KALO MINA 2.024
12 UNIQUE MONTHLY SHOWS
January 1, 2024 – December 25, 2024
Christos Mitsikas
Kalo Mina continues!
widmertheodoridis keeps finding and presenting art at new places. This time the event was limited by the spatial conditions of the exhibition space OTTTO: The art works had to fit into the display window in favour of a 24/7 accessibility.
On the first day of each month, Greeks will be greeting just about every single person they know and meet with: “Καλό μήνα” (Kalo Mina), which literally means “good month”. widmertheodoridis wishes you in 2024 with 12 Greek artists a ‘Kalo Mina’ in Athens. Kalo Mina is not a thematic exhibition but a window of Greek contemporary art. On the first of every month one artist out of twelve is presented.
January:
Kalo Mina kicks of in January with the painter Christos Mitsikas. His passion is abstract art which manifests in the paintings through a liberating, strong ductus and intensive color eruptions. While his abstract works are waiting for completion, or maturation, he paints still lives and portraits. Finger exercises in order not to get rusty, he says. Bottles, pots, chairs and tubes from the studio are the probs that he is arranging. For the portraits Christos Mitsikas often asks neighbors to sit for him. And sometimes he even paints with friends.
February:
Chrysanthi Koumianaki opens the February window of Kalo Mina. Her drawings and stickers cover the surface of the shop window and show figures of Mavromichalis passers-by. The quick, abstract and linear drawings are integrated into the urban environment and create a play of associations, they could be another font or symbols on a bus wallpaper or spray paint lines on the opposite wall.
Her practice investigates the idea of translation, creating symbolic systems, codings, scores and alphabets focusing on a non-verbal communication. She reconsiders and manipulates rules and methods of a global visual language, creating new narratives which reflect upon different times. Her works suggest dialogues and communication systems. In this way she often collaborates with other professionals such as dancers, actors, architects and musicians who have an active role in each piece. Her main body of work are installations combining different media like sculptures, drawings, prints, video, sound and performance.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in institutions, museums and galleries, such as: ΕΜΣΤ, Athens; The National Opera of Greece, Athens; Theocharakis Foundation, Athens; NEON Foundation, Athens; Fondation Hippocrène, Paris; Netwerk Aalst, Belgium; Kadist, Paris; Fondazione Prada, Milan; PHENOMENON; DESTE Foundation and New Museum New Yοrk. Since 2012, along with Kosmas Nikolaou and Paky Vlassopoulou, she is one of the co-founders of 3 137 artist-run space in Αthens.
March:
Kalo Mina in March opens Dimitris Kontodimos with the installation ¨More than meets the eye¨. The starting point of this work is the concept of remembering in a double meaning.
In his artistic work, which is based on a process of wandering around the city, Dimitris Kontodimos explores new forms of expression of the urban landscape. Starting from the everyday and universal nature of the city, he arrives at his own personal perspective by rearranging objects, contents and contexts from the public space. They lose their primarily functional role, as he places them in a newly defined context that opens up new possibilities for reading. The selected objects are mainly building materials or objects and products of urban civilisation.
By incorporating found objects from urban architecture, art and fashion, he creates images in which the sculptural process goes hand in hand with urban life. Seemingly disparate everyday objects, which together make up the totality of a city, encourage a dialogue between the concepts of memory, structure and spatiality and the collected objects. The city, a place of action, where the ephemeral and the monumental, the everyday and the impermanent meet as a chronology of its own history.
The installation ¨More than meets the eye¨ focuses on common and recognisable building materials in the urban space. Elements such as architectural ornamental decorations stand next to parts of scaffolding and pieces of marble. Although they are removed from their original context and far from their original purpose, they come together to form a new narrative. They are joined by small building blocks as a kind of commentary, reminiscent of children's toys - a reminder of our past, of our first attempts to build something. With the same playful approach to building - without rules and without purpose - Dimitris Kontodimos also assembles his works of art.
Kontodimos also assembles his works of art.
Dimitris Kontodimos lives and works in Athens. He completed his education at the University of Ioannina GR. In 2021 he received the Master of Fine Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). His work has been exhibited at home and abroad, in art spaces, at art projects and art fairs. Most recently his work was part of the European Capital of Culture Eleusis initiative: 2023 Eleusis, Mystery 56, “In from the margins”.
April:
In the April edition of Kalo Mina Evgenia Efstathiou presents the installation “Puppet” comprising of 16 cyanotypes.
Using different media and ways of processing, Evgenia creates autobiographical works that depict the transition from childhood to womanhood.
Combining the image of the adult self with constructions that refer to hanging crib toys, this work explores the notion of objectification and sexualization of the female body. The transition from childhood to female adulthood (womanhood) is described by self-portraits printed by cyanotype on disposable tea filters. The materials and technique emphatically emphasize the disposability of the body, the fragility and diminishment of the self in relation to the burden this adulthood carries.
Evgenia Eftstahiou is a visual artist based in Athens, Greece. She received her BFA in Photography and Imaging from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2017. In 2018, with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, she was the 12-month intern in the department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.
May:
For the Kalo Mina in May, Paky Vlassopoulou presents the installation OSTRACOPHORIA inspired by her proximity to OTTTO, being one of the artists working in the adjacent studio. For her participation in the project, she wanted to work with characteristics that, according to her, define some basic differences between Switzerland and Greece, as well as to refer to Madame Tricot's last year's work "Wilgefortis" which provoked reactions in the neighbourhood. For her work Vlassopoulou focused on the practices of exercising democracy, the scale of the economy as well as the influence of religion on the daily life of citizens.
Wanting to bring these elements together, she starts from the institution of ostracism of the 6th century BC Athenian democracy and the form of the ostracon (a fragment/shard of a clay vessel). Ostracism was established as an attempt to protect the Athenian polity from tyranny and to enhance popular power. The utility of ostracism was to rid the Athenians of citizens who had accumulated too much political power to the point of becoming dangerous with their practices. For the process of ostracism they used the ostracon, on which was engraved the name of the citizen whose exile they wished.
With this as a starting point, Vlassopoulou incorporates elements that bring to mind contemporary processes of voting and political expression. Without attempting to answer specific questions, she creates an installation where she lists words, engravings and materialities that every individual may encounter in the exercise of their political rights. Overall, she juxtaposes soft with hard materials and makes images that do not carry a clear information in order to point out the versatility of the meaning.
Paky Vlassopoulou was born and raised in Athens. She is mainly engaged in sculpture and has previously worked intensively with themes related to the construction of knowledge, history and ruins. She has been awarded by ARTWORKS (2018) as a Fellow of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation's Artists Support Programme and by the Onassis Air Fellowship Programme (2023-24) of the Onassis Foundation. Her work has been included in exhibitions in Greece and abroad, and recently her works have been included in the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens.
June:
Kalo Mina of June presents Hara Piperidou with the new installation “From drought to flowering”. Hara Piperidou, using sculpture, drawing and installation as her main means primarily researches the relationship between the material and immaterial, visible and invisible, the generative power of the void / opening, the concepts of corporeality, power, as well as the expanded contrasts through a socio-political, but also poetic prism.
The installation “From drought to flowering” consisting of the sculptural works “Let the water run”, “Bring moisture” and “Blooming from within” comments on the issue of drought and invocation towards flowering through a socio-political connotation. Abstract forms alluding to imaginary organic forms of male and female of the archetypal human reproductive system point to the contradictory concepts of drought and fertility. Implicitly is indicated the urgent need to create the desired conditions of moisture, growth and productivity in a climate of intense general "drought" of our time.
Hara Piperidou graduated from the Master of Visual Arts of the School of Fine Arts of Athens and from the School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University. She also studied Architecture and contemporary Philosophy (RCA, NYU, Paris VIII). Recently she created the permanent interactive sculptural installation “Through Rupture Comes The Flow” in the public space of Elefsina (OSE Elefsina), in the context of the 2023 Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe. Her work has been presented in Biennales (Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2009) and solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad such as Kunstverein Neukölln (Berlin), The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery (New York) and Momus (Experimental Arts Center). She has presented the seminars "Skin - In and Between Two Worlds" (2017-2020) and "The Body in Contemporary Art" (2014-2017) at the Benaki Museum (138 Pireos). Hara Piperidou has also curated shows at the Back to Athens International Art Festival, the Benaki Museum and the Hellenic American Union.
July:
Kalo Mina in July presents Dimitris Rentoumis, a visual artist based in Athens. As part of the 'Works on Paper' series, the presented pieces can be perceived both as painted surfaces and three-dimensional objects. The making process, which involves layering with color, sanding, and folding, blurs the line between painting and sculpture and invites us to explore not only the visual but also the tactile qualities of the medium. Often, the fatigue and corrosion of the paper becomes intrinsic to the artworks serving eventually as an analogy for vulnerability alongside resilience.
For the window exhibition at OTTTO space, a composition of several painted papers is arranged by the artist on a wall panel. Adapted in a form that seems familiar, the textured works become susceptible to affective responses. During the opening day of the exhibition, the installation is supplemented by a collage of verses from poet Vera Pavlova, displayed as subtitles on a TV screen.
Dimitris Rentoumis’ practice encompasses painting on papers, large-scale drawings with ink and graphite, sculptural installations, and video projections. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2006-2011) and completed his master's degree in the Netherlands at the AKV St.Joost Academy (MFA, 2012–2014). He was awarded a Mondriaan Fonds fellowship to participate in the Jan van Eyck Academie residency program in Maastricht, the Netherlands (2016-2017). He was also an Onassis Air exchange resident at the Beirut Art Residency (BAR) in Lebanon (2019–2020). He has presented his works in various shows in Greece and abroad.
August:
Fire (2024) is a site specific ephemeral window installation for the August edition of Kalo Mina by Greek-Canadian artist Louis-Philippe Scoufaras. It consists of an intricate collage of flames that covers the entirety of the windows facing both streets of the show room, suggesting that the business is closed and referring to Athens being a hot and deserted city during the month of August. In the window facing Mavromichalis street the artist has left a rectangular aperture in the installation that allows people to look into the art space, revealing a poem which is affixed to an exhibition wall. The poem refers to the energy of fire as a force of change, of transformation and is printed in poster format on a sheet of paper hung on the wall.
Fire plays a complex role in the contemporary consciousness, especially in a country like Greece. It certainly is a source of fear and tragedy, when it consumes the rare forested landscapes, but it is also tied to energy, regeneration, force and beauty. The installation is a cathartic attempt of reconciling an ambiguous element through a large scale detailed work and metaphoric poetry.
Louis-Philippe Scoufaras was born in Montreal. He lives and works in Athens. His work articulates a relationship between sound composition and formal representation, with a focus on time and its possible transformation in monumental terms. His works have been shown in various institutions such as the B. Georgiou marble sculpting workshop Athens, xavierlaboulbenne Berlin, Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, OMS One Minute Space Athens, Zoumboulakis Gallery Athens and at “This Current Between Us” at the Historic Steam Electric Station of Neo Faliro, Pireaus.
September:
Alex Rokadakis opens Kalo Mina in September with the sculpture 'Fading Traces', which invites the viewer to a contemplative exploration of the relationship between time, memory and human identity. The contrast between fluidity and stability, the interaction of materials with different characteristics, creates a space for reflection on how our experiences, once unchanging, are gradually transformed through the flow of time. At the top of the work, an inert piece is prominent, suggesting the existence of an axis that remains unchanging. Beneath this, a geometrically structured foundation offers an interesting counterpoint, raising questions around man's need to define and consolidate his past. This work invites us to consider how our identity is constantly shifting as the past dissolves and reshapes our present, capturing the fluid and ephemeral nature of life.
Alex Rokadakis lives and works in Athens and graduated in 2021 from the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts of Deree – The American College of Greece. He creates objects that question the notion of abandonment and past usage, involving an exploration of three dimensional space through different mediums. By combining sculpture, design and architecture, he creates narratives that negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional.
His works have been exhibited at the International Festival of Digital Arts in the UAE Embassy, the Tilt Platform, Cream Athens and at the TAF Art Foundations in Athens. He has also worked as a curatorial assistant for ERGO Collective, for the exhibition Momentum of Self in Portrait (2019). In June 2022, he participated in the Ismail Project on Tinos island (Cyclades, Greece), an initiative of the Cultural Center of Panormos "Giannoulis Halepas" and The Telos Society, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, with the creation of an ephemeral in-situ installation that interacts with the history of the abandoned settlement.
October:
Kalo Mina in October presents Stenia Paraskeva with pencil drawings from the series "In Memoriam". Influenced by Dimitris Daskalopoulos' poem "In Memoriam" Stenia Paraskeva decided to depict an individual that's dear to her, in a series of pencil portraits. Using pencils as a medium gives her the necessary stability and intricacy to create each texture and detail. The time spend for the creation of these pieces works as a homage for the depicted person or item, mirroring the time spend in the relationship with them. The person depicted is lying on the ground, surrounded by and being in touch with plants and flowers. The skull, in contrast with the blooming flowers, symbolizes mortality and narrates the circle of life. In this project, she wanted to convey the essence of the transient, the concept of death and rebirth, as well as that of memory.
“In Memoriam” relates to the tradition of Memento Mori, “remember you must die”, a powerful concept embedded in Stoicism, urging people to reflect on their mortality. This reflection wasn’t meant to evoke fear or sadness but to inspire individuals to live more fully, authentically, and mindfully, considering that life is finite. Closely related to Memento Mori are vanitas, images or sculptures which were full of symbolic objects, such as flowers, sculls and fruits that intended to emphasize the transience of life, the futility of earthly pleasures and the senseless pursuit of power and glory.
Stenia Paraskeva lives and works in Athens and graduated 2023 from the ASFA, Athens School of Fine Arts. Her works have been shown in various exhibitions among others at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
November:
For the Kalo Mina in November, Blind Adam presents the sculpture "3 GRACES". In his works he invents, creates and gives substance and existence to spatio-temporal entities and beings standing in space, irrevocably and with archetypal intent.
With his new sculptural installation entitled 3 GRACES, BLIND ADAM, taking as his starting point the well-known theme of the three Graces that has been repeatedly attributed by artists throughout the history of art, creates his personal subversive narrative. An old family furniture that carries childhood memories is the frame on which three carnivorous plants, which seem ready to attack anyone who approaches them, are perched with their tall trunks. This is a distinct reference to Tennessee Williams’ play "Suddenly Last Summer" and to the mysterious garden of Sebastian, the unsung protagonist of the play, who was eaten alive. In the bar segment of the furniture we see a half-empty bottle of cognac (a drink served at funerals and memorial services), thus giving a morbid and sarcastic tone to the installation, which as a final result could remind us that it is taken from "Little shop of horrors". With this work BLIND ADAM straddles the line between notions of aesthetics, coming of age, cannibalism and black humour.
Thanos Kyriakidis is a self-taught artist and started his career in the field of visual arts in 2007 under the pseudonym BLIND ADAM. To date, his CV includes, among others, solo exhibitions at Breeder Gallery, Athens (2013 and 2016), Kunsthalle Athens (2013), Galerie 104 Kleber, Paris (2014), Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2018), Bios Basement Athens with the support of NEON (2021), Leuco Art Gallery, Syracuse (2024). Also participation in the group exhibitions "The Art of This Century", Museum Alex Mylona, Athens (2011), "Hell as Pavillion", Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), Frieze London (2013), "Narcissus Now", Onassis Cultural Center, New York (2015), "The Poetry of Memory" Contemporary Art Museum of Crete, Rethymnon (2018).
December:
For the Kalo Mina window in December, Theodore Noutsos presents the new, abstract sculpture ‘Wild Horse’.
Self taught, his effort to articulate a personal style is visible in the subjects that inspire his abstract work, the way he uses both non painting materials, such as newspapers and the techniques of contemporary abstraction, such as décollage. His work is dominated by a maximalist system that records and shapes the notion of the human existence and the human nature in general. His intension is an aesthetic treaty outside of the rational commands of a production process, which is organized as an ensemble of notes, for the final result to be understood as the imprint of a creative behavior.
With the work ‘Wild Horse’, Theodore Noutsos invites the viewer to experience a profound dialogue between chaos and universal harmony. Through the abstract figure of a riding horse, the artist attempts to momentarily capture the untamable spirit of nature. Suspended in the air, the sculpture intentionally reveals the multiple layers of materials from which it is made, in order to reflect the unpredictable flow of life's experiences. Through the interplay of light and shadow, organic forms dominate, gradually revealing themselves to express a sense of unrestrained life. Beyond the self-evident beauty of the horse's form, the artist strongly invokes the notion of liberation. He urges us to reconnect with the primary qualities of our being, and to explore the unknown. To live the adventure of life to the end.
Theodore Noutsos, born on the island of Skiathos, is an artist who has not gone through the classical formal training in the visual arts. He resided and practiced his art in Vienna, from 2015 to 2017, and currently resides and works in Athens. Theodore Noutsos' works have been presented in renowned exhibitions such as Back to Athens, Τhe Butterfly Effect by Kostas Prapoglou, The Breeder Athens and the Evripides Art Gallery Athens. His works are represented in private collections in Greece, Austria, France and the United States of America.
widmertheodoridis keeps finding and presenting art at new places. This time the event was limited by the spatial conditions of the exhibition space OTTTO: The art works had to fit into the display window in favour of a 24/7 accessibility.
On the first day of each month, Greeks will be greeting just about every single person they know and meet with: “Καλό μήνα” (Kalo Mina), which literally means “good month”. widmertheodoridis wishes you in 2024 with 12 Greek artists a ‘Kalo Mina’ in Athens. Kalo Mina is not a thematic exhibition but a window of Greek contemporary art. On the first of every month one artist out of twelve is presented.
January:
Kalo Mina kicks of in January with the painter Christos Mitsikas. His passion is abstract art which manifests in the paintings through a liberating, strong ductus and intensive color eruptions. While his abstract works are waiting for completion, or maturation, he paints still lives and portraits. Finger exercises in order not to get rusty, he says. Bottles, pots, chairs and tubes from the studio are the probs that he is arranging. For the portraits Christos Mitsikas often asks neighbors to sit for him. And sometimes he even paints with friends.
February:
Chrysanthi Koumianaki opens the February window of Kalo Mina. Her drawings and stickers cover the surface of the shop window and show figures of Mavromichalis passers-by. The quick, abstract and linear drawings are integrated into the urban environment and create a play of associations, they could be another font or symbols on a bus wallpaper or spray paint lines on the opposite wall.
Her practice investigates the idea of translation, creating symbolic systems, codings, scores and alphabets focusing on a non-verbal communication. She reconsiders and manipulates rules and methods of a global visual language, creating new narratives which reflect upon different times. Her works suggest dialogues and communication systems. In this way she often collaborates with other professionals such as dancers, actors, architects and musicians who have an active role in each piece. Her main body of work are installations combining different media like sculptures, drawings, prints, video, sound and performance.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in institutions, museums and galleries, such as: ΕΜΣΤ, Athens; The National Opera of Greece, Athens; Theocharakis Foundation, Athens; NEON Foundation, Athens; Fondation Hippocrène, Paris; Netwerk Aalst, Belgium; Kadist, Paris; Fondazione Prada, Milan; PHENOMENON; DESTE Foundation and New Museum New Yοrk. Since 2012, along with Kosmas Nikolaou and Paky Vlassopoulou, she is one of the co-founders of 3 137 artist-run space in Αthens.
March:
Kalo Mina in March opens Dimitris Kontodimos with the installation ¨More than meets the eye¨. The starting point of this work is the concept of remembering in a double meaning.
In his artistic work, which is based on a process of wandering around the city, Dimitris Kontodimos explores new forms of expression of the urban landscape. Starting from the everyday and universal nature of the city, he arrives at his own personal perspective by rearranging objects, contents and contexts from the public space. They lose their primarily functional role, as he places them in a newly defined context that opens up new possibilities for reading. The selected objects are mainly building materials or objects and products of urban civilisation.
By incorporating found objects from urban architecture, art and fashion, he creates images in which the sculptural process goes hand in hand with urban life. Seemingly disparate everyday objects, which together make up the totality of a city, encourage a dialogue between the concepts of memory, structure and spatiality and the collected objects. The city, a place of action, where the ephemeral and the monumental, the everyday and the impermanent meet as a chronology of its own history.
The installation ¨More than meets the eye¨ focuses on common and recognisable building materials in the urban space. Elements such as architectural ornamental decorations stand next to parts of scaffolding and pieces of marble. Although they are removed from their original context and far from their original purpose, they come together to form a new narrative. They are joined by small building blocks as a kind of commentary, reminiscent of children's toys - a reminder of our past, of our first attempts to build something. With the same playful approach to building - without rules and without purpose - Dimitris Kontodimos also assembles his works of art.
Kontodimos also assembles his works of art.
Dimitris Kontodimos lives and works in Athens. He completed his education at the University of Ioannina GR. In 2021 he received the Master of Fine Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). His work has been exhibited at home and abroad, in art spaces, at art projects and art fairs. Most recently his work was part of the European Capital of Culture Eleusis initiative: 2023 Eleusis, Mystery 56, “In from the margins”.
April:
In the April edition of Kalo Mina Evgenia Efstathiou presents the installation “Puppet” comprising of 16 cyanotypes.
Using different media and ways of processing, Evgenia creates autobiographical works that depict the transition from childhood to womanhood.
Combining the image of the adult self with constructions that refer to hanging crib toys, this work explores the notion of objectification and sexualization of the female body. The transition from childhood to female adulthood (womanhood) is described by self-portraits printed by cyanotype on disposable tea filters. The materials and technique emphatically emphasize the disposability of the body, the fragility and diminishment of the self in relation to the burden this adulthood carries.
Evgenia Eftstahiou is a visual artist based in Athens, Greece. She received her BFA in Photography and Imaging from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2017. In 2018, with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, she was the 12-month intern in the department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.
May:
For the Kalo Mina in May, Paky Vlassopoulou presents the installation OSTRACOPHORIA inspired by her proximity to OTTTO, being one of the artists working in the adjacent studio. For her participation in the project, she wanted to work with characteristics that, according to her, define some basic differences between Switzerland and Greece, as well as to refer to Madame Tricot's last year's work "Wilgefortis" which provoked reactions in the neighbourhood. For her work Vlassopoulou focused on the practices of exercising democracy, the scale of the economy as well as the influence of religion on the daily life of citizens.
Wanting to bring these elements together, she starts from the institution of ostracism of the 6th century BC Athenian democracy and the form of the ostracon (a fragment/shard of a clay vessel). Ostracism was established as an attempt to protect the Athenian polity from tyranny and to enhance popular power. The utility of ostracism was to rid the Athenians of citizens who had accumulated too much political power to the point of becoming dangerous with their practices. For the process of ostracism they used the ostracon, on which was engraved the name of the citizen whose exile they wished.
With this as a starting point, Vlassopoulou incorporates elements that bring to mind contemporary processes of voting and political expression. Without attempting to answer specific questions, she creates an installation where she lists words, engravings and materialities that every individual may encounter in the exercise of their political rights. Overall, she juxtaposes soft with hard materials and makes images that do not carry a clear information in order to point out the versatility of the meaning.
Paky Vlassopoulou was born and raised in Athens. She is mainly engaged in sculpture and has previously worked intensively with themes related to the construction of knowledge, history and ruins. She has been awarded by ARTWORKS (2018) as a Fellow of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation's Artists Support Programme and by the Onassis Air Fellowship Programme (2023-24) of the Onassis Foundation. Her work has been included in exhibitions in Greece and abroad, and recently her works have been included in the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens.
June:
Kalo Mina of June presents Hara Piperidou with the new installation “From drought to flowering”. Hara Piperidou, using sculpture, drawing and installation as her main means primarily researches the relationship between the material and immaterial, visible and invisible, the generative power of the void / opening, the concepts of corporeality, power, as well as the expanded contrasts through a socio-political, but also poetic prism.
The installation “From drought to flowering” consisting of the sculptural works “Let the water run”, “Bring moisture” and “Blooming from within” comments on the issue of drought and invocation towards flowering through a socio-political connotation. Abstract forms alluding to imaginary organic forms of male and female of the archetypal human reproductive system point to the contradictory concepts of drought and fertility. Implicitly is indicated the urgent need to create the desired conditions of moisture, growth and productivity in a climate of intense general "drought" of our time.
Hara Piperidou graduated from the Master of Visual Arts of the School of Fine Arts of Athens and from the School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University. She also studied Architecture and contemporary Philosophy (RCA, NYU, Paris VIII). Recently she created the permanent interactive sculptural installation “Through Rupture Comes The Flow” in the public space of Elefsina (OSE Elefsina), in the context of the 2023 Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe. Her work has been presented in Biennales (Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2009) and solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad such as Kunstverein Neukölln (Berlin), The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery (New York) and Momus (Experimental Arts Center). She has presented the seminars "Skin - In and Between Two Worlds" (2017-2020) and "The Body in Contemporary Art" (2014-2017) at the Benaki Museum (138 Pireos). Hara Piperidou has also curated shows at the Back to Athens International Art Festival, the Benaki Museum and the Hellenic American Union.
July:
Kalo Mina in July presents Dimitris Rentoumis, a visual artist based in Athens. As part of the 'Works on Paper' series, the presented pieces can be perceived both as painted surfaces and three-dimensional objects. The making process, which involves layering with color, sanding, and folding, blurs the line between painting and sculpture and invites us to explore not only the visual but also the tactile qualities of the medium. Often, the fatigue and corrosion of the paper becomes intrinsic to the artworks serving eventually as an analogy for vulnerability alongside resilience.
For the window exhibition at OTTTO space, a composition of several painted papers is arranged by the artist on a wall panel. Adapted in a form that seems familiar, the textured works become susceptible to affective responses. During the opening day of the exhibition, the installation is supplemented by a collage of verses from poet Vera Pavlova, displayed as subtitles on a TV screen.
Dimitris Rentoumis’ practice encompasses painting on papers, large-scale drawings with ink and graphite, sculptural installations, and video projections. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2006-2011) and completed his master's degree in the Netherlands at the AKV St.Joost Academy (MFA, 2012–2014). He was awarded a Mondriaan Fonds fellowship to participate in the Jan van Eyck Academie residency program in Maastricht, the Netherlands (2016-2017). He was also an Onassis Air exchange resident at the Beirut Art Residency (BAR) in Lebanon (2019–2020). He has presented his works in various shows in Greece and abroad.
August:
Fire (2024) is a site specific ephemeral window installation for the August edition of Kalo Mina by Greek-Canadian artist Louis-Philippe Scoufaras. It consists of an intricate collage of flames that covers the entirety of the windows facing both streets of the show room, suggesting that the business is closed and referring to Athens being a hot and deserted city during the month of August. In the window facing Mavromichalis street the artist has left a rectangular aperture in the installation that allows people to look into the art space, revealing a poem which is affixed to an exhibition wall. The poem refers to the energy of fire as a force of change, of transformation and is printed in poster format on a sheet of paper hung on the wall.
Fire plays a complex role in the contemporary consciousness, especially in a country like Greece. It certainly is a source of fear and tragedy, when it consumes the rare forested landscapes, but it is also tied to energy, regeneration, force and beauty. The installation is a cathartic attempt of reconciling an ambiguous element through a large scale detailed work and metaphoric poetry.
Louis-Philippe Scoufaras was born in Montreal. He lives and works in Athens. His work articulates a relationship between sound composition and formal representation, with a focus on time and its possible transformation in monumental terms. His works have been shown in various institutions such as the B. Georgiou marble sculpting workshop Athens, xavierlaboulbenne Berlin, Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, OMS One Minute Space Athens, Zoumboulakis Gallery Athens and at “This Current Between Us” at the Historic Steam Electric Station of Neo Faliro, Pireaus.
September:
Alex Rokadakis opens Kalo Mina in September with the sculpture 'Fading Traces', which invites the viewer to a contemplative exploration of the relationship between time, memory and human identity. The contrast between fluidity and stability, the interaction of materials with different characteristics, creates a space for reflection on how our experiences, once unchanging, are gradually transformed through the flow of time. At the top of the work, an inert piece is prominent, suggesting the existence of an axis that remains unchanging. Beneath this, a geometrically structured foundation offers an interesting counterpoint, raising questions around man's need to define and consolidate his past. This work invites us to consider how our identity is constantly shifting as the past dissolves and reshapes our present, capturing the fluid and ephemeral nature of life.
Alex Rokadakis lives and works in Athens and graduated in 2021 from the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts of Deree – The American College of Greece. He creates objects that question the notion of abandonment and past usage, involving an exploration of three dimensional space through different mediums. By combining sculpture, design and architecture, he creates narratives that negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional.
His works have been exhibited at the International Festival of Digital Arts in the UAE Embassy, the Tilt Platform, Cream Athens and at the TAF Art Foundations in Athens. He has also worked as a curatorial assistant for ERGO Collective, for the exhibition Momentum of Self in Portrait (2019). In June 2022, he participated in the Ismail Project on Tinos island (Cyclades, Greece), an initiative of the Cultural Center of Panormos "Giannoulis Halepas" and The Telos Society, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, with the creation of an ephemeral in-situ installation that interacts with the history of the abandoned settlement.
October:
Kalo Mina in October presents Stenia Paraskeva with pencil drawings from the series "In Memoriam". Influenced by Dimitris Daskalopoulos' poem "In Memoriam" Stenia Paraskeva decided to depict an individual that's dear to her, in a series of pencil portraits. Using pencils as a medium gives her the necessary stability and intricacy to create each texture and detail. The time spend for the creation of these pieces works as a homage for the depicted person or item, mirroring the time spend in the relationship with them. The person depicted is lying on the ground, surrounded by and being in touch with plants and flowers. The skull, in contrast with the blooming flowers, symbolizes mortality and narrates the circle of life. In this project, she wanted to convey the essence of the transient, the concept of death and rebirth, as well as that of memory.
“In Memoriam” relates to the tradition of Memento Mori, “remember you must die”, a powerful concept embedded in Stoicism, urging people to reflect on their mortality. This reflection wasn’t meant to evoke fear or sadness but to inspire individuals to live more fully, authentically, and mindfully, considering that life is finite. Closely related to Memento Mori are vanitas, images or sculptures which were full of symbolic objects, such as flowers, sculls and fruits that intended to emphasize the transience of life, the futility of earthly pleasures and the senseless pursuit of power and glory.
Stenia Paraskeva lives and works in Athens and graduated 2023 from the ASFA, Athens School of Fine Arts. Her works have been shown in various exhibitions among others at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
November:
For the Kalo Mina in November, Blind Adam presents the sculpture "3 GRACES". In his works he invents, creates and gives substance and existence to spatio-temporal entities and beings standing in space, irrevocably and with archetypal intent.
With his new sculptural installation entitled 3 GRACES, BLIND ADAM, taking as his starting point the well-known theme of the three Graces that has been repeatedly attributed by artists throughout the history of art, creates his personal subversive narrative. An old family furniture that carries childhood memories is the frame on which three carnivorous plants, which seem ready to attack anyone who approaches them, are perched with their tall trunks. This is a distinct reference to Tennessee Williams’ play "Suddenly Last Summer" and to the mysterious garden of Sebastian, the unsung protagonist of the play, who was eaten alive. In the bar segment of the furniture we see a half-empty bottle of cognac (a drink served at funerals and memorial services), thus giving a morbid and sarcastic tone to the installation, which as a final result could remind us that it is taken from "Little shop of horrors". With this work BLIND ADAM straddles the line between notions of aesthetics, coming of age, cannibalism and black humour.
Thanos Kyriakidis is a self-taught artist and started his career in the field of visual arts in 2007 under the pseudonym BLIND ADAM. To date, his CV includes, among others, solo exhibitions at Breeder Gallery, Athens (2013 and 2016), Kunsthalle Athens (2013), Galerie 104 Kleber, Paris (2014), Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2018), Bios Basement Athens with the support of NEON (2021), Leuco Art Gallery, Syracuse (2024). Also participation in the group exhibitions "The Art of This Century", Museum Alex Mylona, Athens (2011), "Hell as Pavillion", Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), Frieze London (2013), "Narcissus Now", Onassis Cultural Center, New York (2015), "The Poetry of Memory" Contemporary Art Museum of Crete, Rethymnon (2018).
December:
For the Kalo Mina window in December, Theodore Noutsos presents the new, abstract sculpture ‘Wild Horse’.
Self taught, his effort to articulate a personal style is visible in the subjects that inspire his abstract work, the way he uses both non painting materials, such as newspapers and the techniques of contemporary abstraction, such as décollage. His work is dominated by a maximalist system that records and shapes the notion of the human existence and the human nature in general. His intension is an aesthetic treaty outside of the rational commands of a production process, which is organized as an ensemble of notes, for the final result to be understood as the imprint of a creative behavior.
With the work ‘Wild Horse’, Theodore Noutsos invites the viewer to experience a profound dialogue between chaos and universal harmony. Through the abstract figure of a riding horse, the artist attempts to momentarily capture the untamable spirit of nature. Suspended in the air, the sculpture intentionally reveals the multiple layers of materials from which it is made, in order to reflect the unpredictable flow of life's experiences. Through the interplay of light and shadow, organic forms dominate, gradually revealing themselves to express a sense of unrestrained life. Beyond the self-evident beauty of the horse's form, the artist strongly invokes the notion of liberation. He urges us to reconnect with the primary qualities of our being, and to explore the unknown. To live the adventure of life to the end.
Theodore Noutsos, born on the island of Skiathos, is an artist who has not gone through the classical formal training in the visual arts. He resided and practiced his art in Vienna, from 2015 to 2017, and currently resides and works in Athens. Theodore Noutsos' works have been presented in renowned exhibitions such as Back to Athens, Τhe Butterfly Effect by Kostas Prapoglou, The Breeder Athens and the Evripides Art Gallery Athens. His works are represented in private collections in Greece, Austria, France and the United States of America.
Exhibition
January 1 – December 25, 2024
Reception and presentation of new works:
On the 1st of every month, 6–8pm
Duration: 1st to 25th of every month
Visit: Window exhibition 24/7
Reception and presentation of new works:
On the 1st of every month, 6–8pm
Duration: 1st to 25th of every month
Visit: Window exhibition 24/7
Location
OTTTO
Mavromichali 137
11472 Athens GR
Mavromichali 137
11472 Athens GR