The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, Chicago,USA
announces
e-migration
PENELOPEIA: The Other Journey
Curated by Dr. Zoe Kosmidou
March 8 – June 16, 2 0 0 6
The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, Chicago,USA
801 W. Adams Street, 4th Floor, Chicago, IL 60607
Ph: 312-655-1234|fax:312-655-1221
Performance and book presentation: The Power of Visual Logos, Greek Women Artists
by Dr. Zoe Kosmidou,
on which PENELOPEIA was based.
Inspired by Homer’s Penelope in The Odyssey, five Greek artists sail on a metaphorical journey with partners from across the globe to connect and explore issues of common interest through varied artistic media and breathtaking imagery. The show includes live and interactive performances, multimedia works, video projections, photography, drawings and installations.
Like Ulysses’ Odyssey, PENELOPEIA depicts Penelopes epic journey through life as recorded, observed, experienced and expressed by the following international women artists:
Rita Antonio | Tanacross Dimitriadi | Mia Enell | Mai Ghoussoub |Eleftheria Lialios| Despo Magoni | Maro Michalakakos | Beatrice Plumet| Chrysanne Stathacos
The project is documented online at: www.penelopeia.net
The artists work in partnerships: TANACROSS DIMITRIADI (Greece) with MAI GHOUSSOUB (Lebanon), ELEFTHERIA LIALIOS (Greece) with RITA ANTONIO (Portugal), DESPO MAGONI (Greece) with 33 partners from around the world, MARO MICHALAKAKOS (Greece) with BEATRICE PLUMET (France) and CHRYSANNE STATHACOS (Greece) with MIA ENELL (Sweden).
They examine some of the most striking lines of cross-cultural aesthetic research currently conducted in artistic dialogue. These artists explore the diachronic issue of migration within human geographies, one or many cultures; within gender; within the self. Refuge and displacement, the cultural construction of personhood in social stratification, comfort and conformity, confinement and exodus are some of the subject matters that they are working on. Their positions and critical approaches place their practices at the heart of the main issues of contemporary culture.
e-migration is the new focus/theme of the PENELOPEIA Project and the third of a series of exhibitions that were launched in 2003. e-migration signifies a process that begins with the “exodus” from one place or condition to another, either willingly or unwillingly, physically or spiritually. For this exhibition it provides a conceptual framework within which the work of the participating artists living and working in their countries and the United States, can fit.
e-migration refers to the electronic age, but as a term it activates other kinds of meanings around the wanderings of body and soul within ancient and contemporary cultures. In the Homeric narrative of migration, women are to men what Penelope is to Odysseus – she counterpoints his physical wandering with a spiritual journey of her own, a story that speaks of issues of power, representation and repression.
This exhibition continues a dialogue within a sociopolitical context that addresses to liminal states, to the notion that the migrant and the traveler are in a state of ‘in betweens’, an idea that also reverberates in the virtual world.
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The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Centers mission is to be the nations foremost center of Hellenic history, culture, and the arts, where the public can explore the legacy of Greek immigrant experience in America and examine the influence of Hellenic culture and people from antiquity to the present.
The Hellenic Museum and Cultural is pleased to be the recipient of grants from The MacArthur Foundation for Arts and Culture /The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, City Arts Program II, Fatouras Family Fund/Vanguard Charitable Trust, Vavasis Family Fund/A & T Philia Foundation.
Underwriters for this exhibit are John P. Regas – In Memory of Becky Bisoulis, George and Angela Paterakis, State Senator Adeline J. Geo-Karis, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, and Todays Chicago Woman.
Hours and Admission: Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday 10am 4pm; Saturday 11am 4pm. Regular exhibit admission is FREE to HMCC Members. Children under 12 are FREE. Call 312.655.1234 for general information. Group Tours are available with advance registration. Special rates are offered for group tours. Special fees may apply to programs. For more information call the Museum at 312.655.1234, ext. 22.
Images and interviews with the artists and curator are available upon request.
