaridi, A.Tassos Foundation, Eva Maragaki, Evaggelia Biza, Evdokia Kyrkou, Evi Athanasiou, Iro Bartzioka, Thalia Michelaki, Theodoros Brouskomatis, Ioanna Delfino, Ioanna Koromila, Katerina Paschalidou, Katerina Tsitsela, Kleopatra Chatzigiosi, Kristiana Iliopoulou, Kyveli Zachariou, Kyriaki Mavrgiorgi, Konstantina Bolieraki, Kostis Vittis, Kostas Evaggelatos, Kostas Bountouris, Lena Antoniou, Leonidas Kabouroglou, Mary Louka, Margarita Spiliotaki, Martha Tsiara, Maria Antonatou, Maria Golia, Maria Kokkini, Maria Kobatsiari, Maria Matala, Maria Benaki, Maria Bourbou, Maria Papavasiliou, Maria Stamati, Markos Kabanis, Babis Dermatis, Nektarios Stamatopoulos, Nefeli Katsarou, Dorina Malliou, Olga Kozakou-Tsiara, Olga Melissaridou-Baboura, Olga Bogdanou, Panagiota Yougli, Peggy Kliafa, Pinelopi Syrogianni, Roza Fytiza, Roula Anagnostou, Soula Petrou, Stella Koukoulaki, Stella Tsistraki, Tasia Sempsi, Filippos Fexis, Fiona Mouzakiti, Christos Santamouris, Christina Aggela, Ausra Lisauskiene, Imke Lohmann, Stephanie Iris Orati

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS, 2017, 35x26x3 cm. ARTIST’S BOOK: COVER: Aluminium pills blisters, silicone, leather, paper, INSIDE: black marker on the Medicines’ Instructions of Use sheets, paper

In the occasion of the recognition of Athens as the Global Book Capital for the year 2018, the team Project 2, presents a big group exhibition with the subject of Artists’ book.

100 Greek and foreign artists participate, and more than 400 Artists’ Books of different sizes and materials are presented.

The exhibition is organized as the second part of the successful show of 2016 “The Book as an Artwork – Contemporary Artists’ Books”, which had been presented at the Association of Greek Archeologists exhibitions’ space.

Talks, workshops and a book binding presentations will take place during the show, in order for the visitors to learn about the art of the book and get to know the participating artists.

The purpose of the exhibition is to show that the artists’ books is an artists’ medium of expression, which first appeared in the beginning of the 20^th century and has been developed as an original and different way to promote concepts and notions that concern the artist. The artist, starting with the book’s form, creates a unique artwork which can combine sculpture, photography, painting, engraving, writing, the sound and the image. The possibilities of creation and experimentations of the artists in this medium are innumerable.

The show seeks to promote to a wider audience the exceptional work of many artists from the visual arts sector and the book binding sector as well and has the ambition to be the biggest and more integrated artists’ books exhibition in Greece until today. A tribute to the book as an object of art, pleasure and knowledge which has accompanied man for 4.000 years until today in the dawn of the digital age.

Events Program:

Saturday 29 September 2018:

Book binding Presentation by Mrs. Evaggelia Biza (bookbinding artist): 13.00 – 14.00

Speech of Mrs. Alexia Kokkinou (book binding artist): 14.00 – 14.30

Thursday 4 October:

Speech of Mrs. Aušra Lisauskienė (Professor at Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts): 18.00 – 18.30

Speech of Mrs. Eleni Glinou (visual artist) 18.30 – 19.00

Opening: September 18th 2018

Exhibition duration: August 15 – November 15, 2018

Location: IFAC Arts @ The Yard 85 Delancey St 2nd and 3rd Floors, New York, NY 10002

Curators: Eric Friedmann, Sozita Goudouna, and Lee Wells

Participating artists: Eugenia Apostolou, Martin Durazo, Maria Fragoudaki, Eric Friedmann, Yioula Hadjigeorgiou, Sofia Housou, Dana James, Kathryn Karwat, Douglas Ward Kelley, Peggy Kliafa, Christine de Lignieres, Berdt Naber, Lindsey Nobel, Leoandros Pigades, Lina Pigadioti, Mahy Polymeropoulos, João Salema, Ashley Taraban, Li Trincere, Johan Wahlstrom, Agni Zotis

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Colony, 2018, 44×34 cm. Acrylic colors on canvas

“today, reality is itself hyperrealistic” Baudrillard

IFAC Arts and The Yard Lower East Side celebrate 5 years of collaboration by presenting a group of twenty-one international artists pushing the boundaries of abstraction and help lead us into a new historical situation; Super-modernism. This exhibition hopes to clarify some things by creating a non-place designed to release us from mundane involuntary distractions and assorted spectacles confined by post-modern discourse. Some have said we are discussing alternative forms of conceptual Platonism but they are most likely wrong. The cave never existed. Reality, an infinite reflection of nothing, has no trace and no shadow to inform us, leading us to question shaky allegorical concepts of originality and meaning. The performative experience takes precedence over location, object, and subject, everything is complementary and seeks to create an independent language and dialogue through the totality of the juxtapositions.

We find ourselves here after a long period of silence and dissected judgement, imagining an art beyond desire and sentimentality, somewhere between simulacra and simulation. An art with no relationship to reluctant redundant hyperrealities, only existing in a dreamy undefined emotional renaissance without care for symbolic historic placeholders. An art evolved from various forms of perceived purity and truth, aesthetically beautiful but not politically correct. An art which leaves the real world behind for many good reasons, for the things in common rarely outweigh the differences. All of this in turn offers us the liberty to reassert significance in the fourth stage.

Special thanks to The Yard and Art Program Director Michaeline Sanders.

INTERNATIONAL FINE ARTS CONSORTIUM IFAC Arts, is a semi-nomadic curatorial platform based in New York City and Athens Greece www.ifac-arts.com

Opening: Thursday 28 December 2017

Exhibition duration: 28 December 2017– 14 January 2018

Location: Makrideio Theatre, Paphos, Cyprus

Curator: Gioula Hatzigeorgiou

Participating artists: Danae Stratou, Kostas Varotsos, Peggy Kliafa, Giasemi Rapti and Vally Nomidou from Greece, Theodoulos Grigoriou, Aggelos Makridis, Nikos Kourouriis, Giannos Oikonomou, Andreas Savva and Gioula Hatzigeorgiou from Cyprus, Vince Briffa from Malta

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Chandelier I – Placebo Series, 2015, work’s height: 110cm (chain’s height: variable), Φ 60cm up, Φ 12,5cm down. Chandelier made of transparent gelatine capsules, fishing line, cables, bulbs, bronze

About Peggy Kliafa’s artwork – catalogue text:

Peggy Kliafa’s Chandelier I – Placebo Series would be a typical chandelier, were it not for the original concept that sets it apart: What looks like crystal beads from a distance is in fact clear empty gelatin capsules (pills). This piece belongs to a series of work dealing with medicine as a topic in its own right, or as a vehicle to comment on issues related to health and healing.

Capsule chandeliers are the outcome of the artist’s investigation of the intriguing placebo effect, which has the power to make people feel better. The thought struck her that crystal-like clear empty capsules produce energy, strength, light, even though they have no content. The placebo effect here suggests trompe-l’oeil in art. Art historian Thalea Stephanidou writes in her essay, “Although the materials used by Peggy Kliafa in her work allude to the power of science to heal through medication, the exhibition title hints at the possibility of self-delusion. The potential of “placebo” is purely imaginary, just as the idiom of art is. This, then, is an allegory of healing and its effectiveness, …”

Of course, each person interprets art in their own way – some see only light, the power that medicine gives to their lives. Others see ambiguity – both in the artwork and in medicine. Therefore, in this theatrical context, some people will associate this artwork with an opening curtain; others with a closing one. According to Jacques Derrida in the book Plato’s Pharmacy (Dissemination): “This pharmakon, this “medicine”, this philter, which acts both remedy and poison, already introduces itself into the body of the discourse with all its ambivalence. This charm, this spellbinding virtue, this power of fascination, can be – alternately or simultaneously – beneficent or maleficent.”.

Introduction – Curator’s catalogue text:

AVLAIA: Dropping and Opening the Curtain to the Future of Europe

Text by Dr Sozita Goudouna

In the theatre, the front curtain is drawn open from both sides of the proscenium to reveal a stage set, while the classic raising and lowering of the curtain establishes the temporal boundaries of drama and indicates the finale or the opening of the play.

The theatrical curtain, also, divides the world of “reality” from the world of representation, and the realm of everyday being from the realm of performing, but, can it separate the realm of “truth” from the realm of “falsehood”?

The exhibition “Avlaia (Drop Curtain),” which is held in the Markideio Theatre, opens the Curtain of the south-east borderlines of Europe, in Paphos, during the finnisage of the European Capital of Culture Pafos2017, in an attempt to formulate questions about the future of Europe, that might allude to their solutions.

The Dispute and A Solution

The participating visual artists, from the region of the Mediterranean, propose symbolic solutions to the times of European crisis, when faith has been exhausted and old utopias have failed, while the exhibition consists of poetic reflections about the long-suffered question of the landscape of divisions in Europe. In addition, “Avlaia (Drop Curtain)” discloses discourses that are actually able to open up new and varied alliances that transgress the national, ethnic and religious conventions that dominate our political and geographical realities.

The Cyprus dispute or “issue,” namely, the ongoing issue of military invasion and continuing Turkish occupation (since 1974) of the northern third of the island, marks one of the most vexed division cases in Europe. The European Cultural Capital was designed to highlight the richness and diversity of cultures in Europe, celebrate shared cultural features, increase European citizens’ sense of belonging to a common cultural area and foster the contribution of culture to the development of cities. Therefore, these original principles of the European Capital become decisive for the creation of signification and acquire their meaning in the cultural milieu of a city such as the ancient port of Paphos in the divided Republic of Cyprus.

The international complications of the ethnic dispute between the Turkish and the Greek islanders stretch far beyond the boundaries of the island of Cyprus. We cannot correct the pages of a history which never quite took the course we wanted it to, but artists can speak out about the devastating things that have happened and aim to resolve conflicts and failures, based on notions of solidarity, communality, mutuality, but also on the ways that art can raise awareness with regards to the involvement of civil actors and civil society organisations.

The Curtain opens to illuminate the complex past, the world of migration, the political and geographical displacements and the disintegration of reality as we know it. It also discloses our common and constantly rewritten history. Avlaia is a fantasy put on the stage of History!

Futures of Europe

The history of Europe is associated to democracy and it is common knowledge that currently democratic values are under threat. The necessity to re-invent and protect democracy lies on a focal premise that emerges from our recognition of the dimensions of the European “crisis.” It is impossible to proceed without scrutiny and since the word crisis derives from the greek verb κρίνω, it would be helpful to see the potential of the word in the context of a transgressive and transformative κρίνειν – namely transgressive judgment. As Stathis Gourgouris argues, ‘the tradition of transcendental thinking has never offered humanity anything better than the blissful pill of oblivion, while a transgressive, transformative thinking takes one’s individual finitude as the point of departure and draws from it the energy to combat whatever forces might risk humanity’s irreversible end.’ (Gourgouris, 2010)

European crisis can be seen as the intensification of a pre-existent process or illness that has reached a critical point that can resolve itself in death or that can be cured before reaching the final point. Cultural production can be the vanguard of this counter attack to crisis providing that it can release political and social forces that could eventually realize Europe’s potential. The transformative potential of art lies in its resistance to aestheticise (and thus depoliticise) the significance of the current political conditions and events. The sense of community – of dialogue in a common “language” – and a performative communal engagement is at the heart of this endeavour.

The counter-hegemonic practices of radical art stimulate resistance to those who are already inclined to alternative ideologies and practices, however, its collaborative/collective nature and public reiteration can also affect and influence people who are not part of the movement to begin with. It becomes evident that the aim of political art is not to preach to the converted, but to influence a wide spectrum of society.

The Theatrical Curtain

The participating artists stage their works using the conventions of the theatre and artists present a “mise en scene” that opens the curtain and reveals our political and embodied histories as well as our inhabited fictions. Τheatrical representation is employed here to suggest, allude and propose solutions of how visual representation and the virtual can enable the real.

Theatricality can no longer be understood as a reflection upon theatre that is the domain of artistic activity or as an extensive metaphor of human life, but rather as a ‘means of inducing the audience to watch them-selves as subjects that perceive, acquire knowledge and partly create the objects of their cognition’.

Theatricality is the philosophical discourse of performance, and is considered as the conceptual machinery of representation. In theatre theory and historiography the term is applied in diverse ways, yet studies in philosophy, anthropology, ethnology and sociology, political, historical and communica- tion sciences, cultural semiotics, history of art and literature have identified and applied the concept of theatricality as a cultural model beyond a purely metaphorical use of the term, and they have also employed the concept of the theatre as a heuristic model to a wide extent. According to Timothy Murray, Foucault conceived the notion of ‘theatrum Philosophicum’; Lyotard analyses the ‘political stage’; Baudrillard studies the ‘stage of the body’; Clifford Geertz explores the ‘theatre state of Bali’; Paul Zumthor proclaims the performance ofnarrators in oral cultures to be ‘theatre’; Ferdinard Mount investigates the ‘theatre of politics’; Hayden White explains ‘historical realism astragedy’; and Richard van Dulmen analyses the history of tribunal practice and penal ritual as a ‘theatre of terror culture’.

The existence of philosophical anti-theatricalism is a symptom of the con- flictual entanglement that binds the theatre and theory together. Theatre and theory are engaged, as Puchner remarks: ‘in a struggle over visibility, material mimesis, and the presence and live- ness of the theatre, notions that theory wants to wrest from the theatre in order to revise and integrate them into its own apparatus. Theory thus creates its own concepts of theatricality, which are prone to be at odds with the real theatre. The struggle between theory and the theatre is fought through a variety of genres and art forms, including the closet drama and the manifestos of the avant-garde’s conceptual theatre.’ [5]

Contemporary art and theatre reciprocally pose interesting challenges to the legacy of theatricality through interdisciplinary artistic activity, working with diverse artistic disciplines, connecting and integrating the aural and visual media by way of developing new media forms (combinations of film, video, computers, etc.), application of various technologies, spatial installations, and finding new ways of presenting art.

Nevertheless, theatre becomes a large medial framework, that incorporates different media without negotiating the assumed live quality of the theatrical body. Visual and theatrical practice are often seen as constituting and constructing each other, operating as an axis that allows media relationships to be established. It is significant to note that theatre is able not only to represent but also to stage other media.

By employing the metaphor of the Theatre in its curatorial approach, the exhibition uses theatre’s medium specificity so as to stage a field that contains within its phenomena a heterogeneous collection of interdependent media. Media in the case of “Avlaia” become visible as media, as means of communication, each with its own materialities, medialities and conventions of perception.

Moreover, the curator and artists draw from the notion that the theatre fails to exist in perpetuity like an object, so as to highlight the precarious political realities that are experienced in the Republic of Cyprus. Unlike a visual art piece, a theatrical performance is disappearing as it is being experienced. Peggy Phelan emphasises the contingent aspects of performance by considering that its most irretrievable failure of all is its ‘total disappearance and non-existence.’ Phelan also celebrates the staging of disappearance in performance as ‘representation without reproduction.’ Embedded in this notion is the singularity of live performance, its immediacy and its non-repeatability.

Consequently, the dropping and opening of the theatrical curtain aims to elucidate further, the multifaceted notions of artistic practice, but also the importance of art in generating counter hegemonic politics, transformations and solutions, as well as they ways cultural production can affect the future of Europe, the Mediterranean and Cyprus, since as Franco Berardi claimed, ‘when political thought, practice and imagination loses hold on “the future,” it goes into crisis.’

Exhibition duration: 30.9.2017 – 14.1.2018

Locations: State Museum of Contemporary Art at Moni Lazariston, Thessaloniki Contemporary Art Center – Warehouse B1 – Thessaloniki port, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Agioritiki Estia/ Mount Athos Center

Participating artists: Giorgos Alexandridis, Babis Alexiadis, Halil Altindere, Einat Amir, Arushee, Oreet Ashery, Younes Baba-Ali, Ino Varvariti, Babis Venetopoulos, Loukas Venetoulias, Eva Borner, Ascan Breuer, James Βridle, Myriam Chaieb, Bo Choy, Raffaella Crispino, Sophie Dubosc, Ahmet Elhan, Alessandra Eramo, Dimitris Fragakis, Alicia Framis, Alexander Glandien, Dylan Graham, Chaja Hertog & Nir Nadler, Paolo Incarnato, Dzamil Kamanger & Kalle Hamm, Reysi Kamhi, Akis Karanos, Fotini Kariotaki, Norayr Kasper, Sharlene Khan, Peggy Kliafa, Gustav Klucis, Panos Kombis, Mikko Kuorinki, El Lizzitzky, Sotiris Lioukras, Andreas Lolis, Orly Maiberg, Kazimir Malevich, Panos Matthaiou, Oleg Mavrommati & Boryana Rossa, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Vladimir Miladinović, Sherry Millner & Ernie Larsen, Dora Belegrinou, Natassa Biza, Alkis Boutlis, Marina Naprushkina, Kristian Nemeth, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Nefeli Papadimouli, Eva Papamargariti, Fotini Papahatzi, Kostas Pappas, Kosmas Pavlidis, Martha Rosler, Deniz Sağdıç, Mark Salvatus, Xenis Sachinis, Sermin Sherif, Walter Solon, Efi Spyrou, Tatiana Stadnichenko, Stefania Strouza, Konstandinos Taliotis, Dimitris Tataris, The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, Andigoni Tsagaropoulou, Giorgos Tserionis, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Andri Tsiouti – Michalis Charalambous – Giorgos Stylianou – Stefanos Papadas, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Marian Wijnvoord, Dionissis Christofilogiannis, Arseny Zhilyaev.

Peggy Kliafa participates with the installation:

Untitled, 2016, 247 x 160 x 135 cm

Peggy Kliafa’s installation is part of a unit of independent works the artist has worked on over the course of a long period and in several variations. Kliafa utilizes empty pharmaceutical packaging to create constructions than revolve around emblematic motifs (such as rosettes and spirals) and techniques of Western art and, more specifically, Gothic cathedral architecture, predominantly that of stained glass.

The used packages are transformed into impressive, elaborate compositions, thanks to the decisive intervention of artificial, pure and warm light, which passes through their transparent texture. The compositions define holy, transcendental spaces, where one can be isolated, connect to the remotest sides of oneself, and communicate with the divine. The imaginative replacement of overpainted glass with empty pill packages -daily objects that are linked with controversial effects on human life with medication inextricably associated with prescription drug abuse- results in the transformation of the contents of the plastic packaging into the deified and dominant material of an imaginary refuge and a core element of people’s fate.

From the Exhibition’s Catalogue
6^th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art 2017

Funding Authority

Organising Institution

Opening: 7/7/17

Exhibition duration: 3rd JULY – 31st AUGUST 2017

Location: Ionian Parliament, Corfu, Greece

Curator: Sozita Goudouna

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE & SPORTS

Production: http://www.outoftheboxintermedia.org/

Supporters: Matt Straughen, La Tour Melas
With thanks to the Municipality of Corfu, The Municipal Gallery of Corfu and Corfu Holiday Palace

Participating artists: 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 Papaphilippou ~ 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

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Medicinal Plants: Canabis Sativa L. (Marijuana), 2013, 49,5×38,5 cm. Tempera on paper

Medicinal Plants: Papaver Somniferum L. (Opium), 2013, 49,5×38,5 cm. Tempera on paper

A Certain Blue of the Sea is so Blue that only Blood would be more Red*

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.

The group exhibition aspires to showcase the achievements of Contemporary Greek art in relation to the particular character of Corfu, the Greek Islands and Greece, as well as to contribute to a fruitful dialogue between art, history and tourism, with a view to reinforce contemporary Greek culture.

The programme is inaugurated at the Ionian Parliament on the 4th of July (OPENING RECEPTION 7TH JULY 7PM) in the context of Corfu Challenge 2017 that is organized by the Marina Gouvia Sailing Club, with the cooperation of the International Maxi Association (IMA) and the Maxi 72 Class.

In this context, “A CERTAIN BLUE OF THE SEA” aims to trigger a new form of mobility throughout the Ionian Sea that will have as a starting point art and culture.

* See Maurice Merleau-Ponty_The Visible and the Invisible

Exhibition duration: June 2-30, 2017

Location: 6 Kairi Street & Athinas, Athens, Greece

Supported by NEON.org

Participating artists: Tzeni Argyriou, Vasilis Gerodimos, Peggy Kliafa, Yorgos Maraziotis, Andreas Savva, Christos Tolis and Panagiotis Velianitis

Concept, Artistic Direction: Maria Vasariotou

Executive Producer/Artistic Consultant: Konstantinos Sakkas

Research & Social context: Polina Yoltzoglou

Curator Assistants & Line Producers: Yorgos Nomikos, Georgia Eleni Tigkinagka

Production Manager: Katerina Kotsou

Communications: Yorgos Katsonis

Graphic Designer: komodo

Photography: Christos Karnakis

Social Media: Flora Kopelou

Production Management: Delta Pi

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

“CHANGE”, 90x90x13 cm. Led Pharmacy Cross with digital moving message, perimeter aluminum profile, plexi glass surfaces with visible led light

Contemporary Art Group Exhibition at Kairi Arcade in the context of Removement, Athens 2017

Kairi Arcade will host artistic interventions, installations and video art projections throughout the four different levels of the arcade. All artists were inspired by the real stories that accompany the arcade since 1930 when the arcade was built. Owners and renters recall the past glory of this narrow arcade that was once busy and crowded with various ship-owners such as Gloria chocolate factory, Tarassis and Faros brand stores, the historical artillery owned by the Papaioannou family, as well as several clothes and shoes manufacturers and retailers.

Artists: Tzeni Argyriou, Vasilis Gerodimos, Peggy Kliafa, Yorgos Maraziotis, Andreas Savva, Christos Tolis and Panagiotis Velianitis, each one using different means and materials, transform the spaces of the Arcade in a canvas full of changes, colours, emotions which both contribute to the revival of the urban memory and predispose the need of new ways of reuse.

MORE ABOUT THE CONCEPT

Removement is inspired by the issue of abandonment of Athens itself, a direct effect of the financial crisis that has resulted in an abundance of empty or damaged buildings. Accordingly, the same phenomenon has stricken various neighborhoods of our city, which lost their unique identity, causing its people to move away because of fear and insecurity. Buildings that once stood as the columns of the active tissue of Athens now stand isolated as remnants of a busy past. Removement stands as an observer of these changes: it documents both realistically and conceptually every single movement in the passage of time, even when the change stays unnoticed by the human gaze. These rapid changes influence year after year what is called the urban memory, and it is this topic that moves Removement itself, which will be used by our artists as a motivating power to awake and recall through the most precious and direct call: art.

DESCRIPTION

Removement: Athens 2017 links the stories of the past with a modern approach of reusing three different Arcades located in the centre of Athens: Praxitelous, Kairi and Arsaki.

Installations, artworks, video-art projections, performances and interactive events constitute a one-month artistic program that invites artists and audience to revive the city’s urban memory and to create or witness artistic interventions within these three historical arcades.

https://www.delta-pi.org/removement-kairi

Opening: Thursday, April 27 2017

Exhibition duration: April 27 – June 3, 2017

Location: Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery, 3 Herakleitou str., Athens 10673, Greece

Curator: David Sampethai and Eleftheria Tseliou

Participating artists: Marcel Duchamp- Richard Hamilton, Gerhard Richter, Nobuyoshi Araki, Gilbert and George, Edward Ruscha, Allan Kaprow, Giannis Tsarouhis, William Kentridge, Richard Hamilton, Ito Jakuchu, Ulisses Carrion, Nikos Egonopoulos, Tom Phillips, Dan Flavin, Robert Filliou, Felix- Gonzales Torres, Wolf Vostel, Anne Carson, Roni Horn, Daynita Singh, Jan Voss, Alexis Akrithakis, Marcel Broodthaers, Arnulf Reiner, Boyle family, John Kefallinos, Jean – Francois Bory, Luis Jacob, Bruno Munari, Hanna Schimek, Tom Wasmuth, Dimitris Galanis, Claes Oldenburg, Christian Boltanski as well as the ones of Andonakis , Stemna Asemi – Christina Tzialla, Andonis Vathis, Maria Georgoula, John Ganas, Ioanna Gouzeli, Kostas Gouzelis, Maria Efstathiou, Apostolos Karastergiou, Markos Kambanis, Peggy Kliafa, Helias Cohen, Dimitris Kondos, Andreas Lymberatos, John Michaelides, Margarita Myrogianni, Aliki Panagiotopoulou, Nina Papakonstandinou, David Sambethai, Kyrillos Sarris, Sophia Stavropoulou, Kostas Tsolis, George Hatzimihalis, Max Eulitz, Aidan Koch, John Ryaner, Cube Art Editions, Deste Foundation Publications.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Possible Side Effects, 2017, 35x26x3 cm. ARTIST’S BOOK: COVER: Aluminium pills blisters, silicone, leather, paper, INSIDE: black marker on the Medicines’ Instructions of Use sheets, paper

In May 2016 David Sampethai and Eleftheria Tseliou discussed for the first time Sampethai’s idea of an exhibition with artists’ books. Almost one year later the exhibition entitled “The Library Show” is presented in Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery, Athens.

The gallery space is transformed into a library and reading room, where one can see, browse or read, except from books of contemporary artists, historic publications/editions that the gallery has borrowed from private collections, as the one of Marcel Duchamp- Richard Hamilton, Gerhard Richter, Nobuyoshi Araki, Gilbert and George, Edward Ruscha, Allan Kaprow, Giannis Tsarouhis, William Kentridge, Richard Hamilton, Ito Jakuchu, Ulisses Carrion, Nikos Egonopoulos, Tom Phillips, Dan Flavin, Robert Filliou, Felix- Gonzales Torres, Wolf Vostel, Anne Carson, Roni Horn, Daynita Singh, Jan Voss, Alexis Akrithakis, Marcel Broodthaers, Arnulf Reiner, Boyle family, John Kefallinos, Jean – Francois Bory, Luis Jacob, Bruno Munari, Hanna Schimek, Tom Wasmuth, Dimitris Galanis, Claes Oldenburg, Christian Boltanski as well as the ones of Andonakis , Stemna Asemi – Christina Tzialla, Andonis Vathis, Maria Georgoula, John Ganas, Ioanna Gouzeli, Kostas Gouzelis, Maria Efstathiou, Apostolos Karastergiou, Markos Kambanis, Peggy Kliafa, Helias Cohen, Dimitris Kondos, Andreas Lymberatos, John Michaelides, Margarita Myrogianni, Aliki Panagiotopoulou, Nina Papakonstandinou, David Sambethai, Kyrillos Sarris, Sophia Stavropoulou, Kostas Tsolis, George Hatzimihalis, Max Eulitz, Aidan Koch, John Ryaner, Cube Art Editions, Deste Foundation Publications.

Opening: June 7 2016

Exhibition duration: June 7 – June 25, 2016

Location: Lola Nikolaou Gallery, Thessaloniki

Participating artists: Alexis Akrithakis, Spyros Vassiliou, Giannis Gaitis, Apostolos Georgiou, George Derpapas, Vlassis Kaniaris, Peggy Kliafa, George Lazongas, George Lappas, Aphrodite Liti, Agelos Mavroidis, Leda Papakonstandinou, Pavlos, Christina Sarandopoulou, Wolfgang Stiller, Giannis Tsarouchis

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Pill Candy

Armory Square – Σειρά Placebo, 2016, 88×88 cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass, led light tape

Mosaic I Lace

Mosaic II Omphalio

Opening: Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Exhibition duration: 5 June – 15 September 2016

Location: Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery, 3, Irakleitou Str., 10673, Athens

Participating artists: Giannis Ganas, Maria Efstathiou, Vassilis Zografos, Lizy Kalliga, Apostolos Karastergiou, Peggy Kliafa, Elias Cohen, Panos Koulouras, Andreas Lyberatos, Eliodora Margellou, Eleanna Martinou, Giannis Michailides, Margarita Myrogianni, Leonidas Papadopoulos, David Sabethai, Kyrillos Sarris, Maria Fragoudaki, Giorgos Chadzimichalis.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Pill Candies, 130×60 cm. 5 c-print photographs on paper, metallic frame, 130 x 60 cm

Eleftheria Tseliou gallery presents the exhibition entitled ‘Multiples’. The show starts on Wednesday 15 June and it will last until the 15^th of September 2016. The importance and the position of uniqueness constitutes one of the central issues of contemporary art. This is the subject of the exhibition “Multiples”. The freedom of the contemporary artist to use mediums, gives him the power to create artworks out of the box, he can therefore paint on canvas or use this material in order to make something else, which is totally different than the original medium, to make photography, video, engraving, sculpture, happenings, artists’ books and many others.

The idea of a multiple artwork can have many versions, in this show it is realized on the condition of copies of any medium and means that the artist has chosen. The copy may have been created with the use of technology and mechanical means or it might be a reproduction made manually.

Most of the artists who participate in the show have not created artworks in copies systematically. Here are presented artworks in three copies with the exception of artists whom the work is usually issued in copies and in this occasion they participate with one unique artwork.

Read: http://www.kathimerini.gr/864066/gallery/politismos/eikastika/ta-pollaplasia-ths-monadikothtas

Exhibition duration: May 20 – August 26 2016

Location: Kappatos Gallery, Athens

Curator:

Participating artists: Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Patrick Heron, Michalis Katzourakis, George Lappas, Peggy Kliafa, Sarah Morris, Vasilis Salpistis, Yorgos Papafigos, Aliki Pappa, George Sampsonidis, Santiago Sierra.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Change, 2016, Led Pharmacy Cross with digital moving message, perimeter aluminum profile, plexi glass surfaces with visible led light, 90 x 90 x 13 cm

Armory Column – Placebo Series, 2015/2016, Aluminium pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass, led light bulb, 205 x 23 x 23 cm

Armory Square – Placebo Series, 2013/2016 • Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass, led light tape, 140 x 140 cm

Bacteria III or Star, 2013, Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone, 140 x 140 cm

gallery@kappatosgallery.com
www.kappatosgallery.com
www.athensartresidency.com

Myconos island
Program Kivotos Art Projects 2015

Opening Event: Saturday August 1 2015

Exhibition Duration: June 1 – October 18 2015

Participating Artists: Felix Delandre, Christophoros Dougleris, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Marion Iglessi, Vassilis Kavouridis, Juliano Kaglis, Michalis Katzourakis, Peggy Kliafa, James Lane, Heliodora Margelou, Leon Michail, Zetta Nikolakopoulou, Aliki Pappa, Katerina Papazissi, Brigitte Polemi, Dimitris Rokos, Nikos Sepetzoglou, Maria Fragoudaki, Marc Hatzipateras, Sophia Houssou

Tinos island
Program Art Dovecotes 2015

Opening Event: Friday July 17 2015

Exhibition Duration: June 16 – October 4 2015
Participating Artists: Felix Delandre, Venia Dimitrakopoulou, Christophoros Dougleris, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Marion Iglessi, James Lane, Heliodora Margelou, Leon Michail, Christina Papadimitriou, Katerina Papazissi, Brigitte Polemi, Dimitris Rokos, Nikos Sepetzoglou, Maria Fragoudaki, Marc Hatzipateras, Zoe Hounda, Sophia Houssou

Curator: Dr Sozita Goudouna

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Silk print on paper of artwork “Mosaic I – Lace” (mosaic by real pills), wooden frame, 70 x 70 cm

“Viagra Portrait”, 2013, Acrylic colors on canvas, wooden frame, brass plate, 75,5 x 63,5 cm

Bacteria V, 2015, Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone, 140 x 140 cm

Aegeanale is an international art and culture platform established in 2012 that welcomes artists and visitors from all over the world to a summer of discovery and inspiration to the majestic Aegean Sea. Its fundamental goals is to highlight the Aegean as region of inspiration, creativity and intercultural dialogue as also to map once more, the archipelago as a complex of destinations with cultural interest. Aegeanale’s program is constructed upon two different focus points: The first focus point concerns a series of international artistic projects from the contemporary art scene, which travels in several locations of the Aegean Sea, constructing tourist routes of cultural interest. The second focus point concerns a arts residency program in several islands of the Aegean, transforming the region to a unique “open-air gallery”, which will be inaugurated in summer 2015. The general organization of Aegeanale is under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and has obtained the cooperation of important bearers of culture and tourism as Biennial Foundation.

The art and culture platform Aegeanale inaugurates this year’s program in cooperation with the curator Dr Sozita Goudouna in Myconos and Tinos islands with the artistic program Kivotos Art Projects which started in 2012 and the program Art Dovecotes which will make its opening in July 17 of 2015.

Kivotos Art Projects and Art Devecotes have an avant garde program of contemporary art with artworks of established artists who use different means as painting, sculpture, photography, video art, multimedia, installations.

The group show of Kivotos Art Projects is hosted from June to October 2015 at the exhibition space of Hotel “Kivotos” in Ornos, Myconos and the group show of Art Devecotes is hosted at the exhibition space of the House Complex “Diles and Rinies” at Tinos island, constituting its main program, which will be accompanied by musical and theatrical events of the Tinos Festival.

The ambition of Kivotos Art Projects and Art Devecotes is to reclaim the achievements of the contemporary greek art depending on the particular physiognomy of Myconos, Tinos and the Cyclades and to contribute to a creative conversation between art and tourism, by strengthening culturally Greece. Aegeanale is under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and has the support and promotion of a series of printed and digital media.

The opening of the group show is accompanied by musical and dancing events by prominent artists of the Tinos Festival.

Opening: Thursday 20th of November 2014

Exhibition duration: 20th of November 2014 – 3rd January 2015

Location: Kappatos Gallery, Athens

Participating artists: Marina Abramović, Aliki Pappa, Lynda Benglis, Michalis Kantzourakis, Peggy Kliafa, Vassilis Salpistis, Yiorgos Papafigos, Yiorgos Sampsonidis, Marie Voignier, Tim Shaw.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artworks:

Armory Sculpture, 2013, 60x40x9 cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass

Omphalio, 2011, 111×111 cm. Screen print on silk fabric with wooden frame

International and Greek artists of Kappatos Gallery meet in a group exhibition which will be completed in collaboration with Art Professionals-In-Athens Residency and the participation of the Irish sculptor Tim Shaw R.A. on the 20th of November.
Marina Abramović uses her body as the medium and the object through which the artist explores the physical and mental limits of her existence, in an attempt to transfer herself into an extreme and primitive state of emotional and spiritual experience. Aliki Pappa deals with the notion of absence or/and the secret presence through soundless works that serve a pact of silence. The work of Lynda Benglis transforms her personal desires and concepts into forms and amorphous images in a gestural and direct way, by using the nature itself and the properties of the materials. Michalis Kantzourakis includes in his work creative elements of contemporary artistic research coming from Greek and international Postwar Art, moving between reality and abstraction and referring mainly to the urban culture.

Using as her unit the pill or tis wrapping, Peggy Kliafa composes stunning images of metallic walls, stained-glass windows of well known European Cathedrals, wallpapers, lace, mosaics and narrates the relational progress of human evolution on the healing of the body and soul. Vassilis Salpistis focuses on the problematic nature of the eminently artistic gesture and explores both the conditions of the limits of its recognizability. The manifested appeal of the design skills of Yiorgos Papafigos constitutes the handmade object, which dominates its support and turns to everyday people and their mental, sexist and emotional prisons. The landscapes of Yiorgos Sampsonidis come from the Land of Sleep and Oblivion and welcome the viewer into a borderline insight. Marie Voignier was the third resident of Art Professionals-In-Athens Residency and during her stay, Voignier created in collaboration with Vassilis Salpistis the experimental film-collage One by One. The exhibition will be completed with the participation of Tim Shaw, the fifth artist to resident in Art Professionals-In-Athens Residency. Shaw will present two new works that deal with order, normality and their relation with chaos.

IMAGO MUNDI: Idea – Description – Aim

The Imago Mundi Project

Group Exhibitions around the world

Imago Mundi (Image of the World) is a global cultural project that aspires to foster openness, new horizons and the coexistence of expressive diversity. The expanding collection is up to now comprising of approximately 2000 works of art collected since 2008 by Luciano Benetton: established and emerging artists from various countries over five continents have been engaged on a voluntary basis and without financial reward to create an artwork whose only limitation is a 10x12cm format. The collection, hosted by the Fondazione Benetton, has no commercial aspirations and aspires to unite the diversities of the world in the name of a common artistic experience. It could be paralleled to an open inventory able to demonstrate how varying is the way the world is seen, studied and represented by artists and to pass on to future generations the widest possible mapping of human cultures at the start of the third millennium.

The Imago Mundi collection began with a chance interaction with a South American artist who instead of leaving a business card with Benetton gave him two tiny 10×12 cm paintings. Those first pieces sparked the whole project. Since then the collection is organized and curated by geographical location, with the help of curators and local experts in shaping the selections from each country, the aim is to create an intriguing smorgasbord of artworks, available to the widest possible audiences.

Imago Mundi‘s first presentation was housed at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, as an official collateral event of the 55th Venice Biennale, from 28 August to 27 October 2013.

Through exhibitions, catalogues, a specially designed portal on the web and via collaborations with galleries and museums the collection will travel around the world.

Exhibition Display and Catalogue

The display idea and design belongs to architect Tobia Scarpa and is a welcoming space that aids comprehension of the richness of the exhibit. The structure provides clear visibility of the small canvasses and, thanks to the fact that the stands close like the leaves of a book, transportation and installation is made easy and facilitates the itinerant aims of the collection, destined to travel without frontiers.

Accompanying catalogues are published for each geographical collection, featuring full-colour illustrations of every work (front and back), the artists’ bios and texts by curators and established art critics.

Luciano Benetton

A great traveller and an art lover, Luciano Benetton has firmly united these two passions in the Imago Mundi project, an ongoing collection of over 2000 artworks, created by artists from different countries around the world.

Born in Treviso in 1935, Luciano Benetton created Benetton Group in 1965, alongside his sister Giuliana and brothers Gilberto and Carlo. He is the Chairman of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, created in 1987, as a testimony of the family’s link with the territory, the Veneto region and the area of Treviso, contributing in particular to the civil and cultural growth of the community and undertaking many projects dedicated to natural, artistic and historic heritage.

Useful Links

http://www.artbabble.org/video/ultrafragola/imago-mundi-india
http://www.artbabble.org/video/ultrafragola/imago-mundi-usa
http://www.artbabble.org/video/ultrafragola/imago-mundi-australia
http://www.artbabble.org/video/ultrafragola/imago-mundi-japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiXvDfJEbGY -Korea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFHCsXVsN4 (Luciano Benetton on the project)
http://www.querinistampalia.org/eng/imago_mundi.php

Athens, Februrary 25, 2014
Project Imago Mundi: “Greek Collection” for the Benetton Foundation

We were recently assigned as curators of the project for a “Greek Collection” for the Benetton Foundation. The general idea is to create a corpus of contemporary art by Greek artists on 10 x 12 cm canvases, which will form part of the Foundation’s Imago Mundi programme.

There are complete collections already in the U.S.A., Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia, Mongolia and Russia; the collections of Austria, Africa, Italy, Cuba, Spain, and Sweden are being developed, among others. The curators involved to date include Peter Noever, Luca Beatrice, Bita Fayyazi, Diego Cortez, Amanullah, Mojadidi, Suneet Chapra.

We joined this project enthusiastically, believing that the representation of Greece in such an effort should demonstrate, through carefully chosen art works, the depth of the Greek artists’ concerns, as well as the practices that they pursue and apply. It should not be a simple conglomeration of material, but a collection that highlights affinities and juxtapositions, and proposes interesting directions and dialogues. Our main concern is for this collection to comprise high-quality pieces representative of all art genres in Greece.

In addition to posing the challenge of establishing a complete representation of today’s momentum in the Greek contemporary art, another advantage of this program is the fact that the Benetton Foundation shows its collections, organizing exhibitions in important museums and exhibition venues around the world. Moreover, an extremely high-standards book is published for each collection.

Natassa Karaggelou
Curator, Benaki Museum

Polyna Kosmadaki
Curator, Benaki Museum

Vanessa Melissourgaki
Curator, Benaki Museum

learn more: https://www.yatzer.com/imago-mundi-greece

http://www.imagomundiart.com/exhibitions/map-new-art-0

Exhibition duration: 2-4 April 2014

Location: Megaron Athens International Conference Centre, Athens

Curator: Elizabeth Plessa

Selection Committee: Elizabeth Plessa, Platon Rivellis, Giorgos Rorris

Coordination: Anastasios Patrikakos, Eleni Sotiropoulou (“Athena” Research Centre)

Architectural consultant: Tzortzina Vogli / Access

Audiovisual consultant: Panagiotis Karioris (“Athena” Research Centre)

Lighting: Yannis Malatantis

Exhibition labelling: Dora Pikioni

Digital printing and mounting of photographs: Dimitris Sdralis, Nikos Sdralis

Transport and installation of works: Move Art

Insurance of works: Lloyd’s – G. Karavias & Associates Ltd.

Participating artists: Nikos Karanikolas, Sophie Kyriakopoulou, Elli Koutsoukeli, Igor Siwanowicz, Thanasis Triantafyllopoulos, Charles Krebs, Constantina Tsiara, Maria Methimaki, Kaisu Koski, Marina Karaevangelou, Anna Dumitriu, Antonios Chalyvidis, Contsantinos Daldakis, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, Maria Kallinikou, Katerina Vakalopoulou, Evangelia Vogiatzi, Dorit Hockman, Thales Papakonstantinou, Nikos Marinis, Dimitris Tragkas, Georgios Paliatsos, Iakovos Zanettis, Sofia Boboli, Thomas Deerinck, Dimitris Stellas, Evangelos Raftogiannis, Magda Siamkouri, Cordula Daus, Kelly Vardaka, Aliki Rigou, Zoi Pappa, Gerasimos Kanakis, Peggy Kliafa, Pantelis Nicolaou, Christos Zervas, Vaggelis Theodoridis, Paola Palavidi, Claudia Zuriado, Lefteris Kiourtzoglou, Thaleia Gatzouli, Katerina Tsagaraki, Enrico Tealdi

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Bacteria I or Map, 2013, 140×140 cm. Small aluminum foils from the back side of the pills’ blisters on canvas, acrylic sprays, warm silicone

The “Research and Art” competition and exhibition project was an initiative of the “Athena” Research and Innovation Centre in the context of the 2nd International Conference on Research Infrastructures held at the Megaron International Conference Centre in Athens, 2-4 April 2014. Approximately 420 submissions were received, out of which a three-member committee selected 53 works (17 photographs, 31 paintings / works on paper and 5 video art works) to be exhibited at the Megaron, during ICRI 2014. Among the successful submissions, the selection committee further chose nine works worthy of distinction as well as the one work deserving the first prize of the whole “Research and Art” competition and exhibition.

Research and Art: An Unannounced Meeting Point

Why do the eyes of an artist stop to gaze upon an image derived straight from the field of science? What is it that makes a researcher suddenly look at his findings in the light of an artistic quest? Is there truly an intersection between the world of art and the world of research? What makes legitimate the crossing of the dividing lines?

Art has always shown an interest in science: from Renaissance art and Leonardo da Vinci with his studies in physics; 19th century art nouveau with its influence from shapes and colours emerging from biology and the invention of the microscope; 20th century art with the Surrealists seduced by Freud and psychiatry; the acclaimed James Turrell working with the optical illusions of light; the young Chinese WU Juehui dealing with the visual aspects of neuroscience. Artists worldwide have long detected in research and science formal stimuli which give new perspectives to their work.

Nevertheless, partly due to the rapid development of digital technology, the creative approach to art by scientists and researchers has proven exceptionally fruitful during recent years. However, this is not true when this approach has merely isolated or reproduced images amply met in the course of a scientific trajectory. Science is allowed to dwell in the domain of art when it manages to provide aesthetic insight into what the scientific eye comes across; to offer a glimpse of the traces of creativity where it is not expected; borrowing the artistic idiom, to bring out unforeseen dimensions of the external reality it investigates.

Artists do not pretend to be scientists and scientists do not play the part of artists. In the present coexistence of artists and researchers, art has been called to look into the world of science and science to walk along the pathways of art. Examining the works on display here, it is clear that, on both sides, specific obsessions created different starting points and goals, which led to different results. However, what has been sought as common to all is a reaching out to a poetic transformation of the object depicted or the image captured; a pursuit of aesthetic emotion beyond the apparently perceivable.

When science reaches its highest levels, it ceases to function according to the dictates of logic and moves towards the realm of intuition. When art delves deep into the intrinsic discipline responsible for its very existence, it borders on a spiritual reasoning. Then science and art have met, as naturally and as strangely as a body carries its own soul.

Elizabeth Plessa
Curator of the “Research and Art” Exhibition

Exhibition duration: 29 March-3 May 2014

Location: Modern Greek Art Museum of the Municipality of Rhodes, Greece

Curators: Lefteris Kryssalis, Myrto Ioannidi, Hara Sklavounou, Giannis Karadimas, Alkistis Kounelaki

COORDINATOR: Kostas Ioannidis, Assistant Professor ASFA

Participating artists: Athanassios Anastassopoulos, Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Eleni Dimitriadou, Olga Evagelidou, Anni Zavitsanou, Alexandros Kaklamanos, Dimitris Kalogeros, Nicos Karakonstandis, Otta-Artemis Katsampani, Peggy Kliafa, Pandelis Konstandinou, Assimina Landavou, Eleni Mantzorou, Nicos Marinis, Evdokia Metheniti, Katerina Mitsiali, Paraskevi Moustaki, Stella Mporoutzi, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, Nicolova Petia, Alexandra Sinopoulou, Andonis Stoantzikis, Christina Stratsiani, Hara Taliadorou, Maria Tsirakoglou, Andy Tsomani, Iraklis Fovakis, Marilia Fotopoulou, Zoi Chatzigianni, Stella Christofi, Vassiliki Psarou

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Armory, 2011, 100×70 cm. Aluminium pills’ blisters, silicone, plexiglass-piece on the wall

GRADUATES OF THE ASFA 2010-2011

The present exhibition presents the artworks, highlights the new artistic trends and current ways of artistic expression, and documents the final results of the training in visual arts undergone and of the research in the art field performed by the graduates of the Visual Arts’ Department of the Athens School of Fine Arts during their studies the academic year 2010-1011. In this respect, the exhibition offers a comprehensive picture of the graduates’ diploma projects and of the Department’s overall educational results.

The A.S.F.A. has always been an educational and art institution which, apart from its literal training role, more generally serves as an active “greenhouse” for cultivating and developing the visual arts in our country. It is well known that in Greece, Art, the work of art and the artist exist on their own, without any consistent, comprehensive policy of supporting the artistic expression, without any stable, well-established art institutions. In this context, the present cooperation of the ASFA with the Modern Greek Art Museum of the Municipality of Rhodes, complements in a certain degree deficiencies and employs an broader and weighty importance for the young artists who participate in this exhibition, as well as for the artistic and the surrounding community of the inhabitants of Rhodes, and for the cultural tourism too.

This cooperation is indeed a synergy with multiple and reciprocating results for both cooperating vectors and generally for the society of Rhodes itself, which is the final recipient. I hope it is a start which in the future will give fertile fruits and development of common programs between the ASFA, the Modern Greek Art Museum of the Municipality of Rhodes, and the Region of South Aegean.

I thank on behalf of the School all the participating graduates, the factors of this exhibition and especially the responsible of the ASFA Gallery Maria Mamaliga who coordinated and supported this cooperation, the students of the Department of Theory of the ASFA who curated and erected the exhibition , and especially the beloved colleague Assistant Professor of the Department of Theory of the ASFA Kosta Ioannidi who had the supervision of the curatorial team and its preparation. Finally, I warmly thank the President of the Modern Greek Art Museum of the Municipality of Rhodes Nico Frona who welcomed and supported in every way the realization of this cooperation, as well as the Region of South Aegean Department of Culture, without the economic assistance of which it could not have been realized.

George Harvalias
Rector of ASFA

The exhibition “Shortly” comprises of artworks of the graduates of the Athens School of Fine Arts of 2010-1011. We attempted a choice with criteria the emergence of the multiple trends that the students of the specific period followed but also of the different aspects of the visual production of our days. It is indicative, as far as this is concerned, the number of artistic means (installations, digital means, painting, sculpture) which are utilized.

The open character of the exhibition’s title is not random, since it rises the issue of expectation of what is about to emerge in the future from the creative forces of the yesterday’s graduates and today’s creators. In its thematic core there are, among others, questioning about memory, the individuality, the coexistence of tradition with the future, the intervention of the digital reproduction in the sight, as well as issues of form and materials. In that way , following the exhibition the visitor can distinguish broader aspects of contemporary art, but also the dynamics of individual efforts as far as their future evolution is concerned.

The transfer of these artworks at the Modern Greek Art Museum of Rhodes, indicates towards the direction of new perspectives of cooperation. With this move new space to emerging visual artists is given to present their artworks. Simultaneously, a new public has the chance to contact with them. The spreading of ideas through the development of the artistic institutions of the periphery is an element that we hope to define future efforts as well.

The curatorial team: Myrto Ioannidi, Giannis Karadimos,

Alkistis Kounelaki, Lefteris Kryssalis, Hara Sklavounou

With great delight and satisfaction, the Members of the Board of Directors of the Modern Greek Art Museum of Rhodes and I personally , welcome the inauguration of the cooperation with the ASFA, starting with the exhibition of the graduates of the department of Visual Arts, of the academic year 2010-2011.

This cooperation, only positive multiple results will bring to both cooperating vectors. It is the start of a program which in the future through common planning will help the ongoing development of the Municipal Gallery from one side and from the other side it will give the opportunity and the capability to the ASFA to open its wings outside the Capital, to the periphery of our country, with final recipient the society of Rhodes and the hundreds thousands of national and foreign visitors of our country.

The presented exhibition which has the title “Shortly graduates 2010-2011” with its educational linked only character, creates hopes for the future of the young artists. Through the struggles of their work and their life, the following years will pursue a fertile evolution and establishment in the art world through their produced work.

On behalf of the Museum, I desire to thank wholeheartedly the Rector of the ASFA Mr George Harvalias, who promoted this cooperation, our compatriot responsible of the ASFA Gallery Mrs Maria Mamaliga, who supported the start of this cooperation with enthusiasm, the students of the Department of Theory of the ASFA and their Professor Mr Kostas Ioannidis who curated and erected the exhibition.

Finally, the co-organizer Pegion of South Aegean department of culture, for its demonstrated sensitivity to the visual arts’ events and its stable economic support.

Dr. Nicolaos Ts. Fronas
President of the Modern Greek Art Museum of Rhodes

Exhibition duration: 14 February-8 March 2014

Location: Athens School of Fine Arts, Room “Nicos Kessanlis” (Factory)

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the installation:

Dissolution, 2011, Effervescent Sculpture and Video

Sculpture: Man (by effervescent tablets), 2011, 50x17x10 cm. Effervescent tablets, water.

Video: Dissolution, 2011, 2 versions lasting 2,45’ and 3,05’ each.

ΕΧΗΙΒΙΤΙΟΝ OF GRADUATES OF THE ATHENS SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2010-11

Introductory text of the catalogue from the Rector:

The annual exhibition of the Department of Fine Arts of the Athens School of Fine Arts (A.S.F.A.), at the “Nikos Kessanlis” exhibition venue, presents the graduating class’s artworks, highlights the new artistic trends and current ways of artistic expression, and documents the final results of the training in visual arts undergone and of the research in the art field performed by the graduates during their studies.
By its distinctive nature, its operational structure and long history, the training provided by the A.S.F.A. has a workshop-like aspect and remains mainly focused on the work carried out in its various studios. The guiding hand of the Professors and the Teaching Staff of the aforementioned studios is evident in the graduates’ artworks hereby exhibited. At the same time, however, thanks to a common curriculum for all student’s, the School’s entire Teaching Staff contributes to the student’s formation, offering a broader, all-encompassing education in the field of visual arts.
In this respect, the exhibition offers a succinct yet comprehensive picture of not only the graduates’ diploma projects but also of the Department’s overall educational results. Apart from its evidently positive and promising nature, the graduating class’s annual exhibition is always an opportunity to “make the point”, to critically evaluate the work carried out and apprehend the changes occurring at times when “nothing concerning art is self-evident any more”.1

The A.S.F.A. has always been an educational and art institution which, apart from its literal training role, more generally serves as an active “greenhouse” fro cultivating and developing the visual arts in our country. It is well known that in Greece, Art, the work of art and the artist exist on their own, without any consistent, comprehensive policy of supporting the artistic expression, without any stable, well-established art institutions. In this context, the A.S.F.A. is trying its best to meet, to a certain degree, the existing shortages, and its position gas an even greater and broader significance for new artists, long after their graduation.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank, on behalf of the entire School, all our students for the experiences we lived together all these years. We would like to wholeheartedly wish to these new artists, the A.S.F.A. graduates, a future full of creation, patience and endurance when facing the new challenges expecting them in their life and work alike, a fruitful evolution in their work, and a successful career.
Under the current circumstances, however, it is impossible to ignore the new difficulties presented, which have a particular impact on the sensitive field of artistic creation and art reception (“Who Cares About Art Today?”)2. We are living in times of great instability, of a generalized economic and social crisis. In today’s European and international environment, Greece, alas, is suffering an ongoing economic crisis, deep recession unavoidably leading to new difficulties, at least in the near future. The necessary financial cut-downs is our loss of today, however such hardships may also enable us at the present –for the first time, after so long- to actually feel that “we are living History”. After all, “a country that has been shaken by great events may gain a conscience leading to a more universal way of thinking”.3 This may be, for the new generation, the main drive for reevaluating, rethinking and renewing the artistic scene. “Each difficulty that we are able to overcome, understanding the terms and the limits of the system that brought us here, does not necessarily make us richer, but it makes us stronger for sure”.

George Harvalias
Rector of the A.S.F.A.

1. Theodor A. Adorno
2. Herald Szeemann
3. Umberto Eco

Opening: May 25th 2013

Exhibition duration: May 25th-June 16th 2013

Location: Old Hospital of Amfissa, Amfissa, Greece

Curator: Apostolis Artinos

Participating artists: Antouanetta Aggelidi, Nikos Artemis, Loukia Alavanou, Rea Valden, Athanassia Vidali, Steve Giannakos, George Gyparakis, Christos Delidimos, George Jacote, The Callas, Lizy Kalliga, Nikos Kanarelis, Eirini Karagiannopoulou, Konstantinos Ladianos, Anna Laskari, Maria Lianou, Eleni Lyra, Karolina Mei, Eleni Mbagaki, Eleni Mylona, Dimitris Dokatzis, Nina Papakonstantinou, Foteini Papahatzi, Stavroula Papadaki, Peggy Kliafa-Sakkoula, Nana Sahini, Chrisanthos Sotiropoulos, Alkis Chatziandreou, Jana Stojakovic, Joshua and Zachary Sandler

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the installation:

Viagra Portrait on a romantic wallpaper, 2013. Viagra Portrait, 2013, 75,5×63,5 cm. Acrylic colors on canvas, wooden frame. Wallpaper made of fabric, 2013, 268×232 cm.

THE TRANSPARENCY OF SEX

The Symptom Projects

In Peggy Kliafa‘s installation, a painted portrait of a Viagra tablet is hanged with its precious frame in front of a wallpaper of romantic themes. On the one hand, the romantic celebration of sexual desire and on the other its chemical demystification. Yet, both are conditions of loss. Between deterioration and decline intervenes another counter that records indifferently their differences.

Apostolis Artinos

The Symptom Projects is a platform that seeks to investigate the “symptom” in art. The “symptom” – that dark experience of the lacanian psychoanalysis, the linguistic event that elicits the undisposed trace of the real, the unrevealed trace of the object.

Cooperating with artists, curators, theorists and literary authors, The Symptom Projects become in that way a space for thought, as well as an experimental forum that attempts to investigate, through exhibition events, round-tables and text production, the uncharted inventory that is nevertheless the originating reference of any work of art.
The exhibition activity of The Symptom Projects evolves in two exhibition cycles: the symptom, which is mainly yearly group exhibitions of contemporary art, and es-optron, a series of also annual exhibitions of photography.
The exhibitions are accompanied by meetings with writers and experimental-music live performances.

Apostolis Artinos – Kostas Christopoulos

Opening: Thursday 16 May 2013

Exhibition duration: 1-31 May 2013

Location: Faliro Pavillion, Parallel exhibition to Art Athina 2013

Curator: Artemis Potamianou

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Paradise Window, 2011, 150x150x5 cm. MDF, metallic paint, gelatin, pills blistrers

“the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven…”

John Milton

The exhibition Paradise Lost borrows its title from the epic poem of John Milton, which was illustrated by William Blake.

The main inspiration for the exhibition Art-Athina Contemporaries: Paradise Lost came from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

Dante’s work is described as an allegory which can be interpreted as an existential journey-as man’s arduous effort to subdue his passion on his way towards perfection. At the same time, in Divine Comedy Dante clearly alludes to the political situation of a then corrupt Italy, yearning for a solution from an honest political or state institution which can lead people to happiness on Earth (Paradise). Yet in Jean-Luc Godard’s adaptation of the book in the film “Our Music”, this heaven is only an illusion-a concentration camp.

Man’s journey from hell to heaven –whatever this heaven may be to each person- is a motif we find in many literary works. In a similar vein, the hero in Homer’s Odyssey must go through many routes, experiences and trials before he can reach, wiser and purified, his own ‘Ithaca’.

Based on references to all these, the exhibition Paradise Lost features a labyrinth made of cheap materials associated with the urban landscape, with the concept of “transition” an “moving” and with all the negative connotations of an economic downturn. In this maze viewers are called upon to experience a journey that is meant to take them from hell to purgatory and heaven. Along this journey the works guide and complement one another.

Art-Athina Contemporaries: Paradise Lost aspires to present more that a snapshot of the currently produced Greek and international art. It aims to establish and encourage a constructive debate among the artists, their practice and their works; a debate which will reflect the current reality and state of affairs, the artists’ concerns and the variety of their media.

Paradise Lost is an action-exhibition that aims to demonstrate art as it is shaped, produced and presented in the present time.

To this end, the artists who took part in the exhibition come from almost all the galleries represented in the main programme of Art-Athina and are predominantly younger in terms of age or artistic generation.

Artemis Potamianou

Curator of Art-Athina Contemporaries: Paradise Lost

Opening: Friday March 15, 2013

Exhibition duration: March 15th – April 10th 2013

Location: Contemporary Athens Meeting Point, CAMP

Curator: Lina Tsikouta

Concept and original design: Giorgos Divaris, Kostas Christopoulos

Participating artists: Andreas Voussouras, Giorgos Gyparakis, Daniel, Vangelis Dimitreas, Giorgos Divaris, Diochanti, Thodoris Zafeiropoulos, Stephanos Kamaris, Vlassis Kaniaris, Angie Karatza, Michalis Katzourakis, Nikos Kessanlis, Peggy Kliafa, Nikos Makarounas, Stavros Bonatsos, Yannis Bouteas, Kriton Papadopoulos, Leonidas Papadopoulos, Rena Papaspyrou, Eftychis Patsourakis, Andreas Savva, Christina Sgouromyti, Angelos Skourtis, Marios Spiliopoulos, Aspa Stassinopoulou, Giorgos Tsakiris, Pantelis Chandris, Panos Haralambous, Giorgos Harvalias, Pythagoras Hatziandreou, Ersi Hatziargyrou, Youla Hatzigeorgiou, Thaleia Chioti, Kostas Christopoulos, Alexandros Psychoulis.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

VITRAIL-REMEDY, 2011, 247x126x5 cm. Metallic paint, gelatin, pills blisters

The idea that triggered this exhibition is that the very material from which visual artworks are made forms part of their narrative. In addition to the diverse aesthetic and stylistic “discoveries” of modernism, a seminal element in its legacy is the gradual shift from large-scale compositions, often on historical or religious subjects, to the poetics of small, everyday things, to the aesthetics of the commonplace and the – at least at first glance – trivial. A turning point in this shift was the move from painting to three-dimensional art, to relief and to the introduction of materials and objects, as was the re-assessment of the form-content relationship.

It was in this context that, already in the early 20th century, a series of works were produced in which experimentation with the medium expanded the narrative scope and ushered in new aesthetic pursuits. To mention but a few, Pablo Picasso’s Assemblages, Dadaist anti-art, Marcel Duchamp’s Ready-mades, artworks by the French New Realists. It remains a fact that often in the history of 20th-century art artists’ choices of medium were made so as to showcase aspects of the material world and the potential of poetic metamorphosis, re-signifying and extending the concept of visual creativity, or establishing material as the principal constituent of art, or even proclaiming the object itself as art.

The exhibition focuses on a distinctive facet of visual art – the medium, and the narrative context that this establishes. Related trends emerged in the Greek visual arts in the early 1960s. This was a period when several artists explored the question of physicality and introduced the object in their work – a seminal development in Greek art. Tracing the evolution of this phenomenon across generations of artists, the show reveals eloquent examples of the interplay of material, object and narrative. Limitations notwithstanding, and not claiming to include an exhaustive selection of work by relevant artists, the exhibition proposes a representative, evolutionary and generational overview.

Exhibition duration: January 24 – 26, 2013

Location: University of Athens, Central Building & French Institute of Athens

Curator: Dr. Sozita Goudouna

Participating artists: Peggy Kliafa and Georgia Sagri

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the installation:

Window (from the installation in situ in Sotiria Hospital), 2010, 251x124x5 cm. MDF, paint, gelatin, pills, blisters

Peggy Kliafa’s Remedy or Poison installation reflects on the ambiguity of medicine by presenting its two sides as remedy and poison. The greek work farmakon (farmaki-farmako) denotes this ambiguity. Ontologically the medicine is tied to the notion of the promise, it is identified with the experience of the promise of remedy or cure. The infinite power of a promise alludes to Derrida’s notion of the “still to come”, to a future that is yet to come. The artist elevates the significance of the medicine by creating artworks made out of a kaleidoscope of pills. The artworks are representations of stained glass windows from cathedrals; in their religious allusion, they manifest a deepening of interest in different notions of therapy. The contemporary compulsive desire to consume pills aims to cure our mental, psychological or somatic weakness. The work challenges this therapeutic or placebo effect.

Dr. Sozita Goudouna
Curator

PRESS RELEASE

CONFERENCE: THE POLITICAL AND ETHICAL THINKING OF JACQUES DERRIDA

The conference The Political and Ethical Thinking of Jacques Derrida (24-26.01.2013), hosted at the National and Kapodistrian University of Greece and the French Institute of Athens, is accompanied by the exhibition Metaphor of the Blind, featuring the visual artists Peggy Kliafa and Georgia Sagri, curated by Sozita Goudouna and produced by http://outoftheboxintermedia.org.

The Philosophy Sector of the Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology of the University of Athens, in collaboration with the French Institute of Greece, is organizing a conference on the following topic: The Political and Ethical Thought of Jacques Derrida, from Thursday January 24, 2013 until Saturday January 26, 2013 in the Argyriadis amphitheater (New Amphitheater) in the Central Building of the University of Athens (30, Panepistimiou Ave.) and the French Institute of Athens auditorium.

The Conference, featuring 40 speakers from a variety of academic disciplines (philosophy, political theory, psychoanalysis, architecture, literature, and more), covers a wide range of subjects which are connected to the ethical and political theory of Jacques Derrida, such as democracy, law, hospitality, giving, forgiveness, justice, decision, responsibility, ethics and animals.

On Friday 25, 19.00-22.00 at the French Institute of Athens, two round tables are held on “Thinking of the Crisis through Jacques Derrida”, in which four well-known French philosophers participate: Michel Deguy, poet, Emeritus professor of the University Paris 8, Marc Crepon, Director of the Department of Philosophy of the École Normale Supérieure, Charles Ramond, professor of philosophy of the University Paris 8 and Pierre-Yves Quiviger, professor of philosophy of the University of Nice. The interventions by the French philosophers will be commented upon by two Greek philosophers. The professors Michel Deguy, Marc Crepon and Charles Ramond will also speak on Saturday morning at the Central Building of the University of Athens. Simultaneous interpretation will be available in both events.

The conference will be accompanied by a screening of the ERT documentary The Pathways of Thought: Jacques Derrida.

Opening: Thursday, 26 January 2012

Exhibition duration: 26 January-12 Fabruary 2012

Location: St George Lycabettus Hotel, Athens

Participating artists: Ianthe Angelioglou, Lisa Alexandropoulou, Amalgam Group, Nikoletta Antonakos, DASHNDEM (Demitrios Kargotis and Dash MacDonald), Stella Drygiannaki, Alexandros Kaklamanos, Christina Kamma, Joanna Kassiki, Peggy Kliafa, Matina Koussidi, Thanos Kyriakides, Christos Kotsoulas, Virginia Mastorgiannaki, Natalia Milioka, Yiannis Mouravas, Yiannis Belimbassakis, Panayiotis Brentas, Theofanis Nouskas, Dimitris Papoutsakis, Nikos Podias, Panos Sklavenitis, Efi Spyrou, Yiannis Stamatiou, Theodoros Stamatoyiannis, Anastassis Stratakis, Xenios Symeonides, Nicky Tsachra, Agathe Tsoroni

Peggy Kliafa’s ROOM includes the artworks:

VITRAUX II – REMEDY, 2011, Empty transparent pills’ blisters on clear plastic sheets and MDF with metallic paint, 247 x 126 x 5cm

OPMHALIO, 2011, Mosaic by real pills and acrylic colors on MDF, plexiglass cover, 103 x 103 cm

ARMORY WALL, 2011, Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plaxiglass, in a formation with dimensions: 200 x 210 cm

Curator of the ROOM: Dr Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi

Peggy Kliafa participates in the “ROOMS PLUS” show at the Kappatos Gallery with the artworks:

VITRAUX I – ROSE WINDOW, 2011, Empty transparent pills’ blisters on clear plastic sheets and MDF with metallic paint, 150 x 150 x 5cm

PILLS PORTRAITS TRIPTYCH, 2011

Catalogue essay

…

Peggy Kliafa has selected as the main component of some of her work the pill or the blister, medical packaging itself. Based on the pill or blister as her building block, she composes images of metal walls, stained-glass windowpanes from well-known European cathedrals, wallpapers, lace, mosaics. Pills of various colours and shapes, and packaging, sometimes intact and sometimes used, opened, wrinkled, are arranged in repeated geometric patterns. This new medium may be said to take the place of the brush, paint, pencil, metal, glass, tesserae, yarn. The structured organisation, full symmetry, flawless execution, all contribute to the effect of a trompe l’oeil with a proliferation of connotations and associations.

Silver/Armory, a wall made by used or intact pill blisters, reproduces a “silver” (aluminum) piece on the wall, which brings to mind Jason Molfessis’ “Iron Corridor” , of 1990, made of polyester and iron. The stained-glass window panes deceive with their beauty and flawless execution. The wallpapers seem real. A sculpture of a human figure made of effervescent tablets is shown on video in the process of being dissolved in water.

The pill inescapably refers to Damien Hirst. Kliafa, however, manages to express herself in a very special way and to arrive at purely personal and well-integrated expressions, with an emphasis on the aesthetic value.

The combination and juxtaposition of the different forms of pills – painkillers, antibiotics, psychotropic drugs – convey the artist’s allusions regarding the content and the consequences of their use. A pill can be remedy or poison, salvation or damnation. Moreover, her works raise issues such as the ephemeral, the relationship of high and humble art, the simulacrum. Finally, the strong conceptual background, combined with the common, perishable, and worthless material and the inspired execution enable aesthetic enjoyment.

Dr. Lina Tsikouta-Deimezi

Art Historian

Curator, National Gellery – Alexandros Stoutzos Museum

ROOMS 2012 – Contemporary-Art Show

Kappatos Art Gallery organises, curates and presents from Thursday January 26 through February 12, 2012, for the twelfth time since 1999, the annual Contemporary-Art Show Rooms 2012 in St George Lycabettus Hotel in Kolonaki.

In one of the most popular and historical contemporary-art shows, 23 curators, art historians and theorists, architects, theatre specialists and choreographers each pick one emerging artist, or group of artists, to be hosted in the rooms on one floor of the hotel. The thirty participating artists will show paintings, sculptures, video-, audio-, photo-installations and environments, architectural projects, design, performances, screenings, films, and much more.

Each artist is hosted individually in each room on one floor of the hotel, where the room interior is transformed into the artist’s private space. This is a great opportunity to present and document the current trends and propositions in the visual-art scene and to initiate a meaningful and fruitful dialogue.

Choosing a different kind of venue, a hotel, for hosting this show was also influenced by the choice for individual showings of artists in the same venue, as well as by the need for each contemporary art work to claim and occupy its own personal, private and simultaneously public place, fully and harmoniously reflecting its nature and meaning today.

The site is a typical hotel, with a specific, mass-oriented organisation, function and social role in the city for visiting, resting, meeting, encounters and communication. Another dimension, that of hosting art works, will be added to the familiar mode of temporarily hosting mostly “foreigners” to the city, as well as the city’s inhabitants who spend a few hours of leisure there. The social role of the hotel is expanded to acquire a cultural and communicative character, becoming a platform for artists to access the general public attending and joining the art works on the same days at the same place.

For many artists, the wonderful and welcoming venue of St George Lycabettus Hotel, located in one of the nicest and most central places in Athens, is an opportunity to create works specifically for this show, works associated with exactly those functions and the role of “a welcoming place”.

The St George Lycabettus Hotel is actively involved and continually hosts and promotes cultural activities, and once again contributes to this event, opening up to the realms of contemporary art and critical thinking.

Opening: Thursday January 26 2012, 20:00-24:00. Exhibition duration: until January 12, 2012
Opening hours: Weekdays 16:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sunday 12:00 to 22:00

ROOMS 2012 plus

For the first time this year, along with the ROOMS 2012 show, the Kappatos Art Gallery hosts the show ROOMS 2012 plus, featuring works by the artists who participate in ROOMS 2012.

Exhibition duration: 17 December 2011-7 January 2012

Location: Vacant shops of the centre of Athens

Curator: Marios Spiliopoulos

Shops’ Addresses and Artists’ Names:

Stadiou 48 – Revekka Moustaki Zei
Stadiou 44G – Amalia Adoniadou, Olga Evagelidou
Stadiou 10 – Vassilis Papageorgiou, Christos Tsamis, Sotiris Fokeas/Nikos Oikonomou, Vassilis Tsakalos
Perikleous 7 – Hliana Natsou, Nikos Chantzhikonstandis
Nikis 4 – Giannis Mouravas, Christos Tsamis, Spyros Charalambopoulos
Amerikis 16 – Giorgos Gyzis, Vagelis Lioudakis, Fani Bitou
Amerikis 16 – Spyros Charalambopoulos
Akadimias 33 – Manolis Daskalakis Lemos, Efi Papaioannou, Eleni Foundoulaki
Solonos 31 – Vassilis Papageorgiou, Aimilia Liondou, Nassos Frantzeskakis
Voukourestiou 25A – Nikos Oikonomou, Eleni Soumi
Voukourestiou 50 – Peggy Kliafa, Nikos Topalidis, Nikos Oikonomou, Eleni Foundoulaki, Nassos Frantzeskakis
Pindarou 23 – Natassa Efstathiadi, MMINE group, Araseli Laimou
Patriarchou Ioakeim 11 – Vassiliki Dimitriou
Patriarchou Ioakeim 19 – Valinia Svoronou, Pandelis Giannakis
Patriarchou Ioakeim 39 – Vaggelis Lioudakis

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the installations:

Enlightened Children’s House and Pill-Toys, 2011
House, 2011, 130x90x90 cm. Wood, metallic joints, fabric with print, neon light inside
Pill-Toys, 2011, appr. 25xΦ10 cm. Fabric, thread, foam

Pills Portraits on Children’s Wallpaper in an empty shop window
Wallpaper: “Science is innocent”, Prozac Portrait, Amoxil Portrait

Art in Shop Windows

Young artists revive with their work the vacant shops of the city centre

Students and graduates of the Athens School of Fine Arts took it upon themselves to revive through the visual arts the streets of the city centre and transform the sad façades of vacant shops into “Windows to Art”. The twin goals are to rekindle the interest of Athenians in the commercial city center as well as to give the opportunity to young artists to show their work. The visual-arts project “Art in Shop Windows” will take place from December 17 through January 7.

Marios Spiliopoulos, Professor, Athens School of Fine Arts, is the project curator and Mrs Olga Patouni is responsible on the Municipality side.

Art in uncertain times…

As Christmas was approaching, the Municipality of Athens projecting resistance to the desertification of the center of the capital and the generated climate of moodiness, result of the galloping economic crisis, prepared a celebration program which for the first time would be based on the collectivity, the solidarity, the selfless participation of the art world. This project, in my opinion, succeeded absolutely and is an example and a point of reference for the future.

…

The visual exhibition “art at the shops’ windows” had as a target to activate the empty spaces of the non rented shops of the center of Athens, transforming them into a public step of expression of young artists. The social coincidence helped, so as the presence of the artworks that have been exhibited to become more intense, giving a different spot of vision to each one of us towards the general value crisis in which we live. It was not a “Christmas decoration” of shops’ windows, nor a distraction – as many have said – but a proposition of spiritual orientation and action, a practical resistance to the sad events of the times. It was mostly a position, than a view, which was based on the team spirit, the creative passion and will for action and expression of the 30 young artists who participated.

The artworks … are of different expression means, but their co-existence in the same empty shops – alternative exhibition spaces – redefines the conventional relationship of the viewer and the artwork.

…

I also believe that art, especially in these times we are going through, must concern and refer directly to the community and not only to the “art world” (galleries, dealers, art schools etc)

In the given “art action”, the students of the Athens School of Fine Arts do not just exhibit their artwork, but they place them in the center of an open dialogue with wider social stratum and not only with a small elite of “suspicious” of formal art. That was the precious lesson for all of us who participated to this procedure.

…

I hope this idea will be repeated, because it is worth to become an institution.

Marios Spiliopoulos
Painter

Director of the 3rd workshop of painting of the Athens School of Fine Arts

Text from the catalogue

Participation: Peggy Kliafa

I participated in the visual-arts event “Art in Shop Windows” with two installations, in both of which the subject was “the medicine”.

In the first artwork/installation, two “portraits” of pills were placed upon a piece of pink children’s wallpaper featuring paintings of medicine that are also consumed by children. In the second, the same pink wallpaper, with the children’s medicines taking the place of candy, becomes the fabric that furnishes a little toy house (big enough to fit two children probably), lit internally. The pink wallpaper also continues on the floor and upon it, as well as all around it, are scattered pill-toys made of fabric, as if left abandoned after children’s play – oversized soft capsules, in bold two-tones, exact replicas of actual pills.

Medicine, ambiguity, remedy-poison. With its multiple properties and great potential, the medicine became for me a means to speak about good and evil, life and death, the ephemeral, religion, the dual nature of things.

There is ambiguity in the art works, as well. Pink wallpaper, pink toy house, boldly colourful candy-like pills. Is the environment that we set up to raise our children in so pink, too?

Peggy Kliafa
December 2011

Exhibition duration: 1 June-31 October 2010

Location: Sotiria Hospital, Athens, Greece

Curator: Panagiotis S. Papadopoulos

Participating artists: Artemis Agathopoulou, Athina Agorgianiti, Michalis Adamis, Giannis Aitinidis, Katerina Athanasiou, Sophia Alexandridou, Marilena Aligizaki, Rania Anastasiadou, Kostas Andreou, Aggelos Andonopoulos, Zaharias Arvanitis, Maria Aristotelous, Michalis Argyrou, Aggeliki Avgitidou, Giannis Valavanidis, Chryssa Valsamaki, Ersi Barveri, Tellos Bikendiou, Vlastaras Vassilis, Fanis Vlastaras, Polyanna Vlati, Charalambos Voutos, Caesar Vrettos, Paraskevi Gavriil, Giannis Gaitis, Eva Giannakopoulou, Katerina Goutziouli, Maria Glyka, Evagelia Goula, Sophia Grigoriadou, Emmanouil Daskalakis-Laimos, Tzina Dilmakopoulou, Krini Dimopoulou, Dimitra Dimopoulou, Vagelis Dimitreas, Kleopatra Diga, Chryssa Dourgounaki, Olga Evagelidou, Anastassia Efstathiadi, Jimmys Efthimiou, Christos Ilias, Mikaela Theodorakatou, Christos Theophilis, Aggelos Theodoropoulos, Barrios Noemi Iglesias, Marion Igglessi, Stavros Ioannou, Marianna Kavvadia, Alexandros Kaklamanos, Foneini Kallergi, Maria Karathanou, Kyriakos Katzourakis, Vassilis Katsivelakis, Athanassia Karabela, Victoria Karvouni, Gielena Katkova Anatolievna, Anthoula Koga, Vassilis Kelaidis, Nikos Kessanlis, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Lefteris Kiourtsoglou, Peggy Kliafa-Sakkoula, Mina Kondyli, Katerina Kontarini, Despoina Kotalakidou, Elsa Kotsioni, Giannis Kounelis, Aggelos Krallis, Afroditi Krodiri, Ebdokia Kyrkou, Kostis (Triandafyllou), Vaggelis Lioudakis, Kostas Lales, Loukas Loukidis, Verinia Manthou, Rilène Μark, George Milios, Antigoni Michalopoulou, Thanassis Beroutsos, Stella Boroutzi, Chronis Botsoglou, Aimilia Bouriti, Giannis Mylonakis, Gianna Neofytou, Despoina Nissiriou, Andreas Nikolaidis, Maria Nikiforaki, Myrto Xanthopoulou, Creative Movement Team , Katerina Papazissi, Vassilis Papageorgiou, Katerina Paschalidou, Maria Papadimitriou, Nota Paterimou, Effie Papaioannou, Eleni Papanikolaou, Margarita Petrova, Apostolos Plachouris, Dimitra Politi, Ilias Poychroniadis, Marios Prassinos, Eleni Prifti, Evi Renieri, Dimitris Rendoumis, Alexia Sarandopoulou, Marina Sarmatzi, Dimitris Sevastakis, Magda Siamkouri, Ioannis Sinioroglou, Andreas Sitorengo, Dimitris Skalkotas, Dimitra Skandali, Eleni Soumi, Christina Spanou, Marios Spiliopoulos, Aggeliki Statha, Nikos Stathopoulos, Margarita Stratigou, Maria-Teraza Tzelepaki, Konstandinos Tiligadis, Vassiliki Tsalamata, Christina-Niki Tsakoumakou, George Tserionis, Dimitris Tsiantzis, Doris Hakim, Spyros Kleitoras Charalambopoulos, Panos Charalambous, Aristea Charonitou, Nikos Chatzikonstandis, Erato Chatzisavva, Stellios Cheimonidis, John Christoforou.

Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:

Window (Sotiria Hospital), 2010, 247x126x5 cm. MDF, paint, gelatin, pills blisters

SOTIRIA/SALVATION PROJECT

MEMORY AND ILLNESS IN THE VISUAL-ART DISCOURSE

The visual-art project Sotiria/Salvation: Memory and Illness in the Visual-Art Discourse was an initiative of the Sotiria Hospital seeking to provide a meeting place for patients with art, and for artists with life in all its multiplicity. The project took place between June and October 2010.

Panagiotis S. Papadopoulos, the exhibition curator, cooperated with the Athens School of Fine Arts, the Friends of the Sotiria Hospital Patients, the administration and personnel of the hospital.

Art in the hospital is one of the most exciting projects for bringing the visual arts into public spaces. Moreover, the exhibition in the Sotiria Hospital is more than a visual-art display in the sensitive spaces of a hospital. The Sotiria Hospital building is a historically charged place, in which many stories have unfolded. It is the first Greek public sanatorium (1903), established in the spirit of 19th-century philanthropy. It operated, for half a century, as a place of confinement – intentional or not – for patients with tuberculosis. It was a characteristic example of a place where society isolated a special kind of persons who were deemed in a condition of crisis. During the period of the German Occupation of Greece, the Sotiria Hospital became once again associated with the country’s history through fighter executions and prisoner escapes.

TEXT from the speech of the participating artist Peggy Kliafa

Artwork: “Window”

The invention of some medicines changed the flow of history!

This applies to the history of the Sotiria Hospital, too, I suppose, when antibiotics were invented sometime in the 1950s. First streptomycin and then other medicines, on condition of being used systematically, gave, not only the hope of healing, but healing, life itself to the sufferers of tuberculosis.

The landscape changed! The sufferer no longer went to a place such as the Sotiria Hospital to die, but to be healed: there was a window! A window thanks to the medicine. This became the theme of my work for the Sotiria/Salvation Project:

A “Window” to the world, to life thanks to medicines. A window is a limit: it divides and unites the inside and the outside. The work is a “construction”, and being in a dialogue with the permanent elements of the building, also an “installation”.

By retaining the outside dimensions and axes of the wooden elements of the existing window of the Spiliopouleio building, I designed a frame, which could be reminiscent of a church stained-glass window. It is a dark grey, almost black, wooden frame with an arch at the top and a bold cross in the middle. In place of the window panes or possible religious representations I created patterns using empty pill blisters.

The internal organization of the piece exhales balance and serenity thanks to the horizontal/vertical axis and the symmetry of the separators and internal motifs. The emerging motif was based on uniformity and depended on the available blisters – approx. 600 – with which the hospital‘s pharmacy was kind enough to provide me.

A basic characteristic of the piece is transparency and therefore its dependence on light, which energizes it, creating a multitude of effects, thus making it work better during the day, in my opinion.

The medicine is “a window to the world” by itself, both as a way out of illness and pain, and in the sense of a worldview. Taking or avoiding certain medicines, and the kind of medicines that each one of us decides to take clearly reflect our attitude towards life.

In early human societies the shaman was the representative of religion, as well as the healer, who employed the use of herbs and rituals. As societies evolved, these two capacities were entirely separated as far as the practical-material content is concerned; religion retained the abstract-mental aspects of healing (autosuggestion), and medicine preserved “magic” to some extent. This window could also evoke a church stained glass, not only because of the replacement of sacred themes by blisters, but also as a feeling. Both stained glass and blisters permit light to penetrate the space, but “moderated”. In this way they create an ambiance that encourages prayer and introspection.

In addition, the Cross is a characteristic religious symbol; its shape helped to cover the figure of the existing window, differentiating it from a common window, but it also contains a contrast:

Horizontal – vertical, life – death, precisely as the medicine does: remedy – poison.

Peggy Kliafa
2010