The exhibition Integral II is the second part of the exhibition presented at theIleana Tounta Contemporary Art Center in April 2017. Both shows refer to the current socio-political reality both in our country and in the world, through the presentation of works by Greek artists of an older generation, in dialogue with works of younger artists.
The internationally renowned artists, Yannis Kounellis, George Lappas and Loukas Samaras, always created works that referred to personal and political revolutions. The curators of the exhibition chose the most critical of them to comment on the present dark atmosphere of social and political data.
Yannis Kounellis' imposing metallic construction with charcoal is a classic example of how he treated art as a means of social, political and human commentary. George Lappas, with his "headless / dislocated" traveler, and Luke Samaras with Reconstructions - works that refer to traditional burial customs - are the same commentary. Inspired, however, the first of his experiences as a perpetual refugee and the second as a mourner.
Accordingly, the works of young artists express critical ideas with sharpness and clarity, despite the harsh conditions of their creation. By selecting these works for the exhibition, the curators attempt to emphasize that contemporary artistic expression not only suffers, but that, on the contrary, in times of crisis art is called upon to adopt a wider look and to constantly invent new ways and new sources of creation.
Dimitris Andreadis with his paintings depicts the light that can come from the void, while with similar sensitivity Giorgos Stamatakis and Katerina Kotsala refer to mixing and alternation of places and landscapes. The description in Kotsala is developed by thematic deductions in which cold color pallets are leading, while in Stamatakis with mute, yet hopeful narratives.
Dimitris Foutris expresses the same hope in a more conceptual view: the unmistakable continuity of things and the belief that nothing ever dies completely without leaving traces. In turn, Kostas Bassanos presents an oxymoronic form of confusion and optimism that arises from the conditions of trapping, but also from the possibility of expanding / collapsing the limits caused by the sense of imperfection.
Andreas Lolis shocks with marble sculptural hallucinations, where common compositions of cheap objects have a monumental character. Similarly, Socrates Fatouros uses multiple layers of building materials of the modern city (tarpaulins, polyurethane) as remnants and reminders of our initial experience with it. Katerina Komianou, as a post-romantic urban explorer, a modern flanneuse, proposes nightclubs with prominent statues of public space and dried palm trees - remnants of decorating the recent Olympic grandeur.
Finally, Dimitris Baboulis, while maintaining a dark subject, works with clear lines and forms that refer to geometric and scientific practices, without unnecessary elements, expressing a purely personal consciousness.
It is characteristic that the new generation of Greek artists dares and constantly battles with originality. They use in their work the repository of the modern civilization of our country and try to reconstruct it in order to comment on today's everyday life.
As Oscar Wilde proclaimed, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

opening reception : Thursday 23 November, 19:30 - 22:30

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