‘Transcultures’
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
14, Frantzi str,11743 – Athens
tel: +302109242111-2
fax: +302109245200
protocol@emst.culture.gr
www.emst.gr
BILL VIOLA, The Raft, 2004, Video/sound Installation duration: 10 30, Edition 1/3, Loan from HCO to EMST “Transcultures”
Curator: Anna Kafetsi, Director of EMST
“Jannis Kounellis”
The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) inaugurated on the 6th of July 2004 the international exhibition Transcultures, which is being held within the framework of the Cultural Olympiad. The exhibitions of the National Museum of Contemporary Art are temporarily hosted at the new wing of the Athens Concert Hall, because of the reconstruction works of the old factory “FIX”, which will be the permanent venue of EMST by early 2007.
During the Olympic Games in Athens, the exhibition constituted a major artistic event.
The exhibition outlines the view that the intersection of cultures forms the necessary condition for both the creation, as well as the reception of contemporary art. On the level of production, international artists of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who work in big metropolitan centres, draw elements – philosophical, religious, social, political, et. al.- either from the indigenous cultures from which they come, or from diverse cultures which they consider coequal and with which they share the same anthropological background. Within the context of globalization, artists, like contemporary nomads, are trans-located and become the hosts of trans-experiences.
Transcultures suggest an aesthetic journey through different places and cultures, where the visitor has to overcome, like the artists themselves, ethnic and local closures and open up to the wealth of multicultural experiences.
Within this conceptual framework, EMST made its own multicultural selection by inviting internationally acknowledged artists to create new works. Most of them have been commissioned by the museum specifically for the Transcultures exhibition and will remain in the permanent collection of EMST thanks to the significant support of the Cultural Olympiad.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Costas Varotsos
Born in Athens, in 1955. He lives and works in Athens.
Sculpture
Bill Viola
Born in New York, in 1951. He lives and works in Long Beach, California.
Video-installation
Kendell Geers
Born in 1968, in Johannesburg. He lives and works in Brussels.
Installation
Jannis Kounellis
Born in 1936, in Piraeus. He lives and works in Rome.
Installation
Wolfgang Laib
Born in 1950, in Metzingen, Germany. He lives and works in Southern Germany.
Sculpture
Miroslaw Balka
Born in 1958, in Warsaw. He lives and works in Warsaw.
Installation
Shirin Neshat
Born in 1957, in Kazvin, Iran. He lives and works in New York.
Video-installation
Walid Ra’ad & the Atlas Group
Born in 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon. He lives and works in New York.
Installation and photographs
Do-Ho Suh
Born in Seoul, in 1962. He lives and works in New York.
Installation
Danae Stratou
Born in 1964, in Athens. He lives and works in Athens.
Installation
Costas Tsoclis
Born in 1930, in Athens. He lives and works in Athens.
Video-installation
Katharina Fritsch
Born in 1956, in Essen, Germany. He lives and works in Dusseldorf.
Installation
Mona Hatoum
Palestinian, born in 1952, in Beirut. He lives and works in London.
Installation
Gary Hill
Born in 1951, in Santa Monica, California. He lives and works in Seattle.
Video-installation
Kimsooja
Born in 1957, in Taegu, Korea. He lives and works in New York.
Sound installation
Emily Jacir
Born in 1970, in Bethlehem. He lives and works in New York and Ramallah.
Installation and photographs
George Hadjimichalis
Born in Athens, in 1954. He lives and works in Athens.
Painting
Jannis Kounellis
The individual exhibition of the internationally acknowledged artist Jannis Kounellis has been conceived by him as a large-scale site specific installation, presented in an area of 600 sq. mt, at the new exhibition hall of the Athens Concert Hall.
Born in 1936 in Piraeus, Jannis Kounellis settled in Rome in 1956, where he studied in the Academy of Fine Arts and in the ’60s already emerged as one of the protagonists of the Arte Povera movement in Italy. By using materials such as iron, carbon, fire, wood, stone etc he promotes through his wall constructions and installations the primordial poetical nature of things and their political – cultural depth.
The exhibition has been organized with the support of illycaffe.
—————————————————————————————————————— Next at the National Museum of Contemporary Art:
A large survey exhibition dedicated to the New York based Korean artist, Kimsooja, (born in 1957, in Taegu) with recent installations and video-installations.
The duration of the exhibition will be from 9 February to 8 May 2005
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National Museum of Contemporary Art / EMST
14, Frantzi str
11743 – Athens
tel: +302109242111-2
fax: +302109245200
protocol@emst.culture.gr www.emst.gr
