Malvina Panagiotidi at the group exhibition “History of Absence”

AMA House is pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition “History of Absence”, opening on Saturday July 9th, 2022, at Spetses Island.

Following a year-long artist residency program in Greece, AMA House is reclaiming the emblematic building of the formerly all-males boarding school “Anargyrios & Korgialenios Foundation” in Spetses with the exhibition History of Absence, curated by Elina Axioti, and newly commissioned works to Agata Ingarden, Malvina Panagiotidi and Chloé Royer.

Starting from the last year’s issue of AMA house Tactile Ghost, with works by Eva Papamargariti and Marios Stamatis, the History of Absence continues on an investigation of visibility and context, referring again to a certain “fantasmography,” as a way of collecting the uncollectible when the uncollectible can turn to the specter of ghosts. Three speculative installation works present history through re-collections, meaningful options of their reading and attempted distortive perspectives. The works are driven by investigations about local histories attempting an inversion where the ghost-like is reinstated as a present element voiced by feminist practices. Absence becomes evident as the show prioritizes some impossible views. The installations are set as ensembles of sculptural objects, operating on local narratives. Inspired by Iannis Xenakis, who attended the former boarding school as a child, the work of the taxidermist, Dimitris Katsoris, who hunted in the surrounding forest, and the sea creatures. They treat history as an idiosyncratic loss of balance between remains; where narrative emerges as this exact trouble in equilibrium. History is rarely challenging itself enough if it is operated in a visible mode, seeking between visible elements alone; the most important side of history deals with saving the elements that disappeared from it; bringing forward the disappeared can be understood as the driving force of historical creativity. This could be a synonym for forcing absence to become something that it is not. A set of instances, referring to an invisible missing presence, becomes more accurate than absence, crystallizing the local, hidden side of the generic social sphere (while) resisting it in different ways.

History of Absence

Agata Ingarden
Malvina Panagiotidi*
Chloé Royer

Curated by Elina Axioti
Organized & produced by ΑΜΑ House

Opening: Saturday, July 9, 2022, 19:00 – 23:00

Exhibition Duration: July 9 – September 11, 2022

Venue: Anargyrios & Korgialenios Foundation, Spetses Island

Exhibition visiting hours: Daily, 10:00 – 22:00

*Malvina Panagiotidi is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow