Art Athina 2018, No – Ah - Fence

Art Athina 2018, Booth D2

20 - 24 June 2018, Conservatory of Athens

Cube Gallery, participates in Art Athina 2018, with the art project No – Ah – Fence and its collaborators, Brendan Kelly, Christos Koutsoukis, Makis Kyriakopoulos, Fanis Logothetis, Andreas Nicolaou, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos and Constantinos Patsis.

Liana Zoza, curator of No – Ah - Fence, writes: “The idea for the project began from the expression noah fence, which entitles the user to express his own view of the face of his interlocutor or for his words. In itself, it is an expression quite modern, but also absolute since it is usually a cruel view of what follows. 

Then, the No – Ah - Fence came as a wordplay, which I believe that gives the possibility of a wider expression and multiple recruits, since its word combination functions as an autonomous word that could someone uses either the same and its meaning or its refusal or in combination with one of each other.

No, that denotes a prohibition, could stay or leave for the wanted result in the whole image. By choosing the rules and sticking to them or overturning stereotypes and making the excess, the artist chooses his view.

Ah, as an interjection, declares pain, sadness, terror or joy, surprise or pleasure and it always depends on its combination with the No or the rejection of it.

And finally, Fence has a clear meaning and a strong presence in real life. The "fences" we meet every day, real or imagined, impose rules, separate and sometimes target individuals or social groups. Annotation focuses on their existence and their consequences or their downfall and the corresponding results.

The purpose is that the artworks will be a comment in today's social reality and I believe that each of the participants have the ability to do this in his way of thinking or the personal medium he use to capture your work.

Seven artists, from different areas of Greece and Europe, where they live and work, chat with each other via the Νο – Ah – Fence project, proving that art knows no rules or borders and unites civilizations and differences.

Brendan Kelly, of an Irish descent, uses the unity of his work Haysheds, with which he participates in No – Ah – Fence, his childhood and not only memories, from the metallic warehouses which are located in almost all the Irish fields. According to him, this agricultural construction (hayshed), which at first seems harmless, is just the peak of an iceberg, from the metaphorical and symbolic meaning of it. A constructed structure, like a fence, to divide, and hold at the same time, a structure which has gained its notoriety through the darkest days of the late history of Ireland.

Christos Koutsoukis, by living in a multicultural city like Brussels, walks daily through the people who move in the streets and the public means of transportation, and this is reflected on his work. “The endless flow of people in the big cities is my own source of influence. Entitled Flux, human figures, which may be coming from different civilizations, are pictured in motion, passing by the same location, at the same time, waiting for something or chatting, each one with his own story.”.

The works of the series Space Taxidermy, of Makis Kyriakopoulos, with which he participates in the project No – Ah – Fence, focus on topological geometries, in which the totality emerges from the interactions between the smaller elements of the total, highlighting an “organized multiplexity”. 

Fanis Logothetis, participates with the works Residue Ι, ΙΙ, considering for him, No – Ah - Fence is imprinted in the remains (residue), in a fictional meta-place (borders/military base/ detention center / hospitality center) which has no specific time and could be everything, but could also be the void. His view, in the post-apocalyptic setting and the position of man, having body parts off of dolls, between materials such as stones, glasses, wires but also fences, with obvious scars of desertion/battle.  

Andreas Nicolaou, living in Greece and Cyprus, believes that man cannot be non-sensitive with the national issues. In No – Ah  - Fence he participates with the installation A Small Sea, which includes the Greek flag, through his childhood memories. This time, though, it is a hopeful flag … which opens a way to the dream… to the beautiful One! A flag of his home, which includes a “small sea” – peaceful, and a boat, which is fragile, but ready to host our dream … as he describes it. 

For Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos,  No – Ah – Fence, is described by the lyrics: Heavy steps into the mud, sinking uncontrollably in a vague feeling. Cold and untouched, for countless years … (excerpt from the poem Hunters, part of the installation). He takes part with the installation Hunters, which has a commentary role in the project, through a contemporary artist view, result of the life of the artist in a multicultural city, as London in. 

Constantinos Patsis, takes part with his works Lost Paradise I, II. His own artistic  view for No – Ah – Fence, contains a paradise lost, maybe the one of the lost purity or virginity, with a view relatable to the one of Giannis Kounelis.  The art of painting meets the new means and two worlds come together simultaneously to complete each other. Angels and demons, light and darkness, without meaning anymore, as everything is gone, and in their place, stayed the symbols as cave scraps. Personal notes, of those who left to give their position in the present time. Images that could be a small map for the future…