Opening: Thursday 16 May 2013
Exhibition duration: 1-31 May 2013
Location: Faliro Pavillion, Parallel exhibition to Art Athina 2013
Curator: Artemis Potamianou
Participating artists: Aggeliki Svoronou Titanium Art Gallery | Aggelos Plessas Rebecca Camhi | Athanasia, Vidali-Soula Alma Gallery | Antonis Papadopoulos Artis Causa Gallery | Vassilis Avramidis Tsatsis Projects / Artforum | Vassiliki Pikou Gallery Papatzikou | Bonnie Lane Anna Pappas Gallery | Grigoris Grozos Elika Gallery | Dimitra Vamiali Vamiali’s gallery | Dan Dubowitz Mirko Mayer | Irini Bachlitzanaki Cheapart | Evaggelia Spiliopoulou Kaplanon 5 | Eftichis Patsourakis Eleni Koroneou | Efi Papaioannou Astrolavos | Ilias Tsakmakis ArtZone 42 Gallery | Katerina Kalogri Technohoros Art Gallery | Konstantinos Kyrtis Alpha Art Gallery | Lina Theodorou Zina Athanassiadou | Marc Bijl The Breeder | Maria Economopoulou Mulier Mulier Gallery | Maria Aristotelous Penindaplinena Gallery | Marios Fournaris Peritechnon | Babis Papagiannis Ekfrasi-Yianna Grammatopoulou | Miltos Michailidis Medusa | Nikos Papadimitriou AD Gallery | Nikos Arvanitis a.antonopoulou.art | Dina Koubouli Agathi-Kartalos | Orestis Symvoulidis Ersi Gallery | Pagratis Pagratidis Skoufa Gallery | Panagiotis Paloglou Argo Gallery | Panos Tsagaris Kalfayan Galleries | Peggy Kliafa Kappatos Gallery | Pasquale De Sensi ARTcore Gallery | Roderik Henderson Donopoulos IFA Gallery | Roi Alter Joey Ramone Gallery | Sabine Rosenberger Francoise Heitsch | Touls Ploumi CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery | Christina Mitrentse Lola Nikolaou Gallery
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