MIRAGES LIV

Over the years July is evolving in on the most dynamic months of the year in the field of contemporary art, not only due the reason that some of the most important exhibition are opening this month but because very important exhibition take place in tourist destinations like Salzburg and Aspen, but the primacy belongs to the Greek Islands: Hydra, Poros, Paros, Antiparos, Andros, Tinos, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Rethymno, Chania.

The wonderful historical Island of Hydra was always a retreat of artists and art people like: Nikos Hadzikiriakos Gikas, Henry Miller, Leonard Cohen, Adelina von Furstenberg, and Thaddaeus Ropac, an island that inspired and inspires for many decades, artists, architects and writers. Every year Deste Foundation in its project space, the Hydras’ old Slaughterhouse, presents great artists of the international art scene, for 2019 Kiki Smith presents “Memory” , as the artist says: “The slaughterhouse connects the goats to the sea by their blood and entrails being offered. The Capricorn is a goat climbing a mountain whose snake-fish tail enters the sea. The milk is an offering to the goats and the sea. In the Hydra constellation, similar to the island and to the old island’s flag, sits the owl, the cat, the crow, the sextant and the offering chalice”.

Also, in Hydra Island takes place the workshop “The speech in Art & The Art of Speech” focusing on issues related to art and artists, the way we write about their work, how we approach them, what we need to know to be in the subject and to ask the right questions. and especially what are the techniques of a correct, serious and an in-depth interview. The workshop takes as starting my book “in First Singular & Second Plural” after the success of her Book by dreamideamachine publications (Dec 2018 that contains a selection of 24 Interviews by Greek and International artists, architects, theorists, collectors and institutional representatives (Nikos Hadzikiriakos Gikas, Nikos Kessanlis, Vlassis Kaniaris, George Lappas, Denys Zaharopoulos, Leda Papakonstantinou, Mariko Mori, Bob Wilson, Rik Reinking, Peter Blauer, Adelina von Furstenberg, Chiharu Chiota etc.), the book is a selection from her 250 interviews during her 25-year course in the field of Fine Arts. My propose is to share the secrets of journalism in art, and the secrets for a successful interview with the help of the natural and architectural landscape of Hydra, from where I started my career with you.

In Poros, Jannis Psychopedis, one of the main Greek exponents of artistic Critical Realism, in his solo exhibition “Lemon Grove-Diaries of a Summer” presents a series of 67 new works at Citronne Gallery, also at the Archaeological Museum of Poros, Jannis Psychopedis depicts time and the traces of history in 04 artworks-books of equal size, each corresponding to a letter of the Greek alphabet in his exhibition “The Alphabet-Archaic Palimpsest”.

From 2016 Galerie Eva Presenhuber presents exhibitions on the Cycladic island of Antiparos. For 2019 Shara Hughes presents her solo exhibition “At Arm’s Length”, in her new paintings, Shara Hughes further develops what she refers to as invented or psychological landscapes.

Rashid Johnson’s exhibition in “The Hikers”, at Aspen Art Museum features new and existing works. New works include a major commissioned installation with live performative elements and the artist’s first choreography collaboration complete with aspects of ballet and modern movement.

Bringing together 70 works, London Tate Modern presents a major Retrospective of the pioneering work of the avant-garde Greek artist Takis, who lived many years in Paris, one of the most original artistic voices in Europe from the 1960s and remains a pioneering figure today. On 3/11969, with the support of friends, physically removed his work “Tele-sculpture “ (1960),  from the exhibition “The Machine at the End of the Mechanical Age” because he considered no longer adequately represented his current artistic practice. Takis along with other artists as well as art critics like Nicolas Calas established the Art Workers Coalition group to defend the artists’ rights.

Sheila Hicks at  Dallas Museum of Art  presents “Secret Structures, Looming Presence” in a special display illuminating how her artist’s practice is inspired by the weaving traditions of indigenous artisans from Latin America. At MoMA PS1 in its 10th Edition of Young Architects Program, committed to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, presents “Hórama Rama” an immersive junglescape set within a 12-meter-high, 27-meter-wide cyclorama structure by Pedro & Juana (Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo & Mecky Reuss).

Finally, do not forget the artists and the architects whose names are interwoven with this month, at the column “Traces” the artists: Chuck Close, Piero Manzoni, Nam Jun Paik, Andy Goldsworthy and Marcel Duchamp. As for the Architects they are: Philip Johnson, Richard Rogers, Glenn Murcutt and Eduardo Souto De Moura.

Good Month(!)
1/7/19
Efi Michalarou

Photo: Hórama Rama by Pedro & Juana, presented as part of the Young Architects Program 2019 at MoMA PS1, Photo: © Rafael Gamo