Art Athina 2017
May 26-28, Tae Kwon Do (Faliro Indoor Hall)
The 22nd renewed version of the International Art Fair of Athens Art Athina, one of the oldest international art fairs of Europe, opens its doors on Friday May 26th – 28th at Tae Kwon Do Stadium (Faliro Indoor Hall).
Gianna Grammatopoulou: “The year of 2017 signals a new era for Art Athina that becomes clear in every aspect of it. The exhibition’s new artistic team consists of new and recognized people of the visual arts’field in Greece and also abroad, who are expected to contribute in the institution’s renewal presenting new related trends.”
Stamatia Dimitrakopoulou: “Taking up the position of the 22nd Art Athina’s artistic director is a serious challenge as the purely institutional part has to be combined with fresh ideas that will breathe new life into the institution’s profile. We work hard towards this direction, so, this year’s Art Athina will meet all the necessary conditions that will permit it to be dynamic and inclusive, being attractive for the biggest possible audience.”
12 sections comprise the basic spine of the fair which is composed by 56 local and international participations, according the program of its new artistic director, Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos.
The artistic program focuses on video, performance, design, project spaces, as well as the history of the organization that was funded by the Hellenic Galleries Association (PSAT) in 1993. Art Athina also includes conversations, children activities, and a very rich VIP program addressed to collectors.
Xenia Kalpaktsoglou as Artistic Advisor and Adonis Kourkoulos as coordination manager consist the new organizing team of Art Athina. The production of Art Athina is entrusted to Be Best company.
The new identity of the art fair is designed by G Design Studio, while Stavros Papagiannis (Stage Design Office) is responsible for the architecture and design of the organization.
The basic structure of the fair is the following:
MAIN
43 galleries from all over Greece and abroad present their program in the arena of Tae Kwon Do stadium.
HIGHLIGHT
New international entries participate in this new section of Art Athina. Art Athina 2017 hosts 13 galleries, the majority coming from Los Angeles.
FEATURE
A section conceived and organized by an annually appointed curator.
This year’s section will is curated by Myriam Ben Salah (b. 1985, Algiers) editor-in-chief of Kaleidoscope magazine and curator, based in Paris. Ben Salah invites The Third Line gallery (Dubai) and Gregor Staiger gallery (Zurich) to participate in Art Athina with solo shows of artists Sophia Al Maria and Shana Moulton respectively. The title of this year’s Feature section is “Alternatives” and focuses on the work of the two artists who underline with sharp humor and dark precision the contemporary anxieties of our consumer society.
VIDEO
Designed as a hotel room, the video room hosts CITIZENSFIVE, the project that the independent curator and writer Sasha Burenkov has curated for Art Athina. CITIZENSFIVE is a large-scale survey of emergent contemporary art from all over the world, with 32 local and international participants. The screening program confronts our uneasiness at being swept by the digital tide while on the same time it offers a better understanding of our modern hyperlinked society and new perspectives on conceptualizing our contemporary identities.
SURVEY
Independent curator Gallini Notti curates an archival exhibition with works that have marked the history of Art Athina. Through an act of introspection, the exhibition attempts to create an overview of the athenian art fair throughout the years.
Τhe section also includes the audiovisual installation of Katerina Zacharopoulou “Asking” (2014) that was made possible with the support of NEON organization. The installation is based on the material of the interviews conducted by Katerina Zacharopoulou for two decades, with theoreticians and representatives of museums and artists in Greece and abroad.
PERFORMANCE
The performance program includes artists from the participating galleries. The detailed schedule will be released soon.
TRIBUTE
Art Athina commemorates artists Jannis Kounellis and Dimitris Mytaras.
The J.F Kostopoulos Foundation presents a screening of Heinz-Peter Schwerfel’ s film “Frammenti di un diario” (Germany 1996, 46΄) as well as archival and visual material from the Jannis Kounellis exhibition on the cargo vessel IONION (1994). In the context of the tribute, Manolis Baboussis pulls together the presentation “The work of Jannis Kounellis through the lens of Manolis Baboussis”.
The National Gallery – Alexandros Soutzos Museum presents three paintings of the great Greek artist, from the collections of the National Gallery.
DESIGN
Unique, out of production furniture constitutes the section Design, comprised by Zoumboulakis gallery, Eleni Martinou gallery and Antiqua. The booth of DESTE offers a presentation of 1968, in collaboration with Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari’s TOILETPAPER. A small installation featuring Radical Design furniture takes visitors on a making-of tour of the 1968 project while at the same time introduces them to DESTE’s current exhibitions, Liquid Antiquity and DESTE Prize: An Anniversary Exhibition, 1999-2015, through the pages of their respective catalogues.
TALKS
Conversations, panels and interviews fuel the Talks program of Art Athina which is presented in a specially designed room. The detailed program will be released soon.
PUBLICATIONS
Bookshop and publishing house OMMU selects for Art Athina 2017 a series of independent artist books and catalogues. ΟMMU also presents the first archival exhibition of the publishing effort made by Nikos E. Papadakis, founder of ‘KTE’, the Athens Design Center ‘ADC’ together with Eleni Vernadaki, as well as the gallery and publishing house ‘POLIPLANO’ and the magazine ‘SIMA’. The exhibition includes publications, periodicals, ephemera and objects.
OPEN
Τhe annual open air installation of Art Athina, this year will be presented by Sonora128, a billboard project space by kurimanzutto gallery, programmed by Bree Zucker.
INDEPENDENT PROJECTS
Greek and international independent art spaces, present their projects in Art Athina 2017.
Μore Specifically:
Radio Athènes participates in Art Athina with two sound works by artists Rallou Panagiotou and Eleni Bagaki. The sound works have been commissioned in the context of All: Collected Voices, a project organized by Goethe-Institut Athen and Radio Athènes, curated by Thomas Boutoux and Helena Papadopoulos.
Enterprise Projects -an initiative of curator Danai Giannoglou and artist Vasilis Papageorgiou- participate in Art Athina with a fundraising project: the limited edition of an ashtray (edition of 200) bearing their characteristic logo, made in collaboration with Bend design office.
Neoterismoi Toumazou (Neo Toum) from Cyprus will create a lounge-study room, characteristic of their special aesthetics. They will also present their publishing initiative Neo Toum for the first time to the athenian audience.
3137 present their collaborative initiative Leftovers featuring artists Amelia Groom, Angharad Williams, Gianmaria Andreetta and Marion Goix. Leftovers combines performance, writing and sculpture.
ΣΕΡΑΠΙΣ (Serapis) is an international maritime corporation based in Greece, which creates clothing and art, among other works. In Art Athina, Serapis presents a new, limited edition, printed silk scarf. The scarf was designed to be worn by crew members, in this case the people working for the art fair.
Arbit City Group presents “Trophy Wife”, an outdoor installation of their work, in a new site-specific arrangement. The work consists of 10 nautical flags that spell the two words. As Arbit City Group comments, “Trophy wife is Athens and Athens is the trophy wife.”
The greco-parisien brand Pressure which is based in Paris, participates in Art Athina with a capsule collection made exclusively for the fair in collaboration with artist Ilyes Griyeb. Pressure also presents an exhibition of Ilyes grayed photography work.
EDUCATION
Artist drawings, painting activities, interactive exhibits and workshops sustain the program of Very Young Contemporary Art (VYCA) addressed to cat-loving families. The participating artists of Art Athina were asked to create black and white cat-themed drawings specially for the kids. The young and young at heart art crowd will afterwards explore the drawings, fill them with color and create their own cat hero.
In addition to the new structure of Art Athina, this year the fair also presents the VIP program, focused on eminent collectors from Greece and abroad. The special guests will be hosted in the new VIP lounge of Art Athina, furnished with exceptional pieces of Deloudis and Vitra companies.
OPENNING DAYS AND HOURS
Thursday May 25, 14:00-21.00 (invitations only)
Friday, May 26 12:00-21:00
Saturday, May 27 12.00-21:00
Sunday, May 28 12:00-21:00
Entrance:
Ticket price: 8 euros
Reduced (Unemployed, Students, over-65 years old people, Special Needs Individuals): 5 euros
Groups (15+individuals): 5 euros
Free entrance: Children under 12 years old, Students of the Athens School of Fine Arts, AICA Hellenic Chamber of Arts members.
The organization of Art Athina is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Ministry of Tourism, the Region of Attica and the Municipality of Athens
The event is to be supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Regional Operational Programme “Attika” 2014-2020
MEDIA SPONSOR: KROMA