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.
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.
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