Special Greek Edition October 2016

The 10^th artAmari Residency coincided with the 150 years anniversary from the Cretan Revolution at Arkadi Monastery. The residency was included in the official commemorative events and was therefore decided that there wouldn’t be an open call for non-Greek artists (as normally) but an invitation to Greek artists, with the specific focus on the anniversary.

The high point of the residency was Sunday 16^th October were the four artists concluded their projects and invited the audience to participate in the making and discuss about memory meeting contemporary art. The works consisted of two installations by Panagiotis Voulgaris and Dimitra Maltabe, an interactive performance intervention by Lea Petrou and a performance by   Angeliki Douveri. (scroll down for details on each project)

First visit at the Arkadi Monastery

Another viewpoint of the historic Monastery

At the nearby field

Researching local nature

Byzantine ruins at the village of Kalogeros

Nature taking over the ruins

In situ intervention by Panagiotis Voulgaris

Open air studio

At a local distillery of “tsikoudia” spirit

An occasion for celebration

Findings…

and interventions

Installation by Dimitra Maltabe at the Stavroulaki residence in the village of Thronos

Installation by Panagiotis Voulgaris at the Stavroulaki residence in the village of Thronos

Lea Petrou’s project “150” involved 150 people tracing over the image of Arkadi Monastery blowing up

People were eager to participate

Lea visited all sorts of places in order to contact the locals

The project is based on local history but aims to point out the uniqueness of each participant.

We took the project to the local secondary school with an unexpected response

View of the church in the Monastery along with the material of the upcoming performance

Dimitra Maltabe created an installation in a monk’s cell at the Arkadi monastery

Dimitra Maltabe talking to visitors

Little art lover

The finished work

Panagiotis Voulgaris working on his installation

The artist at work

The finished work of Panagiotis Voulgaris

Performance by Angeliki Douveri

Detail from “4 Generations” performance

The performance was repeated numerous times throughout the day of 16th October

Workshop at the primary school of Fourfouras village

Close-up of the childrens’ work

Little hands making art interventions in the school yard

View of the final result

4 Generations by Angeliki Douveri

Angeliki Douveri presents a performative, temporary intervention inspired by the portrait of her great-grand-father, which is exhibited in the Monastery along with all the chief commanders that fought inside and outside of the Monastery during the Cretan Revolution of 1866. The temporary trace of his stencil-figure made of water, dries and fades away as the action/itinerary evolves from the entrance of the monastery towards the church. A comment on roots, memory and perception of both personal and collective past.

Interdependence between substance/matter and narration by Dimitra Maltabe

The matter from which a work of art is made is part of its narration. Natural materials, as wood and rocks, carry something from the environment that were found, the memory of its previous state. The presence of Arkadi Monastery in the area through centuries as well as the constant human presence in the wider region leads me in collection of raw materials such as rocks, wood and leaves. Salt is a material of great symbolic and practical importance in many cultures, and of particular interest in my work. Salt in solution retains the memory of its solid state, to which it may revert; its form may change while it remains the same substance. Symbolically and literally salt embodies opposites, it preserves and yet it erodes, it is important for life but at the same time it can be harmful. Salt preserves memory.

150 by Lea Petrou

In 1966, for the centennial of the Cretan Revolution, the Hellenic post published a commemorative stamp depicting the 1866 bombing of Arkadi. Under the official commemorative events of the 150 years anniversary since the Arkadi Holocaust, Lea Petrou presents an interactive performance intervention with 150 specially designed, numbered, blank post cards, one for every year since the Holocaust. Residents of the area of Amari and visitors of the Monastery are invited to interact, by tracing over the enlarged stamp on the front of the 150 blank cards, using pens, pencils and black carbon. The 150 participations capture different view-points of this historical space and time, through personalized line traces.

Fragments from an Immune Land by Panagiotis Voulgaris

Panagiotis Voulgaris creates an ephemeral restoration at an artificial trench in the ground of the historic building of the Arkadi Monastery which is located in parallel with the Arsenal where the explosion took place. For this purpose the site is filled with thorns and wild flowers collected from the nature that surrounds and protects the monastery and specifically from the site “Koukounaries” located on the same axis with the project. An installation by simple and natural means serves as a reminder of the destruction and emphasizes the relationship of the complex with the natural landscape. The artwork is an ephemeral and fragile touch that indicates the sacrifice of these people and attempts to heal the historical wound alongside with creating a connection with the perpetual nature and contributing to the collective memory of the place.
At the same time an expanded grid of ephemeral works unfolds like a map of fragments – finds of the explosion targeting from the monastery to the nature and the surrounding villages and is defined by small and larger interventions as an approach of restoring and healing.

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