“Domino” 3rd International Young Artist’s Workshop, Curators: Areti Leopoulou & Theodoros Markoglou, Former Army Camp ‘Pavlos Melas’, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale “A Rock And A Hard Place” Parallel Programme 2011 (Greece).

The small objects I created during the International Young Artists’ Workshop are not a direct visual representation of the “domino” theme, which is also the Workshop’s title. Reflecting on the process that led to the creation of all these objects, the end product might give the impression of resembling the domino game and its familiar lineup of small tiles. However, these objects might also entail the sociopolitical meaning and dimension of the “domino effect”. Under this light, my work could be seen as acquiring a more allegorical meaning: using widely different objects in terms of size (others are big while others are tiny) and structure (some are held by a thin thread, others are floating or are randomly kept upright, while others are firmly positioned on the ground), I created a fragile dynamic, which gives the impression that a single movement could make them all crumble and topple each other. Throughout this process, during the time I spent in the workshop, another question arose; a question that the audience is not required, of course, to answer, but should keep in mind when seeing my work. I was wondering about the origin of a contradiction that was produced unconsciously rather than on purpose: with the exception of the assemblages that are clearly the product of intense processing, how can it be that there are others among them, which were completed with minimal gestures?

3rd Thessaloniki Biennale | 2011

DOMINO, 3rd International Young Artist’s Workshop, Parallel program

September 18th -November 7th, 2011, former army camp ‘Pavlos Melas’, curated by Areti & Theodoros Markoglou.

The 3rd International Young Artists’ Workshop is focusing on the contemporary experimental art, highlighting a characteristic dimension of Thessaloniki, as a cultural crossroad with historical and broader dimensions. The workshop functioned as a ‘temporary autonomous zone’ within the Mediterranean environment and its economical and political conflicts, realignment and unrest. In this framework, the title ‘Domino’ was selected, as a reference to the known and dominant -on a political and economical level- theory of the ‘Domino effect’. Based on the central idea of the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial and the workshop’s concept, all the participating artists come from the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions.

Participating artists: Dimitris Ameladiotis (Greece), Nadia Ayari (Tunisia), Sirine Fattouh (Lebanon), The Fleetgroup (Georgia), Andre Gonçalves (Portugal), Elina Ioannou (Cyprus), Nader Sadek (Egypt)

State Museum / Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (Greece).

Catalogue (English/Greek)

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