In the exhibition Six Breaths per Minute, Maria Louizou presents a sculptural installation combined with a vocal performance. Upon entering the ground floor of the gallery, the visitors encounter three large-scale clay constructions, in which the three performers step into in order to “use” the sculptures as speakers for a composition created by the artist herself.
For these large clay sculptures, Louizou drew her inspiration from the Greek tradition, ancient and contemporary, and the end result is a combination of different pottery forms, chosen to serve both the artistic vision of the artist, but also to create the necessary conditions to achieve the desired acoustics. The earthy material of the sculptures matches the colour of the performers’ costumes, which, standing still, become one with them. The sound of their voice travels in the room and activates another of the viewers’ senses, thus enhancing their connection with the artworks.
On the day of the opening the performances will take place from 12:30 to 20:30.
Afterwards, until July 17th the performances will take place every Thursday from 17:00 to 20:00 and every Saturday from 12:30 to 15:30.
The rest of the hours there will be a video recording of the performance in the exhibition space.
Maria Louizou lives and works in Athens. Her work consists of sculptural installations in which vocal compositions that she herself creates are hosted. She studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts and theory of composition of classical and electronic music. In 2020 she received the ARTWORKS award, while her research entitled Physicality in modern sculpture, vocal and Greek tradition was funded the same year by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, YPOA. IN 2019, her work was presented in New York, at the annual Tabula Rasa exhibition under the artistic direction of Robert Wilson, as well as in BEIJING, where she won the China Taiyuan International Youth Metal Sculpture Creations Award 2018.
Her work has also been presented in Theorimata exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST), while her participation in the Watermill Center summer residency was funded through a donation from collectors Cornelia Long and Franz Wassmer. Her first solo exhibition 22°C took place in Rome, at the Sinestetica gallery, in 2019, and she is about to present a collective work as a member of the residency Station One Air 2021 Hippodamia in Context in collaboration with Columbia University and the Victoria Square Project team.
Performers:
Aliki Siousti, soprano
Katerina Nounopoulou, soprano
Maria Louizou, soprano
Exhibition text: Christoforos Marinos
Flyer design: Studio Lialios Vazoura
Invitation photo: Petros Toufexis
Documentary and performance video: George Makris
Grand sponsor:
TERRANEO MYKENE HELLAS
The research for the project was funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture.
*Maria Louizou is ARTWORKS Fellow 2020 in visual arts.