A major exhibition of contemporary art currently being made in Britain, curated by Katerina Gregos. This exhibition is one of the largest and most significant productions of the British Council, in Greece, in the field of the visual arts.
presented by the British Council
Opening: Saturday 3rd April 2004
VENUES:
Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, 48 Armatolon & Klefton St., GR - 114-71, Athens T. +30 210 6439466
Xippas Gallery, Sofokleous 53D, GR - 105 52, Athens. T. +30 210 3319333
The Breeder, 6 Evmorfopoulou St., GR - 105 53, Athens. T. +30 210 3317527/8
The British Council, 17 Kolonaki Square, GR - 106 73, Athens. T +30 210 3692333
The British Council is very pleased to present Britannia Works, a major
exhibition of contemporary art currently being made in Britain, curated by
Katerina Gregos. This exhibition is one of the largest and most
significant productions of the British Council, in Greece, in the field of
the visual arts. The exhibition will take place in three of Athens'
premier exhibition venues: the Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre,
Xippas Gallery, and the Breeder from the 3rd April to the 29th May 2004,
as well as at the British Council auditorium, which will host a film
programme.
Britannia Works is taking place at a time when the British art star system
and its homogenising, publicity-driven tendencies have come under
increasing criticism. The exhibition will present a wide cross-section of
art, by artists of different ethnic origins, in the so-called post-'yBa'
era. It will not be governed by any overarching curatorial concept, but
will look at the individual contributions of artists, who may not
necessarily be of British nationality, but have chosen to make Britain
their home and place of work. Britannia Works will aim to give an idea of
the range of art currently being made, and articulate a sense of the
increasing openness that characterises the British art scene now, a reason
why so many non-British artists are drawn to the UK. In that sense, the
exhibition will try to steer clear of generalizing notions of
"Britishness" or homogenising definitions of "British art" and instead
draw attention to the multi-faceted, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic
perspectives that are an integral part of post-colonial UK.
The exhibition will include primarily young and emerging artists, as well
as a handful of slightly older artists who were never assimilated into the
'yBa' hype and have consistently been producing work of distinction. The
artists in the exhibition - the majority of whom will be exhibiting in
Greece for the first time - will present work in different media and
diverse visual languages. Britannia Works aims to generate an open-ended
forum of discussion on art being made in Britain today, but also hopes to
be able to pinpoint certain areas of interest that currently preoccupy
artists. These areas range from a renewed concern with the possibilities
of painting and sculpture and the legacy of modernism, to a continuing
preoccupation with contemporary culture, socially engaged art practice, or
art that examines different facets of the everyday. Rather than trying to
"package" artists under one oversimplifying rubric, Britannia Works aims
to celebrate individual artistic visions and present a variety of artistic
viewpoints, positions and languages. In contrast to much of the work made
in the '90s, which tended to be extroverted, to have high production
values and to appropriate ready-made materials, the work of many of the
artists in Britannia Works tends to be more low- key, subtle and modest,
often reflecting private, idiosyncratic concerns. Much of it may be
handcrafted and labour-intensive, using cheap, lo-tech materials. Most of
them have consciously distanced themselves from the attention-grabbing
shock tactics of their predecessors to make work that defies
categorisation and does not obey any rules. Even old- fashioned,
traditional genres such as landscape or portraiture are being re-visited
and re-negotiated. These artists are aware of the trappings of the ironic
one-liner and the conceptual joke and aim to create art that is
multi-dimensional, contemplative, and less deliberately confrontational or
concerned with making definitive statements.
What is happening in the British art scene now? How has it developed and
changed over the last years? How do artists who come from a different
culture but choose to make Britain their home, respond to their
environment? What are the issues that seem to predominate among younger
artists? These are just some of the questions that Britannia Works hopes
to address.
Participating artists:
FAISAL ABDU' ALLAH (Born 1969, London, UK), SHAHIN AFRASSIABI (Born 1969,
Tehran, Iran), ARTLAB, BLACK AUDIO FILM COLLECTIVE, MATT BRYANS (Born
1977, London, UK), ERGIN CAVUSOGLU (Born 1968, Tirgoviste, Bulgaria),
JEREMY DELLER (Born 1966, London, UK), NICK EVANS (Born 1976, Mufulira,
Zambia), JULIE HENRY (Born 1959, Cambridge, UK), SOPHIE VON HELLERMAN
(Born 1975, Munich, Germany), MARINE HUGONNIER (Born 1969, Paris, France),
RUNA ISLAM (Born 1970, Dhaka, Bangladesh), MARK LECKEY (Born 1964, London,
UK), CAMILLA LOW (Born 1976, Oslo, Norway), HAYLEY NEWMAN (Born 1969,
Guildford, UK), ROSALIND NASHASHIBI (Born 1973, Croydon, UK), TOBY
PATERSON (Born 1974, Glasgow, UK), JOHN RIDDY (Born 1959, Northampton,
UK), ZINEB SEDIRA (Born 1963, Paris, France), GEORGE SHAW (Born 1966,
Coventry, UK), DAVID SHRIGLEY (Born 1968, Macclesfield, UK), DJ SIMPSON
(Born 1966, Lancaster, UK), TIM STONER (Born 1970, London, UK), MARK
TITCHNER (Born 1973, Luton, UK), NOBUKO TSUCHIYA (Born 1972, Yokohama,
Japan), VISION MACHINE, RICHARD WATHEN (Born 1971, London, UK), GARY WEBB
(Born 1973, Bascombe, UK), SHIZUKA YOKOMIZO (Born 1966, Tokyo, Japan)
A bilingual (English/Greek) colour catalogue will be published on the
occasion of the exhibition
PRODUCED AND ORGANISED BY: The British Council
CURATOR: Katerina Gregos
CO-ORDINATION: m.p.artproductions
For more information and images please contact Stavros Kavallaris or
Isabella Kovas at m.p.artproductions:
118 D Kifissias Avenue, GR - 115 26 Athens
Tel.: +30 210 6913943, +30 210 6912331 Fax: +30 210 6980673