Back to Athens 8-Sudden War 2020
Back to Athens International Art Festival emerged at the beginning of the crisis in 2012, providing vital insight on the issues and concerns of the art community, while leaving conclusions to rest on interpretation. Back to Athens 2021 International Art Festival entitled “Profiles of the Future: An inquiry into the limits of the possible” manifests the ideas and proposals of the art community in response to a critical 12-month period of ambiguity and conflict, as experienced both individually and collectively. As post-pandemic societies will face the ‘new normal’, it not expected that we will recover to pre-crisis conditions. Though we stand before rapid transformations, little is certain. What will change and to what extent? Certainly, our perspectives on the future.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Dimitris Lempesis
Venia Dimitrakopoulou presents “Sudden War 2020”. During the first self-imprisonment due the Covid-19 pandemic the artist wanted to do something with everything that emerged unexpectedly and often violently in terms of their unprecedented intensity. Venia Dimitrakopoulou worked with every she had and she was recording her voice using a smartphone, then she asked the composer Panayotis Kalantzopoulos to create music based on her words. As the artist says “When I heard the result, I was surprised. It was like that time, through the distance, two different worlds shaking hands for a while. It was like a warm handshake when the touch was missing”. Then other recordings followed and from their collaboration was created “Sudden War”, a project consisting of 12 + 1 standalone tracks that can be heard either all together or as standalone artworks. “It is an artwork that talks about an unexpected encounter, a stranger, a strong connection and a war that suddenly turned everything upside down”.
Photo: Venia Dimitrakopoulou, Sudden War 2020, 2020, Mixed media installation, sound, Music, Voice: Venia Dimitrakopoulou, Music: Panayotis Kalantzopoulos, Photo: Dimitris Lempesis, © Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Info: Back to Athens 8 Curatorial team: Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp, Back to Athens 8 International Arts Festival 2021, Isaiah Mansion , 65 Patission & Ioulianou, Athens, Greee, Duration: 1-4/7/2021, Days & Hours: Thu-Fri (1-2/7) 16:00-22:00, Sat-Sun (3-4/7) 12:00-22:00, www.cheapart.gr, http://apart-network.gr, http://athensintersection.blogspot.com