Art Athina

1-30 November, 2021

@ aavirtual.gr ←
︎︎︎Curated by Ariana Kalliga

Participating Artists: Anietie Ekanem, Casa Antillón, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Eleni Papazoglou, Adrianos Efthymiadis & Iria Vrettou, Irina Jasnowski Pascual, Santiago Gomez, Ellie Antoniou

space52 x Art Athina was one of the independent showcases at the Athens Contemporary Art Fair (Art Athina) from November 1st through November 30th, 2021. Bringing together a group of young artists from Greece, Spain and Mexico, the online exhibition aimed to showcase recent works produced at the intersection of contemporary art and design.

Eleni Papazoglou’s “Fssiiiing” series sees the artist expose the mundane beauty of industrial production and commerce. Such elements look purposively made yet are nonsensical both in themselves and their display. The mechanically-produced curved edges and the repeated printed brand name  are flatly packaged into a single polypropylene sheet as if displayed for consumption. Yet, there is no obvious intended use or function. In a way, Papazoglou’s work creates a sense of nostalgia. What we see are the remnants of the artist playing work, factory, production line, shop; “I stamp, and hole punch, label and package.” In an act of subversion, what is left are the remnants of performance as decoration.

Irina Jasnowski Pascual, Untitled (2019). Ink and graphite on paper.

Necropsy of a Void (2021) is a short film created by Adrianos Efthymiadis and Iria Vrettou. A tale of an almost anti-diluvian dream-like world in which “9 ½ serenades for the exorcism of ghosts” is narrated by Pelly Argyropoulou against a medieval background music script. Set in “The Void” each ‘serenade’ is a small soundbite animation in black and white centred around the theme of necropsy, a poetic narrative of consumption. As whales eat the personified moon and masked actors prance in absurdity around a flattened amphitheatre, this piece unpacks an underlying condition that consumption seems to be an entropic determined state of being.

Ellie Antoniou, Departing from Beta State (triptych, 2021) - ThetaWave - mild steel - 200 x 400 x 2mm

Ellie Antoniou’s Departing from Beta State Triptych (2021)  explores phenomenological bodily engagements and entanglements within infrastructural conditions. Her triptych functions as a tautology; dynamically shifting along a horizontal axis, in and out of the central panel. Here, cloud-like voluminous swathes of white & grey matter roll in and over itself. This central panel acts as a formative departure point. The work is grounded with the black panels on either side. A sense of place is created with the geometric perspectival lines in front of which figurative painterly marks dance.

Casa Antillón, Silla “Luna” (2021). Installation.

By pasting the highly commodified “Just Do It” slogan onto a bone, the remnants of something that was once alive, Gomez highlights the ubiquitousness of such branding as well as the ability of branding to make anything look appealing or consumable. It is at this moment that the viewer realises they themselves have been played. Whilst the slogan “Just Do It” invites the viewer to consume, the viewer is at the same time reminded that the object up for consumption has been feasted on already.  

Anietie Ekanem, They called us devils too (2021). Rope, industrial tape, and chrome-spray on canvas.