artist with emergency opinion about today :
Dimitris Baboulis
Sophie Herjl
Maria Ikonomopoulou
Petros Moris
Philippos Theodorides
Erifyli Veneri
photo here
text by Yannis Constantinidis:
Maybe, where punctuality is de rigeur, one should start commenting on that: all artists bringing in works for Athens Emergency room official opening day, were at the gallery by 12:10. As a matter of fact, their intentness to respect the announced schedule left enough time margin for all commenting and filming to be done on time and “penetrate” the room at exactly 12:30. All of the six artists -at the exception of Sophie Hjerl- responded to the main headline news which, in Greece, remains the same for the past 8 days: the wildfires at the Peloponnese.
Maria Ikonomopoulou’ s work was created out of a newspaper page, fromwhich she had removed –by cutting out- all the words and phrasesrefering to the Greek state. All articles related to the wildfires were slightly covered with charcoal, giving the impression of being fumed by the still burning forests. Her work was a reaction to a video broadcasted on a national TV channel (NET), showing a man from the village of Karitena, in central Peloponnese, who was grievingly declaring that fires in the surrounding area, although they have been put off the previous day, they were now starting again stronger and threatening.The man’s tragic witnessing was mainly revolving around the(rhetorical) question whether a governmental official would ever bepresent in person, at his village, for explaining him (presumably, to the rest of the residents as well), why all this disaster was allowed to happen. His statement was implying that government has been totallyabsent, abandoning the suffering area in its bad fate. Furthermore, he was imputing that the Greek state was not only unable to rescue the lands, but it had also appeared indisposed for moral and practical support to these people. Like if it was inexistent. So, “inexistence” became the title of the artist’s work. Etherealness and fineness are structural qualities that cannot escape a viewer’s attention in thiswork, which is focusing on bringing to surface strong emotions of indignation and mourning. Both these qualities link this work with a large entity of other paper-cut works that Maria Ikonomopoulou presented recently in several shows.
artists' interview video:
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