Eleni Kamma est l’invitée de Art Seen Projects à Nicosie (Chypre)

In Fact What Do You See Behind this Curtain?
November 21 – December 22, 2015
Curator: Maria Stathi

Eleni Kamma
People didn’t see at first that this man was there to demonstrate in silence against the State
Silkscreen print on discarded silkscreen mesh,2014
foto credits: Thyra Smidt

Art Seen Projects is delighted to present Eleni Kamma’s first solo exhibition in Cyprus. The exhibition showcases a series of video installations under the title Yar bana bir e?lence. Notes of Parrhesia that explore the theme of the Greek word ‘parrhesia’, a prominent aspect in Kamma’s most recent works responding to the current political and cultural affairs. Her works explore the deployment of free speech in different contexts, from the general public to political parties, in order to question how the notion of entertainment relates to personal expression and public participation.
Kamma explores the traditional Ottoman shadow theatre, Karagoz, a common tradition in the region, in countries such as Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Romania. Karagoz is the representative of a common man who expresses himself with ‘parrhesia’ revealing the truth on social and political issues of society with unlimited freedom of speech. The shadow puppeteer narrates stories behind the theater curtain, telling the unspoken as an honest representation of society. According to Emin Senyer, contemporary Karagoz master, theater is society’s mirror and Karagoz is exactly that. In fact, in Karagoz’s jargon the theater curtain (perde) is called “mirror”. ‘Now, in the rapidly evolving information age, the transition from oral to written communication seems to occupy a minor footnote in cosmopolitan history. The voice of Karagöz was silenced in the 19th Century when political satire was forbidden. The social power of oral theatre was also lost due to the influence of Western theatre culture and the introduction of the written word’ as Beatrijs Eemans describes on Kamma’s recent solo exhibition at Netwerk, Belgium. How to move forward? Can we learn something from the old masters? Can old tools be rethought? This is where the artist links to the Gezi Park protests in 2013, in which humor and creativity were key elements in mocking the political regimes. Kamma works with the aesthetic language and learns from traditional mediated formats that are slowly becoming extinct such as the theatre of shadows, aiming at creating awareness and proposing new practices on being political through her research.

The video It takes courage and breath to speak up reflects on ‘parrhesia’ which implies not only freedom of speech, but also the obligation to speak the truth for the common good, even at a personal risk. Camera moves in circles, choreographing and registering three performers around a microphone trying to “breathe” theater as public space. They come together as a group, but also depart from it, following their own individual rhyme. To speak your mind, you must first overcome fear by taking a deep breath.

Eleni Kamma
Yar bana bir eğlence: Notes on Parrhesia.
Video Installation, 2015

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Opening Saturday October 3th 2015 // 18:00 – 21:00

The Brussels workspace SoundImageCulture l (SIC) coaches audiovisual art projects on the interface between anthropology and the visual arts. Every year, the various workshops in which professional artists and thinkers guide and advise the participants, result in some ten exciting film projects. It strikes us that in the past years the number of multiscreen works and installations has increased exponentially. For the first time, Argos presents six of these large-scale works. At the same time, SIC launches its online platform, where all the audiovisual works that were created in the period 2007-2015 can be viewed.

SoundImageCulture – Installations presents work by Piero Bisello & Maxime Le Bon, Sander Tas and Danja Cauwberghs, Margaux Schwarz, Eleni Kamma, Davide Tidoni and Eva la Cour.

dim. 04.10.2015 – dim. 18.10.2015
11:00 – 18:00
Location:
Argos
Werfstraat 13 rue du Chantier
1000 Brussels
info@argosarts.org
+32 2 229 00 03

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View of multi-media installation: Parrhesia: courage / breath / speech, Eleni Kamma, 2015. Photo: Chryssa Nikoleri.

In Parrhesia: courage / breath / speech (2014-2015) Eleni Kamma takes the notion of the Greek word parrhesia (frankness of speech or candid speech) as a point of departure, and relates it to two recent events in the Eastern Mediterranean. One was the protest against plans to turn the Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul into a shopping mall and residential area. A video shows interviews with young protesters at the Gezi Park speaking on the notion of engagement, citizen participation and humour as a strategy of resistance. A series of photos from the same location zooms in on the use of certain objects as means of protest, such as watermelons, kitchenware, lemons, whistles, dust masks, signs, barriers, etc. It illustrates the visual culture and outlook of the peaceful protestors and shows how they manage to remain optimistic in light of the looming forces of oppression. The second event is former Greek culture minister Panos Panayiotopoulos’ opening speech at the EU-conference “Financing Creativity” in Athens in 2014 about Greece’s cultural policy in the coming decades, which outlined an increasingly neo-liberal view of culture as being something that should be privatised. One can hear the minister formulate the proposed future role of culture in exclusively economic terms, a vision that is indicative of how the Greek state is increasingly abandoning its support for contemporary culture. Stunningly, not a single artist was invited as a speaker to the conference. Given this situation a group called the Mavili Collective (which is involved in producing nomadic, autonomous collective cultural zones in disused urban spaces in Athens) called for artists from different fields to attend the conference. Having been excluded from a dialogue about cultural policies, the artists present at the conference publicly expressed their disdain regarding the proposed role of culture and made a mockery out of the proceedings. The response of the Minister is revealing. It is shown as a video of a black screen showing only the English subtitles for the Greek sound track. The Minister’s response to the artists’ use of irony, sarcasm, and laughter was met with an utter lack of humour, intelligence and imagination, reinforcing the stereotype of the political status quo as being completely staid. Utterly confused by the artists’ reactions, he was unable to come to any conclusion and witnessed how populism was counteracted, and finally smothered by idealism. The videos are incorporated into a theatre-like setting that includes props relating to the practice of protest in public space and highlighting the performative aspect of public, free speech. Ultimately, Kamma probes the deployment of free speech in different contexts, reminding us of the essential role it plays in democratic processes. (Katerina Gregos)

Parrhesia: courage / breath / speech
Multi-media installation by Eleni Kamma
Video 1
Duration: 08 min 52 sec
Extract taken from an incident that took place in Athens in February 2014, during the opening speech of the Greek Minister of Culture for the EU presidency conference “Financing Creativity”. We hear the minister’s voice interacting with the audience. The dispute is over bravery of public speech and the notion of the stage. This action was initiated by Mavilli Collective.
More information: Mavili Collective Website
Video 2
Duration: 08 min 06 sec
Camera: Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu & Ferhat Tokmak
Video consisting of interviews with protesters on the use of humor, everyday objects/tools and physical experience during the occupy Gezi.
Interviewees:
Elif Ünal , 22 years old, intern journalist and student
Barış Mumyakmaz, journalist, 30 years old.
Samet Kesen, 26 years old, event manager
Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu, 26 years old, translator & editor
Gani Ömür Çekem, 23 years old, student, LGBT
Uygar Çehreli, 30, musician and salesman
Alize Garip, 27, events organizer
The work was produced with the support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Netherlands, and co-produced by the 5th Thessaloniki Bienniale.

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Eleni Kamma participe à la 5e Biennale de Thessalonique, dont le commissariat a été confié à Katerina Gregos.

Eleni Kamma
It takes courage and breath to speak up.
HD video, color, stereo sound, 16:9, NL, 2014, 5 min 59 sec

Between the optimism of the will and the pessimism of the intellect

Katerina Gregos

The title of the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial is inspired by an aphorism invoked by Antonio Gramsci in the The Prison Notebooks (Quaderni del carcere) that he wrote between 1929 and 1935 while he was imprisoned by the Facist regime in Italy at the time. In these voluminous writings which he composed during his eleven years incarceration Gramsci repeatedly cites this phrase; in one of the letters he writes: “The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned … I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” This duality constitutes a point of departure to talk about the current situation of crisis – and how to overcome it -­‐ that governs much of the Mediterranean, which will once again be the focal point of the next biennial.

As a diverse blend and composite of cultures, religions, ethnicities, languages, traditions and norms – the and the crossroads of three principal religions and continents – it becomes very difficult to define the Mediterranean area, except in geographic terms. Indeed there is much debate on whether we can even speak of a Mediterranean identity, culture or even region; and equally, it is impossible to treat the countries of the area as an undifferentiated group, nor arrive a singular understanding of what constitutes ‘The Mediterranean’. It is as much a real as an imagined space, whose perception has been determined and coloured by idyllic as well as negative stereotypes and misperceptions. But what many of the 26 countries (not including the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Palestine, both of which are contested territories) seem to face today are a series of serious ongoing crises (whether social, economic, or political) as well as several zones of armed conflict. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to call the Mediterranean a crisis zone of sorts. Greece, Spain, and Italy are all in the throes of economic crises, Turkey is in the midst of a political crisis, while a large part of the Southern shores of the Mediterranean simmer with political and social unrest as democracy is being challenged, and the Eastern shores remain mired either in armed conflict or decades long unresolved political, religious and territorial disputes.

So while the Mediterranean cannot be defined in terms of a common identity, it constitutes a hotbed for some of the more burning issues of the moment including social and economic equality, democracy, civil rights, migration and mobility, and personal autonomy, the overall area treading the fine line between order and disorder. Many countries of the Mediterranean are, in fact, to a large extent facing a situation of impasse, which is engendered by prolonged or unresolved crises. Gramsci himself defined crisis as precisely that situation where “the old is dying and the new cannot be born” and added that “in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” Given the failure of both politics and the political imagination, what remains in many parts of the Mediterranean world is an anticipation of alternatives and the hope for a better world. It is in the vacuum or grey zone of this anticipation that the Mediterranean currently finds itself, fuelled by desire but bogged down by reality but also realpolitik. It rests with artists, cultural practitioners and grass roots activists to exercise the creative and radical imagination, in order to critically dissect what is happening right now (thus engaging the pessimism of the intellect) as well as to

envisage or allude to another way of being (by harnessing the optimism of the will). It is precisely the imagination that fuels this optimism of the will that appears lacking today in much of the politics and policies that govern Europe and also the Mediterranean today.

‘Pessimism of the intellect’ might mean looking at the world as it is with all its flaws, but at the same time challenging the certainties and scaremongering that are propagated by those in power who fear losing it; the pessimistic intellect entails putting things under scrutiny and into doubt. It views the world critically, puts things and givens into question, which is the basis for any advancement. In a sense the pessimism of the intellect is pragmatic, but not necessarily cynical. ‘Optimism of the will’, on the other hand does not necessarily denote a naïve view of the world but rather evokes the imagination and the mental strength necessary to bypass adversity, something that most humans inherently possess, and have also harnessed since time immemorial to get through times of hardship and move forward.

In light of the general fatalism that governs many aspects of politics, economics, and public life today, as well as the dominant view that capitalism is ‘inevitable’, Gramsci’s phrase seems as relevant as it was when first written. It is the optimism of the will that when implemented finally sparks change and can sow the seeds for a better future.
What we seem to miss now, more than ever, is the optimistic will put into action. The Thessaloniki Biennial will explore the multiple meanings of this dual phrase as well as mine that grey zone in between. Gramsci’s aphorism could also provide an inspirational point of departure for looking beyond crisis, at a time increasingly characterized by apathy and a general defeatist attitude in relation to the intensification of capitalism, growing social and economic inequalities, and the threat of socially oriented programmes and protections, not only in the Mediterranean, but throughout Europe in general. The biennial will thus shed light on some of the critical issues affecting the Mediterranean region so far, but will also allow room for what Ernst Bloch has called “forward dreaming”, so essential to move beyond the impasses that humanity faces at the moment. In this case, art has a seminal role to play as a form of emancipatory praxis. The artists in the biennial will thus engage in critical, oppositional cultural practices, and exercise the freedom of the imagination thus symbolically engaging with Gramsci’s aphorism. The latter perhaps provides the key to counter the situation of hopelessness today, which as David Graber correctly has pointed out, is not a natural state of affairs: “Hopelessness isn’t natural. It needs to be produced. If we want to understand this situation, we need have to begin by understanding that the last thirty years have seen the construction of a vast bureaucratic apparatus for the creation and maintenance of hopelessness, a kind of giant machine that is designed, first and foremost to destroy any sense of possible alternative futures [….]this apparatus exists to shred and pulverize the human imagination, to destroy the possibility of envisaging alternative futures”.
Art is one of the ways that this sense of inevitability can be challenged by opening up critical ways of looking at the world not only as it is, but as it could be and that is precisely what the artists presented at the Biennial will set out to do.

Sources:

Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1973
David Graeber, Revolutions in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art, and Imagination, Minor Compositions, London

The 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art is the third one of a three part program which started in 2011 and is funded under the Operational Program Macedonia-Thrace 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) and Greece. The organization is run by the State Museum of Contemporary Art, realized with the participation of the “5 Museums’ Movement of Thessaloniki” (Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki., Museum of Byzantine Culture, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Teloglion Foundation of Arts), supported by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and with the collaboration of many local institutions.

Main Exhibition
The main exhibition bears the title « Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will”, which was given by the curator Katerina Gregos, inspired by an aphorism by Antonio Gramsci. It will be housed in Periptero 6 (venue into the premises of the Thessaloniki International Fair). 44 artists, one artists’ collective group from 25 countries all around the world, will show their artworks, new and old productions, making the title of the exhibition more up to date than ever.

Participating artists
Carlos Aires (ES), Can Altay & Jeremiah Day (TR/US), Ivan Argote (CO), Marwa Arsanios (US), Bertille Bak (FR), Taysir Batniji (PS), James Beckett (ZA/NL), Adelita Husni Bey (IT), David Brognon & Stéphanie Rollin (BE/LU), Marianna Christofides (CY), Depression Era (GR), Ninar Esber (LB), Mounir Fatmi (MA), Peter Friedl (AT), Mekhitar Garabedian (SY/BE), Ganzeer (EG), Marina Gioti (GR), Piero Gilardi (IT), Hamza Halloubi (MA), Nick Hannes (BE), Sven Johne (DE), Annika Kahrs (DE), Eleni Kamma (GR), Hayv Kahraman (IQ), Mikhail Karikis (GR), Chrysanthi Koumianaki (GR), Erik Van Lieshout (NL), Thomas Locher (DE), Angela Melitopoulos & Angela Anderson (DE/US), Tom Molloy (IE), Nikos Navridis (GR), Qiu Zhijie (CN), Pavel Pepperstein (RU), Antonis Pittas (GR), Theo Prodromidis (GR), Meriç Algün Ringborg (TR), Anila Rubiku (AL), Marinella Senatore (IT), Nedko Solakov (BG), Nikos Tranos (GR), Thomas Weinberger (DE), Olav Westphalen (DE)

June 23– September 30, 2015
General title: “Old Intersections-Make it Νew ΙΙΙ”

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Eleni Kamma participe à l’exposition L’intru (The invaders), Friday Exit, Vienna (Aut)

Eleni Kamma
P like Politics, P like Parrots
Silkscreen poster, limited edition of 15 and 5 a.p.
2012

L’Intru (Invaders)
Exhibition, 13.6 – 28.6
Opening:
Friday, 12.6, 7pm
With the performances “Map Series” by Ana Mendes and “It’s About Desire” by Andrea Salzman

Ana Mendes
Andrea Salzman
Eleni Kamma
Franziska Becher
Mario Asef
Sonja Hornung
Lisbeth Kovacic

Idea, concept, curator: Ana Mendes
Associated curator: Joseph Constable

L’INTRU (INVADERS) is a multidisciplinary exhibition that deals with issues of post-colonialism, memory, identity and narration. The idea of invasion can be spoken about in abstract and concrete terms: the literal denial of entry into a country and the perception of individuals as outsiders combined with the psychological rupture that occurs when one is denied the opportunity to build an identity, nationality and memories. For those who do not have a past, the only possible future lies in- between the fantasy of alienation or the nostalgia of their origins. Gathering together artists originally from Portugal, Chile, Greece, Austria, Germany and Australia, who work in performance, sculpture, video and installation, L’INTRU (INVADERS) aims to question these potent issues: postcolonialism, personal and collective memory, narration and identity. The exhibition not only asks who the invaders are, it also speaks of the personal narratives that these forces provoke within the individual.

The subject of invasion
The story of humanity is made of up invasions, their continuous movements shaping the world around us. From the Romans to the Austro-Hungary Empire, American advertising or contemporary Russia, nations, communities and socio-political forces are constantly attempting to overtake and break down established borders. These invasions occur due to an economical need, the pressure to survive, a religious belief, or a desire for power. We are all aware of these historical movements, however there also exists more intimate invasions that exist on a local, personal scale. Fragmentation, fusion, dislocation, invasion and overlap are actions that are felt in everyday life, in the private minds of the individuals living in a respective context.

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Enlever et Entretenir V, 2015
Four vitrines, books, natural and cultural objects, tools.
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by NEON Organization for Culture and Development D.Daskalopoulos
Courtesy the artist and Nadja Vilenne gallery

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A lush, secluded garden in Athens provides the backdrop for works of art that reconnect the human with the animal. Echoing the satyrs, sphinxes and centaurs of Greek statuary, contemporary sculptures, installations and films draw on myth, drama and the animal kingdom to suggest a ‘bioethics’ for the 21st century.TERRAPOLIS, a term proposed by science philosopher Donna Haraway, combines the Latin ‘terra’ for earth, with the Greek ‘polis’ for city or citizens. This show asks ‘should we regard animals as citizens’? How do processes of nature, such as metamorphoses relate to the creation of art? How do mythic narratives resonate in contemporary society? And can we recalibrate our relationship with other species? The arcadian setting of a school dedicated to archaeological research provides the stage for works of art that also connect with the narratives and images of antiquity. Figurative works in mediums ranging from bronze to ceramic by mid century and contemporary artists explore myth, drama, metamorphoses and bioethics.
Some artists have created totemic gods and monsters that symbolize animistic power, giving contemporary form to mythology. Ancient Greek tragedies were counterpoised with ‘Satyr Plays’, tragi-comic burlesques set in woodland where players wearing masks and animal skins, would mock authority and engage in licentious play. Masks and animal avatars reveal human drives released from social convention. Dance, music and performance are central to many of the works in the exhibition and are further linked with activism.
The biological process of metamorphosis is mirrored by sculptural processes such as ceramics and bronze casting. The concept of metamorphosis in mythology also connects with eroticism and transformation through desire and passion.
Our epoch has been termed the ‘Anthropocene’, an era when human activities dominate and threaten the Earth’s ecosystems and extinguish other species. Many of the artists in the exhibition counterpoint the fast moving and often destructive technologies of human civilization with the slow time of the natural world. They propose contemporary artefacts as historical relics, imagining the garden in a post-human era where we ourselves are fossils. Artists also represent species that are endangered or proliferating through a lack of predators. They show ecosystems that are imbalanced and images of a natural world that are becoming increasingly virtual.
Co-curated by Iwona Blazwick with Poppy Bowers, Elina Kountouri and NEON Organization for Culture and Development, this is the second in a three part series of outdoor art projects that bring significant artists from Greece and around the world into the public realm.

In the 16th century European colonisers and explorers would bring their wealthy patrons shells, seeds and animal horns from foreign lands to be encased in precious settings by craftsmen and displayed as exotic trophies in Wunderkammer or ‘cabinets of curiosity’. Eleni Kamma creates a modern Wunderkammer for the French School at Athens, itself a centre for the study of archaeological remnants. Four wooden cabinets contain botanical specimens, tools, vessels and other found objects that are both banal and magical. Each contemporary artefact or organic fragment embodies a cosmos where the natural and the human overlap. Kamma also reveals unexpected connections between objects triggering narratives. Kamma is interested in how objects carry cultural and anthropological connotations and the way they are assimilated by contemporary society. She employs taxonomy to address complex issues, unfolding associations that connect nature, collective history and cultural identity. Her display of objects also foregrounds the tensions between organic cycles and the human pursuit for utility.

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Enlever et Entretenir V, 2015
Four vitrines, books, natural and cultural objects, tools.
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by NEON Organization for Culture and Development D.Daskalopoulos
Courtesy the artist and Nadja Vilenne gallery

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