Fifty three galleries from Greece and abroad, present a panorama of contemporary art at the this year’s Art Athina, which will take place from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 June at the Athens Conservatory. The International Contemporary Art Fair, which this year celebrates 23 years of existence, will inaugurate the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on Wednesday, June 20th.
The central part of the exhibition spreads in the two main spaces of the Athens Conservatory, where local and international galleries present their booths. Young international galleries join Art Athina upon the invitation of the Artistic Director, Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos. The galleries hosted this year come from London, Porto, Athens, Paris, Antwerp, Los Angeles, Cologne and New York.
The program
FEATURE
The feature section titled “Pseudomorphs” conceived and organized by Artemis Baltoyannis, borrows its title from minerals formed by chemical or structural change of another substance, though retaining their original external shape. Pseydomorphs brings together artists exploring layered and ambiguous subject matter including formal investigations, identity politics and issues of displacement, so present in Greece at the moment. The galleries hosted in the Feature section come from London, Glasgow, Paris and New York.
DESIGN
Athens’ Antiqua gallery presents a tribute to the masters of design of the post war period, featuring historical design furniture, lighting and decor together with works of art by Greek modernist artists. The New York based design studio objects of common interest, present an installation designed specially for Art Athina at the entrance.
VIDEO
This year’s video program runs in collaboration with the DESTE Foundation and presents the video artwork of the Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg and the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. The artwork consists of two video projections specially selected for Art Athina both of which delve, each one in their own artistic means, into the rich symbolic and emotional meanings within psychological states, in an attempt to shed some light to the contradictions in the human nature.
TRIBUTE
The Vienna based Gallery Charim in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy in Athens, will pay a special tribute to late artist Tamuna Sirbiladze with the presentation of some of her selected works.
A discussion in honour of Tamuna Sirbiladze will be held on site at Art Athina, Thursday, 21 June, at 18.00 hours with contributions by Max Henry (Vienna), Benedikt Ledebur (Vienna) and Denys Zacharopoulos (Athens).
TALKS
The Talks program is curated by Katerina Nikou, an independent curator and curatorial assistant of Public Programs at documenta 14. The guest participants come from different cultural backgrounds in the field of contemporary culture and question issues related to curating, collecting and targeting audiences through their own practice.
AWARD
The Copelouzos Family Art Museum and Αrt Athina announce for the first time a prize to be awarded to a Greek artist participating in Art Athina for his/her whole work. The main aim of the Museum is to contribute to the promotion of contemporary art as well as the work of Greek artists and will be awarded by a selection committee.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
For the first time, Art Athina establishes in collaboration with the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, an educational program for the Athens School of Fine Arts students. The Art Athina Educational Program aims to inform, inspire and prepare young artists and theorists for the art industry. It brings together students with artists and art professionals through visits to artists’ studios and the galleries that represent them.
ART ATHINA WORKSPACE
Art Athina introduces its own artist’s residency of a two-month period, with the support of the Municipality of Athens and Athens Culture Net. Six artists from Australia, Portugal, the United States, France and Britain will spend four weeks in Athens seeking inspiration in the city and creating the works that will be presented at Art Athina.
ART ATHINA OPEN STUDIOS
One Saturday each month, from October to May 2018, Art Athina invites the Young Patrons of the Museum of Cycladic Art to studio visits with artists represented by the participating galleries of the fair.
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