GROUP EXHIBITION “Giantes”
ArtPrisma Gallery (Kountouriotou 187, Piraeus) has organized a group exhibition titled “Yantes”, which will be open from December 17, 2019 to January 17, 2020.
Curators:
Evaggelia Kairaki & Maria Moscha Karatzoglou, Art Historians, Members of the AGAH (Association of Greek Art Historians)
Participating Artists: Lee Joeun, Adrianos, Sotiria Alevizou , Αntonis Αntzoulidis, Katia Varvaki, Margarita Vasilakou, Fani Vlantopoulou, Andreas Gavriliadis, Demosthenes Davvetas, Gerassimos Thomas, Panayiotis Kampylis, Irene Kana, Christina Kontogeorgou, Maria Ktistopoulou, Dimitra Laoutari, Antonia Mantzouka, Lydia Margaroni , Vivi Mentzelopoulou, Penelope Merkouri, Ioanna Michopoulou. Dimitra Bakogiannaki, Diana Nasiopoulou, Chrisoula Xineli, Despina Pantazi, Giorgos Papastathopoulos, Konstantina Paraskevopoulou, Afrodite Sezenia, Soutoglou Efi, Sofia Stavrou, Yannis Stefanakis, John Jomakas, Kerassia Touliatou, Amalia Ferentinou, Katerina HATZI, Myrtia Hellner, Nikos Chiotinis, Katerina Hortaria, Ioanna Christakou
The curators comment: in every society playtime, spent alone or with a group of peers, be it spontaneous or planned, is meant to satisfy a child’s want for exercise, socialization, and independent action, as well as to fill its emotional needs. According to Jean Piaget, the founder of the theory of learning, playing helps children absorb the knowledge acquired from their experiences with objects and situations. Hence, they are able to transform reality, express their feelings and improve on their relationship with their environment. Archaeological finds, such as playthings and dolls form ancient Greece, Africa or the Far East, board games from ancient Egypt, as well as marbles, balls, jump ropes and hoops, as actual objects or as representations in every civilization and up to our days, attest to the fact that throughout the world playing has always been a source of amusement and entertainment, a means to provide learning and physical exercise and a key factor in a child’s upbringing in general. In his Laws Plato stresses the importance of allowing children to play as they please until the age of six, when systematic education begins. However, the most remarkable view, with a philosophical and existential flair, was expressed by Heraclitus, in his phrase, “Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.”[1]
Thirty eight contemporary artists recall memories of the interactions of their early age and subsequently transform them into acts of artistic expression. Hence, they reveal impressions from experiences felt for the very first time, which bear something from the narcissism, the genuineness, as well as from the Dadaistic incoherence of our childhood years, an age both bizarre and true, albeit in a smaller case, attractive and sometimes repulsive, just like the allegorical scenes depicted in the genre paintings by Pieter Bruegel.
The actual challenge for the artists was to produce a representation of childhood that would not lessen its truth and power, but would rather emphasize it. The aim of this exhibition, which takes place during a festive season, devoted mainly to the children, is to illustrate their continuous relationship with their play as a means of exploring the real world or as an attempt to create their own imaginary micro-universe. “Yantes” or the “Wishbone game” constitutes thus a personal bet made with our lost self, a conscious pledge made figuratively as we stare like Faust at our reflection in the mirror, only to receive the forthright response: “I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! […]I don’t tell the truth. I tell what ought to be truth”, as Blanche Dubois calls.[2]
[1] The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (1979) translated by Charles H. Kahn. Original quote: “Αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων πεσσεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη”.
[2] Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire.