Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Primordial Future
Palermo – Torino – Trieste
Curated and coordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou and Matteo Pacini
TRIESTE
Sound
Sartorio Civic Museum and San Giusto Castle
13 April – 16 June 2019
Grand opening Sartorio Civic Museum Friday 12 April, 5pm
From 13 April to 16 June 2019, the historic halls of the Sartorio Civic Museum and the San Giusto Castle in Trieste will host the last of the trilogy of Italian exhibitions by Greek sculptress Venia Dimitrakopoulou, entitled Primordial Future – Sound, organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture-Italy in collaboration with the Gallery ARTESPRESSIONE-Milan curated and co-ordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou and Matteo Pacini.
The exhibition series is accompanied by a complete bilingual catalogue in Italian and English, published by Umberto Allemandi with a critic text by Franco Fanelli.
For this third major Italian solo show, which follows her exhibitions centred on the theme of ‘Matter’ in Palermo and ‘Logos’ in Turin, the artist is presenting a new selection of works dedicated to the theme of ‘Sound’, which, in keeping with her stylistic approach, range from small to large dimensions and span traditional sculpture, installation, video, performance, writing and graphics. Intended as a single project in evolution, the Italian trilogy Primordial Future has proposed different works in each city and exhibition space, with the aim of integrating the sculptress’s work into each specific museum environment to create a visual interaction with the objects on exhibit.
In Trieste, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s sound evocations, winding through the stately rooms of the eighteenth-century villa, home of the Sartorio Civic Museum, in dialogue with the original period furnishings. Visitors enter the exhibition on the first floor in the ‘Salone delle Feste’ – characterized by the presence of two magnificent 18th century tapestries – and interact with an installation composed by key works of the entire exhibition triptych of Venia Dimitrakopoulou in Italy, such as warrior heads in plaster and bronze, Linethoughts, Shirt of Nessus I and a new work on paper entitled The Score of Memory. The work, especially created for the occasion, represents the emblematic expression of the exhibition’s theme, marking the end of a path, that is both linear and circular. In the words of the artist: “The trilogy ends in Trieste, an important city for its geographical position and its history, a crossroads that connects North and South, in a way like Greece. Duality is one of the pivotal themes in my work. Starting in Palermo, where the focus was ‘Matter’, going through Turin, where the focus was ‘Logos’, I am now in Trieste, with ‘Sound’, the ‘non-material’, in an attempt to map the human condition and the cycle of life as I understand it. The historical moment in which my journey through Italy is taking place is a time of great change, both in Europe and the world. In this rather foggy landscape, art today can play an important role and artists face their responsibility. Memory and history form the common thread that emerges from the depths of time, and I feel that, if we can hold it in our hands, it can lead us towards a less uncertain future. In Trieste I’m trying to activate memory especially through sounds. Individual, personal memory at the Sartorio Museum and collective memory at San Giusto Castle”.
The Ducal Apartment is occupied by the striking work Insomnia Bed, a large sheet of paper laid on the bed that dominates the room. Words in various languages appear on it, following a technique reminiscent of automatic writing and Joycean flow of consciousness. The words include visions, epiphanies, second thoughts, dreams, sensations and even most intimate personal thoughts, all of it intensified by the sound: a narrative spoken by Dimitrakopoulou herself.
The exhibition continues into the Music Room. There we encounter a site-specific sound installation entitled Ricercar, conceived in collaboration with composer Pablo Ortiz. “Sound has enormous evocative power, stemming from its abstract nature”, remarks Ortiz. “Sound suggests narratives that we develop and complete in the intimacy of our own minds. Like the proverbial Proustian madeleine, sounds are able to bring back sensations from the past, and at the same time, to open doors into a new understanding and perception of the world. The sounds in this installation are not meant to be listened to, they simply contribute to the immersive nature of the experience. The sounds complete, almost subliminally, the feelings provoked by the artworks on display”.
The Rose drawing room contains another installation, Apecdysis, composed by emblematic and majestic Shirts.
The exhibition itinerary ends within the walls of the San Giusto Castle, an ideal space in which to contemplate the monumental creation Promahones, the artist’s major work. The imposing steel discs, fringed at the top, are currently installed in the main courtyard of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and are evoked here through a new video installation, Sounds and Shadows, which reconstructs the sounds and the shadows of the work itself, elaborated by Ortiz and the sculptress. Their distinctiveness is already suggested by the sculpture’s title, which means ‘bastions’, meaning fortress or walls, but also the front line in the battle, and suggesting even “percussion instruments, capable of producing arcane melodies”, as Franco Fanelli writes in the catalogue’s critical text: “Walls that can be crossed, navigable bastions made of metal, shadows and sounds, the Promahones can suggest other rhythms, for example those of dance or performance, yet without moulding themselves into pure scenography because of this”, instead they weave a ‘sound play’ made of references and past echoes for looking at the present and building the future. As Pablo Ortiz also points out: “I’ve worked with Venia Dimitrakopoulou for many years on various projects and on the monumental installation Promahones at the Benaki Museum in Athens. During our fruitful collaboration, our point of departure and main goal was to connect sound with physical substance. In the case of Promahones in particular, this meant literally drumming on the steel of the sculpture, recording the results, and elaborating them to create a synthesis: a breath-like sound emanating organically from the sculpture itself”.
The Trieste exhibition crowns the trilogy of Italian exhibitions organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture-Italy and Artespressione, Milan, the gallery representing the artist in Italy for the trilogy, in conjunction for this final event with the Municipality of Trieste, and in collaboration with the Eastern Greek Community of Trieste.
The event is under the patronage of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Greek Embassy in Rome, the Consulates of Greece and Cyprus in Trieste, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST), the G. Costantinides Trieste-Greece Association and the Scuola Di Musica 55 – Casa Della Musica.
Venia Dimitrakopoulou’s three exhibitions in Italy – in Palermo, Turin and Trieste – are part of the Tempo Forte Italia – Grecia programme, an initiative promoted by the Italian Embassy in Athens and ratified during the First Intergovernmental Summit between Italy and Greece, held on 14 September 2017 on Corfu, whose purpose is to encourage and support the strengthening of cultural ties between the two countries, maintaining a balance between the various cultural spheres, from the traditional to the contemporary, and from the past to the future.
Short biography: Venia Dimitrakopoulou was born in Athens, Greece, in 1965. She attended sculpture at the 1st Workshop of Sculpture in the Athens School of Fine Arts while studying theatre at the Athens Conservatoire Drama School. She has also attended drawing classes at the Atelier Vivant of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA). She lives and works in Athens and on the island of Aegina. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece (EETE) and of the working group of ‘Tempo Forte Italia – Grecia’ of the Italian Embassy in Athens.
She has presented her work in solo exhibitions and participated in group shows in Greece and abroad. Her work is located in public spaces as well as private collections in Greece and abroad.
In 2014, Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Promahones was published by Hatje Cantz, a publication that focuses on her large-scale sculpture Promahones, presented at the Benaki Museum in Athens during the winter of 2014-2015. Since 2016, this public sculpture has been installed in the garden of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
In November 2015 she presented her artistic activity and work in Italy, to the students of the University Ca’ Foscari, in the context of Biennale Sessions of the Venice Biennale; the meetings were realized by the University Ca’ Foscari, Venice in collaboration with Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) – Sezione giovani and the Hellenic Foundation of Culture in Italy. The events were curated by Caterina Carpinato and the gallery Artespressione of Paula Nora Seegy in Milan, where in 2016 Venia Dimitrakopoulou held her first personal exhibition in Italy, curated by Charis Kanellopoulou and Matteo Pacini.
Ιn January 2017, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella awarded her as Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia, in recognition of her contribution, through her artistic work, to creating bonds with Italy, a country with which she feels deeply connected.
Exhibition details – Trieste
Title Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Primordial Future – Sound
Exhibition organized by Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Italy and Artespressione Gallery, Milan
In conjunction with Municipality of Trieste
In collaboration with Eastern Greek Community of Trieste
Curated and coordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou, curated by Matteo Pacini
Venues Sartorio Civic Museum, Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII 1, Trieste | San Giusto Castle, Piazza della Cattedrale 3, Trieste
Dates 13 April – 16 June 2019
Grand opening Sartorio Civic Museum Friday 12 April, 5pm
Meeting with the artist San Giusto Castle Saturday 13 April, 12pm
Opening hours Sartorio Civic Museum Thu-Sun 10am-5pm | San Giusto Castle every day 10am-7pm
Special openings: 21 April, 22 April and 1 May
Entrance Sartorio Civic Museum: free | San Giusto Castle: included in the museum ticket (full-price ticket € 3,00 – reduced ticket € 2,00)
Catalogue published by Umberto Allemandi with critic text by Franco Fanelli
Info to the public veniad.italia@gmail.com
TURIN
Logos
Gallery of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
22 February – 31 March 2019
Grand Opening Thursday 21 February, 6:30pm
From 22 February to 31 March 2019, the Gallery of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin will host an exhibition of the work of Greek sculptress Venia Dimitrakopoulou, entitled Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Primordial Future – Logos, organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture-Italy in collaboration with the Gallery ARTESPRESSIONE-Milan curated and co-ordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou and Matteo Pacini.
The exhibition series is accompanied by a complete bilingual catalogue in Italian and English, published by Umberto Allemandi with a critic text by Franco Fanelli.
The Italian tour of the multifaceted artist continues in Turin with her second major solo show containing a new selection of works. Of particular note are two large installations: a site specific work Ellampsis (2019) created for the occasion, which takes the form of a steel epigraph with a ‘prophetic’ luminous test, and the installation Dialogues (2019), a series of books deconstructed into imposing steel plates and delicate Chinese papers on which phrases float in black and red ink, inspired by sociological research carried out among ordinary people, the expression of voices that do not usually capture media attention. In fact, Venia Dimitrakopoulou has arrived in Italy with her triptych of exhibitions during a difficult and dramatic phase for Western history and the destiny of Europe, composed of walls, populism, nationalism, racial discrimination and new frontiers, as Franco Fanelli remarks in his introduction to the catalogue. However, it is precisely in a crisis that ‘the hero’, in this case the artist who is capable of awakening the collective conscience, “needs to know how to pose the right questions to the right people. In a crisis, heroes always seek their answers at the deepest level”. For this reason Dimitrakopoulou questions and investigates myth, history and the recent past, right down to the common roots of Italy and Greece, moving from “the ivory tower of art to the control tower of the social condition”, to quote philosopher Dionysis Kavvathas.
The major theme of the entire Turin exhibition is the ‘logos’, the word that becomes a sign and, at the same time, the sign that becomes a word, and is thus well suited to the white surfaces of the exhibition space, which seem to evoke ‘unwritten pages’ as the sculptress suggests: “All the works on show have one thing in common: they are covered with texts that almost appear to be automatic writing. Artist’s books, leporellos, diaries, and again the Shirt of Nessus and the Secret Armour”. Indeed these two works act as a link between the exhibition in Palermo – Primordial Future – Matter, which ended at the Salinas Museum on 3 February – and the Turin exhibition, as Fanelli again points out: “In these two, splendid works on paper, inscribed within the shape of an ancient religious tunic or perhaps that of a banner, covered in tormented writings, the alpha and omega come to life along with a joining of opposites and circularity, like constellations across Dimitrakopoulou’s work”. A duality that exists both in the format of the works on show and in the message they convey, which describes a universal condition in the most imposing creations, and an intimate world in those on a smaller scale, among them A diary, 3.107 Linethoughts, Labirinth, Amulet, and the series Summer Days and Cold Days, veritable artist’s books that form personal anthologies of interior experiences.
Indian ink, pastel, watercolour and collage on rare papers result in works that range in size from small to large, in a spirit of stylistic and technical nomadism spanning traditional sculpture, installation, video, performance, writing and graphics, which, as Fanelli points out, represents “a condition that is coherent and necessary for an artist who, in a classical exile, lives and works on the brink of an epochal shift. The brink is a recurring metaphor in her work, as is the concept of the double, of chronological circularity, of the oxymoron that gives the Italian triptych its name, “Primordial Future”. These are all concepts that refer emphatically to that idea of a border, perhaps the most frequent of her artistic themes, alongside metamorphosis, which for the artist represents an essential and poetic condition”.
The exhibition at the Gallery of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin is under the patronage of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Embassy of Greece in Rome, the Regione Piemonte, the City of Turin, the National Museum of Contemporary Art – Athens (EMST), the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti – Turin, the DAMS degree course at the University of Turin, the Piedmont-Greece Association ‘Santorre di Santarosa’, and the Italian-Greek Cultural Training Association ‘Microkosmos’. The event is the second stage of a trilogy of Italian exhibitions organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture – Italy in collaboration with Artespressione in Milan, the Italian gallery representing the artist for this series of exhibitions, which will continue from 12 April to 14 June 2019 in Trieste at the Civico Museo Sartorio and the Castello di San Giusto with other new works on the theme of ‘Sound’.
Venia Dimitrakopoulou’s three exhibitions in Italy – in Palermo, Turin and Trieste – are part of the Tempo Forte Italia – Grecia programme, an initiative promoted by the Italian Embassy in Athens and ratified during the First Intergovernmental Summit between Italy and Greece, held on 14 September 2017 on Corfu, whose purpose is to encourage and support the strengthening of cultural ties between the two countries, maintaining a balance between the various cultural spheres, from the traditional to the contemporary, and from the past to the future.
Exhibition details – Turin
Title Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Primordial Future – Logos
Exhibition organized by Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Italy and Artespressione Gallery, Milan
Curated and coordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou, curated by Matteo Pacini
Venue Gallery of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, via Modane 20, Turin
Dates 22 February – 31 March 2019
Grand opening Thursday 21 February, 6:30pm
Opening hours Thursday 8-11pm; Friday – Saturday – Sunday 12-7pm
Entrance free
Catalogue published by Umberto Allemandi with critic text by Franco Fanelli
Info to the public veniad.italia@gmail.com
PALERMO
Matter
Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas”
16 November 2018 – 3 February 2019
Grand opening at 6:00pm, Thursday, 15 November
The Greek sculptress Venia Dimitrakopoulou returns to Italy with a unique solo exhibition hosted by the Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas” of Palermo from 16 November 2018 to 3 February 2019, titled “Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Primordial future – Matter, organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture-Italy in collaboration with the Gallery ARTESPRESSIONE-Milan curated and co-ordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou and Matteo Pacini.
The exhibition series is accompanied by a complete bilingual catalogue in Italian and English, published by Umberto Allemandi with a critic text by Franco Fanelli.
The complex creative world of the artist is portrayed at the Salinas Museum, through a remarkable selection of works – sculptures, papers and installations, some of which are displayed for the first time, in an exhibition which creates a dialogue with the archaeological collections displayed permanently in the museum halls. The Salinas museum is indeed the oldest museum in Sicily and hosts the most important public collection dedicated to Greek and Punic arts on the island. Under the guidance of its Director, Francesca Spatafora, in the last few years the museum has broadened its scope to include contemporary art forms.
The entire project is under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Embassy of Greece in Rome, the National Museum of Contemporary Art – Athens (EMST), the Department for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity – Sicily Region and the City of Palermo.
It is also part of the events within the project ‘Palermo – Italian Capital of Culture 2018’.
The Palermo exhibition is the first part of the Italian Trilogy (Trilogia Italia), which is organized by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture– Italy and the art gallery Artespressione of Milan, representing the artist in Italy during this event, in cooperation with the Sicilian Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies “Bruno Lavagnini”. The exhibition, which will present site-specific works, especially created for each city, will be held in important exhibition sites: in addition to the SALINAS MUSEUM of Palermo, there are the GALLERY of the SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO FOUNDATION in Turin, from 22 February to 31 March 2019, then the SARTORIO MUSEUM and SAN GIUSTO CASTLE in Trieste, from 12 April to 14 June 2019.
The “Trilogy” highlights the theme running through the whole artistic production of the Greek sculptress: the continuous dialogue between the past and the present, starting from the rich archaeological heritage that bonds the Greek culture to that of Italy. Hence, the title “Primordial Future” expanded with a specific subtitle for each of the three exhibitions: in Palermo it is “Matter”, in Turin “Logos” and in Trieste “Sound”. «The three exhibitions are connected by the same thread, the one I hold tight in my hand so as not to get lost and which here I call Primordial Future. – the artist clarifies – This thread comes from the depths of time, and conscious of the present, I feel that it can lead us to the future, making it a bit less uncertain»
Matter is the main theme in all the works displayed at the Salinas Museum – from volcanic stones to fragile handmade Chinese paper, from bronze to marble and plaster – which evidences the way archeology exists in contemporaneity and how the immersion in the past enables the comprehension of the present. The artist herself explains it: «In Palermo, I show the volcanic stones, the heads of fallen warriors and heroes, as well as works made on Chinese paper. The Shirts of Nessus, the Secret Armor and the Linethoughts. I will attempt a dialogue between the ephemeral and the eternal, the fragile and the resilient, exploring the way in which archaeology unveils matter in the present. Matter is the theme and the title of the exhibition here».
Venia Dimitrakopoulou decides to contemplate and sense the spaces of her exhibition tour one by one, creating new site-specific works in order to stay “tuned” with the creative act just as she imagines it: «a continuous process, a flow in which everything is open to the unexpected».
Thus, at the Archeological Museum of Palermo, plaster works, bronzes and volcanic stones from Aegina (the island where the artist has her studio) become heads and faces of ancient warriors, heroes and demigods, often with their mouths half open, as in Agamemnon (2005-2009) and Pelops (2009). Next to them, Spears (2018) in marble and gilded brass tell of the past of the Aegean through hidden features and rise up as bastions, tools of defence. In these works, the raw material determines the aesthetic shape of the sculptures, which – connecting with the environment where they are displayed – emphasize the historical references and characteristics of their place of origin and narrate a personal story that guides visitors in their contemplations and interpretation. After the exhibition the bronze sculpture by the artist entitled “Gold Spear” will remain in the permanent collection of the Salinas Museum, next to the archaic sculptures from the Selinunte temples.
Venia Dimitrakopoulou’s contemporary creations develop indeed in a constant balance between modern experimentation and aesthetics, traditional materials and techniques and range from small scale to monumental works. In this regard, the monumental sculpture Promahones is significant. Installed in the garden of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, it is re-enacted in Palermo in a series of photographs Promahones-Shadows (2014). Composed of giant slanting steel disks, open at the extremities, the sculpture, as per Franco Fanelli’s words, «greatly enriches the entanglement of shadows projected by these shapes, doubling them, multiplying them».
By using stone, marble, plaster, metal or paper – which are suitable to express a stylistic nomadism that goes from the traditional sculpture to the installation, from video to action, from writing to the graphic sign – the artist investigates the characteristics and behaviours of matter. She breathes life into figures and objects thus born. An example of this, is the video Zoodochos Pighi/Life-giving Spring (2011), a dramatic work in the etymological meaning of the word, in which the hands of the artist rise up to symbolize the generating force of the sculptural dimension, in an incessant metamorphic process of creation and destruction of shape.
All Dimitrakopoulou’s works have a deep anthropocentric nature and reflect on the role of human existence in space and time. A feature that the artist willingly catches in her creative process, calling the observers to take part in her artistic expression, to live it as a relation with himself or herself, through inner experiences, mentally and sentimentally. As it is in the series on paper Shirts of Nessus and Linethoughts (both from 2011) where – by using automatic writing on the shape of an ancient tunic or banner – the intimate dimension of the artist appears in different languages. She frees her emotions and thoughts and then hides them partially behind a line, almost as if to delete them, but never completely.
The three exhibitions of Venia Dimitrakopoulou in Italy are part of the “Tempo Forte Italy – Greece 2018” programme, an initiative promoted by the Embassy of Italy in Athens and sanctioned during the First Intergovernmental Meeting between Italy and Greece held on 14 September 2017 in Corfu. It is aimed at promoting and supporting the strengthening of cultural relationships between the two Mediterranean countries, in accordance with a balance among various cultural fields, from tradition to contemporary, from the past to the future.
Exhibition details – Palermo
Title Venia Dimitrakopoulou. Primordial Future – Matter
Exhibition organized by Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Italy and Artespressione Gallery, Milan
Curated and coordinated by Afrodite Oikonomidou, curated by Matteo Pacini
Venue Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas”, Piazza Olivella 24, Palermo
Dates 16 November 2018 – 3 February 2019
Press Preview Thursday, 15 November at 11:30am
Grand opening Thursday, 15 November at 6:00pm
Opening hours Tuesday-Saturday 9:30am-6:00pm; Sundays and public holidays 9:30am-1:00pm
Entrance fee included in the museum ticket, € 3.00; free under 18 and every first Sunday of the month
Catalogue published by Umberto Allemandi with introductory text by Franco Fanelli
Info to the public CoopCulture ph. +39 091 7489995 | www.coopculture.it
