NATional GEOgraphy Kirjasto Gallery Finland, 13 May - 4 June2013

NATional GEOgrafphy, Hammelinna, Finland 13 May - 4 June 2013
09/05/2013
The initial concept for this exhibition came from the fact that it would be traveling abroad. I like it when there is a specific context in one exhibition, as well as in collective exhibitions. But is it compatible with the predefined ways which applied up until now and concerned spectators within borders?

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is a bridging exhibition, an exhibition that explores the distinctions between
geographical studies and artistic experience. It presents opinions from a wide range of media, including painting, construction and photography, and is invited to create with the way it develops aesthetics, ambiguity, poetry and acting with the experience that only art can create in the world we live in. Art has to do with the world we live in, and in this case, the perceptual space of the artists, is a landscape of memory – a picture of reality assuming the role of memory.

The exhibition explores nature and the extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface (land-motherland) and familiarizes the spectator with interpreting the landscape. This exhibition attempts to be generous, without hesitation of exposure. It attempts to be provocative and controversial, but at the same time gentle and humorous.

The exhibition has a different approach which attempts to dissipate the most dogmatic aspects of the image in order to distil the elements that could prove extreme in modern minds. In this exhibition, five artists address what this means to each one of them separately, with National Geography being the key element. The exhibition is primarily visual.

The title of the exhibition constitutes the reason to commence a spiritual process resulting in the creation and production of a series of new works of art in order to express social, cultural and political memory. The main goal of the exhibition is to explore these interrelated concepts that precede, follow and complement a wide web of causality, in a broad perspective that incorporates different contexts. Youth, maturity and diversity coexist. The spectator does not initially know under which condition his vision with move, and most times he is faced with innovative and diverse works of art. However, with such controversial work of art, it visually creates a declaration of social and political acts regarding life, whilst other times it consists of a modern character analysis.

Jenny Tsoumpri
Exhibitions Curator

ARTISTS:
Stavros Kotsireas: Construction-Painting (mixed media)
Anna Mihailidou: Painting
Mary Roussioti: Mixed Media
Nantia Skordopoulou: Painting
Yiannis Skoulos: Photography

NATional GEOgraphy brochure, Hammelinna, Finland


“Art is a visual message, where influences, multicultural societies and geographical origins contribute the coordinates to a geography state of mind and memory. The silence of creation, engages within the human mechanism; and what you see determent's, how you are going to feel. Exploring this aspect of boundaries: I allow the viewer to see the original source of inspiration [groups of carefully chosen and arranged objects] alongside the inspired painting.
By revealing the original source of inspiration, I lay bare elements of the creative process that are usually confined to the artist’s studio.
This invites the viewer to explore both the essence and mystery of the objects in the original still life arrangement and the creative process leading to their expression as a still life painting.
“Toys and Memories,” “Messages never sent,” “Two Scripts,” are titles of new art work, shown in this exhibition. The awakening of nostalgia, indecision's, regrets and communicating between us and within us are only a few,among other challenging notions, adding value to our geographical journey.”
Stavros Kotsireas