PRESENTATION: Weaving The Future III (Shkodër), Part I

The group exhibition “Weaving the Future Part III”, that is on view at the Galeria e Arteve Shkodër in Shkodra, Albania is organized by the dreamideamachine AMKE. The series of the exhibition “’Weaving the Future” (2019-ongoing) is a project-work in progress based in the concept of the Art Critic and Curator, Efi Michalrou and focuses on feminine nature and creativity. This presentation will be I three parts, focusing in the work of each artist separately.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Archive of the Artists

Before the women’s movement in the 60’s and 70’s, most women’s art was denied the title “fine art” because the techniques they used and the work they created was marginalized and devalued by the male-dominated art world. A hierarchy of the arts developed and was maintained by a common opinion that these decorative forms are less intellectually involved and serve only domestic and aesthetic needs. The 35 women artist that participate in “Weaving the Future III”, are using different means of expression such as: painting, sculpture, installations, photography, video and performance, denaturing traditional methods and techniques such as: embroidery, loom, knitting, sewing, wool, canvas, yarn and fabric, with a new way, mutating and transforming them into contemporary sculptures, paintings and installations. The noticeable characteristic of the project is that functions as a living laboratory of constantly evolving ideas. “Weaving the Future” started on June 2021 in Athens with the participation of 20 women artists, then “Weaving The Future II” is on presentation at unicipal Gallery-G.I. Katsigras Museum in Larissa that will be on view till October 31, 2021, renewed and enriched with new works by 29 artists.  Now “Weaving the Future” travels to the Galeria e Arteve Shkodër in Shkodra, in parallel with the exhibition in Larissa,  with artworks by 35 female artists that coexist harmoniously with each other and with the space, integrated in a new very interesting dialogue with the viewer.

As in all her artworks in “the shirt (family)” by Artemis Alcalay the human being is in the focus of attention. The artist with great sensitivity, allways captures the adventure of human existence, the emotions that alternate and the great existential issues that plague it but also as it is recorded in history through the Trauma of the Jews, where the personal is transformed into collective and vice versa. A classic Sarakatsani motif that in its lines and design is contained the semiology and the condensation of tradition, habits and custom was selected by Ada Anastasea to embroider on canvas using magenta fluo yarn to connect tradition with contemporary era, without other visible interventions the artist elevates embroidery form manual labor to contemporary Art. When the World War II ended in 1945 and the rest of Europe was beginning to rebuild itself, Greece entered into a second war, more vicious than that fought against the Axis powers. Annita Argiroiliopoulou with the sculpture “1946-1949” the greatest wound  of modern Greece, the civil war that started on March 1946 and ended on August 1949. If eight percent of the population of seven million had died or been killed during World War II, the Greek civil war (GCW) brought that figure up to ten percent. The artist uses wire  to wave a map- grid of Greece and red yarn to note the places where the dedlies battles took place during the civil war with manual obsession.

Vicky Vasileiou, created a series of amulets using natural wool, wood and plants, as a gift to mother nature. In the artwork presented in the exhibition, the use of wool and the respect with which she manages it, is the wafer she offers to nature, for the generosity towards us, but also a comment on nature’s  primordial-eternal course, that is impossible to overturn by mediators. Grigoria Vryttia’s diptych “A princess and her shadow” are details of the documentation of an older installation that focused on the Grimm Brothers tale “A princess is sleeping and dreaming”, aiming through the dream environment, the laces and the dramatic lighting, to put the viewer in the process of redefining time and environment. The distinctive feature of Penny Geka’s installation  “YES [1] – No [0] XI” is the deconstruction of the specific predefined digital-binary code automation commands of the Fortran cards by weaving them. The artist moves from the nomadic, controlled reading utopia into the urban landscape, to her personal, free writing-weaving, documenting hidden messages. “The past and the present of civilization I & II” by Kristi Grigoriou were created in response of “The Frieze of the Parthenon, a new proposal for interpretation”, a book by the Italian classical archaeologist Luigi Beschi, In the works the artist presents a contemporary Frieze with figures of people either in direct contact with fellow human beings or immersed in their superego. The use of embroidery and red thread aim to connect tradition with contemporary art, that are inextricably linked.

Martha Dimitropoulou creates a king’s crown using  from natural materials in complete contrast to its symbolism, from the work emerges a very interesting combination of humble material with symbols of wealth, power and strength. “Driven by f Robinson Crusoe, I have always been fascinated by the story of this western man who wrecked far from his homeland, losing his kingdom and with it the hope of returning» says the artist.  Betty Zerva with the photos of her installation “Wedding Crowns”, made specifically for the German Bunker in Milos Island, freezes time to convey the dynamics of female nature and how she evolved in the adverse conditions, not so much of marriage or family, but of World War II. The Installation consists of the traditional wedding crowns made of Asiela, a flower that “when dries becomes white”, winning forever purity through death, as if there was no death… Like the relationship of souls of human beings. Through “Laying a bridal bed” Maria Zygomala, goes through the whole line of ancestral women and the way the history of the bridal bed and the dowries is structured. From a grandmother that during the burning of Smyrna in 1922, left the city using her precious embroidery to protect her unborn child, to another grandmother who painted her dreams with threads on curtains and blankets, to a mother that was creating fine embroidery on linen or the artist herself that , after finishing her studies in Rome, brought back in Greece a dowry of underwear and nightgowns made in 1800’s.

One of the most important performers of her generation, Mary Zygouri, researches, records and processes social and political issues with a human-centered character. She is interested to deepen and penetrate into human existence, that is why in her video “Je reviens toujours”, she unites women from the northernmost and southernmost part of Europe, Ostend and Creta island, using as common thread the art of embroidery, just as we know it through tradition and just as we ignore it through the diversity of nations, historical conditions and local customs. Common denominator is nature, feminine or broader, in idyllic and dreamy landscapes whence dream and desires are emerging. Penelope’s web (Margarita Petrova, Beskida Kraja, Dimitra Chanioti), through “Wedding Veil” narrate the different aspects of marriage and how each woman experiences it. The heterogeneous objects they are using to compose their work are directly related to the female existence. Feminine elements, are 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. The concept of the “Wedding Veil”  is to be worn by a different artist of the group in every performance in order to emphasize the difference of emotions in every wedding.

Participating Artists: Artemis Alcalay, Annita Argiroiliopoulou, Ada Anastasea, Evangelia Basdekis, Vicky Betsou, Dimitra Chanioti, Thalia Chioti, Martha Dimitropoulou, Maro Fasouli, Efi Fouriki, Penny Geka, Kristi Grigoriou, Aikaterini Kanakaki, Marigo Kassi, Maria-Marika Koenig, Eleni Kotsoni, Beskida Kraja, Evdokia Kyrkou, Maria Lagou, Maro Michalakakos, Ioanna Myrka, Penelope’s Web, Margarita Petrova, Spiridoula Politi, Artemis Potamianou, Katerina Ribatsiou, Ifigenia Sdoukou, Fani Sofologi, Eleftheria Stoikou, Theodora Tsiatsiou, Vicky Vassiliou, Grigoria Vryttia, Betty Zerva, Maria Zygomala, Mary Zygouri.

The exhibition is held with the Support of the Greek Ministry of Culture & Sports

Photo: Mary Zygouri, Je reviens toujours, Video 2018, Duration: 12’ 29’’, Produced by and for The Raft. Το Art is (not) Lonely, curated by: Jan Fabre και Johanna de Vos, Trienale OSTEND, Organized by Mu.ZEE, Locations Crete and Ostend, © & Courtesy Mary Zygouri

Info: Curator: Efi Michalarou, Assistant Curator: Beskida Kraja, Galeria e Arteve Shkodër, Rruga Selaudin Bekteshi, Nd.12, H.8, Ap.1, 4001, Shkodra, Albania, Duration: Duration: 3-27/9/2021, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00-15:00, Sat 9:00-13:00, www.gashkoder.com