ART REVIEW:Artemis Potamianou-Your history, it’s not my story

In my opinion Artemis Potamianou’s solo exhibition “Your history, it’s not my story” is two-folded,  by taking a tour of the exhibition, the visitor realizes that the issues that Potamianou deals with themes relevant to everyone and can be seen as one or two different complementary exhibitions. It should be noted that Artemis Potamianou is a conceptual artist, who did not give up her attribute during the economical and moral crisis in Greece, on the contrary with a perfectly conceptual exhibition based on a custom of Central Europe, the rich groom gifted his bride a cage with a bird which symbolically she had to make it fly, demonstrating in practice how capable they were to be mothers and wives, the central exhibition area is metaphorically transformed into a cage that  houses elaborate bird-cages which in turn host smaller cages, creating  13 circumstances where through symbolic objects the women’s issue is being negotiated, its extensions in time, as well as the socio-political events that are related to what is more relevant than ever!!! It’s an immersive exhibition, only in terms of artistic look, but in terms of meaning and the power and sensitivity thatdeals with these issues. This one part of the exhibition, the second part of the exhibition stems from “Le “The Unknown Masterpiece” by Honoré de Balzac  and Oscar Wild’s “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”, here Artemis Potamianou creates a Museum with her own terms and rules, reversing the roles of genders the artist creates a very interesting and fruitful dialogue. For me, the most important is that Artemis Potamianou not only transforms ENIA GALLERY into a Museum,but unlike most artists through her paintings and installations, openly advocates Conceptual art, challenging the new rules of the global financial crisis that redefine and reposition the painting to its original position. Above all, I really admire about Artemis Potamianou is that she works realy very hard and she doesn’t  make any moral discounts. After Lydia Dambassina’s exhibition  “Party’s over-Starts over” (13/1-9/3/2012) at  The Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (SMCA), “Your history, it’s not my story” is the best exhibition that I have seen in Greece of crisis.-Efi Michalarou