10 January-7 February 2015
“The Engine Room”: Katerina Athanasopoulou, Lena Athanasopoulou, and Zoë Giabouldaki
Featuring the work of three Greek artists whose practices share affinities in their use of found material
and splicing techniques, “The Engine Room” examines the schizophrenic condition that forcefully emerges out of the current era of information, liquidity and speculation. It is a mental exhibition that focuses on the inner workings and repressed tensions that overlay and standardize conflicting states of being, allowing for individuals to come to in irreconcilable positions with little or no friction, save the usual shock of negligible value. Given Greece’s recent media attention as the epicentre of the global financial meltdown, the show unavoidably reflects on the kind of personal and societal disconnections and turmoil that accompanies a crisis of such magnitude. It questions the role that contemporary art plays in these psychological and sociological formations, by exploring whether art’s paradoxical nature promotes a new normative way of being in the world, rooted in doubt, by teaching us to embrace ambiguous stances and events, or rather attests to the emancipating possibilities of novel connections beyond already formatted pathways and network exchanges.
Katerina Athanasopoulou (Athens, born in 1974) is an animation artist who lives and works in London. She studied painting at the School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and completed an Animation M.A. at the Royal College of Art in London.
Lena Athanasopoulou (Thessaloniki, born in 1979) is a visual artist. She studied at the Chelsea College of Art and at Goldsmiths College, University of London in the Department of Visual Arts and the Department of Media and Communications. She currently lives and works in Thessaloniki.
Zoë Giabouldaki (Alexandroupoli, born in 1982) studied plastic arts and art sciences at the University of Ioannina. She currently lives and works in a random place.
(Text by Stéphanie Bertrand and adapted from gallery press materials)
INFORMATION
Centre des arts actuels Skol
Suite 314
372 Sainte-Catherine Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1A2 Canada
(514) 398-9322
Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-5:30PM
Image:
untitled
by Lena Athanasopoulou
collage and inkjet print on newspaper
Image courtesy of the artist and Centre des arts actuels Skol, Montreal