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 19th 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