Platforms Project 2019 – The Fair

17 mei 2019

KOPEKT (Corect) is a group that shows an attitude sooner than artworks. I could find myself right away in this referential amalgam.

Drawings from the taverna where they meet

And the drawings are not bad at all!

At Daily Temporary from Sweden I was asked to participate in a performance by Leticia Maria from Palma.

I was the surface for a projection of the art-cake that was made by visitors

The visitors got an apron and started to get creative on the cake which was projected on my belly…

 

Political art by studio Asynchrome at Kunsthalle Graz

Nice work by the Greek-Rotterdam artist Maria Ikonomopoulou at Vita Zita Studio

Various Artists from Bruxelles (B) showed a fantastic project in which they have the audience make their own artwork

The result is always minimalistic and beautiful. This is “Pocketwork” -Carbon on paper worn in the pocket for two or three months.

Orphaned Images: Video-cakes by The museum of Forgetting

Topp and Dubio from Den Haag participated with an intricate installation about a sign in a shop they encountered.

The details are pretty hilarious as often

Another platform from Den Haag is Elders with Paintings by Lucius Pax and Liesbeth Bos, ceramics by Corine Barendregt and photographic work by Liesbeth van Woerden.

Corine Barendregt shows abstract Ceramics, created by pressing clay in the structures she finds on the street.

Liesbeth van Woerden adds 3D elements to her minimalistic photographs

Lucius Pax shows a series of Paintings with urban portraits

From the UK:  H-M-S with numerous artists

Ed’s video from Guelph in Canada shows an installation by Jérôme Havre based on Plato’s cave

A Hero from my youth: The Silver Surfer in mosaïc- technique in Transform Art Platform from Beograd by Milan Cuk

The Bureau d’art et de recherche Roubaix with works on paper by Guilaume Krick and sculpture by Clara Juliane Glauert

A-Trans from Berlin shows beautiful works by Concha Argüeso from Spain

Which is clear when you get closer, the artist writes and paints on the back of the paper with wax

Other minimalistic works like this ensemble also look strong

Lucia Bricco showed the stage for her performances at Sub Rosa Space from Athens

Kunsthalle Kleinbasel shows vulva’s by Nina Herrmann under the name Where are you from?

I think I prefer these

Galleria Rajatila from Tampere in Finland shows these little pieces that I like.

Heidi Lincke’s work at Scotty from Berlin is great, but making pictures in this light is difficult. The rapper worked with Kendrick Lamar

These drawings at Scotty are also great: Magnetfelder by Zuzanna Skiba

ID:I Gallery from Stockholm uses textwork, though Alexander Mood seems to be sleeping on the side it is an interesting installation

I Always like the beautiful small collages by Sandra Gea. Here she seems to broaden her perspective

Very subtle works!

This light and airy installation was a nice surprise from Backspace in Athens, done by artists group Bo.Ba (Katarina Botsari and Eleanna Balesi)

Great Urban Photography from the AC-Institute in New york

The Bcademie, a post academic course in Rotterdam, was also present with the old Dutch game of pulling strings and win an Artwork

Amongst which this SD-card on which the whereabouts of a buried artwork is indicated, by Lucas van Eeden

This is done by Kimon Kirligitsis and it has soon disappeared

This is by the same artist, it did not take long for this one to be chosen by a winner.

The Alpineum Produzentegalerie shows great painting by Reto Leuthold

This drawing was shown at Pow Wow: Coming in Waves by Katerina Papazissi

The beautiful presentation of IS-Projects shows American abstractionists from NewYork

Like Jacob Cartwright

And Patricia Zarate

At Und. the work of Vasilis Bótoulas stood out. It was an interesting stand of a cultural site that issues maps of cultural spaces in Athens and has an interesting blog. Check und-athens.com

It’s al about La Divina Comedia with beautifully ingraved metal circles,by Niki Zachari

Left Sub Rosa Space with Lucia Bricco’s installation and on the right EX-MÊKH’s installation

And back at Und. this nice textpiece by Kiriakos Spirou

In the evening Lucia Bricco continued her performance “The morning, The morning, the morning by entering with a blanket with technical toys in a blanket that she carried like a baby. She then let it all fall on teh ground, wound the toys around her head as you can see here

Ant sat down, waiting.

A bigger machine came at her, trying to get pieces of the ground

She put toys under her shirt, let them fall again and then had another coffee

And EX-MÊKH was talking again, with colleagues, with student, with visitors…

 

Platforms Project 2019

 

Platform Project & Art Athina 2016

May 27, 2016

In spite of the crisis atmosphere in Athens and the refugee-problems that haunt the country the Athens artfair took place again this year. The Taekwondo Stadium had been occupied with refugees in winter during heavy rains which resulted in a lot of problems.  Nevertheless, the fair continued but the big galleries in Greece didn’t show up and the galleries that did show up were very conservative in their choice of artists. The Platform Project on the other hand was very interesting this year. It is always worth to visit but now the side show for non-commercial art platforms showed great art and awareness of the human and the political situation which in some cases led to  moving art works.

Look at the fair from the platforms

Derek Liddington at 8Eleven, a very interesting sculptor. these are studies after an Elsworth Kelly drawing

This video was shot by Liddington, having four actors making a pillar of clay and creating a tension between disciplines

 

This was an ongoing performance in 8eleven in which a dancer would reenact the choreography “Ode” which was executed by les Ballets Russes in 1913. The floor on which the dancer moved was a square meter of clay

I found this work very moving: in an inter-active work, Navine Khan Dossos tries to paint the 2000 people that have sought refuge in the Taekwondo Stadium last winter. Visitors and colleagues are invited to contribute as the artist will continue to paint until the end of the fair.

This beautiful Painting has been made by an icon-painter for Kallio Kunsthalle (FI), following the text that Petri Saariko had prepared.

Andreas Martí installed this drawing installation at Dienstgebäude

It is continuing to draw during the fair

This wall sculpture of Bettina Diel could also be seen at Diensgebäude

From Nantes (FR) came Extra Muros in which these wall sculptures by Romain Rimbaud were shown

Interesting painting at Foss (GR)

A short visit to the real fair: here a photograph by Sarah Lucas

Nice political drawings by Tasos Pavlopoulos

Collage by Maria Ikonomoupoulou

who also made beautiful embroideries on newspaper, shown at Mulier Mulier

Where also work of the painter Guy van Bossche was shown

I rather liked these collages because of the use of material. made by Nikos Varitymiadis

Taubert Contemporary showed an artist with over-all design: Lars Arrhenius

Curator of Platform Projects, the wonderful Artemis Potamianou, an artist also, showed at the floor of the fair

Kallio Kunsthalle showed performance “about the self-determination of women”

At MUU (F) the performance artist Helinä Hukkataival showed a very sensitive performance

resulting in a beautiful series of personae

From the Netherlands came Bcademie, a post-graduate training for artists (after A you have to say B). Here initiators Alex Jacobs and Daan den Houter talk with their students, of which six were doïng performances durig the fair. One for a Euro!

The students found props in Athens and used those to arrange their space

They proved quite popular, here Elsemarijn Bruijs working on chewing gum

The shift was together with Philippa Driest

Who showed pictures of urban places accompanied by sounds of airplanes

AKA artist run from Saskatchewanm, Canada with sculpture of Svea Ferguson

Super 8 video by Leslie Supnet

and Lori Blondeau who researches diverse persona’s

The Lo and Behold (GR) wants to fertilise the soil in “Bureau of Soil making” by Yiannis Hiridoglou

From Boston (USA) the Museum of Contemporary Cuts with heavy conceptual work with a direct approach

Which works rather good I think

Then an installation of Amiraly from Parking Gallery/New media Society from Iran, a presentation which is well worked out

Cut the Fence, a project of Copa & Sordes: the 657 meter long fence of a Swiss refugee camp is transformed in to the same length of African damask fabric with fence pattern: everybody who cuts a piece of it contributes to the destruction of the fence

Groupshow at SCI (UK) with very nice works, some fresh from the boats coming to Greece

Ed video: always interesting video-stuff, here by Iris Fraser and David Hanes

Foreign Affairs, A beautiful collaboration by Bella Easton, Tiny Dominguez and Julia Riddlough of resp. Beaston projects, Rosa Lux and A Brooks Art

The beauty of statistics, by Tiny Dominguez

In the mean while the Capacity-project of Navine Khan Dossos is a large succes

 

The refugee-camp is turning in a large field of flowers!

At A-Trans beautiful work on paper by Marian Wijnvoord

Who also burns down the Netherlands in her Photo-collages

The line in Andreas Martí’s installation is lengthening

Bcademy’s students don’t stop performing, here Maud van den Beuken moves sand

from stage to visitor

and Casper Braat plans a make-over for your humble reporter

Various Artists from Belgium, a research in shit which Belgians find interesting in general

Trying to find the pearls which are being digested by test-persons

And also the deterioration of Bonsai-trees under water is a process that results in esthetic pleasures under the name Agua con Gaz

The very big collective EN-FLO (GR) installed suit-cases with fillings

And then there is the very interesting Milena Principle, showing projects that relate to our own activities. Action in public space about silence and slowness.

In Venice

And Athens, we will hear more from them!

Last but certainly not least Kunstenaarsinitiatief Elders from Den Haag (NL), here an expanding painting by Lucius Pax

Painting by Liesbeth Bosch

And surprising ceramics by Corine Barendregt

Art Athina 2016

Art Athina 2015-VII

6 juni 2015

This is an oversight of the to my taste most interesting initiatives at the Platforms Project of Art Athína:

8eleven from Toronto Canada with collective work by Laurie kang, Nadia Bellerique, Rosa Aiello and Lili Huston/Herterich

Lamprini Markou on virtue and attitude at Lustspiel from Greece

Mirka Minnula @ Rajatila Gallery from Finland

Mirka Minnula @ Rajatila Gallery from Finland

Martin Creed @ Kappatos Athens Art Residency

Martin Creed @ Kappatos Athens Art Residency

Martin Creed @ Kappatos Athens Art Residency

Le vide dans le vide ou la disillusion

 

Then, lots of activities at B’Printmaking Studio A.S.F.A. – TCA

With a very engaging project

Resulting in occupancy of the total surroundings of the booth with beautiful works

With 3D sketches of Istanbul

Near this we find a paradoxical booth of Provo Principles from Greece, clearly engaged in the present situation

With a heap of débris from the artists studios

and art in small match boxes

which work out nicely

Atrans from Berlin shows Marian Wijnvoord again with romantic landscapes

The artist has created. work in new techniques, oilpaint on photopaper

and she is clearly satisfied with the result. We are happy that Atrans will coöperate with EX-MÊKH in Berlin in september. Here you see Marian Wijnvoord and Isolde Nagel, the initiator of Atrans in front of their booth.

Another detail from the EX-MÊKH booth with a drawing of Ellen Rodenberg and a selfportrait of Kees Koomen

The crowd at EX-MÊKH’s booth with Maarten Schepers explaining

A view at Grauzone from Austria

And the Dada Academy from Austria

Which shows also the right couch for underneath your painting

I liked the booth of the Wiener Art Foundation from Wien (I guess) where painterly action was applied

and nice sculptures were to be found

IS-Projects from Leiden (the Netherlands) was one of my favourites

With an exhibit of abstract art curated by John Tallman

an esthetic oasis in this context.

With the work of initiators Guido Winkler and Iemke van Dijk next to eachother

Lo and Behold is a very interesting initiative witrh actions in public space

with a great number of artists participating, amongst whom a favourite of last year: Maria Lianou

and others whom I don’t know

Incart from Mallorca made a very lively impression

From Rotterdam came our friends of the Tupajumi Foundation with the TFHMF-award

This dynamic work was selected from the USA and came in just before the opening of the fair due to delay at customs.

I personally voted for this piece by Maarten Bel

The Tupajumi members took the votes from visitors

Dienstgebäude had a nice booth too with a.o. the work of initiator Andreas Marti (bottom)

Dutch artist Bob Gramsma

and Ingo Giezendammer with psychedelic wallpaper.

VHS-Blues by Julian Boily @ AMV from Canada

VHS-Blues by Julian Boily @ AMV from Canada

The French Extra Muros from Nantes (FR)

With an inventive 5 € lampshade

En Flo from Greece had an impressive socially engaged installation: Micro History

With jobless women sowing printed cloth together and handing it out to the public

empty solidarity….

@ Skouze “Errare ergo sum” the wine was bitter-sweet

and the floor contemporary in traditional technique

Campus Novel showed a very interesting project about the ever-changing sign of a restaurant in Athens

Kunstenaarsinintiatief Elders from Den Haag (N) was present with strong work by Liesbeth van Woerden, like this sound piece

And Architectural studies by Liesbeth Bos

This piece by Liesbeth van Woerden was particularly popular, you took some time for it by stamping a ticket

A Greek fan from last year came by to see our new installation

And documentation was dutifully taken care of by Maarten Schepers

Platforms Project

Art Athina 2015-VII – Talks: Dutch Initiatives @ Platform Projects

6 juni 2015

Today, saturday, was a very busy day: there was an unending stream of visitors goïng past our booth and in the afternoon we were part of Talks, a part of Art Athena in which discussions and lectures were pesented to an interested audience. Together with three other initiatives from Holland we tried to give an idea of our artistic practice. The space was not crowded but the talks were received well. As for EX-MÊKH: Greek artists wondered about how we financed all our activities. The city of Den Haag and especially STROOM, the bureau that executes cultural politics of the city, is very active in facilitating artistic endeavour. In spite of the national budget cuts artists in Den Haag have serious advantages because of the policy of this institution. On the other hand a project like the Malieveld does not cost a cent, it just takes energy to go to the Malieveld every week, to create something there and to discuss it. George Oreopoulos, the mediator of the talks wanted to know how high the tension would get between the three participators in EX-MÊKH during our projects, but I could reassure him: though discussions can get fierce we are and will stay good friends which helps a lot to get results. The other initiatives: IS-Projects from Leiden, the Tupajumi-Foundation from Rotterdam and kunstenaarsinitiatief Elders from Den Haag also showed their activities of which the first two are not only national. Elders from Den Haag is still young, but they do strive for more international exposure trying to get attention to the quality of perception of art. here you wil find some pictures:

Before the Dutch Initiatives Finnish Initiatives took the table. Here MUU from Helsinki with their exhibiting artist explained their way of working

George Oreopoulos, the mediator and the guy who is responsible for Beton Radio, an art show on Greek radio.

Berenice Staiger talked about the activities of the Tupajumi Foundation and explained the TFHMF award

The succesful FITAX-happenings were also explained

EX-MÊKH had prepared a brief history of our activities which your humble correspondent talked about

With an interesting backdrop we felt very professional

Questions were answered accordingly

IS-Projects was represented by Iemke van Dijk and curating artist John Talmann. First Iemke told about how IS Projects started in their own home in Leiden and how they developed in an initiative that is not very well known in Holland, but shows mainly international activities. Then Tallman explained about how their presentation @ Platforms Project came to life. ( Sorry for the bad picture, something went wrong at that time)

A picture of the living room of IS-Projects in Leiden

Finally Liesbeth van Woerden and Liesbeth Bos of kunstenaarsinitiatief Elders explained their preconditions and showed mood pictures of their activities which worked wonderful in combination with the graphic mind-maps.

Art Athina 2015-Talks