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