STATEMENT:Penelope’s Web

Today On the occasion of  the International Women’s Day (IWD) and the “Wedding Veil” created by Penelope’s web Art Group, we will deal with the tradition of marriage, what represents, what  covers and what reveals the veil, and what implications gets over time. “Wedding Veil” was first introduced in 2019, at Platforms Project-Independent  Art Fair (16-19/5/2019) at the “Nikos Kessanlis” Exhibition Hall of the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), but also in a series of group exhibitions between them in  “Onufri Remade” (12-25/2/20) curated by Ardian Isufi & Elton Koritari, at the National Gallery of Kosovo. Penelope’s web was founded in 2018 by  the artists: Margarita Petrova, Dimitra Chanioti and Beskida Kraja and as they say “The veil as a bidimensional symbol, through the historicity of its semiotics, from the moment the woman’s marriage incorporated life and death at the same time, since that the same wedding veil would later become her shroud. From ancient times it symbolized purity, youth, prudence and modesty. Subsequently sympolized submission and protection from the evil eye or the evil spirits. The brides used to wear it to drive away the evil eye and the bad-luck from  those who saw them and were envious, but it was also a kind of cover-up”. The heterogeneous objects they are using to compose their work are directly related to the female existence feminine element, like: dolls, toys, butterflies, jewelry, Jordan almonds, yarn and hearts telling stories of childhood, marriage and motherhood. The laces that are the key element of the artwork is the universal feminine material identified with the knitting process and tradition, in contrast to the cold-hearted industrial elements like the transparency of plastic and nylon which promotes both the lightness and the hardness of the material. In parallel  the sharp objects consciously introduced by artists such as sickle and the scissors coexist just like the male and female, sometimes intertwined and at times arguing. This artwork is the provocation to rethink and redefine the tradition of marriage and the complex role of women within it; but also the scale of emotions ranging, from intimacy to unfamiliar, from freedom to oppression, from love at first sight to convention, from childhood to femininity, from dream to nightmare, from happiness to misery and finally from blessing to curse. “Wedding Veil” unravels the thread of history and culture on which the tradition of marriage and family was built and structured.-Efi Michalarou

Photo: Penelope’s web, Wedding Veil, 2018- , Mixed media, Dimensions variable, Exhibition view: Onufri Remade, National Gallery of Kosovo (12-25/2/20), Courtesy Penelope’s web