Το C. & Α. Mamidakis presents on Saturday 15 June 2024 in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, the three works that received the Art Prize 2024.
It is about the Landscape in Motion by Irene Miga, the The Resilient Thread by Katerina Nakou and the Long Wave by Stratis Taularidis.
At the same time, apart from the award-winning works, the work Six Breaths per Minute
by Maria Louizou, which will be on permanent display at Minos Palace.
The Landscape in Motion by Irene Miga is a site-responsive artwork that combines painting and sculptural elements, depicting a constantly evolving landscape. Inspired by the swirling of a leaf in the air, it draws our attention to the endangered and rare flora of Crete, encouraging collective awareness for its preservation.
The Resilient Thread by Katerina Nakou consists of large-scale compositions woven on the loom, which reconfigure the role of the decorative elements of passementerie, an endangered art form that traditionally decorated the margins and now becomes the central element of a narrative. As Ms. Nakou: “The work is symbolic and is an artistic challenge for me, not only because of its large scale, but also because of the complexity of the hand-woven compositions and intertwining threads that are intertwined in order to highlight the diversity of the art of ‘passementerie‘. Guided by the theme of care, this art, which symbolizes margins on various conceptual levels, takes centre stage and demands our attention, underlining the need for a more inclusive approach to our world. The implementation of the proposal was a demanding process, but at the same time very special and creative and I feel very honoured to have been given the opportunity and support to make it happen.”
The Long Waves of Stratis Taularidis is a large-scale installation – 30 meters – of perforated handmade paper using the paper cut technique that reflects the form and movement of the sea in our memory, but at the same time it also functions as a symbol of a new era, likening it to images of fishing nets. The aim is to raise public awareness of the urgent need to take care of the seas. As the artist says: “I want to look at something that we have ceased to notice, which, because of our way of life, has gone unnoticed. We are an integral part of the destructive course that is happening now and we have the opportunity to reverse it. For the last few months I have been working every day with dedication on the creation of the installation. The award and the Foundation’s support have enabled me to be able to research and open a new cycle of work on large-scale installations, where the viewer will be able to wander through the work itself. Through this creative process I was able to meet people who embraced my idea and helped me to realise it.”
In addition to the presentation of the works that received the Art Prize 2024, the G.& A. Mamidakis is pleased to present to the public the new work of its collection,
Six Breaths per Minute by Maria Louizou. Three striking human-sized clay vessels symbolize the safe space, the space of living with our bodies and expressing our voices, and host a vocal performance in a kind of protest for the unheard voices of victims of violence. At the same time, the project explores the evolution of ceramic art using examples of traditional pottery in a new era of interdisciplinary art. The design began in 2020 in the Peloponnese and completed its journey in the village of Thrapsano in Crete, the oldest point of knowledge and production of handmade pottery. The project was first presented in 2021 at the Ileana Tounta Centre for Contemporary Art, supported by Terraneo and the Ministry of Culture, and part of it was realized after a commission from the Onassis Foundation in 2023 for the exhibition Plásmata II: Ioannina.
Short biographical notes of the artists:
Irini Miga studied Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins College, London, obtained a BFA degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, New York. Her practice includes sculpture, installations, drawing concepts, text and performance. Recent solo exhibitions include: Reflections, at the Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Away in Another Way of Saying Here, at Essex Flowers Gallery, New York, An Interval at Flyweight Projects in New York, and group exhibitions such as Fountainhead Biennial II: Last Days of a House, curated by Omar López-Chahoud, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Outraged by Pleasure, curated by Nandia Argyropoulou, “Nobel” building, Halandri, Athens, A Scattering of Salts, curated by Panos Giannikopoulos, ACG Art Gallery, Athens, Tomorrow‘s Dream, at Neuer Essener Kunstverein in Hesse, Scraggly Beard Grandpa, at Capsule Shanghai gallery, in China. Miga has participated in internationally recognized Art Residency programs such as Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Workspace at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) in New York, Open Sessions at The Drawing Center in New York, the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Watermill Center and others. Her works can be found in international art collections, such as the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and the Dakis Ioannou Collection – DESTE Foundation, Athens.
Katerina Nakou has studied Philosophy and Art History at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and Textile Design at Reutlingen University (Germany), where she completed her postgraduate studies in Design & Fine Art Conception. She has specialised as a Textile Developer in Jacquard weaving at the Textiel Museum – Textiel Lab (The Netherlands). She has been awarded the Grand Prize of IDEEC 2023 (International Design Education Expo and Conference) in Chuncheon (Korea) and her works have been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutes in Germany and Korea. She is a fellow of art and design programs at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2023) and University of Girona (2024) and resident fellow at TekstilLab, Bergen – Norway (2023) and European Textile Network & Textile Centre Haslach – Austria (2024).
Stratis Taularidis was born in Thessaloniki in 1990 and is a graduate of the School of Visual and Applied Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Using the papercut technique, he creates perforated artworks and large-scale installations, consisting of handmade papers of a few grams, which he cuts with a surgical scalpel. He has exhibited solo in Athens and Thessaloniki. He represented Greece at the “Izmir Mediterranean Biennial” in 2023 and at the “15th Biennale de la Mediterranée” in 2011. He has been awarded in Greek and European competitions with the art prize of the G. & & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. & G. Foundation. A. Mamidakis Foundation (2024), at the “Pame Apenti” – Arsis (2012) and at the Hulda Festival (2011) etc. He has participated in the Art Fair “Tom of Finland Art & Culture Fail” (2023), “Rome International Art Fair” (2021), “London Art Fair” (2015), “Art Athina” (2014). He currently lives and works in Athens.
Maria Louizou lives and works in Athens. Her entire body of work consists of sculptural installations, which host vocal compositions that she creates herself. He studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts and composition theory of classical & electronic music at the Athens Conservatory. In 2020 she won the ARTWORKS award, and her research “Corporeality in contemporary sculpture, phonetics, and Greek tradition” was funded by the Ministry of Culture. In 2019, her work was presented in New York, at the annual “Tabula Rasa” exhibition under the artistic direction of Robert Wilson, and in Beijing, where she won the “China Taiyuan International YouthMetal Sculpture Creations 2018” award. Her work has also been presented in the context of the exhibition “Theorems” at the EMST, while her participation in the Watermill Center Summer Residency was funded by donations from collectors Cornelia Long and Franz Wassmer. Her first solo exhibition “22°C” was held at Sinestetica Gallery (Rome, 2019), while her second solo exhibition “Six Breaths per Minute” will be held at the Ileana Tuda Centre for Contemporary Art in 2021. She also presented a collaborative project in collaboration with Columbia University and the Victoria Square Project as an Artist in Residency in 2021. In 2022 he participated in artist residency programs at The Watermill Center, Atelier des Arques and the Delfina Foundation. In 2023 she participated in the exhibition Plásmata II: Ioannina, as well as in the European Capital of Europe Timisoara, and launched her own artistic residency in Leros entitled Politics of border waters and the unwanted body.
A few words about the institution of the Art Prize:
Since its launch in 2019, the Art Prize has been supporting contemporary artists, offering them the opportunity to create a new work of art that will become part of the Foundation’s collection, open to the public and part of an important cultural heritage.
The call for the award was addressed to creators from all over the world and the proposals of the three artists receiving equal prizes stood out. After the June presentation, the works will remain on permanent display in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, and will be part of the Foundation’s art collection, which brings together over 70 original, site-specific works by important Greek and international artists, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Lynda Benglis, Cecilia Campos, Kostas Varotsos, Maria Loizidou, Rena Papaspyrou, Angelos Skourtis, Kostas Ioannidis, Nikos Alexiou, Giorgos Lappas, Nikos Kessanlis, Giorgos Gyparakis and many others.
Magdalena Abakanowicz [The Painful Pyramids]
Boris Despodov
Angelos Skourtis [ East-West-North-South ]
Katia Roka, Ariadne’s Thread
This year’s call was for proposals for large-scale projects, designed to be reference points in their exhibition space, while particular emphasis was placed on the theme of Care, which underlies the Foundation’s research residencies and open seminars. The proposals that were awarded stood out for their originality, innovation, connection to the theme and creativity.
Previous winners of the award were Theodoros Zafeiropoulos and George Rymenidis for the work Come with the Wind (2019), Ismeni King and Ileana Arnaoutou for the play Tender Shell Geophilia (2022), while in 2023 Maro Fassouli was awarded for the Nomadic Murals, Alexandros Laios for the Day and Ami Yamasaki for the Whispers travel and whisper to you again.
The Art Prize 2024 Evaluation Committee was composed of:
-Georgio Gyparakis, Visual Artist, Professor of the Department of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens
-Polina Kosmadaki, Art Historian, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Benaki Museum
-Sotirio Bachchetzi, Artistic Director of the G.&A. Mamidakis, Art Historian, Art Historian, An. G.G.M. and G.A. M.M. Artists, Professor of History and Art History, Professor of History and Art History of the Museum of Fine Arts, Professor of History and Art History of the Museum of Fine Arts. Professor of Culture and Creative Media and Industries, University of Thessaly.
-Nikos Navridis, Visual Artist, Professor of the Athens School of Fine Arts
-Alexandros Psychoulis, Visual Artist, Professor of the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly
Applications for the Art Prize are launched every autumn through a public open call.
Information about the Art Prize and the G.&A. Mamidakis and G.G. Mamidakis Foundation
HERE
.
Photos of the award-winning artists and details of their works can be found
HERE
Photos of award-winning works and works from the collection can be found
HERE
.
