Press Release

Pavilion of at the 58th International Art Exhibition ― La di Venezia

Artists Panos Charalambous, Eva Stefani, and Zafos Xagoraris represent Greece at the Biennale Arte 2019 in an exhibition titled Mr. Stigl

curated by Katerina Tselou

May 11–November 24, 2019 Pre-opening: May 8–10, 2019 Inauguration: May 10, 2019, 2 p.m. Giardini,

Artists Panos Charalambous, Eva Stefani, and Zafos Xagoraris represent Greece at the 58th International Art Exhibition―La Biennale di Venezia (May11–November 24, 2019) with new works and in situ installations, curated by Katerina Tselou.

Lining the in Venice―both inside and outside―with installations, images,

In the environment they create, there is an constant transposition occurring from grand narratives to personal stories. The unknown (or less known) details of history emerge, subverting

Mr. Stigl, who lends his name to the title of the Greek Pavilion exhibition, is a historical paradox, a constructive misunderstanding, a fantastical hero of an unknown story whose poetics take us to a space of doubt, paraphrased sounds, and nonsensical identities and histories.

What does history rewrite and what does it conceal?

The voices introduced by Panos Charalambous reach us through the rich collection of vinyl records he has accumulated since the 1980s. By combining installations with sonic performances, Charalambous brings forward voices that have been forgotten or silenced, recomposing their orality through an idiosyncratic play of vinyl using eagle’s claws, rose thorns, and agave leaves. His new work An Eagle Was Standing drinking glasses upon which an ecstatic, “ultrasonic” dance is performed—a vortex of deep listening. The viewer is invited to walk on this transparent stage and leave behind an echo, a trace in the present. Two archival recordings from the artist’s collection accompany the sounds emerging from the glass a eulogy to the body held in contempt, a hymn to the Dionysian element of popular dance existing

1 Eva Stefani associated with the periphery of history and thereby considered marginal. Her new work titled Only Men documents the everyday life of several middle-aged men; multiple narratives composed

no importance who these men are. They could be a poet, the owner of a taverna in Metaxourgeio, Window she retells a

of parades and national celebrations is set against tiny pieces of text in the work titled Mouth. The text written by Stefani herself, subversively intertwines private and public speech. Like the

of the past that casts light upon history.

Zafos Xagoraris transforms the architecture of the Greek Pavilion by reconstructing the military prison gate of Makronisos. His installation The Concession transports us back to 1948, connecting the Greek

changing the history of the Biennale itself. During the opening, displaced soldiers and civilians were forced to build replicas of ancient Greek temples at the Makronisos concentration camp as part of a political and cultural “reformation.” The three-dimensional portrayal of a hybrid building inside of the Greek Pavilion references the architectural connection between the Pavilion and the buildings forcibly created by the exiled islanders, as if the outcome of a collision between two contradictory of the land as well as the stories of people living apart.

The Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus) has been appointed commissioner of Greece’s national participation by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. The role of commissioner is undertaken by Syrago Tsiara, deputy director of the MOMus –Museum of and MOMus–Experimental Center for the Arts. The project is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.

The project is powered by Onassis Culture, with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development, the Greek National Tourism Organization and Aegean Airlines a air carrier sponsor.

Inauguration of the Greek Pavilion: Friday May 10, 2019, 2 p.m. A sonic performance will be presented by Panos Charalambous during the inauguration (10 min.).

2 Press material and photos here: mrstigl.com/press

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3 ARTWORKS

Panos Charalambous An Eagle Was Standing, Installation, diensions ariable perorance

, drinkin lasses, arble, two turntables, six loudspeakers, ebaled eale, inyl records onic aterial To paixnidi sou skliro our ae is touh with T. arnaas, aateur recordin durin the Auust celebrations in Acarnania, , aenti de piro I, II by eetrio tratos, Metrodora raps ecords,

The artwork is accopanied by a liitededition double inyl with recordins assebled by the artist eke ecords, .

Eva Stefani Anaglyphs,

Work includes Only Men, , i, , , color, sound in.

Window, iital ideo, color, no sound in.

Mouth, Archial ootae, blackandwhite, no sound . in.

Zafos Xagoraris The Concession, Installation, diensions ariable

This installation coprises the reconstruction o the Greek ailion ate c x , c x c, a threediensional depiction o a hybrid buildin c x c x c, and a display case with archial aterial ro the ellenic iterary and istorical Archie IA, Athens onteporary ocial istory Archies AI, Athens enice iennale istorical Archies, enice oloon . Guenhei useu Archies, ew ork and ey Guenhei ollection Archies, enice.

4 IOGRAPHIES

Participating Artists

Panos Charalambous

Panos Charalambous b. , Acarnania, Greece creates sitespecific installations and public audioisual presentations. Throuh inproress units and sonic dance happenins, he is concerned with the surial potential o patterns, oices, sounds, ideas, eelins, and productie behaiors thinnin the prealence o the present, and akin new arraneents and distributions possible. Abdicatin ro the representational status uo, he pursues ioniation throuh his own incidents o enactent. At the sae tie, he explores his expressie ability as a subect within the inor odern Greek scene and indienous establishent o a ulticultural enironent.

e has participated in international roup exhibitions, includin Voice-o-gragh & Flatus Vocis, docuenta , Athens and assel, Genii Loci: Greek Art from 1930 to the Present, aint etersbur, enice International erorance Art Week The Dream of Antigone, enice, White ouse iennial, arna, Break-Through, A, adrid, Eidos, esanon, openhaen uropean apital o ulture, Ogrody, onań, Kunst-Europa: Visual European Landscape, erlin, Glasow uropean apital o ulture, Οut of Limits, onań, and rd iennial o oun Artists ro editerranean urope, arcelona, .

olo shows include Αquis Submersus, Athens, Tobacco Area 1986–2011, Athens, Voice-O-Graph, Athens, Phonopolis, Athens, Psychagogia II, Athens, 1496–2000 / como humo se va, Athens, Psychagogia I: Recreation, Athens and Thessaloniki, ΙΧΘΥΣ, Athens, Concerning Fishing, Athens, and Story of Τobacco, erlin, and Athens, , .

e studied at the Athens chool o ine Arts in Greece under ikos essanlis. haralabous lies and works in Athens, where he is ector o the chool o ine Arts. panoscharalabous.co

Eva Stefani

ocuentary filaker, isual artist, and poet, Eva Stefani b. A, uses ideo and super fil to ake obserational docuentaries and short isual poes.

elected filoraphy includes Manuscript , Virgin’s Temple , Dimitris Papaioannou , Bathers , What Time Is It? , The Box , Acropolis , and Athene . he has been awarded international pries, aon rincipal rie at the th International hort il estial berhausen, ational uality Award ro the Greek inistry o ulture, International il ritics Award II, and st rie or hort ocuentary at ina du el, aris.

he has participated in international art exhibitions, ost recently docuenta in Athens and assel . he is the head o the il eries at atakis ublishers in Athens, as well as the author o two fil books, Documentary: The Observation Game atakis, and 10 texts on Documentary atakis, , and a book o poetic prose, Fin’s Hair olis, .

he studied political science at niersity o Athens A docuentary filakin at Ateliers aran, aris inea tudies at ew ork niersity A and docuentary at ational il & T chool, 5 London. She finished her PhD on Ethnographic Filmmaking in 1997 at Panteion University, Athens. Stefani is Associate Professor of History and Theory of Cinema, Faculty of Theatre Studies, University of Athens, and a Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin. evastefani.gr

Zafos Xagoraris

In his work, Zafos Xagoraris (b. Athens, 1963) often refers to historical details or disregarded events that he shifts to the present as if breathing life into a ghost. His research starts in situ or within the exhibition context.

He has participated in various exhibitions such as Have We Met? Dialogues on Memory and Desire, Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, 2018; 14, Athens and Kassel, 2017; Politiche della Natura, Fondazione Zimei, Pescara, 2016; PIGS, Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2016; No Country for Young Men, Bozar, Brussels, 2014; 4th Athens Biennale, 2013; Sotto Quale Cielo, Museo Riso, Palermo, 2011; 7, Rovereto, 2008; 1st Thessaloniki Biennale, 2007; 1st Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, 2007; and 27th São Paulo Biennial, 2006. In 2015, he presented the outdoor installation Downhill Classroom commissioned by the Benaki Museum, Athens, and in 2016, The Performance for NEON City Project, Athens. During 2017–19, he organized the educational project Dismantling Devices with the collaboration of Onassis Cultural Centre at six elementary schools in Athens. He has been invited to present his work at universities, including: Iuav, Venice; School of Visual Arts, New York; Academy of Fine Arts, Munich; Academy of Fine Arts, Palermo; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and School of the Art Institute, Chicago.

He was one of the curators of the Greek Pavilion at the 9th Venice Biennale of Architecture (2004), and the 2nd Athens Biennial (2009). He has been a Visiting Professor at Universities of Sassari and Patras, a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, and a Roman J. Witt Artist in Residence at University of Michigan. He is currently Professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under an Onassis Foundation scholarship. He was awarded his PhD on the construction of miracles by the “Hero of Alexandria,” National Technical University of Athens. Xagoraris lives and works in Athens. zafosxagoraris.net

6 Curator

Katerina Tselou

Katerina Tselou b. Athens, studied iterature and Art istory at the niersity o Athens, and then oed to aris or her postraduate studies o Art Theory at the cole des hautes tudes en sciences sociales .

he was uratorial Adisor at docuenta in Athens and assel, as well as Assistant to the Artistic irector Ada ycyk . he was a cocurator at the th Athens iennale in . ro to she was the curator o the isual arts prora at the ational Theatre o Greece, and ro to she worked as xhibition oordinator at Aros entre or Art and edia in russels. he has also oranied proects as an independent curator in Greece, collaboratin with institutions such as the Athens chool o ine Arts, the epartent o Architecture at the niersity o Thessaly, the uropean il estial, and otos Theatre. Tselou lies and works in Athens.

Commissioner

Syrago Tsiara

Syrago Tsiara b. arissa, copleted her studies in istory and Archaeoloy at the Aristotle niersity o Thessaloniki and continued with an A in ocial istory o Art at the niersity o eeds. er h dissertation was on art in public space and the oration o national identity and eory.

ince , she has been workin as a curator at the tate useu o onteporary Art now ususeu o odern Artostakis ollection, oraniin exhibitions, conerences and ultidisciplinary eents, and since , she is the director o the Thessaloniki entre o onteporary Art now usxperiental enter or the Arts. he has been responsible or stain nuerous exhibitions, includin Masuerades: Femininity Masculinity and Other Certainties Genius eculi: Despina Meimaroglou and Deimantas Narkevičius Leda Papaconstantinou: In the name of Pulic creen and Ident-alter-ity cocuration.

he has tauht Art in ublic pace, Aant‐Garde and odernis in urope, Greek Art nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and onteporary Art Theory and ethodoloy at the niersity o Thessaly ro , and in , she cocurated the nd Thessaloniki iennale o onteporary Art titled Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty with Gabriela alado and isi ila. he is also the irector o the th and th Thessaloniki iennale o onteporary Art . Tsiara is the eputy irector o ususeu o onteporary Art and usxperiental enter or the Arts, and the ational oissioner o the ailion o Greece at the th International Art xhibition―a iennale di eneia.

7 IEAE ARTE

th International Art xhibition―a iennale di eneia titled May You Live in Interesting Times

PRE OPEIG

The preopenin or accredited press and proessionals takes place on ay , .

The exhibition is open to the public ro ay to oeber , . losed on ondays except ay , epteber , oeber ,

penin hours a.. p.. enue Giardini, enice

Inauguration of the Gree Pavilion: riday ay , , p.. A sonic perorance will be presented by anos haralabous durin the inauuration in..

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