2013 | Venice

Foto-poems from Venezia

vispo-full

@ Coldfront Magazine | Vispo section

@ otoliths – a magazine of many e-things


November 2013

The in_Tension @ APhF:13 – Beton7

Photography as Performance

“The in-Tension” at Beton7, Center for the Arts
Curated by Demosthenes Agrafiotis & Andreas Pashias
Presented by epitelesis – Performance Art Foundation

Press release (pdf)

As a part of Athens Photo Festival 2013, “The in-Tension” (Performance as Photography) is an
exhibition curated by visual and performance artists Demosthenes Agrafiotis and Andreas Pashias.
By examining the fusion of artistic practices experienced in the contemporary cultural scene, this
exhibition brings forward the work of prominent international artists as a crucial effort to re-
evaluate the relationship of performance art and photography. In performance art, the duration
required to execute an artwork is ‘equal’ to the actual artwork. Photography is introduced in this
process, as an attempt to capture the artist’s corporeal existence or
its trace in action. The
‘tension’ between
these two artistic practices is brought forward
through the contrast of a
performance’s duration unfolding over a specific period of time and the photographic instance
capturing only one frame/moment of action. Therefore, the ephemeral dimension of performance
art is quoted by the resulting photograph, into a document of permanence. As a pictorial essay,
this exhibition proposes the detached photograph as autonomous artwork and presents it alongside
similarly treated artistic output.

The differences between the art of performance and the art of photography come in diverse
formats, so that the performance artist and the photographer can choose the elements on which
they can build convergences and divergences. These formats of ‘intention’ can be realized through
a photograph taken
during a live performance, a still image captured
from a video performance,
an image of the artist
taken in collaboration with a photographer or even a self-photographed
image of the artist. The relationship between the performer and the photographer is formulated
according to the structural elements of these ‘in-tensions’. As a result, this exhibition is based upon
the formats of producing artwork by a ‘hybrid creator’, that rises through the merging of an artist’s
body and a photographer’s camera lens.

Performance artists: Abel Azcona · Alastair MacLennan · Alexandros Plomaritis · Amalia
Charikiopoulou · Andreas Pashias · Bartolomé Ferrando · BBB Johannes Deimling · Boris Nieslony ·
Carlos Martiel · Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith · Demosthenes Agrafiotis · GRAAM · Grigoris
Semitecolo · Joseph Ravens · Julien Blaine · Katharina Kastl · Kurt Johannessen · Lala Nomada ·
Michel Collet · Monika Günther & Ruedi Schill · Pekka Kainulainen · Seiji Shimoda · Valentine
Verhaeghe

Photographers: Anne Lise Dehee · Daniel Häller · Dimitris Priftis · Fabrizio Garghetti · Jean Marc
de Samie · Jesse Clockwork · Jessica Smith · Jouko Vatanen · Juan Pablo Hoyos Ramírez · Kenny
Lemes · Manuel Vason · Mathias Pick · Miklos Legrady · Mishka Henner · Monika Sobczak · Rita
Rodrigues

Architectural Design: Melina Philippou

Opening: November 5th 2013, 20.00
Operating hours: Monday to Friday, 14.00-20.30 | Saturday, 14.00-18.00 | Closed on Sundays
Duration: November 5th –23rd 2013
Beton7, Center for the Arts | 7, Pydnas St. (Metro station “Kerameikos”| Votanikos)
Τel. : 210-7512625

The announcement at Beton7



8 May - 27 July 2013

The lying on the floor

DA’s NY performance presented at the exhibition

The lying on the floor, abandoned to lie

An exhibition about material in Performance Art
formed by E.P.I. Zentrum Cologne and Sibylle Ettengruber MAERZ-Gallery Linz and more than 80 artists around the world.
venue: Künstlervereinigung MAERZ,
place: Eisenbahngasse 20, Austria – 4020 Linz
date: 8. May till 27. July 2013 / Tu. – Fr. 3:00 – 6:00 pm / Sa. 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Three different currents are to unify in this presentation.
The first one is the infinite multiplicity of what material is and can be, and the second one shows up in the
question of what and how material appears and the third stream forms itself in the multiplicity of the
applicable regulations.
Which structure of order is the most sensible production of meaning and how the existing material enters
into a transfer and combination will be seen.
The structural limitation is the body of people acting and in this case especially the visible part.
Mental – and physical – and energetic views are kept back for further presentations and outsourced here.
The diagrammatic exhibition brings together about 80 artists from around the world. These have sent
documentary material from their own works and their practice of performance and life art. Photos, texts
and relics form the body of the exhibition.
Contrapuntal these materials will be grouped into ethnographic and anthropological photographical views
of human action.
Reasonable is an incompleteness , which is also due to the vitality of the human body, and the vitality and
momentum of the material.
During the display a blog is installed – http://thelyingonthefloorabandonedtolie.blogspot.co.at/
Have also a view on the webpage of the E.P.I. Archive: http://www.asa.de/asa_broschure.pdf
Info: www.asa.de / www.maerz.at

Exhibition’s concept: pdf

DA’s photo documentation


March 2013 | Paris

Paris in snow



8-15 March 2013 | Quimperlé, France

Festival of Poetic Expression @ Quimperlé

Maison de la poésie du pays de Quimperlé

Greece is the country of honor.


Souvenirs from Quimperlé



9-10 February 2013 | ISBA, Besançon, France

Journée portes ouvertes @ ISBA

Open doors day at Fine Art School of Superior Institute of fine arts Besançon (ISBA) – 9-10/02/2013

Participation Grecque, Hall “ACROPOLIS”:
Démosthène Agrafiotis
Rilene Markopoulou
Apostolos Plachouris


DA’s contribution, “CRIES, crise”, Photos of Athènes (2009-13)


The pictures in “ACROPOLIS” Hall:


25-27 May 2012 | Birkbeck College, London

Poetry & Revolution

Cries, crises. Greek Passions

We live in a period of generalised crisology. The word “crisis/krisis” tends to be one of the most used words today, by a great variety of people, institutions and social groups. The Greek word “krisis” has two meanings: the first one is related to the absence of functionality and to the disruption introduced to normality (the illness is the best metaphor). The second refers to the capacity of an intelligent diagnosis of the sociocultural conditions and of imaginative decision making corresponding to the above conditions. It is clear from today’s use of the term crisis that the second meaning is absent. This deficit, this loss of meaning is due to well known mechanism of borrowing words from the ancient Greek language and culture and transforming them to terms/notions/concepts. This transport, this translation permits the passage from the multiple meanings of words to the strict and unique meaning of the terms. What is lost in richness and variety of sense, it is gained in precision and demarcation of sense. However, Krisis in ancient Greek presupposes both the “cracks” of the normal flow of
things and the capacity of human beings to overpass them by using judgement and clever decisions that follow it. The dominant discourses use the first meaning of krisis and they ignore the second. This paradox creates an atmosphere of despair and a feeling of hopeless confrontation with the impossible.

The Greek crisis in a poetical and cultural perspective could be considered as an opportunity to acclaim the return of the second meaning and as point of departure for the elaboration of imaginative and innovative actions concerning the global tensions and conflicts.

Poetry as condensed politics, could contribute by indicating the possible ways to stimulate the imagination, to elaborate schemes of thinking and analysis, to grasp the potential of the moments and situation, and (eternal illusion) to propose another perception of the reality. In this spirit, Greek crisis and the international crisis both they need a poetical krisis (mainly of the second meaning) to find wise and robust ways to face the multiple challenges concerning the present and the future of our planet.

Listen to the lecture.

Demosthenes Agrafiotis

Poetry & Revolution International Conference at the CPRC, Birkbeck College / Friday 25 May 2012 – Sunday 27 May 2012

The past conference schedules, abstracts & bios (pdf)



October 1994 | Athens

Photo-imerida

Workshop on “Artistic Photography”


Proceedings of the Workshop on “Artistic Photography”, Collective Work, Ministry of Culture, National Network of Cultural Cities, Athens 1994.