{"id":89077,"date":"2024-05-10T14:31:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T14:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/?p=89077"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T12:55:23","slug":"mary-reid-kelley-and-patrick-kelley-the-rape-of-europa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/exhibitions-en\/mary-reid-kelley-and-patrick-kelley-the-rape-of-europa","title":{"rendered":"MARY REID KELLEY & PATRICK KELLEY. THE RAPE OF EUROPA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exhibitions cycle: WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Part 3
\n<\/strong>
\nE\u039c\u03a3\u03a4 is pleased to announce the first presentation in Greece of the work of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, known for their distinctive, irreverent, witty and humorous films, which conjoin painting, poetry, caricature and satire. As part of the What If Women Ruled the World?<\/em> cycle, the duo present their work The Rape of Europa<\/em> (2021).<\/p>\n

A contemporary take on Titian\u2019s Renaissance masterpiece of the same name, where Europa is given agency, voice and attitude \u2013 the work is a deliberate contrast to Titian\u2019s objectified, passive depiction. Liberating Europa from a subservient and silent role that she has long been forced to play in art and literature, here she becomes a naughty, often foul-mouthed polemical advocate and spokeswoman for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

The film Rape of Europa<\/em> takes as its point of departure in the Roman myth, whereby Europa \u2013 the Phoenician princess and mother of King Minos of Crete \u2013 was abducted by Jupiter, the king of the gods, who masqueraded in the form of friendly bull. Having gained her trust, he raped her and the children she bore him became the founders of the European continent.<\/p>\n

In the Kelleys\u2019 work a traumatized, malcontented Europa takes centre stage to denounce misogyny, sexual violence and the degradation of women, thus bringing the myth into the 21st<\/sup> century to accord with contemporary women\u2019s rights discourse and latter-day reckonings #MeToo movement but also more timeless injustices and crimes exercised against women such as rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Mary Kelley is the protagonist, taking on a plethora of different female historical and mythical characters, in a set designed by Patrick. The narrative unfolds using a form of wordplay called \u201cTom Swifties\u201d, short phrases ending in a pun or rhyme. Her ire unfolds in a series of humorous theatrical in the form of comic relief, with a decisively feminist angle reminding us of the decisive role of women in society beyond their timeless pigeonholing as mothers, caregivers and objects of desire.<\/p>\n

This work and its prurient language belong to a long tradition of feminist art that deploys subversive humour as a tool of empowerment to expose misogyny and to condemn the centuries-old objectification and mistreatment of women. The artists overturn the archetype of Europa as a hapless, submissive sex object for forced procreation – transforming her into a feisty, outspoken, often
\nfoul-mouthed character, possessing agency. In this way they reclaim her archetypal representation throughout history by art and literature, as for example most famously in Titian\u2019s 1562 sensationalized interpretation of the myth, a point of reference for this work; reminding us, in tandem, that this kind of representation went hand in hand with centuries where women were denied political representation and social participation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibitions cycle: WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Part 3 E\u039c\u03a3\u03a4 is pleased to announce the first presentation in Greece of the work of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, known for their distinctive, irreverent, witty and humorous films, which conjoin painting, poetry, caricature and satire. As part of the What If Women Ruled the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-exhibition-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,35,34],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89077"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90655,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89077\/revisions\/90655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emst.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}