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23/5/2009

2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art

Different venues, Thessaloniki

More than 150 artists / 39 countries / 12 entities from this city / 28 venues / 12 exhibitions and activities

“Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty” is the theme of this year’s 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, which is organized by the State Museum of Contemporary Art from May 24 to September 27, 2009, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Co curators under the general title “Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty” are Bisi Silva from Nigeria (Director of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Lagos), Gabriela Salgado from Argentina (Curator of Public Projects at Tate Modern and Independent Curator), and Syrago Tsiara, Director of the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art.

In his provocatively titled book “After Theory”, the English theorist Terry Eagleton claims not the death of theory, but the redefinition of its goals and fields of research. Perhaps this time of uncertainty could be the moment for the reconsideration of the intrinsic worth of artistic practice? The moment to explore art as a privileged space for relatively free expression of ideas and thoughts and for an alternative view of the world and the social environment? An art that goes back to life, back to Praxis, to the creative activity that contributes to the formation of a political view and to a new way of thinking and being. According to ancient Chinese philosophy, revolution is realignment with the order of the world. Could this be the time to seek a true revolution? Can art provide a window of opportunity in these uncertain times?

MAIN PROGRAMME

“PRAXIS: ART IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY”
57 artists from Greece and abroad will present their work in the main visual arts programme of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. The curators are Bisi Silva (assistant curator: Domna Gounari), Gabriela Salgado (assistant curator: Areti Leopoulou), and Syrago Tsiara (assistant curator: Domna Gounari). The artworks will be displayed in the following venues: Warehouse C, Warehouse 13, the old Ice-Chambers Building, and the Pumping Station in the Port of Thessaloniki, Outdoor Areas of the Port, the Bezesteni, the Bookstore of the National Bank Cultural Foundation, the Bazaar Hamam, the Paradeisos Baths, the Atrium of the Museum of Byzantine Culture, the Atrium of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Mount Athos Center (Nedelkou building), outdoor areas in the city, Bar-restaurant .ES. Inaugurations will be performed at the specific venues on May 24 and the public will be able to visit the exhibitions until September 27.

PARALLEL PROGRAMME

e-MobiLArt / Exhibition of the European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists
Duration: May 20 – June 10
Venue: Warehouse Β1, Port of Thessaloniki

Thirteen participatory and interactive works are displayed in the framework of the European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists (e-MobiLArt), a project financed by the European Union that is coordinated by the New Technologies Laboratory of the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Its goal is to promote mobility and creative cooperation between artists and scientists, mainly from member states of the European Union, but also from third countries, for the creation of interactive works of art and installations. In this framework, three art workshops have been held: in Athens (Greece) in June 2008, in Rovaniemi (Finland) in August 2008, and in Vienna (Austria) in February 2009. The resulting work is first being exhibited at the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art and will travel in September 2009 to the gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland.

In the e-MobiLArt project also participate the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, and the University of Lapland, Finland. Entities cooperating in the project are Leonardo / OLATS, France, the Haute École Groupe ICHEC Saint Louis of Belgium, the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, the software company Cycling 74 (U.S.A.), and the materials company I-QubeX (Canada). This programme is being implemented with the joint financing of the European Union by means of the CULTURE 2007-13 Programme.

Curatorial advisor committee: Annick Bureaud, Nina Czegledy, Christiana Galanopoulou
Committee Honorary member: Roger Malina
Coordination: Laboratory of New Technologies,Department of communication and Media Studies,University of Athens
Anna Mykoniati, Art Historian-Curator of the S.M.C.A.

PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
Duration: May 24 – 30
Venues: Historic monuments of the city, Itinerary of Exhibition Venues of the Main Biennale Programme, Olympion Cinema (foyer – outdoor area), Navarinou Square, Aristotelous Square, outdoor area of the White Tower, Bazaar Hamam, Kamara (Galerius Arch), “To Spiti Mou” Bar, Bar-restaurant .ES, “Partisan” Bar, store windows, bus stops and city buses, Central Markets (Kapani or Modiano), Athonos Square, Amphitheatre of Warehouse 1, foyer of Warehouse D (master classes), Zefxidos Square, Warehouse C, coffee shop of the railway station.

30 artists from Greece, the United States, Portugal, Denmark, Nigeria, Canada, Romania. Poland, Switzerland, Germany, China, Spain, and France are participating in the Festival, which, in the framework of the parallel programme of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, will be entirely dedicated to performance art and will constitute a meeting point for Greek and international artists who are practicing this artistic expression, but also for art theoreticians and critics. The main aim of the festival will be the presentation and endorsement as well as the examination, through an aesthetic approach, of this artistic discipline and practice.

Other than live performances and happenings the festival will consist of various events such as screenings, master classes and a lecture which will touch upon the concept and the development of performance in order to provoke, stimulate and educate the wider public’s awareness.
Curated by: Demosthenis Agrafiotis, Eirini Papakonstantinou

Exhibition “PAINT-ID”
Duration: May 24 – July 31
Venue: Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art
The exhibition entitled “Paint-id” constitutes an appraisal of the role that painting plays in the contemporary art. The title “Paint-id” should be read as both “the identity of painting”, but also as the psychoanalytically defined “painting self”, beyond the ego. The exhibition, from this point of view, has two parameters: it constitutes a comment on the historically defined relationship between the painted image and the society that produces it, but at the same time it also constitutes a trans-historic reference to the ontological conditions of the human condition, as these become points of critical treatment in contemporary works of painting. Video ergo sum. This question is addressed to young Greek artists who express themselves exclusively or mainly through the medium of painting.
Curated by: Denys Zacharopoulos – Sotiris Bahtsetzis

Exhibition “DISCLOSURE – UNDERLINED MEMORY”
Duration: May 24 – July 31
Venue: Museum of Byzantine Culture
11 Serbian contemporary artists attempt in this exhibition to deal with various issues that reveal dilemmas or self-confidence when they are to determine their identity (cultural, national, personal...) trusting a position whose thematic principle is memory as a creative impulse. The curator of the exhibition, Aleksandra Estella Bjelica Mladenovic, gives it the title Disclosure / Underlined Memory and the sub-title A review of contemporary Serbian art, which guarantees the representative character of the artwork and the artists.
Curated by: Aleksandra Estella Bjelica Mladenovic
Coordinator: Theodore Markoglou, Art Historian – Curator of the S.M.C.A.
In cooperation with the Cultural Centre of Belgrade.

Exhibition “FACE TO FACES (FACE Á FACES)”, in cooperation with the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
Part A: French Institute of Thessaloniki (May 25 – July 14)
Part B: Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (July 16 – September 15)
The rationale of this international group exhibition is “cross-cultural” dialogue among artists who are living or working in France, with artists from other countries, on the shared thematic axis of the (self-)portrait. With the ultimate goal being to expand and explore the boundaries of a simple thematic group exhibition, the original “body” of the exhibition is touring the world, while each time that it is displayed in a country, it is enriched with the work of the artists from the place that hosts it. The selection of the works is signed by two curators, the curator of the touring exhibition and a curator from the host country of the exhibition. In the first part of the exhibition, with the vidéo installation at the French Institute of Thessaloniki, internationally recognized Greek and international artists will participate, such as Yann Tomma, Dominique Lejman, Cécile Hartmann, Orlan, Maria Klonaris-Katerina Thomadaki, Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Maria Zervou, Evanthia Tsantila, and others. The second part of the exhibition, at the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, includes photographs by 14 contemporary artists of international renown from abroad: Nan Goldin, Suzanne Lafont, Philippe Ramette, Orlan, Kimiko Yoshida, Hans Hemmert, Alain Bublex, Jean Luc Vilmouth, Francois Rousseau, Yuki Onodera, Roman Opalka, Yan Tomma, Cécile Hartmann, and Dominique Lejman, combined with the works of important contemporary Greek artists, such as Christina Dimitriadi, Panos Kokkinias, Manolis Babousis, Venia Behraki, Eleni Mouzakiti, Lia Nalbantidou, Giorgos Prinos, Pavlos Fysakis, Athina Chroni, Eleni Maligoura, and others.

The exhibition is integrated in the wider action entitled ‘DIALOGUES D’IMAGES’ (DIALOGUE OF IMAGES) and is an initiative of “CULTURESFRANCE”, an entity of the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France (previously known as AFAA or Association Française d’Action Artistique).
Curator - Coordinator: Isabelle de Montfumat & Angela Grammatikopoulou – Culture France

YOUNG ARTISTS’ WORKSHOP
Duration: 1st Stage: June 15-21, 2nd Stage: September 23 – end of October Venue: 1st Stage Municipality of Thermi, 2nd Stage: Artforum Vilka Gallery The subject of the workshop for young artists is “Multi-culturality: The Same Place - Other Times” and the basic idea is to provide the participating artists with the opportunity to be acquainted with the area of the center of the city delineated by Egnatia, Halkeon, Mitropolitou Gennadiou, and Kassandrou Streets. This is a part of the city that was “alive” for the entire duration of its long history and includes characteristic monuments of all its cultural layers, about which the artists will be informed by means of on-site visits/guided tours, speeches by archaeologists/historians, and relevant bibliography.
Subsequently, they will be invited to prepare works of art (possibly even on-site interventions in the space) that will provide the spirit of the area, which has been intense and particular for centuries. It is expected that various pieces of the site and its history will arouse the curiosity of each artist; thus, the resulting exhibition will be of particular depictive interest. Subsequently, in the 2nd stage of the action, the works of art will be displayed from September 23 to the end of October at the Artforum Vilka Gallery.
The participants are: Hamra Abbas (Kuwait), Sanjar Djabbarov (Uzbekistan – with a scholarship from the State Museum of Contemporary Art), Claudio Gobbi (Italy), Dylan Graham (Australia), Jerome Loisy (France), Wilfredo Prieto (Cuba), Bidyut (Bobby) Singha (India), Yang Yongliang (China), Ioanna (Janis) Rafailidou, and Vasiliki Matta.
Curated by: Anna Mykoniati, Art Historian – Curator of the S.M.C.A.

ELECTRΟS
Duration: June 17 – August 30
Venue: Warehouse Β1, Port of Thessaloniki
In this exhibition, a large part of the work of “Electrοs” (Babis Vekris) from the last decade will be displayed. These works consist of installations, environments, and wall compositions, in which art meets technology in an interesting and original way.
Curator - Coordinator: Yiannis Bolis, Art Historian – Curator of the S.M.C.A.

Exhibition “PANORAMA OF CONTEMPORARY GREEK ENGRAVING”
Duration: June 18 – September 12
Venue: Cultural Center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki (Area of Ano Toumpa) Approximately 220 engravings by 157 artists are included in the exhibition entitled A Panorama of Contemporary Greek Engraving, which is being hosted at the “Technopolis” site of the Municipality of Athens in 2008 and which, in the framework of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, will be moved to the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, in Ano Toumpa. This is an event jointly organized by the State Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, and the Ephorate of Engraving.
Coordinator: Kleoniki Christoforidou, Department of Archive and Publications S.M.C.A.

Exhibition “1000+1 PRAX(E)IS”
Duration: September 2 – October 5
Venues: Goethe Institut and French Institute of Thessaloniki
The exhibition “1000+1 Prax(e)is”, in the framework of the parallel programme of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, is designed to identify those actions which, literally or potentially, might transform the physical space or reshape social relations - through the creative process and theory, the theoretical/political and by extension, social discourse-project – into acts of catharsis. The question it poses is whether the work of art is an act of protest against materialistic and economic determinism. If the artist acts, works, transacts and thinks on the basis of the reality created for him, how does he perceive it? Does he interpret it? Does he manage it? And a final question: is the visual result the epilogue of the process between theory and work of art – and how can this define and determine, subsequently, the challenge and the appeal of another discourse?

Artists: Jean-Pierre Attal, Pavlina Verouki, Angeliki Valvi, Maria Glyka, Andreas Mitropoulos, Ceasaras Vrettos, Alexandros Tsamouris, Chrysi Tsiota, Haris Pallas, Patrick Meyer, Foteini Kalle and Victoria Karvouni, Rania Bellou, Sencer Vardaman, Aspasia Krystalla, Giorgos Komninakis, Irene Anton, Michael H. Rohde, Olivier Roller, and Tassos Pavlopoulos.
Curated by: Dorothea Konteletzidou, Art Historian – Curator
Assistant Curator: Eirini Papakonstantinou, Art Historian – Curator of the S.M.C.A.

Exhibition of Greek Artists: “PERSONAL/POLITICAL”
Duration: September 11 – October 23
Venue: Warehouse Β1, Port of Thessaloniki
Given that every judgment, every movement of a person is a chain in his or her political and social action, the purpose of this exhibition concerns the way in which, in the work of artists, the political dimension and consequence of every personal choice appears. The way in which the micro-historical view meets the macro-historical one and they are united. The goal is to explore different types of personal choices, which constitute a social and political attitude or choice, which function as a mirror of society (for example gender, race, nationality, religion, sexuality, environmental awareness, and personality). And vice versa, to form an effort to hear from the reality of Greek visual arts, as it is being shaped following a series of political and social changes and events, which affect every facet of people's personality and daily life , possibly simply because it always happens this way in times that are confronted with crises, breaks, and dead ends.
Curated by: Areti Leopoulou & Theodore Markoglou, Art Historians and Curators of the S.M.C.A.

SMCA & TCCA Press Office
Yiota Sotiropoulou Tel.: +30 2310589152, Fax: +30 2310589210 press@greekstatemuseum.com

The Biennale's website will gradually present the entire programme of exhibitions and actions (with exact dates of inauguration and durations) that will take place at various sites in the city with the cooperation of many cultural entities.
http://www.thessalonikibiennale.gr

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