WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Part 1
For the opening days of its next exhibition cycle What If Women Ruled the World?, EMΣΤ is pleased to present a performance by 2021 Prix de Rome winner Alexis Blake (Netherlands/USA), which will mark the artist’s first presentation in Greece. Blake’s multi-disciplinary practice coalesces visual art, performance and dance. She investigates the way in which the body is represented and treated as an archive, which she then critically examines, disrupts, and re-negotiates. Her work directly engages with the representation and subjectification of women’s bodies, while also activating them as sites and agents for socio-political change. In doing so, she created languages of resistance and spaces to expose and elude systems of power. During the opening week, Blake will present her seminal, iconic work Allegory of the Painted Woman, for two performers and four musicians, which draws from the endless stock of archetypal, patriarchal portrayals of women throughout the history of art, to highlight and subvert this recurring typecasting and objectification of women.
Curator: Anna Mykoniati
CAST
Concept, direction, choreography: Alexis Blake
Dancers: Marika Meoli, Anastasia Galati
Musicians: Anthi Danvouneli, Nicole Peppa, Giorgos Rarakos, Andreas-Roland Theodorou
Music Score: Alexis Blake, Kirsten Gramlich, Robert Visser
Garments: Elisa van Joolen
Production assistance: Helena Julian
PERFORMANCES
Tuesday 12.12, 11.00
Friday 15.12, 14.00
Saturday 16.12, 14.00
Sunday 17.12, 14.00
Duration 30’
BIOGRAPHY
Alexis Blake (b. 1981, Pittsburgh, Pensylavania) is an American artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her multidisciplinary practice coalesces visual art, performance and dance. She investigates the way in which the body is represented and treated as an archive, which she then critically examines, disrupts, and re-negotiates. Her work directly engages with the representation and subjectification of women’s bodies while activating them as sites and agents for socio-political change. In doing so she creates languages of resistance and spaces to expose and elude systems of power.
Alexis Blake is the recipient of the Dutch Prix de Rome Visual Arts 2021 award. She received her MA in Fine Art from Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2007) and was an artist-in-residence at WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium (2020–2021), the Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2016), Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands (2014–15), Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy with Yvonne Rainer (2015). She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions around the world: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2022), BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium (2019), Performatik19 , Brussels, Belgium (2019), IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2019), TENT, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2019), 1st Riga Biennial, Latvia (2018), La Triennale di Milano XXI, Italy (2016), ExtraCity, Antwerp, Belgium (2016), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015), British Museum / Block Universe Performance Festival, London, UK (2015).
