Press Release. Αrt Athina Athens Conservatoire, June 21-24

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1 Press Release Αrt Athina 2018 Athens Conservatoire, June Art Athina, the largest annual visual arts event in Greece, remains faithful to its 23rd appointment with the art-loving audience. It returns as a summertime, lengthier art fair, interestingly innovative and housed in a new location in the heart of Athens. From Thursday, June 21th until Sunday, June 24th Art Athina will be welcoming the visitors in the two basements of the Athens Conservatoire. The art fair will be inaugurated by the President of the Greek Republic, Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Wednesday June 20th, a day exclusively reserved for the previews. This year's Art Athina hosts 53 local and international galleries. The new venue of the 23d International Contemporary Art Fair of Athens is the Athens Conservatoire, a venue closely connected to culture. As the oldest greek educational institution for the performing arts, in the past the Athens Conservatory has hosted the National Museum of Contemporary Art, activities of NEON Organisation for Culture and Development, and it has also been one of the main exhibition spaces of Documenta 14. Right in the heart of Athens and thus easily accessible to a broader audience, the art fair carries in its program the changes which were already introduced last year by the Art Athina team guided by the Artistic Director, Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos. For the first time, Art Athina introduces an art residency initiative, the Art Athina Workspace. In collaboration with the Copelouzos Family Art Museum, it announces the enactment of a euros prize awarded to a Greek artist represented by a gallery participating in Art Athina, in order to further promote and support their work. Moreover, in a synergy with the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation and in collaboration with the Athens School of Fine Arts, it presents the Art Athina Educational Program, connecting through workshops young professionals with galleries and their representing artists. The Talks program of Art Athina is radically renewed with international personalities discussing topics that dominate the global art scene today.

2 Finally, since October 2017, Art Athina has been constantly present and active with Art Athina Open Studios, where prominent young collectors visit the studios of artists featured in Art Athina In collaboration with the Young Patrons program of the Museum of Cycladic Art. The program of the 23d Art Athina is organized as follows: Main: The central section of the exhibition spreads in the two main spaces of the Athens Conservatoire, where local and international galleries present their booths. Highlights: Young international galleries join Art Athina upon the invitation of the Artistic Director, Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos. The galleries hosted this year come from London, Porto, Athens, Paris, Antwerp, Los Angeles, Cologne and New York. Feature: A section conceived and organized by an annually appointed curator. This year's section is curated by Artemis Baltoyanni. Pseudomorphs borrows its title from minerals formed by chemical or structural change of another substance, though retaining their original external shape. Metaphrased both formally and conceptually, Pseydomorphs brings together artists exploring layered and ambiguous subject matter including formal investigations, identity politics and issues of displacement, so present in Greece at the moment. The galleries hosted in the Feature section come from London, Glasgow, Paris and New York. Design: The design project of Art Athina will be taken over by Antiqua gallery (Athens) and will be presenting historical design furniture, lighting and decoratives from masters of design of the post war period, together with works of art by greek modernist artists. The New York based design studio objects of common interest, present an installation designed specially for Art Athina, in the entrance of the fair. Video: This year's video program runs in collaboration with the DESTE Foundation and presents the video artwork of the Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg and the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. The artwork consists of two video projections specially selected for Art Athina both of which delve, each one in their own artistic means, into the rich symbolic and emotional meanings within psychological states, in an attempt to shed some light to the contradictions in the human nature. The DESTE Foundation participates in Art

3 Athina 2018 with works by two women artists, the Dutch Rineke Dijkstra (b.1959) and the Swedish Nathalie Djurberg (b.1978). Two different screenings were selected specifically for presentation in the unfinished facilities of the Athens Conservatoire, this emblematic building of Greek modernity designed by the architect Ioannis Despotopoulos. The two artists use different artistic languages to explore extreme psychological conditions rich in symbolic and emotional meanings as they attempt to render the contradictions of human existence more understandable. Tribute: The Vienna based Gallery Charim in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy in Athens will pay a special tribute to late artist Tamuna Sirbiladze. Taking into account her special relation to Athens and to Art Athina as well, a selected choice of her works together with a work by Elisabeth Penker will be presented. A discussion in honour of Tamuna Sirbiladze will be held on site at Art Athina, Thursday, 21 June, at hours with contributions by Max Henry (Vienna), Benedikt Ledebur (Vienna) and Denys Zacharopoulos (Athens). Independent Projects: Local and international Independent art spaces will participate in Art Athina Hypercomf, a newly founded, fictitious company, produces installations of a hybrid, soft and comfortable art, objects of everyday use and poetry. SERAPIS, a shipping company based in Greece, produces, among other things, clothes and art objects inspired by the realm of the shipping industry. Enterprise Projects, presents the EP Journal, its recent publishing initiative in the form of a bimonthly internet edition of a theoretical research text in relation to art in the Greek and English language presents its newly created institution, Gabriela, inviting Raja'a Khalid to create a sound work for the communication department of the new institute. A virus spreads across Art Athina in the form of posters and printed material informing about the number that allows the guests to enjoy the project. Talks: The Talks program of Art Athina 2018 is curated by Katerina Nikou, independent curator and curatorial assistant of Public Programs in documenta 14. The guest participants in Talks come from different cultural backgrounds in the field of contemporary culture and question issues related to curating, collecting and targeting audiences through their own practice. At the same time a series of performative lectures given by Haris Xanthoudakis are also scheduled.

4 Award: The Copelouzos Family Art Museum and Αrt Athina announce for the first time a prize to be awarded to a Greek artist participating in Art Athina for his/her whole work. The main aim of the Museum is to contribute to the promotion of contemporary art as well as the work of Greek artists and will be awarded by a selection committee. Educational Program: For the first time Art Athina establishes in collaboration with J.F. Costopoulos Foundation an educational program for students of the Athens School of Fine Arts running all year round. Art Athina Educational Program aims to inform, inspire and prepare young artists and theorists for their introduction to the art industry. The program brings together students with artists and art professionals through visits to artists' studios and the galleries that represent them. Christina Nakou and Daphne Kouri are responsible for the management and coordination of the program. The new venture will be presented in the context of the talks of Art Athina Αrt Athina Workspace: For the first time in its 23 year course Art Athina has its own artist s residency of a two-month period with the support of the Municipality of Athens and Athens Culture Net. Six artists from Australia, Portugal, the United States, France and Britain will spend four weeks in Athens seeking inspiration in the city and creating the works that will be presented at the fair. Art Athina Open Studios: For one Saturday each month, from October to May 2018, Art Athina invites the Young Patrons of the Museum of Cycladic Art to studio visits with artists represented by the participating galleries of the fair. Art Athina Open Studios offers a unique opportunity to the Young Patrons to meet the artists in their working environment and familiarize with their practice. The program is implemented in collaboration with the Museum of Cycladic Art. The foire of Athens is organised by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association, and produced by BeBest under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Region of Attica and the Municipality of Athens. The event is part of the Regional Operation Programme "Attica" Galleries participating in the Main section of the 23rd Art Athina: Α. Antonopoulou art (Athens), Agathi-kartalos (Athens), Alibi Gallery (Athens), Alma Contemporary Art Gallery (Athens), Anna Pappas Gallery (Melbourne),

5 Argo Gallery (Athens), Artforum Gallery (Athens), Artprisma (Piraeus), Artzone 42 (Athens), Can Christina Androulidaki (Athens), Cheapart (Athens), Cube Gallery (Patras), Depo Darm (Athens), Ekfrasi-yianna grammatopoulou (Athens), Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery (Athens), Françoise Heitsch (Munich), Eleni Koroneou Gallery (Athens), Ena Contemporary Art (Athens), Gallery Ersi (Athens), Gallery "7" (Athens), Genesis Gallery (Athens), Ikastikos Kiklos ΔΛ (Athens), Ikastikos Kiklos Sianti (Athens), Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center (Athens), Kalfayan Galleries (Athens), Kaplanon 5 (Athens), Kappatos Gallery (Athens), Lola Nikolaou (Thessaloniki), Mihalarias Art (Athens), Nitra Gallery (Athens), Peritechnon Karteris (Athens), Skoufa Gallery (Athens), The Breeder Gallery (Athens), Zina Athanassiadou Gallery (Thessaloniki) Galleries participating in the Highlight: Emalin (London), Galeria Quadrado Azul (Porto), Hot Wheels Projects (Athens), Lapaix (Paris), Modern Shapes (Anversa), SADE (Los Angeles), Soft Opening (London), Stems Gallery (Brussels), Syndicate (Cologne), The Hole(New York), 0-0 LA (Los Angeles) Galleries participating in the Feature: Balice Hertling (Paris), Bonny Poon (Paris), Bureau (New York), Callicoon Fine Arts (New York), High Art (Paris), Koppe Astner (Glasgow), Rodeo (London), Union Pacific (London) For more information call (Mary Adamopoulou) (Yannis Asdrahas) or visit our website art-athina. gr