INTERVIEW: Stella Mourkogianni – dreamideamachine ART VIEW

I recently met with Stella Mourkogianni through her work, but also through the common obsessions that we have, and as it happens with some people, we not only worked together, but also we matched. Chemistry (?) Not only (!) We have join our hands on the same bank in the river of Art, of an Art that wants and must confabulate with the great issues of its era! That was and is the real role of the artist. On the occasion of her “Transit”, an installation in not only an alternative but totally different space as is Tetarimorio, we are crossing and punch through all the “Transitions” that keep her busy and torment her, in an era that the prohibitions, due the Covid-19 Pandemic, are more that in other.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Stella Mourkogianni Archive
© Photo: Manolis Douropolakis Fisher

Mrs. Mourkogianni, on the occasion of the installation “Transit” presented by tetartimorio, a project which is directly related to all transits that have been violently interrupted due to different circumstances, we would like you to tell us how and when the idea came about?

It is difficult to focus on the source of an idea. I would refer to a 2006 movie «The children of men» a dramatic adventure, which had made a great impression on me. It was taking place in London in 2027 where, a virus, had zeroed human fertility creating huge problems in the global balance. Violence and conflict were raging, with the repressive forces suppressing any reaction. At the same time, millions of migrants flocked, being stopped, arrested or executed.
Unfortunately, a 2006’s work of fiction has been largely confirmed in 2020. The starting point of my idea, however, must be sought much earlier, in childhood experiences during the Apartheid Regime of South Africa*. In events that were etched in my memory, but I was able to evaluate much later, as an adult.
What has been happening lately in America after George Floyd had been murdered, shows that humanity is not learning from the mistakes of the past.
The idea, however, was formed with the arrival of refugees in our country and was consolidated with what followed Covid-19: lockdowns, bans, fear and authoritarianism.

Why use this wire – material and not some other material that could also function semantically and practically as an obstacle?

The bladed wire is a material intended to injure, to prevent and finally deter the “invader”. Visually, it refers more to minimalist sculptures than to a violent means of deterrence. Its glittering surface, combined with its symmetrical geometric structure, makes it look attractive. Nevertheless, in the consciousness of the spectator, it remains an object that causes injury and pain. I am particularly interested in this ambiguity, something that is also revealed in the title of the exhibition. Ambiguity that is also defined by the layout of the work in the space: the wires are placed diagonally, knitting in a way a web, visually rhythmic and light, but practically deterrent and impenetrable.

Your work functions as a limit, what does it mean for you the fact that the viewer is able to see it from the outside, without being able to approach because it runs the risk of physical injury?

The entry ban is part of the project. The entrance of the spectator to the space is blocked but what he sees from the shop window works discouragingly, because a possible entry would mean injury. Feelings of fear arise, something analogous to the sight of a very sharp knife.
The intention is to make him think about the limits, the barriers and the daily prohibitions that are imposed on us, either by external factors, or through our personal impasses.

How did the Psychic Trauma, as the lockdown, that arose from the Pandemic since March to the moment we are talking, affect you and is it assimilated into your work?

We are experiencing an unprecedented situation, which leaves no one unaffected.
The invisible enemy that surrounds us, leads to the “need” of “shielding” our space. We restrict social gatherings, avoiding visitors, circulate only conditionally, performing “transits” within a short radius around our homes.
This exhibition was scheduled for April, but coincided with the previous quarantine. For the second time, there was a suspension, since the opening was scheduled two days before the second lockdown.
However, the issue being negotiated, the violent bans, the cancellations of passages, is identical to what we are experiencing today due to Covid-19, thus making it relevant

We live in an age where traumas are multiple, as are the Prohibitions. If you had the opportunity, which Walls and Barbed wire would you tear down?

For years, we have been watching unbridled wars rage, the balance of the environment being undermined, in the name of growth and speculation. Cities developing anarchically and suffocating. Economic and class antagonisms magnifying, individual and collective freedoms being violated, over-consumption turning us into helpless beings.
I believe we find ourselves in a period of general regression. Walls of conservatism and authoritarianism are erected around us. Culture, education, the elevation of the human mind is not in the priorities of the general world choices, while a large percentage of the earth’s population does not even have the necessities for survival.
Therefore, I would like to tear down the walls of war, violence, economic speculation, poverty. Also, fanaticism and prejudice, bigotry, racism, homophobia, lack of education, consumerism, environmental destruction, authoritarianism, self-inforcement, and many others.

What was the challenge, to exhibit in a place like tetartimorio that is alternative, but completely different from the rest, since in essence it is in the concept of the store?

The aim of tetartimorio is to discuss controversial social, environmental and humanitarian issues through art. Relevant concerns in my work, create a fruitful framework for dialogue and cooperation between us. On the other hand, the alternative character of the team, in addition to support, provides complete freedom of expression to artists.
The space, the Fob Art Container, is housed in a shopping center, where shops operate in parallel.
Dialogue with an audience different from the regular visitors of the art galleries, has always been in my interests.
Since I started participating in exhibitions, the project was an intervention in a shop window on a busy street.
The projects in shop windows continued during my postgraduate studies in 1998 at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, in exhibitions at Charing Cross and in Soho, but also continued later. The interaction of the projects, with the consumer of busy shopping streets, occupied me intensely. Also, the dialogue of art with everyday life.
The work is displayed in a space where the public normally expects to encounter consumer goods. Instead, he encounters an aggressive barbed wire. Therefore, a dialogue on consumerism (besides the other barriers) and how it intervenes in our transitions, takes place**.

* A country of deep racial discrimination, where the natives were forced to live in ghettos. Their entry into white cities was allowed only as, poorly paid, workforce, in jobs that whites did not accept. Discrimination was evident everywhere: boarding white buses was forbidden, sitting on the same benches, sending their children to the same schools etc. The rulers, in order to maintain their supremacy, from time to time launched the army in purges against them, imprisoning or even killing them.

** The “Transit” exhibition was scheduled between: 5/11/20-5/12/20. Due to measures for Covid-19, it is currently in suspension. Because of the view from the shop window and the fact that it is situated in a shopping center (Iris shopping center, Iridos 4, Palio Faliro), the reopening of the retail, can be considered its opening. Alternatively it can be visited: http://www.tetartimorio.eu

Download Greek Version of Interview here. Mourkogianni Stella