AthenSYN II: GOING VIRAL exhibition and symposium for Contemporary Greek Art in Berlin will open on 20 January 2022 with 14 artistic positions of the generation Y in the newly established STEINZEIT Gallery in Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
The participating artists are raising questions that concern our future coexistence. The aftermath of the pandemic literally illustrates the meaning of the word “viral” as it is also used in a digital context. Thousands of lives can depend on the actions of an individual as epidemics spread.
How isolated do we feel and act as individuals? AthenSYN II: GOING VIRAL focuses on the subtle connection of all existence, the importance of taking initiative and the search for ecological and affectively sustainable ways of living.
In AthenSYN II: GOING VIRAL, AthenSYN presents paintings, videos, sculptures and installations by 15 young Greek artists who have been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS, created against their background experience between the socio-economic crisis of 2009 and the current Covid-19 Pandemic. The positioning of Greek art between the global South and the North, lack of economic resources and prosperity, political center and periphery, traditionalism and innovation is characteristic.
Panos Kompis’ work is a poetic reference to human existence in defense, while Anestis Ioannou deals with the construction of subjectivity in urban environments. Kyriaki Goni thematizes the relationship between man and machine, which Andreas Ragnar Kassapis examines in the tension between perception of naturally and technically generated images. In the age of augmented reality, Latent Community (Jonian Bisai & Sotiris Tsiganos) interweave social engagement in participatory and performative strategies to create hybrid video installations, Sofia Dona illuminates historical and social site-specific influences through alienation, the Collectif MASI develops an experimental approach at the interface of architecture, sociology and visual arts of urban scenography with social art. Maro Fasouli creates connections between somatic practices, work and gender, Ileana Arnaoutou combines in her painting and sculpture the topography of longing, mourning and healing with somatic processes and creates a “landscape of affect”. Maria Tsagkari’s works show hidden narratives that respond subversively to historical references and thereby pose questions about the politics of desire. The works of Stefania Strouza and Irini Miga awaken associations between the symbolic world of objects and ideas of temporality, corporeality and geography. Maria Louizou’s large-format sculptures show the performer as a living resonance body. Ersi Varveri shows transformational processes in constant becoming in the fluidity of existence..
The exhibition, curated by Sotirios Bahtsetzis and Katja Ehrhardt, opens with a two-day hybrid symposium with artists, theorists and activists from Greece and Germany on sustainability, self-organization and alternative economies with workshops, discussions and film screening. Initiated and organized by AthenSYN in collaboration with ARTWORKS, STEINZEIT Gallery Berlin and FREIRAUM in der Box Berlin. Supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Schwarz Foundation, Kulturamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Griechische Kulturstiftung Berlin. Under the patronage of the Greek Embassy Berlin.
AthenSYN II: GOING VIRAL
Exhibition and Symposium for Contemporary Greek Art in Berlin
STEINZEIT Gallery
Kottbusser Str. 11
1ß999 Berlin
Opening: 20 January 2022, 5-9pm
Duration: 21 January–3 March 2022
Artists: Ileana Arnaoutou, Sofia Dona, Maro Fasouli, Kyriaki Goni, Anestis Ioannou, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, Panos Kompis, Latent Community (SNF ARTWORKS Fellows Jonian Bisai & Sotiris Tsigkanos), Maria Louizou, Collectif MASI (SNF ARTWORKS Fellow Madlen Anipsitaki & Simon Riedler), Irini Miga, Stefania Strouza, Maria Tsagkari, Ersi Varveri
Curated by: Sotirios Bahtsetzis and Katja Ehrhardt
In collaboration with: ARTWORKS, STEINZEIT Gallery Berlin, FREIRAUM in der Box Berlin
Donors: Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Schwarz Foundation, Griechische Kulturstiftung Zweigstelle Berlin, Hellenic Foundation for Culture
Under the Patronage of: Botschaft der hellenischen republik in deutschland