Sozita Goudouna, PhD

Professor, Curator

Dr. Sozita Goudouna is a professor and curator. In 2022 she was the winner of the British Council Award for Culture. She holds a PhD in American Modernism (University of London), an MA in Directing (King's College & Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA) and a BA in Philosophy and Theater Studies (LondonMet). She is visiting professor at Goldsmiths where she advised and teaches the MA in Breath Studies: Breath in the Performing and Visual Arts. She has taught at the City University of New York as an adjunct professor, NYU, New School, SUNY, Roger Williams, Peloponnese University, and Pace. She is the author of the first monograph on  Beckett's Breath: Anti-theatricality and the Visual Arts (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernism/EUP) and "Mourning the Ends: Collaborative Writing and Performance," Punctum Books 2024. She has published in The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, GPS Global Performance Studies, Theater Topics, Seismopolite Art & Politics Journal, BST Body Space & Technology Journal among others. In 2015 she was selected by RoseLee Goldberg as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Post Doctoral Curator at the Performa Biennial. During a 20-year career, she joined Raymond Pettibon Studio in 2019 as head working closely with David Zwirner gallery and Regen Projects and to curate a production for Performa Biennial at the New Museum. Her international projects include solo exhibitions by Arthur Jafa, John Akomfrah, Martin Creed, Lynda Benglis, Andres Serrano, Santiago Sierra, Karen Finley, Jake Chapman and participation in Documenta 14, Onassis Foundation New York, (appointed consultant 2016 ), French Consulate NYC, EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, and MET Metropolitan Museum of Art. She served as treasurer of the board of the International Association of Art Critics AICA Hellas and as a board member of the UNESCO International Theater Association ITI. She is the founding director of the New York non-profit organization "Greece in the USA" for the promotion of Contemporary Greek Art in New York.


Sozita Goudouna. Beckett’s Breath: ­Anti-Theatricality and the Visual Arts  

 

By  William Hutchings  p183 

Malarcher, Jay (editor), The Comparative Drama Conference Series #15, McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2018. ISBN-13: 9781476670379 

Floccinaucinihilipilification - the longest non-technical/ non-medical word in the original edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - is the act of deeming something as worthless, usually because it is small, slight, short in duration, or seems insignificant. Though coined in 1741, its most specific application ever occurs in discussions of Samuel Beckett’s “dramaticule” titled Breath, which is not only the world’s shortest play but also the culmination of Beckett’s long list of remarkable literary excisions, each a substraction of seemingly indispensable elements of a “well-made” play or novel. Breath, however, surpasses all other Beckett works in the radicaleness of its substractions: the play (or “dramaticule”) lasts a mere but precisely timed thirty-five seconds on the stage. The entire text consists of only 120 words and numerals on the final page of First Love and Other Shorts; fifty of the words are stage directions. The curtain rises onto a silent, dimply lit stage that is strewn with rubbish, non of which is vertical. Given modern computer technology, the play could even run itself with no human involvement at all once it is properly programmed (light! soundtrack! curtain!) and automatically begin at starting time. After an initial pause lasting about five seconds, the audience hears the following sequence of recorded sounds: a newborn baby’s first cry, followed immediately by someone taking in a deep breath for ten seconds, then there is a five second pause, followed by ten seconds of exhalation and the baby’s cry again; then the silence is repeated for about five seconds, after which the curtain closes. The only visual effect is that the light starts at a three on a ten-point scale, rises with the inhalation and pause to a six, and then returns to a three during the exhalation. Curtain. The end. At its French premiere, covered by “Dateline” on NBC News the play was repeated twice more at five-minute intervals, for those who wanted to relive the experience or who perhaps came late.

So, you may well ask, how exactly did Sozita Goudouna manage to write Beckett’s Breath: Anti-Theatricality and the Visual Arts, a 218-page book with a somewhat small type font? Surely this is the most ever said about the least in the entire history of literary criticism. Quite lucidly, the author’s thesis positions Breath exactly within the traditions of stagecraft, eloquently asserting its uniqueness as a performance:

Breath is intrinsically intermedial given that it operates in-between realities (art and body/biology/life/non-art), in-between the boundaries of artistic media (theatre and visual arts/installation art), the verbal and the visual, the audible and the scenic (sound as stage presence), in-between visibility and invisibility (light and darkness), in-between presence and absence/emptiness, embodiment and ambiguity of corporeal experience, in-between life and death (movement and stasis) and in-between an inhalation and an exhalation (silence and sound). These different aspects of intermediality are unravelled through- out this survey, and the term (intermediality) is analysed in the context of the quasi-generic and intergeneric features of Beckett’s late style in the theatre, in conjunction with the decentred field of subjectivity and its polysemous modes of absence and presence. [13] 

Nevertheless, Breath has a suprisingly intricate stage history, thoroughly documented here, as a result of the unwillingness of suprisingly many prominent theatrical practitioners to leave little enough alone. Beckett send the original text on a postcard (another first in theater history) to Kenneth Tynan, the devisor of Oh! Calcutta!, “an evening of elegant erotica” that became New York’s longest running revue. Used as a prologue in Oh! Calcutta!, Breath included several nude bodies that had been places amid the on-stage trash that comprises the set. When Beckett vigorously objected to the alteration of his work, Tynan claimed that the change had been “due to others” who remained unnamed. The unaltered premiere occurred in Paris, minus nude bodies.

Alongside clamor over the altered text, another controversy arose: whether Beckett had finally “gone too far.” Some, of course, contended that it was all a hoax. Drama critic John Simon, for example, complained about Beckett’s Not I that “such minimalism is not, I believe, to be countenanced from anyone, not even from Beckett. Up to a point, less may be more, but beyond that point less is nothing.” His ire against Breath would no doubt have been even more acerbic. Regarding the text as next- to - nothing, various more “creative adaptations ensued, some of which managed to get every specification of Beckett’s script wrong. One such rendition, by the artist Damien Hirst, took place on a floating metallic island cruising through outer space and covered in discarded hospital equipment; it had more in common with the opening sequence of The Muppet Show’s “Pigs in Space” skits than with anything Beckett ever wrote. Incongruously, Hirst’s version was included in the officially authorized set of DVD productions of all of Beckett’s works. Goudouna’s eloquent commentary on this and so many other alterations deserves to be quoted in full:  

In view of the increasing dispossession within bodied subjectivity and the eradication of the body in Breath, it is inexplicable that stagings of the playlet overlook or intentionally disregard Beckett’s central premise, namely, the absence of the subject. Thus, the artists and directors do not acknowledge the writer’s aesthetic decision to stress the significance of the lack of the human figure and character. Rather than highlighting this fundamental emptiness, the artists aim to unveil an essential subjectivity by adding the human figure in various forms, thus associating Breath with the human body, despite Beckett’s manifest desire to distinguish the two. [132] 

(My sole objection to the above manifesto is the presence of the annoyingly condescending word “playlet,” which gets repeated throughout Goudouna’s book. Just as a haiku not deemed a “poem let,” Breath is not a “playlet” - and especially not since Beckett’s own term for his short work is “dramaticule,” i.e., a complete and eloquent creation regardless of the non-issue and non relevance of mere duration.) 

Part I of Goudouna’s book, entitled “Respiration, Discourse and the Question of Medium Specificity,” introduced the concept of “Deeptime: Breath and the Look of Non-Art” to examine the effects of Beckett’s “decision to eradicate the text and the human figure and the ways this decision is effected by Beckett’s 'aesthetics of failure’ "(19). The "intrinsically intermediate” aspects of Breath are duly emphasized: the ways that Beckett’s works increasingly combine theatrical performance and purely visual representation, often in a background of seemingly infinite total darkness. The dramaticules in particular are stark, astonishing, brief, almost motionless images, oddly picturesque in their own ways (Mouth in Not I, the prematurely old woman in Rockaby, Listener and Reader in Ohio Impromptu, and ultimately the trash-heap of Breath). Chapter 2, “The Durational Turn: Absorption and the Specificity of Temporality,” critiques at length the theories of art critic Michael Fried’s “Art and Objecthood” (1968, revised 1998) and included accounts of performance art works and other avant garde theatrical stagings that are united primarily by the presence of the word “Breath” in their titles, One exception to this rule, however, is Chris Burden’s Velvet Water (1974), a performance that shows the artist repeatedly dunking his head in a sink filled with water, doing so again and again, trying to inhale the oxygen-rich water, until he collapses on the floor, chocking, spluttering and gasping for breath. The entire time, there is a camera fixed on him, relaying a live video feed of the action to an audience sitting in adjoining space, until the monitor goes dark. At the start of the piece, Burden addresses the cameras, announcing to the audience, ‘Today I am going to breathe water, which is the opposite of drowning, because when you breathe water, you believe water to be a richer, thicker oxygen capable of sustaining life.’ [96]

What exactly this presentation and a number of others have to do with Beckett’s writings - and, indeed, what Beckett would have thought of such performances - must, alas, remain a matter of conjecture.  

In Part II, “(Re)Presenting Breath,” readers will find a remarkably thorough overview of the diverse interpretations and scholarly assessments of such a seemingly simple play. Chapter 3, “Shortness of Breath: Beckett’s Breath in Context” surveys both the major scholarship on the play and its suprisingly diverse stagings; as in every other chapter, Goudouna’s notes are numerous, detailed and comprehensive. Newcomers to the play should start here - and will be amazed. Chapter 4, “Emptied of Theatre: Breath and the Phenomenology of Disembodiment,” addresses that  The [stage] space is emptied of the presence of the body, and presence is generated despite the fact that the referent is materially absent. The human icon and body are emptied and the figure is placed beyond the visual spectrum even though respiration is a bodily product that entails presence. [25; italics mine].  

As a result, “the aesthetic union and dialectic between theatrical space and human body on stage is simultaneously ruptured and established” (123). This is why the insertion of bodies on the stage drastically violates the central achievement of the play - and why Beckett so adamantly opposed alterations or alleged enhancements with such vehemence (not least those in Oh! Calcutta!). 

Part III, appropriately titled “The Exhaled Field,” justifies the book’s subtitle, “Anti-Theatricality and the Visual Arts.” Chapter 5, “Waste of Breath: The Readymade as a Stage Set,” emphasizes the tendency of numerous productions to use forms of detritus as a stage setting (hence Beckett’s own trash-strewn stage floor with nothing vertical conjoins with Hirst’s medical supplies on a flying saucer as it careens through deep space). Goudouna even contends that the rubbish “becomes the protagonist on Breath’s set” (a contention with which I disagree, believing that the unseen breath itself deserves that designation). However, her discussion of “Apnoeic Detritus: The Exhausted Project of Modernity” resonates far beyond the stage. Chapter 6 and 7 (“Intermedial Breath: Defying the Boundaries between Displaying and Staging” and “Investigating the Materiality of Respiration in Different Media” respectively) provide an abundance of postmodernist art and performance, focusing primarily on issues of the body. As with the description above of Burden’s Velvet Water, the connections to Beckett’s Breath and his other works may be in the eye of the beholder (itself a premise of much postmodern work).

Astonishingly (or perhaps not), the thought that became Breath was originally Shakespeare’s. In Measure for Measure, as Claudio languishes in prison for having committed the sin of fornication, the Duke (disguised as a friar) counsels the condemned man to “reason thus with life”:  

a breath thou art,

Servile to all the skyey influences

That do this habitation, where thou keep’st,

Hourly afflict [_] [III.i.8-11]. 

The genius of Beckett’s wordless reiteration ( a deliberate oxymoron) is that this Shakespearean thought gets re-expressed on stage motionlessly, characterlessly, actorlessly, dramatically, even eloquently, in a mere thirty-five seconds, yet it manages to convey an existential truth - the ultimate reduction ab absurdo of the life cycle - that is applicable to every mortal who ever lived, regardless of creed, regardless of ideology. That Sozita Goudouna has turned the analysis of Beckett’s one-page work into a 200-plus paged study is remarkable, not least for tis cogent and well documented antifloccinaucinihilipilificationistical view.

 

William Hutchings

University of Alabama Birmingham

 


CULTURE LIVE @IN.GR Sozita Goudouna makes us proud in Manhattan and in the world

by Georgia Drakaki

February 10, 2021, 6:01 p.m.

https://www.in.gr/2021/02/10/life/culture-live/sozita-gkountouna-mas-kanei-perifanous-sto-manxatan-kai-ston-kosmo/

Struggles relentlessly for the dissemination of Greek culture in a contemporary and “open” way

The cultural platform GREECE IN USA is a global organization that promotes Greek culture abroad and promotes international cultural cooperation. Founded in New York by the internationally renowned Greek adjunct professor CUNY Sozita Goudouna, one of America’s most prominent Greek curators.

GREECE IN USA makes an impressive opening amid a pandemic, launching, with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the group exhibition “The Right to Silence?” / “The Right to Silence?” on the penitentiary system, prison and incarceration regimes and the reform of criminal justice, in different geographical and political contexts. The first edition of the exhibition is currently presented at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, City University of New York with the participation of 43 Greek and Cypriot Artists, while the second parallel action is expected in February at “Undercurrent”, one of the most influential Brooklyn-based showrooms worldwide.

So we talked with Mrs. Goudouna about the role of art in the time of a pandemic, her daily life between obligations and aspirations, the New York Performa Biennale, her favorite museums, GREECE IN USA and many more and even her views on rebetiko. This Greek woman has managed to remove the rust from her mind: nothing old and outdated in the way she perceives and acts for Greek culture, which is rarely found in local professionals of “culture” and “art”.

As we were discussing, I thought what a wonderful thing it is to be Sozita, to live in Tribeca (Manhattan’s most hip district) and to breathe with the lungs of creativity and art, collectives and exchange of ideas.

It’s like a dream.

But to get there, Sozita Guduna studied, worked and fought hard. That is why she makes us proud — not because she is Greek, but because the Greekness of her existence and action erupts unpretentiously and authentically.

A Greek woman in New York: how was the first night of the rest of your life in America? And how did you decide to leave Greece?

I remember my first night in New York in an apartment I stayed when I arrived at midnight. It was located opposite the historic Armory where the “Armory Show” took place in 1913, one of the most important exhibitions for Modern Art with the participation of Marcel Duchamp, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, I felt so lucky !

However, what I will never forget was the day I found out what really makes you a New Yorker, the night I had nowhere to stay — due to financial and other circumstances — and spent the night in an overnight cafe-restaurant on Broadway. The edge of survival gives you a strength, that makes is easier to understand this city and sometimes “conquer” it with a sense of urgency.

Like Andre Gide wrote in 1926 ‘One doesn’t discover the new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.’ I was 17 years in London, then from 2013–2015 in Greece during the years of the crisis, I decided to leave Greece because I was lucky to have been selected as the inaugural curator at Performa Biennial, one of my most admired international Biennials.

What exactly is the job of a curator? If one wants to deal with it, what stages does one “have to” go through first?

The role of the curator is relatively new and there are different schools of thought about curation depending on the generation and the artistic orientation. In the past, good degrees in art history, politics, or the social sciences could cover a broader education for a good career as curator, and most curators did not have specialized studies in curation.

Today, excellent postgraduate courses are offered internationally in curating, therefore, following a good first degree there may be specialization in specific areas of curation such as: public space, digital arts, performance, politics and art, anthropology, environment etc. In Greece, similar educational programs are currently being developed but have not yet been established. The Performa Biennial in New York, in which I specialized, focuses on the role of the curator as producer — commissioner — developer. Performa also inspired me to establish Greece in USA. The Biennale takes place in different parts of the city, from Times Square and New York Customs to MoMA and BAM. For a month, Performa is changing the way New Yorkers experience and perceive the city, especially after 9/11, which transformed the relationship between residents and the public space. The Biennial aims to “reclaim” public space and spaces that have changed use due to the dominance of Real Estate.

Do you feel, yourself, an artist?

The nexus of curator — artist has preoccupied me a lot. We both participate in the creative process with a synthetic and analytical approach. Roles shift in contemporary times and the artist becomes a thinker, even a “scientist,” in the sense of detecting and evaluating asymmetric knowledges, the curator is like a “metteur en scene,” as we would say in French, and I use this term to give the broader perspectives of curation.

I see curation as a practice based on scientific-technological and philosophical developments to explore new temporal and spatial interactions, new forms of artistic intervention, to unfold the wide range of scientific, theoretical and artistic positions that shape the curator, spectator / artist, performance / event / exhibition and intervention / cultural production.


Sozita Goudouna with Raymond Pettibon at Journal Gallery for his solo exhibition she curated in November 2020



Will the artistic activities of the Greece in USA platform mainly concern the visual arts or other fields of art?

Greece in USA seeks to present all aspects of cultural production as well as cultural research. We focus on the visual arts, performing arts, experimental cinema, new media, architecture and dance. We commission and present in collaboration with other curators and institutions art programs on specific topics and we also commission artists to create new works or we collaborate with them on existing works.

The non-profit organization develops productions that meet the needs of public or private institutions and spaces (site-specific/location driven), new media (and intermedia). The promotion of international exchange of practices and knowledge in the arts, the exploration of methods used in theatrical and curatorial practices and the points of intersection between the arts, society and the public sphere through interventions, collective actions, educational programs and publications, are the point of interest of Greece in USA.

Among the goals of the platform is the following: “To support inspired cultural practices of Greece, welcoming and cultivating new ideas and influences.” This was promised by various institutions in Greece, such as Niarchos and Onassis, but various young Greek artists constantly feel marginalized. Monica, and Maravegias for example aren’t “new and influential”. How do you perceive your commitment to a goal like this?

Our goal is to create the “third way” for cultural diplomacy between the state and major institutions that will always be in good cooperation with the institutions, ministries of culture and foreign affairs. I have worked as a consultant for the Onassis Foundation in New York (I have been Onassis Scholar since 2002) and I appreciate the work of the organization.

Stegi has contributed tremendously to the dissemination of contemporary culture in Greece and internationally and we observe that organizations such as e.g. the Athens Biennale can not survive without the support of the foundation. It almost replaces the state and for that it has a huge responsibility for its choices. An organization like Onassis has exceptional potential, but this does not mean that there will not always be ground to be covered in the promotion of contemporary artists, with different sensitivity and care, than the mapping and management of the contemporary scene by an organization that is “too big to fail.”


What do you think is the big, non-negotiable common denominator of the visual and performing arts?

I would say “presence in present time.” However, in the post-Covid era, physical presence is not a possibility, in most cases, for the reception of art. Mediated presence at present time is necessary both for the visual and performing arts. More specifically, the canvas or the three dimensional installations, or the theater, are models for understanding the problem of the tension between reality and representation. Their non-negotiable common point is the exploration of representation that is understood as a process and not as a given.

In my book “Beckett’s Breath” I try to examine these relationships as they unfold in relation to temporality, materiality and plasticity in the arts. The book presents cross-disciplinary findings around the nature and aesthetic possibilities of respiration, the minimum condition of existence, in the interface between the visual and performing arts.

Culture was devalued by the Greek state during the period of lockdowns — not that one can make a living from his art in this country, even in normal conditions. What do you think about the Support Art Workers movement?

I was not able to follow the movement extensively, I was informed via internet, but I was excited about the way art professionals networked in activism and mass mobilization. I think something similar in the fermentation of artists with common visions had been achieved in front of the parliament during the “indignant movement” in Athens, but it had not taken a more specific form with an active participation in the trade unions.

I hope that the opportunity is not lost with the “Support Art Workers” movement for participation in the decision-making that is often done through the trade unions (Chamber of Arts, Actor’s Equity etc.) or with a strong and dynamic platform that will imagine the ways these pre-existing networks can be replaced or strengthened.

Do you watch subscription channels and, if so, are there any series that you are stuck with?

I watch Netflix and have recently watched series like Gumbit’s Queen, Bridgeton, Lupin and I also started The Dig (it seems from the selections that I am nostalgic of London), but I usually do not get stuck with the series. I’m most fascinated by the structure and “temporalities” of a movie, so when I watch Netflix longer than I should, I switch to Criterionchannel.com.

What is usually the first thing you do in the morning and what is the last thing you do before you go to bed, in the context of your daily routine?

The first thing I do is brew my coffee (or I have prepared it the previous night) so I can get up from the overnight and go to the office and the last one to turn off the laptop after working late at night, with background sounds of a movie or podcast. During the weekends I hope to get a few or many hugs.

Do you think that art should be militant, political or accusatory or, is it better for the creator to express her/himself by taking a distance, as an attempt to make her/his work timeless?

I believe in “living” art and “dead” art. I think Peter Brook remains unsurpassed in his theory in “The Empty Space” when he talks about the four categories: “Dead”, “Sacred”, “Rough” and “Immediate” theater. Consequently, whether militant or non militant, we are interested in art that is not “dead.” Militant art has references to major political processes and the relationship between politics and art in catalytic periods such as, say, the Russian Revolution. In Greece, poets, writers and artists such as Ritsos, Katrakis and many others were indeed militant with great impact on society. In contemporary times, when artists, but also curators, use political and social sensitivities as a means to justify the existence of their work, I believe that they are often led to a “cul de sac.”

At the same time, however, in modern times, if the artist-thinker does not negotiate environmental and social issues, she/he will soon find that his / her work will be redundant. Pretense is the problem in all aspects of culture and life.

What is your favorite museum in the world?

With the exception of the Anthropology Museum in Mexico, I would say that probably my favorite museum, owing to its size, but also exhibits and history, is the Foundling Museum that was situated next to my old house in London. Foundling was originally founded in 1739 as a hospital by the philanthropist Thomas Coram for the care of abandoned babies and is still a charitable organization.

At the same time, it is an exhibition space that hosts excellent exhibitions of contemporary art such as an exhibition with Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego. The artists were involved in a dramatic visual dialogue about the history and themes of the Museum, which was Britain’s first institution for abandoned children. This unique exhibition continued William Hogarth’s legacy in the eighteenth century, inviting leading artists to showcase their work at the Foundation, raising awareness of society’s failures against vulnerable children and mothers. Among the artists who supported the Hospital were William Hogarth and composer George Frideric Handel. The Museum’s Collections include paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures created and donated by Hogarth and others.


Margarita Athanasiou “Prison — Industrial Complex” The Right To Silence, Shiva Gallery, John Jay College CUNY, 2021. https://shivagallery.org/featured_item/the-right-to-silence/


Greece in USA’s first group exhibition explores the penitentiary system to see if art and aesthetics can break the silence on critical political issues such as mass imprisonment and criminal justice reform. How did the decision / inspiration to present this extremely delicate, difficult and challenging issue came about ?

The subject of the exhibition I am curating is based on a reversal: I am interested in paradoxes, when they illuminate profound meanings. In this case it is about the well known “Miranda Rights” that as Greeks we learned from Hollywood crime films. I was always impressed by the expression “you have the right to remain silent.”

Silence is transformed into a right when what can be said might be legally binding for a citizen of a benevolent democracy. The paradox, however, is that some citizens remain silent because they are not given the opportunity to speak, therefore, the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

In the group exhibition, “Miranda Rights” acquires a metaphorical sense in terms of exploring moral issues, but also aesthetic forms and artistic means, if we assume that silence is the culmination of abstraction. At the same time, we are confronting the confinement of the current pandemic, hence, despite the sensitive balance of drawing a parallel between the confinement and incarceration indeed we become more aware of the issue of mass imprisonment during the current condition that we all share.

Who is Sozita Goudouna? Everything looks charming and rare on you. Let’s start with the name and get to the multi-page CV…

Who is she ? I also wonder when I catch Sozita talking to herself. I try to discuss with her often as a kind of contemplation and self-awareness. My name comes from “Sozo — to save in greek,” given that I was saved in childbirth and because my mom had a beloved nephew whose name was Sozos. Agios Sozon is the patron saint of the islands of Aegina, Lemnos and Patmos, I think. At the same time, my grandmother was Sotiria, so the child escaped being named by the strict name Salvation!

Would you ever return permanently to Greece?

My life has evolved in such a way that for better or worse I do not know if I can think of anything with a permanence. The current situation and the re-reminder of how vulnerable we are, both physically and mentally, reinforces this view.

Would you ever consider running for a political office in Greece or America?

I would if Greece acquired an inspired, contemporary, dynamic and militant ecological party, but such an expanded movement we will have to create ourselves. We cannot imagine ideal conditions in which we will be invited to participate because this isn’t realistic. Fermentations shape politics.

However, I have run for the municipal office in the island of Hydra, following my active participation, since 1988, in the ecological Association of Hydra that protects the environment and the Greek cultural heritage in the wider fields of archeology, traditional settlements and underwater antiquities.

Regarding ecology, the range of activities of the Association covers the protection of natural resources, fauna and the Mediterranean seal Monachous-Monachous, which lives and breeds in the Myrtoon Sea and in the eastern part of the Peloponnese. In 2011, I curated the project “Eleventh Plateau” in Hydra in order to explore the ways in which art can disseminate knowledge in relation to political ecology, you can find more information here .

Since we talked about politics, does Biden’s election or, better yet, Trump’s departure open up any new horizons in America and its relations with Greece?

Indeed, the term political ecology should refer to the ways in which politics can be purified or cleansed from the cynicism of the opportunism of certain participants in our public and political life. America’s diplomacy in relation to Greece depends very much on its current relations to Turkey. I imagine the correlations are even more complicated. In politics, nothing is exactly as it seems, but I believe that Biden is a factor of greater stability, at least compared to Trump.


https://shivagallery.org/featured_item/the-right-to-silence/



How do you envision / predict the production and consumption of Art as a product in the coming years, with the impact of Covid on artistic creativity, but also on the mood of the public? Theaters, concerts, street musicians…?

I think a paradigm shift will take place, but for the wrong reasons. I mean we were waiting for a paradigm shift in the way cultural goods are received, but now it is becoming imperative because of the pandemic and I do not know where this adventure will lead us. Art should be a common good and the only positive opportunity given to us by a pandemic is to realize the social power and impact of art by expanding the ways of public viewing.

I welcome the recent calls of the Ministry for proposals for interventions. Cities should become museums without walls during the pandemic by presenting happenings, performances, concerts and all cultural activities under the Greek sun and moon.

What did you miss the most — you personally — during all these difficult months, without hugs?

My parents and friends, I have more than a year to travel to Greece and it is quite hard.

What book is currently on your nightstand?

Marc Lamont Hill’s book “We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, & Possibility.” I admire the writers who managed to reflect on the period we are enduring with aptness and critical thinking. The book deals with the 2020 uprising that marked a new course for the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

The brutal assassinations of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and countless other injustices, large and small, were the spark for the largest protest movement in US history. Hill critically examines the “pre-existing conditions” that led us to this time of crisis and turmoil during the pandemic.

Would you consider doing something about the unrecognized in “Rebetiko Song” through the platform? What music do you usually listen to in the car or on Sunday afternoons?

I would be very interested in organizing a conference with the participation of bands from Athens to articulate a contemporary “mapping” of Rebetiko, in collaboration with the Modern Greek Studies Department at Columbia University, for example, and to highlight Rebetiko’s relationship with the refugee history of Greece and the corresponding music styles in Europe and America that are not so well known to the American public. Rebetiko and its history probably have to shift from the interiors of homes and Astoria and to find themselves in a more common view and in a contemporary context in cultural centers such as BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) and similar venues.

I had the opportunity to experience George Katsaros or Theologitis, before his death. The memory is vague but I think it was at the Lycabettus open theater in great devoutness. I am also lucky to have Harry Logothetis as a friend, a former student at ASOE (School of Economics of Athens), one of those who drop out of school, who taught me about the clarinet, Vasilopoulos, Saleas and others and with whom we have attended wonderful festivals from Tzoumerka to Krestena and many more. I was also lucky enough to be a friend of Konstantis Loukos, whose father taught the history of Rebetiko at the University of Crete. I am also fortunate to have Ed Emery as a friend, the organizer of the Rebetiko conferences in Hydra.

In London, Ed with Pavlos Melas and his band “Moo Soo Too” had jams at my parties and Paris Gravouniotis tried to institutionally promote this kind of music in London. Therefore, I love rebetiko and I am very interested in its contemporary reception, such as Blues, Portuguese Fado and other styles of “underground” urban music. I do not know how to drive, but on my Sunday flanerie on the trains from New York to Philadelphia I do not forget to listen to Bellou, Papaoannou, Vamvakari and Tsitsani.


“Theoremata” group exhibition at EMST 2018 co-curated by AICA Art Historians Association board of directors








Greek artists gain voice in the US: Sozita Goudouna on “Greece in USA”


YIANNIS KONSTANTINIDIS LIFO 30.1.2021 | 09:56

Just a week after taking office, Joe Biden signed a decree not to renew the contracts of companies that run private prisons in the United States. “It is a first step,” he said, “to contain the powerful who benefit from our penitentiary system.” He added that he was referring to what he said was the launch of a “systemic racism” plan in the United States, noting that private prisons are “less humane and less secure” for inmates. With this decision, the new President keeps his campaign promise to African Americans and citizens of other minorities, from whose ranks comes a frighteningly high percentage of a total of 2.5 million inmates in US prisons (private, state, and federal, including illegal immigrants, in addition to criminal convictions — the US is the country with the most prisoners in the world). Above all, however, with this decree, President Biden directs to a prosperous settlement this huge for the American reality, for which discussions, protests and consultations had already started during the Obama presidency, but without a solution, while During Trump’s presidency, this social demand was deliberately extended unresolved in order to facilitate private business in the field of penitentiaries as well.


Raymond Pettibon and Sozita Goudouna at The Journal Gallery — Tennis Elbow — during the artist’s solo exhibition curated by Sozita Goudouna



The exhibition explores the issue of incarceration of convicts for criminal offenses as a condition of deprivation, difficult living and constant brutality in every moment of their daily lives, which due to its cruelty often leads to the collapse of the personality of the inmate. Prisoners in private prisons make up a fairly low percentage of all prisoners in the country, but the debate over the issue of “private prison companies” has been progressively increasingly significant since its inception, which showed that it concerned all Americans and that it was ultimately evolving into a matter of moral order more than anything else.


Eva Giannakopoulou, Dogman’s Dream, still photo from video



The prison as a new kind of “industrial exploitation”, a suspicious punishment universe, hidden behind very high walls, is also the subject of a large art exhibition of MoMA PS1, which is the branch of the famous Museum of Modern Art in New York, where experimental reports, which are often almost provocative. The title of the exhibition at MoMA PS1, which continues until April 4 this year, is “Marking time: Art in the age of mass incarceration” (which in outrageously free performance in Greek means: “Marking time: Art in the years of mass imprisonment ”). The report explores the issue of incarceration of convicts for criminal offenses as a condition of deprivation, difficult living and constant brutality in every moment of their daily lives, which due to its cruelty often leads to the collapse of the personality of the inmate.


Ashley Hunt




Ashley Hunt



However, the exhibition also focuses on resisting all of this through art. Most of the participating artists were imprisoned and began creating works of art while serving their sentences. It is inevitable that one will not lead to the reduction of all these difficulties and the corresponding feelings in the condition of the immigration detention centers but also of the confinement of the general population due to a pandemic. All of the above are mentioned as a necessary introduction to another exhibition that is now taking place in New York and which is Greek. It is organized by the new cultural platform “Greece in USA”, created by Sozita Gudouna, with experience as adjunct professor at City University of New York (CUNY) the largest urban university in New York). She is also the curator of exhibitions in Greece and New York, the director of all the activities of the studio of the great American artist Raymond Pettibon (for whom he also organizes his personal foundation for the management of his work) and, finally, the author of a dissertation on the smallest in duration — only 30 seconds — play by Samuel Beckett: the interlude “Breath” (full title of the dissertation: “Beckett’s Breath: Anti-theatricality and the visual arts on Samuel Beckett’s Breath”, 22.1.2021 Greece in USA: A new platform promotes Greek culture in New York The first exhibition of the “Greece in USA” platform is entitled “The right to silence?”, Which means “The right to silence?”.


Andrea Geyer and Sharon Hayes “History is ours”


“In America, all the talk about imprisonment and incarceration, but also the current MoMA PS1 report, revolves around the fact that prisoners are ‘invisible’ to American society. They are the rubbish that society hastily hides under its rug, so that they are not visible, and their presence bothers them, at the same time that Americans experience the obsession to make themselves “visible” at all times in every social and professional circumstance. Curating the exhibition “The right to silence?”, I wanted to focus on the same issue, but from the point of view of the acoustic perception of the presence-absence of prisoners. “Of course, I seek to achieve all this through a more poetic approach to issues related to politics. And I have to admit that this is a constant goal of mine: to convey political ideas and positions through a poetic theme and not to raise a banner with demands.

In America, there are huge problems that are simmering — and boiling — in prisons. If we recorded them, starting with the racial discrimination, which is huge, we could reach even the fewest cases of discrimination against transgender prisoners. In other words, all the pathogenesis of American society becomes much more pronounced in the harshness of the prison environment. It would be reasonable to ask what all this can have to do with us in Greece and how we could identify with such problems in order to be able to mobilize emotionally, to become compassionate. One answer would be the experience of the incarceration of all of us brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The first-hand sense of what even a partial loss of our freedom means. “Obviously, quarantine has little to do with the condition of imprisonment, but it is enough to make us think about the concept of freedom, the right to it and their limits.” Chin Chih Yang, Pleading the 5th The idea for this report is related to the famous “Miranda Rights”, ie the rights recognized to every person arrested in the US. They are more or less known worldwide, thanks to the cinema and the cliché phrase of the police, “Miranda Warning” (warning Miranda), to the detainee, “You have the right to remain silent”, which literally means: “You have the right to remain silent “and means that the detainee has the right not to testify during the preliminary examination, the police pre-trial investigation.

The name “Miranda Rights” comes from the name of the first inmate who in 1966 appealed to the US Supreme Court against the State of Arizona to seek recognition of this right. “Starting from this well-known verbal cliché, we tried to extend the thought in every possible direction, in order to explore and circle the possibility of remaining silent forever and in any case,” says Sozita Gudouna, introducing the horrible way in a very gentle way. concept of voluntary self-esteem. At the same time, however, he emphasizes that all these issues are twofold, given that “the right to remain silent is, in any case, a way to protect your point of view.” On the other hand, the choice of the theme of the exhibition also stems from the perception of Sozita Gudouna that the exhibitions that promote modern culture should not be of a “festival nature”, nor should they be anchored in the system of themes that we traditionally project outwards. ». He emphasizes, in fact, that “they should address the spectators of the place where they are presented and touch something that concerns them in the context of their daily life as members of a social group.”

The composition of the artists participating in the exhibition “The right to silence?” one would say that it resembles an ark of contemporary Greek art. In terms of foreign participation, Ashley Hunt stands out, which belongs to the artists who have served a long prison sentence. His star is currently shining in New York and his works are included in the exhibition at MoMA PS1. Irini Linardaki, Raised Installation “With this report, Greece is speaking a new language,” says Sozita Gudouna. “The goal that is achieved is that a first mapping of the contemporary Greek art scene is presented in New York: Greek artists acquire a voice there. But the big bet of the “Greece in USA” platform is to manage every time, with its exhibitions, Greek artists coexist with internationally recognized foreigners. This coexistence would lead to another look from the point of view of the spectators there towards the work of the Greek artists that will participate. 6.1.2021 A giant concrete vulva sculpture divides the whole of Brazil In general, my goal is first to enter a class in how Greece will appear in America, starting with the contemporary art production here. Reports will be proposed whose theme will concern the whole world. Greek artists will be represented at a rate of 30–40% of all participating artists. The success of this tactic is that while it will be a Greek exhibition in America, it will not look like an exhibition promoting Greek artists but will be an exhibition that will be presented there and will be addressed to the whole world.

The aim is to make the Greek artistic presence in America continuous, but without this happening loudly, as a “product placement”, as would be described in the language of commerce. In addition to this axis of presentation, all the cases will be highlighted where renowned international artists deal in their work with something they choose from the classic Greek arsenal of ideas and concepts and has a direct origin from Greek antiquity. One such example would be the British artist Chris Ofili who, in 2019, based part of his work on the awesome translation of “Odyssey” by Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate the Homeric epic into English. The next goal of the “Greece in USA” platform will be to invite foreign curators to collaborate with major New York galleries. The platform will maintain strong links with academic institutions and artist collectives. He will follow the Greek emerging artists. It will be published and its first sample will be a monograph on the work of the great Lucas Samaras. We would also like to proceed with similar publications for all the distinguished Greek artists of the Diaspora. The platform will participate in the production of Greek works that will participate in its exhibitions. In the current report this happened with the work of Vangelis Vlachos and I hope that soon resources will be secured to finance the production of a new video by Stefanos Tsivopoulos. I would also like the platform to represent the performing arts. But to put it all in an economic sense, my goal at this stage is to do one or two projects a year, depending on the funding that will be achieved. These should be so good that each time a strong imprint is left on New York’s art life. However, in order not to consume all the time we have in the search for sponsorships, “alternative” projects could be made in unpredictable places, with very low funding needs, but always with content for the viewers “.

The exhibition’s theme also stems from the perception of Sozita Gudouna that the exhibitions that promote modern culture should not be “festival in nature”, nor should they be anchored in the “system of issues that we traditionally project outwards”. Greece’s first exhibition in the USA is presented at the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, which is the main exhibition space of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a major college at the City University of New York in Manhattan. It usually hosts exhibitions that address major social problems or issues related to classical studies. The choice of venue was made to correlate the exhibition with the only public university in New York, which is one of the largest in the world, but also with this college, whose reputation is as great as that of the university. from which the most important criminologists and judges graduate. The report consists of two parts. The first has been edited by Sozita Gudouna, while the second, entitled “The right to silence: Asia”, is curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and has an important representation of artists of Asian descent. It will last until July 31, 2021 and one can see the exhibition online and for free by following this link:

https://shivagallery.org/featured_item/the-right-to-silence/


Goro Nakamura, Explosion



Participating artists: Margarita Athanassiou, Maria Adelman, Steven Antonakos, Klitsa Antoniou, Kenji Aoki, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlachos, Antonis Volanakis, Alexandros Georgiou, Eva Giannakovougis, Keli , Panos Kokkinias, Georgia Kotretsos, Aristidis Lappas, Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos, Irini Linardaki, Aristidis Logothetis, Marion Iglesis, Olga Miliaresi-Fokas & Despina Damaskos Papas Sklavenitis, Efi Spyrou, Marilia Stagouraki, George Stamatakis, Chrysan Stathakos, Panos Tsagaris, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Nagia Frangouli, Nikos Charalambidis, Gioula Chatzigeorgiou, Despina Chatzipathoulou,Veronique Bourgoin, Tim D’Agostino, Karen Finley, Geyer Andrea & Sharon Hayes, Steve C Harvey, Ashley Hunt, Richard Kamler, Renee Magnati, Ilan Manouach, Daina Mattis, Juli Susin, Mischa Twitchin. In the next part of the exhibition entitled “Undercurrent” participate the artists: Chloe Akrithaki, Alexis Vasilikos, Eugenia Vereli, Maria Georgoula, Eleni Glinou, Lydia Dambasina, Martha Dimitropoulou, Irini Karagiannopoulou, Ismini T, Marina Maro Michalakakos, Phryne Mouzakitou Manolis Baboussis Rania Bellou, Emmanuel Bitsakis, Angela Bozo, Margarita Myrogianni Maria Papadimitriou, Euripides Papadopetrakis, Natasha Papadopoulou, Elias Papailiakis, Teresa Papamichali, Emilia Papafilippou, Georgia Sagri Katerina Sarah Christina Sgouromyti, Vouvoula Skoura, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Antonis Tsakiris, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Thalia Chioti, Zoi Hounta, Dionysis Christofilogiannis, Elaine Angelopoulos, Blind Spot, Rafika Chawishe, Mat Chivers, Delia Gonzalez, Ashley Hunt, James Lane, John Newsom, ODC Ensemble — Elli Papakonstantinou, Anastasia Pelias, Irene Ragusini, Duke Riley, Martin Sexton. Chara Piperidou, Gradations of Vocals, diptych, 2018 Opening Photo: Stephen Antonakos, Red Neon From Wall to Wall, 1968

Source : www.lifo.gr https://www.lifo.gr/articles/arts_articles/311745/oi-ellines-kallitexnes-apoktoyn-foni-stis-ipa-i-sozita-gkoyntoynta-gia-to-greece-in-usa



























Sozita Goudouna: “Art is intertwined with the production of knowledge”

Nastos George



VIMA MAGAZINO VIMA NEWSPAPER

Karen Finley


Panos Kokkinias


Steven C. Harvey


Margarita Athanasiou


Aristides Lappas


Stefanos Tsivopoulos




Chrysanne Stathacos



Sozita Goudouna, one of America’s most prominent curators

Katerina Poulopoulou
19/01/2021 11:19
An innovative platform promotes the knowledge of modern and ancient Greek culture abroad with the signature of Sozita Goudouna.

The cultural platform GREECE IN USA is a global organization that promotes Greek culture abroad and promotes international cultural cooperation.

Founded in New York by the internationally renowned Greek visual artist and assistant professor at New York University CUNY Sozita Gudouna, one of America’s most prominent artists and curators.

GREECE IN USA is making an impressive opening amid a pandemic, launching, with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the group exhibition “The Right to Silence? »/” The Right to Silence? “ on the penitentiary system, prison and incarceration regimes and the reform of criminal justice, in different geographical and political contexts. The first phase of the exhibition is currently being presented at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, City University of New York with the participation of 43 Greek and Cypriot Artists, while the second parallel action is expected in February at “Undercurrent”, one of the most influential exhibition Brooklyn-based locations worldwide.

What is the GREECE IN USA platform?
GREECE IN USA is a non-profit organization of global scope, which promotes the knowledge of modern and ancient Greek culture abroad and promotes international cultural cooperation and social participation. The platform focuses on the dissemination of innovative and unique programs in the field of art and education, exploring the evolving diversity and richness of Greek culture, seeks to create and provoke new (original) thinking about the arts and to promote intercultural dialogue through and “new” expression platforms.

GREECE IN USA makes an impressive opening amid a pandemic, launching, with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the group exhibition “The Right to Silence?” / “The Right to Silence?” on the subject of the penitentiary system
It focuses on a number of cultural activities , including the development and support of creative, academic research with an emphasis on cultural policy and the extroversion of Greek culture. As well as in the production of cultural works and festivals in collaboration with prominent US cultural partners, as well as the organization of conferences, seminars, workshops and cultural exchanges through ‘art residencies’ hosting programs.

GREECE IN USA presents Greek-American and Greek contemporary productions focusing on visual arts, performing arts (theater), experimental cinema, cinema, new media, architecture and dance. The organization develops productions that meet the needs of spaces (on-site-specific) and new and intermediate media (new media & intermedia).

The promotion of the international exchange of practices and knowledge in the arts, the exploration of the methods used in theatrical and curatorial practices and the points of intersection between the arts, society and the public sphere through interventions, collective actions, educational programs and publications, is in progress. of interest to the organization.
The Board of Directors of GREECE IN USA consists of, among others, prominent personalities from Giannis Kaplanis, General Manager of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival and Andreas Takis, President of MoMUS.

What are the goals of the GREECE IN USA platform
GREECE IN USA aims to collaborate and build long-term partnerships with leading institutions and individuals active in Greece and its culture and to transfer a comprehensive representation of Greece and Cyprus through the production of cultural and educational programs that encourage interdisciplinary and allow cultural participation.

The main objectives are:
• To shape and envision the image of modern Greece in the United States beyond existing stereotypes
• To support the inspired cultural practices of Greece, welcoming and cultivating new ideas and influences
• To present contemporary Greek culture
• To promote Greek cultural research and culture in the American educational system
• The development of a transatlantic network for the exchange of cultures and ideas
• Enhancing the development of structures in cultural policy and the promotion of global mobility.

The platform is founded in New York by the internationally renowned Greek visual artist and assistant professor at New York University CUNY Sozita Gudouna, one of the most prominent artists and curators in America

The man behind the GREECE IN USA platform
The Sozita Gkountouna is empnefstria, founder and artistic director of GREECE IN USA, head of the Institute of Raymond Pettibon, one of the most prominent artists in America and assistant professor at NYU CUNY.

He holds a PhD in Art History and is the author of Beckett’s Breath: Anti-Theatricality and the Visual Arts, published by Edinburgh and Oxford University Press. She was selected as the first Andrew W. Mellon Curator at the Institute and the New York Biennale Performa, teaching at New York University. He has curated programs and exhibitions at the New Museum of New York, Documents, Onassis Cultural Center in New York, etc. He taught in the Postgraduate Program entitled “Management & Promotion of Cultural Heritage & Environment”, of the Department of History, Archeology & Cultural Heritage Management of the School of Humanities & Cultural Studies of the University of Peloponnese. He studied Philosophy, Theater (NE) and Directing in London (MA: RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts & Kings College London). He holds a PhD from the University of London on the relationship between the visual arts and the performing arts.

As artistic director of the first official European program for hosting artists in Athens (2013–2015) under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture Athens Art Residency, she curated a series of solo art exhibitions such as Martin Creed, Santiago Sierra, Lynda Benglis, Marie Voignier, Roy Ascott and collaborated for the production of Marina Abramovic “Seven Deaths”. In 2008 he founded the company outoftheboxintermedia in London with productions at EMST, Benaki Museum, Tate Modern, Frieze London, Shunt Vaults, Hunterian Museum, French Institute. He is a member and was elected in 2015 as treasurer of the Greek Section of the International Association of Art Critics, AICA and was a member of the board of the Greek Section of the ITI International Theater Institute of Unesco.

The cultural organization Out of the Box Intermedia (www.outoftheboxintermedia.org) which he founded in 2008 in London and Athens, specializes in the research and production of cross-sectoral projects with the international collaboration of universities, artistic groups and scientific institutes and organizes for the last 12 years artistic productions, educational programs, conferences and publications. It has been supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, the European Foundation for Culture, the British Council, the French Institute, the NEON Foundation and private companies. Out Of The Box productions examine structural correlations between the visual arts, cinema, architecture, science and choreography and have been presented at the New Museum, Ionian Parliament, Documents, EMST, Benaki Museum, Byzantine, Christian & Christian Vaults London,

The opening exhibition “The Right to Silence?” / “The Right to Silence?”
GREECE IN USA captures and creates projects that build long-term collaborations with leading institutions and individuals who are actively associated with Greece. In this context, the inaugural report entitled “The Right to Silence?” (The Right to Silence?) Raises issues of criminal justice and is based on research and two parallel streams that deal with different geographical and political contexts, focusing on Greece and Cyprus.

The group exhibition is curated by Sozita Guduna. John Jay is joined by artists Margarita Athanassiou, Maria Adelman, Steven Antonakos, Klitsa Antoniou, Kenji Aoki, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlachos, Antonis Volanakis, Alexandros Georgiou, Eva Giannakopoulou, Klio Gizelis, Z. , Georgia Kotretsos, Lappas Aristidis, Manolis Lemos-Daskalakis, Irini Linardaki, Aristidis Logothetis, Marion Iglesi, Olga Miliaresi-Fokal & Despina Damaskou for SPAGHETTO, Bapis Papas Spyrou, Marilia Stagouraki, Giorgos Stamatakis, Chrysan Stathakos, Panos Tsagaris, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Nagia Frangouli, Nikos Charalambidis, Gioula Chatzigeorgiou, Despina Hatzipavlidou & Anthio Mouriatou, Timou Mouriatou B, Kourou DKaren Finley, Geyer Andrea & Sharon Hayes, Steve C Harvey, Ashley Hunt, Richard Kamler, Renee Magnati, Ilan Manouach, Daina Mattis, Juli Susin, Mischa Twitchin, while in Undercurrent participate the artists Chloe Akrithaki, Alexis Vasilikos, Eugenia Vereli, Maria Georgoula, Eleni Glinou, Lydia Dampasina, Martha Dimitropoulou, Irini Karagiannopoulou, Ismini Karyotaki, Elias Cohen, Anna Laskari, Jenny Marketou, Maro Michalakakos, Phryni Mouzakitou, Manolis Bamis, Manolis Bamis Evripidis Papadopetrakis, Natassa Papadopoulou, Elias Papailiakis, Teresa Papamichali, Emilia Papafilippou, Georgia Sagri, Katerina Sarra, Christina Sgouromyti, Vouvoula Skoura, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Ztonis Toniis, AntonisΔιονύσης Χριστοφυλογιαννακης, Elaine Angelopoulos, Blind Spot, Rafika Chawishe, Mat Chivers, Delia Gonzalez, Ashley Hunt, James Lane, John Newsom, OCD Ensemble, Anastasia Pelias, Irene Ragusini, Duke Riley, Martin Sexton.
GREECE IN USA also invited professor and curator Thalia Vrachopoulos to address the issue by inviting artists from Asia, and curator Tressa Berman with a historic American artist. The ‘Greece in USA’ platform invites artists, curators and academics to respond to “The Right to Silence?” The next events in other cultural venues of New York will be announced during 2021.

The prison regime and the culture platform
“ Despite the fact that many contemporary visual compositions seem to deny the presence of the spectator in their layout, what is of primary importance for the canon of art today is the dialogue with the spectator. “Recognizing the presence of the spectator and the ‘visibility’ (viewing) of works of art also has a decisive contribution to the ongoing dialogue on the aesthetics of the modern movement, “ said Sozita Gudouna.
“But how can the limits of this ‘rule’ be tested in relation to society at large. What happens when viewers remain hidden from the public and can not be in any dialogue with the artwork. “When they can only see one wall closed in a cube without windows or when they are blindfolded in absolute silence, waiting for an investigator.”

“A constituent element of prison is the silencing, the silencing of the prisoner’s life, often of justice, the silencing of pain or political expression.
Mass imprisonment has been discussed in terms of degrees of invisibility, but not so much in terms of the range of processes that reveal the boundary between the representation of silence and visibility. Is silence connected to the invisible in a cause-and-effect relationship?
Prisoners, ex-prisoners, their families, social activists, academics and professionals, founded in the 1970s an organization that aimed to dramatically reform the penitentiary system by giving a “voice” to the very foundations of the prison. The organization was named GIP (or Prison Information Group) and aimed to reveal to the public the real experiences of the detainees.

“The status of prison as a silent and invisible space has been challenged and continues to be challenged today, mainly by former imprisoned artists working in communities most affected by America’s penitentiary system and policing to consider prison privatization and economic policy. increase in the prison population since the 1970s in the USA.
The group report will explore the penitentiary system to see if art and aesthetics can break the silence on critical political issues such as mass imprisonment and criminal justice reform, as well as corruption / ill-treatment and gender rights, and the rights of minors in prisons.
The report will also address issues related to international coronavirus decrees and extensions of house arrest .
Recognizing the impact of programs that encourage the general public to become aware of prisoners through art or the ways in which art can heal prisoners, the report draws on forms of representation that have the potential to show beyond themselves in unacceptable and inaccessible “concludes Sozita Gudouna

Πηγή: iefimerida.gr — https://www.iefimerida.gr/politismos/platforma-proagei-elliniko-politismo


Sozita Goudouna speaks with TNH about Greece in USA 

Greece in USA was founded in New York by Sozita Goudouna, the internationally renowned Greek visual artist and assistant professor at CUNY. Photo: Courtesy of Sozita Goudouna / Greece in USA

3/9/2021

By Eleni Sakellis

NEW YORK –The nonprofit organization Greece in USA made an impressive opening amid the pandemic, launching, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the group exhibition “The Right to Silence?” presented at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY), with the participation of 43 Greek and Cypriot Artists. The exhibition runs until July 31.

More information is available online: https://shivagallery.org/featured_item/the-right-to-silence/.

Greece in USA was founded in New York by Sozita Goudouna, the internationally renowned Greek visual artist and assistant professor at CUNY. She spoke with The National Herald about the Greece in USA platform which promotes Greek culture abroad as well as international cultural cooperation.

TNH: Did you always want to be a curator?

Sozita Goudouna: I studied Philosophy in London and directing at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). My intention was to have an expanded and integrated knowledge in the humanities and arts but without necessarily thinking that I would become a curator. It was during my PhD on the interfaces between the performing and visual arts that I understood the importance of curatorial strategies in contemporary art. The role of the curator is relatively new and there are different schools of thought about curation depending on the generation and the artistic orientation. In the past, good degrees in art history, politics, or the social sciences could cover a broader education for a good career as curator, and most curators did not have specialized studies in curation.

Today, excellent postgraduate courses are offered internationally in curating, therefore, following a good first degree there may be specialization in specific areas of curation such as: public space, digital arts, performance, politics and art, anthropology, environment etc. In Greece, similar educational programs are currently being developed but have not yet been established.

The Performa Biennial in New York, in which I specialized, focuses on the role of the curator as producer — commissioner — developer. Performa also inspired me to establish Greece in USA. The Biennale has showcased the work of some of the most significant artists of our time — including Cindy Sherman, Francis Alÿs, Shirin Neshat, Robin Rhode, Francesco Vezzoli, Tamy Ben-Tor, Jesper Just, Marina Abramovic, Gelitin, Laurie Simmons, and Mike Smith. The Biennial takes place in different parts of the city, from Times Square and New York Customs to MoMA and BAM. For a month, Performa is changing the way New Yorkers experience and perceive the city, especially after 9/11, which transformed the relationship between residents and the public space. The Biennial aims to “reclaim” public space and spaces that have changed use due to the dominance of Real Estate.

However, the nexus of curator- artist has preoccupied me a lot. We both participate in the creative process with a synthetic and analytical approach. Roles shift in contemporary times and the artist becomes a thinker, even a “scientist,” in the sense of detecting and evaluating asymmetric knowledges, the curator is like a “metteur en scene,” as we would say in French, and I use this term to give the broader perspectives of curation. I see curation as a practice based on scientific-technological and philosophical developments to explore new temporal and spatial interactions, new forms of artistic intervention, to unfold the wide range of scientific, theoretical and artistic positions that shape the curator, spectator / artist, performance / event / exhibition and intervention / cultural production.


Εθνικός Κήρυξ

Greece in USA was founded in New York by Sozita Goudouna, the internationally renowned Greek visual artist and assistant professor at CUNY. (Photo: Courtesy of Sozita Goudouna / Greece in USA)

TNH: How has the pandemic affected your work?

SG: During the pandemic, I had to work daily in the financial district and it was a very intense experience and it seems we are already starting to forget how stressful it was, but, thankfully the pandemic has only affected my life, like everyone else, but not my work so much. I write on art theory, teach at the University online and I work in person with Raymond Pettibon in Manhattan. Pettibon is perhaps the most prominent contemporary American artist to concentrate on drawing as his primary medium. It is a great privilege and art history lesson to work with him as head of operations of his studio and with the galleries that represent him such as David Zwirner Gallery, New York, London, Hong Kong, Regen Projects in LA and Sadie Coles in London. With Raymond, we worked for the inaugural exhibition of Zwirner’s first outpost in continental Europe, the Paris gallery that also hosted an event for Dior with Pettibon’s art pieces that inspired Kim Jones on his fall men’s collection for Dior. Currently, we also worked on his show at Regen Projects LA and currently for a Sadie Coles show in London. Pettibon’s work is widely admired among the contemporary art audience and has avid devotees in the international field of drawing connoisseurs, nevertheless, fewer people are aware of his influential writings, scripts, and videos. Being affiliated with Performa Biennial in New York, as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon curator, my main concern was also to highlight the textual and performative aspect of Pettibon’s oeuvre by initiating and producing a project at New Museum for Performa Biennial in collaboration with Massimiliano Gioni and RoseLee Goldberg and with the participation of musicians and artists including Kim Gordon, Oliver Augst, Frances Stark, Young Kim, Marcel Dzama, Juli Susin, Veronique Bourgoin, among many other artists that will also be presented at the Getty Museum in LA.

TNH: What made you decide that this was the right time to launch Greece in USA?

SG: The Greek art scene, like Greece itself, is unpredictable, exciting, and undisciplined. I consider that lately, it has evolved into a more international scene owing to the broader interest of foreigners in Athens. That is partly a result of the financial and social crisis, and of art initiatives by younger, local and international artists and curators who understand the importance of experimentation and who aren’t afraid to fail. This approach has caused a cultural shift from the significance of galleries in the 1990s to the prominence of non-profit art initiatives.

During the years of the Greek financial crisis in 2013, I returned from London to Athens for two years in an attempt to contribute to the local scene. I directed the first EU funded official Athens Art Residency, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture that I consider had a positive and long-term impact on the local art scene. The program hosted solo exhibitions by influential emerging and established international artists, including Lynda Benglis, Martin Creed, Marie Voignier, Miriam Simun and Santiago Sierra and collaborated with Marina Abramović for her production of “Seven Deaths,” a tribute to the life and death of Maria Callas that debuted in 2020 at the Munich opera house.

It was this involvement in the local scene of Athens and previously my attempt to present Greek artists in London, that made me decide that it was the right time to launch Greece in USA, as a non-profit that can provide a “third way” for cultural diplomacy between the state and large institutions, in good partnership with both parties.

Adding to this, while I was working at Performa Biennial in New York in 2015, I realized that Greek artists can have a fruitful dialogue with American and international colleagues, during the auction I organized for a charitable cause, with the participation of Greek artists such as Kostis Velonis, Mary Zygouri, Irini Miga, Nikos Papadopoulos, Georgia Sagri, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, and Versaweiss, among others. I understood that fellow curators liked to learn more about the contemporary Greek scene. Thus, a foundation like Greece in USA can be a catalyst for promoting the work of Greek artists abroad through osmosis with international artists and curators.


Εθνικός Κήρυξ

A still photo from Dogman’s Dream by artist Eva Giannakopoulou. Photo: Greece in USA

TNH: What can we look forward to with the Greece in USA platform?

SG: Greece in USA is launched with the exhibition “The Right to Silence?” (https://shivagallery.org/featured_item/the-right-to-silence/) that draws from the reversal of the “Miranda Rights” and the 5th Amendment. I am interested in paradoxes, when they illuminate profound meanings.

I was always impressed by the expression “you have the right to remain silent.” Silence is transformed into a right when what can be said might be legally binding for a citizen of a benevolent democracy. The paradox, however, is that some citizens remain silent because they are not given the opportunity to speak, therefore, the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

In the group exhibition, “Miranda Rights” acquires a metaphorical sense in terms of exploring moral issues, but also aesthetic forms and artistic means, if we assume that silence is the culmination of abstraction. At the same time, we are confronting the confinement of the current pandemic, hence, despite the sensitive balance of drawing a parallel between the confinement and incarceration indeed we become more aware of the issue of mass imprisonment during the current condition that we all share.

TNH: What are you working on next?

SG: We are currently working with my colleagues Eva Kostopoulou and Antigoni Papadopoulou on the forthcoming exhibition, expanding on similar issues of social justice entitled “The Right to Breathe” and exploring the “politics of respiration” within contemporary society, as it has been formulated by philosophers, and social theorists. The artists will reflect on the “shortness of breath” derived from the experience of political pressure, social injustice and economic austerity, exploring its connection with live art, embodied politics and “I Can’t Breathe” movement.


Εθνικός Κήρυξ

The Walkout, a project by Stefanos Tsivopoulos. Photo: Greece in USA

The exhibition will take place at Undercurrent.nyc in Brooklyn and GIRES and will include artists: Chloe Akrithaki, Elaine Angelopoulos, Antonakis (Christodoulou), Athanasios Argianas & Hughes Rowena, Argyropoulou Yota/Michalis Konstantatos (Blindspot theatre group), Christos Athanasiadis, Manolis Baboussis, Rania Bellou, Benchamma, Abdelkader, Emmanuel Bitsakis, Angeliki Bozou, Christina Calbari, Rafika Chawishe, Thalia Chioti, Mat Chivers, Dionysis Christofilakis, Lydia Dambassina, Seeva Dawne, Martha Dimitropoulou, Dora Economou, Karen Finley Dimitris Foutris, Maria Georgoula, Eleni Glinou, Nella Golanda, Kyriaki Goni, Delia Gonzalez, Efi Haliori, Zoe Hounta, Ashley Hunt, Lakis & Aris Ionas The Callas, Elias Kafouros, Lizzie Kalligas, Eleni Kamma, Athanasios Kanakis, Eirini Karagiannopoulou, Ismene Karyotaki, Zoe Keramea, Ilias Koen, Vana Kostayola, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Sia Kyriakakos, Kouzoupi Aspasia, Karolina Krasouli, James Lane, Anna Laskaris, Jenny Marketou, Maro Michalakakou, Yolanda Markopoulou, Despina Meimaroglou, Fryni Mouzakitou, Elena Mylona, Margarita Myrogianni, Mariela Nestora, John Newsom, Aliki Palaska, Malvina Panagiotidi, Maria Papadimitriou, Euripides Papadopetrakis, Nikos Papadopoulos, Elena Papadopoulou, Natasa Papadopoulou, Ilias Papailiakis, Aemilia Papafilippou, Elli Papakonstantinou, Tereza Papamichali, Eftihis Patsourakis, Anastiasia Pelias, Elena Penga, Antonis Pittas, Tula Ploumi, Mantalina Psoma, Irene Ragusini, Duke Riley, Georgia Sagri, Nana Sahini, Ismini Samanidou, George Sampsonidis, Katerina Sarra, Erica Scourti, Martin Sexton, Christina Sgouromiti, Vouvoula Skoura, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Danae Stratou, Vassiliea Stylianidou, Antonis Tsakiris, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Alexandros Tzannis, Nana Varveropoulou, Alexis Vasilikos, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), Eugenia Vereli, Vassilia Vlastaras, Katerina Zacharopoulou, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Eleni Theodora Zaharopoulos, Lilia Ziamou, Dimitris Zouroudis among other participants.

More information is available online: https://greeceinusa.com/







































"Greece in USA" travels the work of Greek artists to New York - ERT National Greek TV

ERT National Greek TV Presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kSgrSG5-Sk

P.K 6 PACK : SOZITA GOUDOUNA


PK 6 PACK

SOZITA  

GOUDOUNA


''The time has come to become extroverted in a more systemic – and anti-systemic – way.''



P.K: You are a multifaceted creative. We believe that good curatorial work is an artform in and of itself, how do you approach your practice in terms of curation being a medium and artistic intervention of sorts?


S.G: I'm an admirer of the so-called "Gesamtkunstwerk" (total work of art) and despite the overuse of the term what still intrigues and inspires me in the reception of art are the interfaces between site specificity, medium specificity, location, social, political and aesthetic context. Sites of performance, of exhibition or display are revealed to be culturally specific situations that generate particular contexts, ethics and narratives regarding art, art history and society.  

The nexus of curator/artist has preoccupied my artistic research. We both participate in the creative process with a synthetic and analytical approach. Roles shift in contemporary times and the artist becomes a thinker, even a “scientist, ”in the sense of detecting and evaluating asymmetric knowledges, the curator is like a “metteur en scene,” as we would say in French, and I use this term to give the broader perspectives of curation. Thus, we could say that I am investigating the notion of “total or expanded curation.” I see curation as a medium based on scientific-technological and philosophical developments to explore new temporal and spatial interactions, new forms of artistic intervention, to unfold the wide range of scientific, theoretical and artistic positions that shape the curator, spectator / artist, performance/event/exhibition and intervention/cultural production.
The central purpose of my curatorial research and teaching is to bring fresh and interdisciplinary thinking to fundamental questions about the arts, and to challenge established ways in which knowledge is defined, produced, and taught. My curatorial practice draws from dramaturgies of space and immateriality by theorists or philosophers (in, for example, the curatorial projects by theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Bruno Latour, Jean- François Lyotard, Georges Didi-Huberman etc. I am also interested in the ways philosophers become curators or curate exhibitions like in the ways the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard curated “Les Immatériaux” at the Centre Pompidou in 1985 or Georges Didi-Huberman curated “Nouvelles histoires de fantômes” at the Palais de Tokyo in 2014 and Jacques Derrida curated the exhibition “Memoirs of the blind” at the Louvre museum in 1990-1991. My curatorial interests also address the intersections between art and performance theory (“Mise en Scene” and the “Mise en Espace-Temps”), in particular novel treatments of the “exhibition medium” and notions of the “theatrical” and “dramaturgical” structure of exhibitions. More specifically, I see curation as a medium and intervention even in “mainstream” curatorial projects including the installation of Christian Marclay's twenty-four-hour feature film "The Clock" in St. Mark's Square at the Venice Biennale, Mathew Barney's film adaptation of the River of Fundament and Robin Rhode’s production of Schoenberg’s opera “Erwartung” at Times Square in the context of Performa Biennial.

P.K:) There’s a line of thinking regarding the Internet and that it’s not changing perception of art, but rather the art itself as a whole. Do you believe especially now due to the pandemic, this has become more true and also actually been exacerbated?


Following on, do you think that there might be a shift against being so terminally online, people will be turned off by it and looking for more “offline” art experiences?


S.Z: I think a paradigm shift is taking place and indeed I might agree that technology and the internet are changing the reception and perception “we” had for art and its production. Whether with crypto art, that has been considered as anachronistic by certain thinkers, or with internet art.


The mega galleries or auction houses, as we have seen with Christies and Beeple, will end up controlling these markets through their selective processes, however, at the same time there is a democratization that is taking place and we cannot, yet, foresee the impact it will have on art production. We were waiting for a paradigm shift in the way cultural goods are received, but now it is becoming imperative due to the pandemic. Art should be a common good and the positive opportunity given to us by a pandemic is to realize the social power and impact of art by expanding the ways of public viewing in the public sphere, whether this is in the virtual world of the internet or preferably in the real world of the public domain.


Alexandros Georgiou

P.K: In your most recent exhibition “The Right to Silence?” the subject is quite dystopic and political. In this current climate, there’s a valid need for inclusivity and diversity, but it can be skewed by individuals and the identity politics game. Could you please elaborate with regards to the subject and its motifs?


How do you feel about unpacking all the aforementioned complexities in an exhibition? As an Academic we would love your opinion for the artist to be a social commentator and not only a producer of aesthetically pleasing images?


Is current reality so “exposed” that there is true risk to express opinions?


S.G: The subject of the exhibition I am curating is based on a reversal: I am interested in paradoxes, when they illuminate profound meanings. In this case it is about the well-known “Miranda Rights” and the 5th amendment. I was always impressed by the expression “you have the right to remain silent.” Silence is transformed into a right when what can be said might be legally binding for a citizen of a benevolent democracy. The paradox, however, is that some citizens remain silent because they are not given the opportunity to speak, therefore, the right to freedom of opinion and expression. In the group exhibition, “Miranda Rights” acquires a metaphorical sense in terms of exploring moral issues, but also aesthetic forms and artistic means, if we assume that silence is the culmination of abstraction. At the same time, we are confronting the confinement of the current pandemic, hence, despite the sensitive balance of drawing a parallel between the confinement and incarceration indeed we become more aware of the issue of mass imprisonment during the current condition that we all share.

Indeed, I have always tried to be cautious in my curatorial project of not aesthetisizing such crucial social and political issues. There is a very sensitive balance especially in the metaphor between incarceration and the current condition of confinement that we are all experiencing. At the same time in contrast to the academy and scholarly knowledge (philosophy and especially science), art gives the opportunity to make reflective leaps. Nevertheless, to propose a spectacle based on these dystopic subjects can lead to an impasse. In the case of “The Right to Silence” and to the forthcoming exhibition “The Right to Breathe,” I think it is significant that Greek artists are invited to respond to issues that they haven’t really reflected upon due to the geographical and political contexts that they haven’t experienced. African American artists would consider these issues in an entirely different light and this is I think the contribution of these exhibitions, to introduce complexities and asymmetric knowledge or to provide versions of "uncomfortable knowledge" (Steve Rayner) on how artists can make sense of the complexity of the social sphere without aesthetisizing political tensions.


P.K: Finishing we would like to have your opinion as a creative who has worked in many art metropoli. P.K as an art platform one of our aims is to overcome the polarisation of a two speed europe and push the standing of Eastern creatives in the West. As the Founding director of the cultural platform GREECE IN USA, Do you believe that artists from the East need to have more opportunities and support exporting their practice to a wider audience abroad?


I am reluctant of terms like “Global South” or the so-called “West/East,” but at the same time I understand the necessity of using these terms. I would challenge the specific uses of the terms by challenging the victory of “neoliberal capitalism” that has failed to recognize the impact of massive social changes in parts of the world that are characterized as non-western. I am interested in these heterogeneous and even imaginary provinces of the world as they can be formulated in artistic and curatorial research. More specifically, however, since your question raises issues of infrastructure, governmental policies and funding I consider it is vital for these artists to receive more support whether from European or local networks to export their work abroad. Greece in USA with its modest means, but with a strong cultural capital, is trying to contribute to these efforts. It is principally the support of the artists that is helping us realize this goal even more than the systemic partners.



P.K Bonus question: Do you have a vision for the course of art currently? What would be a healthy future for art in general and more specifically for Greek art and how you see it coming true?



S.G: About a year ago, Yale University decided to remove its introduction to art history survey course following criticism that it focused mostly on Western art. This decision sparked public praise, but also a national outcry. The discussions surrounding that issue focused on how to ensure that the diversity of research can match the diversity of today’s student body and to advance teaching. I refer to trends in contemporary international art education in order to highlight the ideological and aesthetic principles that are radically changing these days. In Greece, these changes to our cultural life occurred recently, during the economic crisis of 2010 onwards, and then with the hosting of Documenta in Athens and Kassel in 2017, and with the pandemic this past year. The art scene in Greece has been influenced in ways that are not yet evident, and this is the reason that we refer to a “national” identity with frustration and discomfort. The time has come to become extroverted in a more systemic – and anti-systemic – way. This is the reason I chose to give the platform the generic name “Greece in USA”, and not a cute, conceptual title as is the norm in the post-postmodern era. I did not want the name to have any metaphorical dimension, thus risking or inviting misunderstandings. The name also raises questions about stereotypes and different expressions or perceptions of the “Greek nationality, language and country.”



Kavalieratos

The Greek art scene, like Greece itself, is unpredictable, stray (in terms of governmental strategy and funding), exciting and undisciplined. I consider that lately, it has evolved into a more international scene owing to the broader interest of foreigners in Athens. That is partly a result of the financial and social crisis, and of art initiatives by younger, local and international artists and curators who understand the importance of experimentation and who aren’t afraid to fail. This approach has caused a cultural shift from the significance of galleries in the 1990s to the prominence of non-profit art initiatives. I am investigating the Greek paradigm since I consider that “developing” art markets like the Greek can show the way to saturated markets like the US market that are anxious to find and exhaust new territories like the African American market. The past injustices cannot be resolved in a day especially if the new narratives are again recited by the dominant voices of the west.



Sozita Goudouna is the inspirer, founder and artistic director of GREECE IN USA, head of the

Raymond Pettibon Foundation, one of America's most prominent artists and adjunct professor at CUNY City University of New York. She is the author of "Beckett's Breath: Anti-theatricality and the Visual Arts" published by Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernism and researcher at the Organism for Poetic Research supported by NYU and Brown University. Sozita has taught from 2015 at New York University as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial fellow at Performa Biennial in NYC. Her internationally exhibited projects include participations at New Museum NYC, Performa Biennial and Institute in New York, Documenta, Onassis Foundation New York, Hunterian Museum London, EMST, Benaki Museum, Byzantine Museum among others. She served as treasurer of the board of directors of AICA Hellas International Art Critics Association and as member of the board of directors at ITI International Theatre Association, Unesco..





Greece in USA: ‘The Right to Breathe’


https://www.seegreatart.art/greece-in-usa-the-right-to-breathe/
BY  

Elias Kafouros
Elias Kafouros

Greece in USA launches the second iteration of its program for the internationalization of Greek Culture in the USA. The group exhibition “The Right to Breathe” (through October 7) takes as a starting point the “shortness of breath” derived from the experience of political pressure, social injustice, and economic austerity, exploring its connection with poetics, live art, and embodied politics.

The topic of breathability that the exhibition identifies and aims to historicize also provides an insight into the ongoing revaluation of criminal justice reform.

The exhibition, with the participation of 100 Greek artists, can be seen at Undercurrent.nyc and is in dialogue with “The Right to Silence?” at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay School of Criminal Justice (CUNY).

Drawing from the 5th Amendment Right, the exhibition features pieces by 43 Greek and Cypriot artists visual and performing artists that attempt to uncover the profound and complex sense of silence that characterizes the prison industrial complex. The pieces investigate whether art and aesthetics can break the silence about crucial political issues such as mass incarceration and criminal justice reform.

The projects take place in the context of Greece in USA.

Greece in USA is a New York City-based organization that promotes Greek culture in the U.S. Founded by Dr. Sozita Goudouna, Greece in USA is launched under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, with the group exhibition “The Right to Silence?” on the reform of criminal justice. The first iteration is presented at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) until July 31, 2021, with the participation of 43 Greek and Cypriot artists, while the second parallel program was launched in May 14, 2021, at Seneca Village and at Undercurrent.nyc with the group exhibition “The Right to Breathe” with the participation of 100 Greek artists.





Sozita Goudouna brings contemporary Greek art to New York

NOT FOR SALE: Performa, the first Biennale for performance by artists

Guest Editor: Sozita Goudouna 

19/11/2015



 athinorama on facebook

Over the last decade Performa has presented 592 performances, collaborated with 732 artists and toured productions in 17 countries. His Greek curator writes to us from America about the institution and the performance today.

Robin Rhode Arnold Schnbergs Erwartung Times Square NY Performa15 Biennale November 2015 Photo Copyright Paula Court
Robin Rhode, 'Arnold Schönberg's Erwartung,' Times Square NY, Performa15 Biennale, November 2015. Photo Copyright Paula Court

My collaboration with Performa, the first Biennale of Performing Arts in New York, came as a surprise when I saw an announcement announcing funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which would support the creation of a curatorial and research position. I applied unexpectedly but I was ultimately the curator selected for this postdoctoral position for the next two years.


After four months I have the opportunity to participate in the Biennale which takes place from November 1 to 22 in different parts of the city, from Times Square and New York Customs to MoMA and BAM.

For a month, Performa is changing the way New Yorkers experience the city, especially after 9/11, which transformed the relationship between the residents and the public space. The Biennale aims to "reclaim" public space and spaces that have changed use due to the dominance of Real Estate.

Jesper Just and FOS in the shadow  of a spectacle  is the view of the crowd 44th floor 225 Liberty Building overlooking the One World Trade Center  Vocalist Sahra Motalebi  Photo Copyright Paula Court
Jesper Just and FOS 'in the shadow / of a spectacle / is the view of the crowd,' 44th floor 225 Liberty Building overlooking the One World Trade Center. Vocalist: Sahra Motalebi. Photo Copyright Paula Court.

In this context, the artist Jesper Just "invaded" on Friday, November 13 in an unexpected building, on the 44th floor of the 225 Liberty Building overlooking a performer at the One World Trade Center to reflect the public's relationship with the spectacle, the dynamics and the manipulation of the crowd as well as the experiences of the spectators, 14 years after the attacks on the financial center of the city. But the work 'in the shadow / of a spectacle / is the view of the crowd,' coincided with the events in Paris, provoking the memory of the public and thus repositioning the work of art in the news.

Oscar Murillo Lucky Dip Alexander Hamilton US Custom House  Photo Paula Court
Oscar Murillo 'Lucky Dip' Alexander Hamilton US Custom House. Photo: Paula Court

At the same time, Oscar Murillo turns New York Customs into a corn factory, emphasizing the proportions between art and factory production, and Robin Rhode directs Arnold Schoenberg's opera 'Erwartung' in Times Square, stopping time in one of the busiest places. city's.

The Biennale also launched the Pavillion Without Walls program in 2013 and shows that more importantly than a particular country or region, it promotes cultural exchanges and the connection of international artists to the global audience as well as the cultural landscape of New York. I wonder if the Greek artistic production could be presented at the upcoming Biennale in November 2017…

My daily life during the Biennale is very different because I am not in the offices at Madison Sq and at the University of New York where I teach but I deal exclusively with the consortium of 80+ cultural institutions of Performa (MoMA, Guggenheim, Whitney, New Museum, BAM, Printed Matter, Art in General, Triple Canopy, Roulette, Watermill Center, Kitchen, Pioneer Works among others).

In the next few days, the modern opera of the Body by Body collective will be inaugurated, produced by Rhizome - New Museum, which I have undertaken on behalf of Performa and which will be held in the loft of a Greek artist, one of the few artists who managed to maintain their studio the late 70's until today. The project focuses on the history of New York lofts and how they defined artistic avant-garde.


Unfortunately, this past has begun to fade as artists are pushed out of the center, unable to cope with economic conditions, which alters the character of the city. That is why the Biennale kicked off the "NOT FOR SALE" series of symposia organized by art historian and founder of Performa RoseLee Goldberg in April 2004 at New York University, in response to the function of art in a capitalist mode of production like this. was imposed by the art market.

The lectures focused on the editing, preservation and collection of "ephemeral art" with speakers such as: Joan Jonas, Robert Storr, Chrissie Iles, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Klaus Ottmann, Debra Singer, Christian Marclay, Christoph Cox, Ron Kuivila, Elizabeth LeCompte, Katy Siegel, Anthony Huberman, Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Margo Jefferson, John Rockwell, Bennett Simpson, Linda Yablonsky, C. Carr, Lia Gangitano, Laura Hoptman, Vito Acconci, Okwui Enwezor, Massimiliano Gioni et al.

Performa seeks to highlight performance as a different medium, and refutes the notion that it is only events, endurance exercises and conceptual experimentation as well as the belief that performance is intangible, since the body's assignments are very demanding in terms of stage and dramaturgical processing done in collaboration with artists and curators.

The founder of Performa, Prof RoseLee Goldberg, extends the intangible approach expressed by Lucy R. Lippard in her book Six years: the dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972 (1973) highlighting the need to redefine the material dimension of ideas through performance, a point of view that had also influenced my own artistic practice.

  Shirin Neshat The Logic of The Birds produced by RoseLee Goldberg 2001
Shirin Neshat "The Logic of The Birds," produced by RoseLee Goldberg, 2001.

Realizing in the late 1990s that the medium had found itself in a quagmire as artists replicated the events of 1970, Goldberg felt the need to redefine the character of the performance and commission artists who had not experimented with live art with rehearsals, auditions and lighting, the production of new works such as Shirin Neshat's Logic of the Birds.

The first Performa05 Biennale also curated Marina Abramovic's Seven Easy Pieces project at the Guggenheim Museum, which revived past performances by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Valie Export, Gina Pane, Joseph beuys and herself, with the aim of "reminding" the public the history of performance from 1960 to 2005.

The study of archives and publications as well as the relationship between education and art is an important part of my activity at Performa. Our research links movements such as Dada, Futurism and the Russian Avant-Garde to recent history, and argues that performance is the true history of art that has always been cross-sectoral, combining all artistic means, poetry, music, architecture and dance.

Revival of the surreal ballet Relche by the artist Francis Picabia and composer Erik Satie 1924 Relche - The Party by Performa 2012 Photo Paula Court
Revival of the surreal ballet Relâche by the artist Francis Picabia and composer Erik Satie, 1924, 'Relâche - The Party' by Performa, 2012. Photo: Paula Court

This cross-sectoral character of performance is observed, as the founder of Performa in Paris in 1920 with the Suedois Ballet says, in Oskar Shlemmer at the Bauhaus in Germany, at Vsevolod Meyerhold in Russia, and in New York in the 1920s. 1950-60 with John Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, and in the 1960s-70s with Judson Church, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, Steve Reich, Phil Glass, and Rhys Chatham, Laurie Anderson and most recently in the projects of Pina Bausch, Jerome Bel and Boris Charmatz. '

Francesco Vezzoli Italy in an original collaboration with David Hallberg Leading dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet and the American Ballet Theater in the United States  The Fortuna Desperata project which took place at St Barts Church explores the beginnings of ballet in the royal courtyards of the Italian Renaissance  Photo Copyright Paula Court
Francesco Vezzoli (Italy) in an original collaboration with David Hallberg (Leading dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet and the American Ballet Theater in the United States). The "Fortuna Desperata" project, which took place at St Barts Church, explores the beginnings of ballet in the royal courtyards of the Italian Renaissance. Photo Copyright Paula Court.

Prominent art events such as Documenta focus on the way visual artists create performance, and every major museum of contemporary art establishes performance sections, most notably the Tate Modern in London and the New Whitney in New York.
The Documenta, the Venice Biennale, the Manifesto and the major festivals of Avignon and Edinburgh as well as the Museums, especially in Europe, are supported by the state while Performa undertakes such a venture as a non-profit organization supported almost exclusively by individuals. This structure, the way the organization works, as well as the executives co-shape the unique opportunity I was given to discover the artistic realities of New York.


More about Performa:
http://15.performa-arts.org

Who is who

Sozita Guduna on stage at Fortuna Desperata in St Barts  Photo Copyright Paula Court
Sozita Guduna on stage at "Fortuna Desperata" in St Barts. Photo Copyright Paula Court.

Sozita Goudouna is a curator and doctor of art theory, her book on breathing and art entitled "Mediated Breath" will be published in 2015. She is Andrew W. Mellon Curator at the Performa Institute in New York and also has teaching duties at New York University. She is the artistic director of the Kappatos Athens Art Residency where she curated a series of exhibitions (Martin Creed, Santiago Sierra, Mat Chivers, Marie Voignier etc.) and has collaborated with Marina Abramovic's production of "Seven Deaths."

The Onassis Scholar holds a PhD from the University of London on the relationship between the visual and performing arts. He has also studied Philosophy, Theater (BA) and Directing in London (MA RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts & Kings College). Her articles have been published in academic journals and she has given lectures at Tate Modern, Documenta, Psi, IFTR, Tapra, the Prague Quadrennial and the Venice and Sydney Biennale.

 Founded http://www.outoftheboxintermedia.org in London in 2008 and presented Locus Solus (Benaki Museum, 2010) and Eleventh Plateau (Hydra, 2011) is a member of the board of the EKDITH Hellenic Center of the International Theater Institute and treasurer of the Greek Department of the International Association of Art Critics, AICA.












 


Greek City Times

Sozita Goudouna: What the Greek Art Scene Needs Now

Sozita Goudouna

Sozita Goudouna



Jan 12·6 min read




by ALEXIA AMVRAZI AT GREEK CITY TIMES ~ FEB 2020

ARTICLE LINK: https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/02/06/sozita-goudouna-what-the-greek-art-scene-needs-now/

Sozita Goudouna is an exemplary art curator whose long, multifaceted and multi-textural experience in the Greek and foreign art world creates ripples wherever she moves. Now in New York and Head of Operations at the studio of legendary artist Raymond Pettibon, Goudouna talks to GCT about the Greek art scene and the various projects she has been working on.

  • How did you find yourself on the art path?

I was able to have a better understanding of myself through my involvement in the arts. The shift occurred when I decided to merge my academic interests with a more practical participation in the arts. At some point we realize that it isn’t a privilege to follow our dreams, but a prerequisite if we want to experience our full potential and truly “contribute” to society.

  • What have been some of the highlights of your work as an art curator in Greece and abroad?

Following a 17 years “stopover” in London to study and work for the academy and the local art scene I felt the need to present the work of Greek artists abroad. The collective project on Raymond Roussell I curated in 2009 at the London Festival of Europe with international and Greek artists and architects at the Shunt Vaults (a labyrinth of railway arches under London Bridge Station) was a milestone moment.


Image for postSpaces Within Spaces Festival, The Erasers, Shunt Vaults, 2009, cur. Sozita Goudouna

I am pleased that versions of the project also toured in Athens at the Benaki and the Byzantine Museum with the participation of established international artists such as Mat Collishaw and that most of the London participants including Kostas Alivizatos, Melia Kreiling, Nefeli Skarmea, Xristina Penna, Yorgis Noukakis, Lina Dima, The Erasers, Klio Boboti, Margarita Bofiliou, Kostis Velonis, Alexandros Mistriotis and Dimitra Stamatiou are very active in the international art scene.



Locus Solus, Benaki Museum, 2010, cur Sozita Goudouna https://www.bstjournal.com/article/10.16995/bst.80/
Image for postLocus Solus, Benaki Museum, 2010, cur Sozita Goudouna https://www.bstjournal.com/article/10.16995/bst.80/

Image for postLocus Solus, Benaki Museum, 2010, cur Sozita Goudouna

Locus Solus, Benaki Museum, 2010, cur Sozita Goudouna https://www.bstjournal.com/article/10.16995/bst.80/

During the years of the Greek financial crisis a key project that I consider had a positive and longterm impact to the local art scene was the first official Athens art residency that I directed with the support of European funding. The program hosted solo exhibitions by influential emerging and established international artists including Lynda Benglis, Martin Creed, Marie Voignier and Santiago Sierra and collaborated with Marina Abramović for her production of “Seven Deaths,” a tribute to the life and death of Maria Callas that is set to debut in 2020 at the Munich opera house.


Image for postMartin Creed, Solo Exhibition and performance, 1st EU Athens Art Residency, cur. Sozita Goudouna and Nefeli Skarmea

Image for postEleventh Plateau Eco Festival, Hydra, 2011 cur. by Sozita Goudouna http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1102/sozitagoudouna/

Eleventh Plateau Eco Festival, Hydra, 2011 cur. by Sozita Goudouna http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1102/sozitagoudouna/ photo: Kom.Post Collective

As a member of the Ecological association of Hydra since 1988 I also enjoyed an arts and environmental project I curated in the island in 2011 and a recent research project I initiated and realized with the support of Onassis Foundation at Aixoni Sculpted landscape in Glyfada built in 1991 by Nella Golanda. Aixoni has been culturally inert and my project attempted to highlight the impact and influential role that it could play for the Greek cultural industry.


Image for postOUT SCORE, research project at Aixoni, cur Sozita Goudouna, choreography Maria Hassabi 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJi2Z6wmRZY



Image for postOUT SCORE, research project at Aixoni, cur Sozita Goudouna, choreography Maria Hassabi 2019)

Image for postPettibon, “Frenchette,” Inaugural Exhibition at Zwirner Gallery Paris, October, 2019
  • Tell us about your work in the US now with acclaimed artist Raymond Pettibon & what the exhibition aspires towards.

I moved to NY in 2015 to work for Performa Biennial and New York University and when I realized that I wanted to stay in NYC one step lead to the other, teaching at City University of New York (CUNY) and managing Pettibon Studio.


Image for postPerforma Biennial 2019 ~ Opening Gala Theme: Bauhaus

Raymond Pettibon is perhaps the most prominent contemporary American artist to concentrate on drawing as his primary medium and it is a great privilege and art history lesson to work with him as head of operations of his studio and with the galleries that represent him such as David Zwirner Gallery, New York, London, Hong Kong, Regen Projects in LA and Sadie Coles in London. With Raymond we worked for the inaugural exhibition of Zwirner’s first outpost in continental Europe, the Paris gallery that also hosted an event for Dior with Pettibon’s art pieces that inspired Kim Jones on his fall men’s collection for Dior. Currently, we are working on his show at Regen Projects LA.


Image for postSozita Goudouna and Raymond Pettibon at Pettibon Studio



Pettibon’s work is widely admired among the contemporary art audience and has avid devotees in the international field of drawing connoisseurs, nevertheless, less people are aware of his influential writings, scripts and videos. Being affiliated with Performa Biennial in New York, as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon curator, my main concern was also to highlight the textual and performative aspect of Pettibon’s oeuvre by initiating and producing a project at New Museum for Performa Biennial in collaboration with Massimiliano Gioni and RoseLee Goldberg and with the participation of musicians and artists including Kim Gordon, Oliver Augst, Frances Stark, Young Kim, Marcel Dzama, Juli Susin, Veronique Bourgoin among many other artists.


Image for postPettibon “WHOEVER SHOWS: STRIKE UYP TH’ BAND!” Produced by Sozita Goudouna, 14th November 2019, New Museum, Performa Biennial
  • How would you describe the art scene in Greece? In what ways have you seen it evolve in your life so far?

The Greek art scene, like Greece itself, is unpredictable, stray (in terms of governmental strategy and funding), exciting and undisciplined. I consider that lately it has evolved into a more international scene owing to the broader interest of foreigners in Athens that is partly a result of the financial and social crisis, and of art initiatives by younger, local and international artists and curators who understand the importance of experimentation and who aren’t afraid to fail. This approach has caused a cultural shift from the significance of galleries in the 1990s to the prominence of non-profit art initiatives.

  • How does the art scene in Greece compare & contrast to that in the US? What changes would you like to see made in Greece & why as an art-lover & curator?

The US art scene is very different… Greece has a long road and unfortunately during the period of Documenta we lost the opportunity of making a coherent statement about art that is produced in Greece and without a national statement it is difficult to export art…

There have been interesting initiatives by the Ministry of Culture such as EKETHEH that developed into the MITROO (an online record for cultural non-profits) in 2010, however, the MITROO wasn’t able to announce any open calls for funding for 9 years until 2019. As far as required changes are concerned I imagine it would be a repetition to talk about transparency or about the (non) opening of the Contemporary Art Museum, EMST. It is positive that lately the Ministry decided to include a secretary for Contemporary Art, we would like to see contemporary art specialists at these posts and consistency when the next government takes over…



Un/Inhabited, a series of interventions curated by Sozita Goudouna in the Island of Delos, 2012
  • Are there many Greeks involved in the art world in the US today? What is the Greek influence — if any- in the US art scene? Are there any contemporary artists like Stephen Antonakos making a mark?

Yes, there are many Greeks who either moved to New York early like Antonakos, Chryssa, Samaras, Mylonas, Hadjipateras, Marketou or emerging artists who came recently. I consider that it is significant for the Ministry of Culture to “realize” the impact that the Hellenic Consulates can have on contemporary Greek art abroad and to design a serious strategy for the arts, similar to the British Council, the Austrian Embassy and the French Cultural centers. If not the extroversion of Greek culture will depend on private initiative.


An Athenian in New York!

An Athenian in New York

Sozita Guduna

Paula Court16.10.2016, 15:59
Dimitris Stathopoulos

She is young, beautiful, dynamic, creative and loves art. Especially when it is confused with philosophy.

She ropes between her love for the classics but also for the most modern and innovative new artists.

 She has been living for two years where the heart of contemporary art beats, in the city that does not sleep and especially that never stops creating.

From New York he told us everything on the occasion of the Performa Gala, which takes place in the metropolis of the world on November 1

Over the past decade, Performa has performed 592 shows, collaborated with 732 artists and toured productions in 17 countries.

The Greek curator who specialized in Performa as the first Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Sozita Gudouna, from America where she is, answered our questions about today's performance, her life and the pulse of New York.

 ⚫ What is so special about Performa as an artistic activity?

Performa seeks to highlight performance as a different medium and refutes the notion that it is only events, endurance exercises and conceptual experimentation, as well as the belief that performance is intangible, since the body's assignments are very demanding in terms of stage, material but also the dramaturgical elaboration that is done in collaboration with the artists and the curators.

 .   Tell us about your experience from your participation as a Performa curator.

Exciting! I happened to be in New York by accident.

I did not imagine that my application would be successful. The artistic activities I am involved in would have seemed unreal to me a year ago.

During the Biennale in November 2015, I found myself working with a consortium of more than 150 cultural partners in New York City, including MoMA, New Museum, Whitney, Guggenheim, Watermill Center, Times Sq Alliance and more.

All of these organizations co-organize Performa, the only New York Biennale dedicated to exploring the crucial role of live performance in 20th century art history.

It also explores issues related to new directions in 21st century art and the involvement of artists and the public through experimentation and synergies.

 ⚫   What does art mean to you and how do you incorporate it into your life?

Art for me is the systematic, collective or individual effort to understand and above all to expand the world, our common life and our perception, through research, invention and creation.

Professional involvement with artistic production often leads us to forget the very object and essence of art, as well as the reasons why we are in this space.

It is often necessary to remind ourselves of what pushed us into the profession and to invent ways of integrating art into everyday life so that we do not remain just spectators or in the background of artistic creation.

Maintaining this perspective and avoiding the stereotypes and the mood for constant criticism that we have of those who are systematically involved with art, I try to play a more active role in the artistic process and many times, during the preparation of a project, my "life" is located on the border between everyday life and work of art.

 ⚫   How is your typical day in New York going?

The last few months have been some of the most exciting, because I have been working in New York for a while now and I have now delved deeper into the mechanisms of the city and I have more oversight of the art activity.

Something that was initially impossible, due to the diversity and the large number of artistic events.

As a result, a typical day of mine is evolving now with more experiences, friendships, professional gatherings, performances and surprises. I spent many hours in the office or at the University of New York teaching Art History to graduate students, but the job also has its ... luck.

In recent months I have had the opportunity to make many conversations and visits to artists' studios such as Sarah Sze, Taryn Simon, Shirin Neshat, Hank Willis Thomas, Jesper Just, Wyatt Khan, Trajal Harrell, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Raqs Media Collective, Recycle Group, Otolith Group and Will Rawls, with whom I worked closely on the proposal I submitted in June to the Greek Ministry of Culture for the National Representation at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and concerns Greek History.

The proposal was submitted in collaboration with the gallery owner and curator Gerasimos Kappatos and Greek artists, such as Eva Stefani, Panos Charalambous, Zafos Xagoraris, George Koumentakis, Ino Varvariti and Angela Melitopoulos, Thenda Linda and Katerida who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Artists who are no longer with us, such as George Lappas, Maria Klonari and Harun Farocki, also participated with their work.

In the end, another proposal was chosen, but we are already considering the possibility of presenting the exhibition at another international event.

Everyday life is often overturned! Like during the Biennale organized by Performa in November 2015.

Every two years, over the course of a month, the Biennale seeks to change the way America's artistic public, tourists and New Yorkers take on the city and public space.

And it achieves this by presenting operas, choreographies, interventions and actions, from New York Customs to Times Square and the Hudson River, with the participation of some of the most renowned artists in the world, but also with younger and up-and-coming artists featured by Performa .

 ⚫   How different is professional life in New York and what are the key differences?

Everyday life in New York, in the arts, at university, and beyond, is very tough, competitive and demanding.

Of course, it has excellent benefits, mainly spiritual and moral, because the financial ones, in these places, are relatively low, always in relation to the cost of living in the city.

But the level is very high as well as the confidence of the partners, since everyone knows the requirements that this city has.

There are also many unwritten laws and a special professional ethics and ethics: respect for particularities, tolerance, but also harsh criticism.

Of particular interest is the fact that the word money is not often mentioned, at a time when everything revolves around it.

Compared to Greece, you have much less free time, especially for social contacts.

So an xpat, like me, will take a long time to make real acquaintances and friendships. This city is made up of many passers-by and this is a piece of its magic.

No one manages to conquer it. New York always manages to get away from you.

 ⚫ How do you perceive the process of coming   and going between Greece and New York?

Every time I travel to Greece, I try to have professional reasons so that I can integrate directly and quickly into the web of the city and not feel disconnected from reality.

The transition from one reality to another is complicated, especially when it is so different, especially now that Greece is going through a difficult period.

It is also extremely difficult to leave friends, long-term relationship and family at this time when you feel that they have you and you need them so much.

My close circle has supported me a lot in this decision, because there were many professional deadlocks for an academic career in Greece.

For my part, I try to invent projects that create synergies between New York and Athens, so that I can be in the country as much as possible and so that I can return when conditions allow.

In this context, I will be curating in November in Athens an event for the influence of the Generation of the '30s on contemporary art production, with reputable speakers and works that are on the verge of art and scenography.

I also organize a big exhibition during Documenta and the presentation of a production of Performa NY in collaboration with Greek cultural institutions.

Who is she

Sozita Guduna was selected as the first Andrew W. Mellon Curator at the Performa Institute in New York, teaching at New York University .

Since January 2016, he has been a consultant of the Onassis Foundation Festival at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York entitled "Antigone Now", which launched the #iSTANDfor platform.

He studied Philosophy, Theater (BA) and Directing in London (MA RADA Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts & Kings College).

He holds a PhD from the University of London on the relationship between the visual arts and the performing arts.

As artistic director of the Kappatos Athens Art Residency, she curated a series of solo art exhibitions such as Martin Creed, Santiago Sierra, Lynda Benglis, Marie Voignier, Roy Ascott and collaborated on Marina Abramovic's production of "Seven Deaths".

She has just completed her book "Beckett's Breath : Anti-Theatricality and the Visual Arts", which will be published this year by Edinburgh University Press.

Her articles have been published in academic journals and she has given lectures at Tate Modern, Documenta, Psi, IFTR, Tapra, the Prague Quadrennial and the Venice and Sydney Biennale.

In 2008 he founded the company outoftheboxintermedia in London and presented, among others, Locus Solus in Greece, the Benaki Museum in 2010 and the Eleventh Plateau, in the Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra, in 2011, as well as projects in museums and institutions such as : Tate Modern, Frieze London, Shunt Vaults, Hunterian Museum, French Institute.

She is also the artistic director of the art platform in the Aegean Aegeanale of Elculture and was a member of the board of the Hellenic Center of the International Theater Institute and treasurer of the Greek Section of the International Association of Art Critics, AICA.



Press

Falstaff LIVING Interview

Interview by Maik Novtny Falstaff LIVING — das Design-Magazin Vienna


Sozita Goudouna

Link in German https://www.falstaff.at/living/nd/kuratorin-sozita-goudouna-im-living-interview-1/

Athens is, according to some, the “new Berlin”, with regards to its creative scene and vibrancy. Do you think this description is justified?

Athens has a versatile cultural identity and an energy full of potentiality that started to unfold gradually (at least for the visual arts), before the Olympic games of 2004 with the exhibition “Outlook,” and reached a peak during Documenta 14. With excitement, we anticipate to see its full potential not as a fake lifestyle of cultural consumption and spectacle but as a real cultural “renaissance.” Thus, yes, I consider that the description Athens is the “new Berlin” in spite of its predictability, shows a promise and is justified despite the lack of a systemic and long-term cultural governmental policy for contemporary art, or perhaps owing to this lack.

In contrast to Berlin, Athens didn’t have a general secretary of contemporary art, kunsthalle(s), grants or a national contemporary art museum until very recently and was dependent on private initiatives such as Dakis Ioannou’s “Deste Foundation,” which featured an influential series of exhibitions with international and local curators and moved to its first permanent space, a former paper factory in Psychico, in 1998. Roughly speaking, the 1990s was the period that the visual arts started to have a stronger impact since the theater (Marmarinos “Diplous Eros,” Attis, Cycladon, Empros, Sfendoni) and certain dance and performance initiatives (Papaioannou, Rigos) used to overshadow the cultural scene.

Exhibitions such as Jannis Kounellis’ “Boat Ionion” in Piraeus in 1994, curated by Katerina Koskina, and the Costakis Collection exhibition in 1995 at the National Gallery of Athens, curated by Anna Kafetsi, were monumental at least for my generation. Also, the Fluxus Group (1998) and Joseph Beuys (1997) exhibitions at the new Athens School of Fine Arts annex (the “Factory”) marked a new era for the contemporary arts in an exceptional industrial location that also hosted Documenta 14 projects.

In 2000 we had the opportunity to see the first exhibition of the National Contemporary Art Museum (EMST), which had just launched in the temporary space of the Fix brewery where my grandfather used to work during the Nazi occupation of Athens; he came to Athens as a refugee from Ismir (Smyrna) in 1922.


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Locus Solus, Benaki Museum, 2010 ~ Exhibition and performances curated by Sozita Goudouna http://www.outoftheboxintermedia.org

The museum remained without a permanent exhibition space for 20 years until 2020 and officially opened just before the pandemic… The Athens Video Dance Festival was also an influential initiative together with the opening of Technopolis and the opening of the new Benaki Annex for architecture and contemporary art. The lack of a governmental contemporary arts strategy in Athens (that is different to the periphery and Thessalonica) led to an interesting initiative that originally took the form of a manifesto. The Athens Biennial of Contemporary Art was launched in 2005 with radical “authoritative” intentions and high aspirations, and indeed created a system of support for the “newer/cutting-edge” galleries that were struggling to exist in the Athenian landscape.

The Biennial also activated private foundations like the Onassis and NEON. Adding to this, galleries such as Rebecca Camhi, the Breeder, the Apartment, Gazon Rouze and new editions like Futura and Highlights were able to collaborate with the Biennale to advance the careers of artists. However, the Biennial also worked with artists who were represented by more “established” galleries including Bernier Eliades, Ileanna Tounta, Eleni Koronaiou, AD Gallery, Antonopoulou, Kalfayan, Kappatos, Zoumboulakis and Nees Morfes. Nees Morfes, which bears similar characteristics to “Aithousa Technis Athinon,” shifted into becoming in 2009 an interesting non–for–profit archival initiative (ISET: Contemporary Greek Art Institute). Art Athina, the Athens International Art Fair, still provides a mapping of all these profit and non-for-profit initiatives, as well as Platform projects by Artemis Potamianou.

You were involved in the documenta14 which was co-hosted in Athens. in 2017. What short-term and long-term effects did the documenta have on the Athens art and culture scene?

I consider that Documenta had a short, but also a very long-term, impact on the Athenian cultural scene that we are only starting to comprehend and evaluate in an objective way. It was a “change of paradigm” and irrespectively of what anyone thinks, Documenta has shaken our thinking about culture in Athens. The main criticism was the non-involvement of the local art scene (artists and curators); however, we know that even the Athens Biennial doesn’t involve the local art scene in its entirety, even with the budget restrictions that Documenta did not have. Contemporary art is all about “face control” and “non-inclusivity” despite the various manifestos, or isn’t it?

I had the honor of working with Paul B. Preciado for the public program of Documenta, one of the most inclusive programs of Documenta that took place throughout the year and many months before the opening. In the birthplace of democracy, a parliament of bodies was founded — women, slaves and Others were all admitted and were given a plinth in Paul’s post–dictatorial parliament of discourse.

We could not presume that Documenta would take the role of the Ministry of Culture and that the team would involve the local art scene. As they claimed they were interested in the fragments of (h)istory and in the process of “(Un)learning.” The Documenta Greek team had perhaps the responsibility of informing the Documenta curators about the processes and feedback of the local scene, but they had more administrative roles; and in hindsight, we can focus on the “change of paradigm” that occurred and not on the “failures” of the initiative. Documenta was after all a continuation of the aspirations and achievements of the Athens Biennial, and its after-effect is that the Athenian scene can now be more self-confident as a member of the global network of art, even if it is called the “global south”…


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“Eleventh Plateau” Eco — Interventions, Hydra, 2011 curated by Sozita Goudouna http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1102/sozitagoudouna/
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“Eleventh Plateau” Eco Festival, Hydra, 2011 curated by Sozita Goudouna http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1102/sozitagoudouna/
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“Un/Inhabited,” a series of interventions curated by Sozita Goudouna in the Island of Delos, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=rTn0th6ZR5s&feature=emb_logo

You also directed an art residency with EU funding in 2013, in the context of the financial crisis. How did the crisis change life in Athens, and especially its creative scene?

I am writing in the midst of a pandemic and the financial crisis that overwhelmed the Greek citizens for more than 10 years of austerity is starting to fade in front of this global threat. The crisis had a tremendous impact on my generation, and I am not certain whether it helped Greek artists to articulate a coherent aesthetic response or a movement. This is the reason that certain artists and curators felt that Documenta in a way imposed a discourse on their experience; a discourse that had post-colonial characteristics. It seems that we tried to hold responsible Documenta for our incapacity to articulate our own aesthetic discourse that other countries of the “global south” had managed to formulate, whether with the help of the art market or with the support of the State…

During the crisis in 2013, I had the opportunity to direct the first EU funded art residency under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture. My non-profit initiatives from 2009 hadn’t received any state support and I had taken the risk with a loan for an arts and environmental initiative entitled “Eleventh Plateau” in the island of Hydra. Thus, the residency provided a kind of a safety net of almost less-than-the-minimum wage for the two years I stayed in Athens, and then I had to leave due to lack of resources and academic career development. During my directorship, I curated and commissioned various projects, including Martin Creed’s “Like Water at a Buffet,” which first presented the neon sculpture “UNDERSTANDING”, and Santiago Sierra’s “Athens Stray Dogs Project,” as well as solo shows by Lynda Benglis, Mat Chivers, Tim Shaw RA, Marie Voignier, Miriam Simun and Joo Yeon Park. I also collaborated with Marina Abramovic for the production of “Seven Deaths” and introduced Marina to a school friend who became the director of her institute “MAI”; that introduction led to the MAI — NEON Foundation collaboration at the Benaki Museum.

The most inspiring project I produced at the residency, that almost got me arrested, was Santiago Sierra’s stray dog project for which I had to dress dogs with t-shirts that said “I have No Money” in Greek. Santiago has a great capacity of choreographing actions by being present and absent at the same time. Dogs and cynics seem not to require money and the artist’s literal statement became not only the message but a call for action.


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Santiago Sierra “Athens Stray Dogs” project curated by Sozita Goudouna, Dog t-shirt stating “I have no Money” June, 2015.
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Santiago Sierra’s “Athens Stray Dogs” project curated by Sozita Goudouna, Dog t-shirt stating “I have no Money” June, 2015.
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Martin Creed, “Like Water At A Buffet,” curated by Sozita Goudouna and Nefeli Skarmea

How has the art scene in Greece evolved, and what characterizes it especially? Has it become more international, or is it more intimate and family-like?

Certain skeptical responses to Documenta revealed a provincial phobia of opening to the new that is based on a fortification of imaginary privileges. I consider that the art scene in Greece has matured abruptly since 2017 with many initiatives and a younger generation of emancipated artists and cultural entrepreneurs, who are in dialogue with the international scene and don’t depend only on the local exchange and dialogue. It also brought a lot of foreign art professionals with real love for Greece who have started cultural initiatives with great intentions and vision. The eternal return of the crisis with the current financial pandemic will have to test once more our alertness and resilience.

Are there special neighborhoods in Athens which could be described as an art hub?

Kypseli (beehive in Greek), the neighborhood where I grew up and my mother still lives, is now claiming its gracious urban past with cultural initiatives like the reclaiming of the old Kypseli market as an art hub. This initiative has similar characteristics to the reclaiming of the old Patission Fix factory in 1994, but seems more sustainable. Adding to this, Kypseli has gathered very creative artists like Antonakis Christodoulou and Ralou Panagiotou, who launched the “Kypseli” fanzine a couple of years ago, and Angelo Plessas, who opened recently the art space the “Pet.” In the past, open occupied spaces like “Villa Amalias” and “Ano Kato Patission” were also hosting art interventions and situations in Kypseli and Victoria.

For Documenta, Rick Lowe and the visual artist and professor Maria Papadimitriou launched the “Victoria Square Project,” one of the most impactful Documenta projects, that attempted to provide alternatives to the recent racist phenomena in the old neighborhood of Victoria. Prior to these initiatives, it was “Gazon Rouge” gallery that opened an exhibition space at the residence of modernist architect Proveleggios as well the “Apartment Gallery” and “Salon de Vortex” that had moved to Kypseli expecting the birth of a cultural movement. The artist Panos Charalambous also presented one of his best shows in Kypseli at the Proveleggios residence. Kypseli has always been a very important hub for contemporary theater hosting “west-end” and fringe performances but also “avant-garde” directors like Lefteris Vogiatzis (Cyclades theater) and Kefalinias theater that focused on a continental repertoire.

On the borderline of the Acropolis, Koukaki and Petralona are developing into art hubs; Rowena Hughes and Athanassios Argianas founded in Petralona the artist run studio “Daedalus Street” featuring outstanding projects and focusing on artists’ editions, a short distance away from “Eleni Koronaiou,” a gallery with a very engaging program of local and international artists; and curator Iliana Fokianaki opened in 2013 the non for profit institution “State of Concept” showcasing global artists with a sociopolitical edge next to the “International Fine Arts Consortium” by the American Lee Wells that has an agenda of connecting the American with the local alternative scene. “Float” was also a very good initiative by younger gallerist Chloe Athanasopoulou.

The Acropolis Museum designed by Bernard Tschumi, the Onassis Stegi with the new critical research program “Onassis AiR,” directed by Ash Bulayev, and the new Niarchos Greek National Opera and Library SNFCC, designed by Renzo Piano, form a great city center cultural triangle that can embrace these independent art initiatives, instead of overshadowing them.

Maria Papadimitriou was one of the first to open an art space in the industrial area of Votanikos entitled “Suzy Tros,” followed by “Space52” and the non-profit “Locus Athens” which has staged a series of excellent interventions in Athens over the years recently acquired a permanent space in the area of Tavros. In all likelihood, Piraeus, the port next to Tavros, will also develop into an exciting art hub with the new “Rodeo Gallery,” “Intermission Gallery,” “Polyeco Art Initiative” and the future opening of the Museum of Underwater Antiquities. The mainstream Kolonaki features interesting new galleries like Eleftheria Tseliou, CAN Gallery, Elika, Nitra and the older Zoumboulakis and Kalfayan galleries. Finally, Exarcheia, Omonoia, Psirri, Monastiraki are classic central Athens neighborhoods with initiatives like “Hyle,” “Hot Wheels,” “Aetopoulos,” “Cheapart,” “3 137” and a new space by a Greek-Chinese curator “Phoenix Athens.” Last but not least the historic areas of Kerameikos, Metaxourgeio and Gazi will at some stage reclaim their potential to be art hubs again following the excitement of and mid 2000s with venues such as “Atopos CVC,” “Latraac Skate,” “Ε. Δ. Ω” and the new Athens Museum of Queer Arts (AMOQA) that represents the burgeoning LGBTQ cultural scene of Athens.


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OUT SCORE, research project at Aixoni Sculpted Landscape curated Sozita Goudouna, choreography Maria Hassabi 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJi2Z6wmRZY
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OUT SCORE, research project at Aixoni, curated by Sozita Goudouna, choreography Maria Hassabi 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJi2Z6wmRZY

You moved to the USA in 2015, working with Raymond Pettibon and teaching. Has your view on Greece and Athens changed, now that you view it from a distance, and in comparison to art in the US?

I left Athens in 1996 when I was 18 to study art and philosophy and stayed in London for 17 years. I never lost contact with Greece, however, and especially with the Athenian gradual cultural development. I moved to New York in 2015 to work for Performa Biennial and to teach as NYU and indeed my views have changed. Especially, working with RoseLee Goldberg and Raymond Pettibon and collaborating with the galleries that represent the artist like David Zwirner, Regen Projects, Sadie Coles and CFA Gallery in Berlin. In November I had the privilege of producing and devising a project on Pettibon’s scripts at the New Museum for the Performa biennial consortium that I am also proposing at the Getty Institute in LA. In a way I have been developing in Europe a program similar to Performa biennial and I had collaborated with American based artists such as Lynda Benglis and Marina Abramovic, but it is so different to live and work in a country like the US and to understand the real cultural processes. Nevertheless, I am always interested in the cultural exchange between the Greek contemporary scene and the international scene, thus I am on the board of ARCAthens.org (a new artist residency) and I am launching in 2021 with a team of colleagues a new platform entitled “Greece in USA” (http://www.greeceinusa.com) that aims to challenge existing stereotypes and preconceived ideas about Greece and its culture. It will take the form of a small Performa biennial with New York cultural partners and with a notable advisory board that will be announced soon.


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”Raymond Pettibon, Whoever Shows: Strike Uyp th’ Band!Co-presentation with Performa 19 Biennial initiated, devised and produced by Sozita Goudouna: https://www.newmuseum.org/calendar/view/1586/raymond-pettibon-whoever-shows-strike-uyp-th-band

Which places would you recommend to a weekend traveler to Athens interested in museums and galleries? What are the must-sees, and what are the well-kept secrets?

Plato’s academy, Benaki Museum (all annexes, but also the Kriezotou st annex), Cycladic Art Museum, National Archaeological Museum, Epigraphical Museum, Kerameikos Archaelogical Museum, the First Cemetery, the Historical Archives of the National Bank at Triti Septemvriou st and the Athens Fine Art School. “Radio Athenes” is a very interesting non-profit space in one of the most beautiful streets of central Athens, Petraki street. I have also mentioned previously other cultural venues that I consider must-sees.


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Sozita Goudouna

Sozita Goudouna is a curator, professor, and the author of Beckett’s Breath: Anti-theatricality and the Visual Arts (2018), published by Edinburgh University Press. She is head of operations at Raymond Pettibon Studio and in 2020 she founded the platform “Greece in USA.” Sozita holds a PhD from the University of London and has taught at various universities and at New York University as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial fellow at Performa NY. She has curated projects for the New Museum, documenta 14, Onassis Foundation NYC, EMST among other institutions and museums. She was a consultant at Zaha Hadid Architects and has served on the board of directors at AICA Hellas International Association of Art Critics.


Sozita Goudouna: The Νew Μuseum presents the project of the Greek curator


civilization


By Katerina Ploumidaki

Sozita Guduna is a curator, assistant professor at CUNY: City University New York, and author of Beckett Breath (2018), published by the University of Edinburgh and Oxford publications. She has headed Raymond Pettibon Studio since 2018. She has taught at New York University as a postdoctoral art curator Andrew W. Mellon at the New York Biennale of Performers and has curated cross-sectoral projects in the Documenta 14 public program at the University of New York, USA. Benaki Museum, Byzantine Museum among other institutions and museums. He has been treasurer of the AICA Hellas Association of Greek Art Critics and holds a PhD from the University of London. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozita_Goudouna

- What do you keep from what you learned from your family, and your teachers?

The importance of loving.

-What are you willing to lose?

The constructed needs.

-What does the one who does not look for unnecessary things dream?

The freedom.

-What is your lifeboat?

Faith in friendship.

 - Are you afraid of the unknown?

Unknown therefore empty.

-Luxury options, what does this mean for you?

Evolution, self-denial?

-Man is his memory or his present?

The present tense of his memory.

The New York Biennale Performa opened on November 1st. The main theme is Bauhaus and the focus is on Asian contemporary art. What is your participation in this important cultural event?  

My collaboration with Performa, the first Biennale of Performing Arts in New York, began in 2015 when I was hired by the director of the organization, RoseLee Goldberg, as the first curator Andrew W. Mellon. For a month every two years, Performa changes the way New Yorkers experience the city, especially after 9/11, which transformed the relationship between the public and the public space and takes place in different parts of the city, from Times Square and its customs. New York to MoMA, Guggenheim, New Museum, Whitney Museum and BAM. The Biennale has presented more than 700 projects with 800 artists in 400 cultural (and more) venues in New York and worldwide.

Would you like to describe to us the project you are organizing at the New Museum of New York with the artist for the Performa Biennale on November 14?

"Whoever Shows: Strike Uyp th 'Band!" is a music analog project presented at the New York Museum of Art with a collection of excerpts from Raymond Pettibon screenplays, including those originally produced for videos such as "The Whole World is Watching": Weatherman '69 (1989-90 ), Sir Drone: A New Beatles Movie (1989-90), "The Holes You Feel", "Andy Warhol", "Jim Morrison" and the screenplay "Batman". Starting in the 1980s, Pettibon produced a series of low-budget videos made with friends using home video equipment. These projects focus on radical issues from the 1960s and the American reality, such as the Manson family, the abduction of Patty Hearst by the SLA, Weather Underground and the beginning of the American punk movement. Although some of these scripts have become classic video works of the time and were widely presented alongside Pettibon designs, several other scripts such as Andy Warhol and Jim Morrison have not yet been produced or lost. Reflecting on the concept of ensemble work, this collection of Pettibon excerpts, scenes and lyrics attempts to present the visuals of the past, especially in the 1960s, with the participation of distinguished visual artists such as Kim Gordon. , Frances Stark, Lee Ranaldo and 20 other artists. The Performa Biennale seeks to highlight performance as a different medium and refutes the notion that performance is just what happens,

Tell us about your experience from your collaboration with renowned American artist Raymond Pettibon and the David Zwirner Gallery, which opened its first exhibition space in Paris with a solo art exhibition.

Raymond Petibon is considered to be perhaps the most important visual artist on paper in America, and working with him as his studio coordinator is extremely creative, especially during his exhibition in Paris at the opening exhibition of the David Zwirner Gallery during the FIAC. Founded in Paris in 1974, the FIAC International Exhibition of Contemporary Art [Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain] brings together contemporary art galleries and about 200 exhibitors at the Grand Palais, including many of the world's leading experts in contemporary art.

The David Zwirner Gallery, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018, represents 60 international artists with exhibitions in New York (three galleries) from London to Hong Kong, and in 2020 will inaugurate the new five-storey gallery in New York designed by Renzo Piano.

After Brexit, the Zwiner Gallery focuses on the French art scene by presenting the solo exhibition "Frenchette" by Raymond Petibon. Petibon's work embraces a wide range of American high and pop culture, from the divergences of marginalized youth to art history, sports, religion, politics, sexuality, and literature. Starting with the punk-rock scene of Southern California in the late 1970s and '80s and the aesthetics of albums, comics, concerts and fanzines that characterized the movement, his designs have defined this scene and international contemporary art. At the same time, Dior artistic director Kim Jones linked Pettibon's designs,










Artnet Editors’ Picks

 19 Events for Your Art Calendar This Week, From a Talk With Ruth Asawa’s Children to a Virtual Trip to Manifesta


Ruth Asawa 1957 Photo Imogen Cunningham  2017 Imogen Cunningham Trust artwork  Estate of Ruth AsawaRuth Asawa, 1957. Photo courtesy Imogen Cunningham ©2017 Imogen Cunningham Trust artwork ©Estate of Ruth Asawa.

Each week, we search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events. In light of the global health crisis, we are currently highlighting events and digitally, as well as in-person exhibitions open in the New York area. See our picks from around the world below. (Times are all EST unless otherwise noted.)


 

Through Thursday, November 19

Raymond Pettibon emUntitled We have readem 2020 Courtesy of Journal Gallery

Raymond Pettibon, Untitled (We have read…), 2020. Courtesy of Journal Gallery.

8. “Tennis Elbow 70 Raymond Pettibon” at Journal Gallery, New York

Journal Gallery has been staging short, two-week shows under the title “Tennis Elbow,” and the latest, curated by Sozita Goudouna, features a trio of Raymond Pettibon drawings of the cartoon character Gumby, a recurring figure in his work.


Location: Journal Gallery, 45 White Street, New York
Price:
 Free
Time: Tuesday–Thursday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

—Tanner West

 

Thursday, November 19

Courtesy Arte Generali

Courtesy Arte Generali.

9. “Digital Leaders in Art Awards” at Arte Generali, Cologne

The winner of Arte Generali’s Digital Leaders in Art Awards will be announced on Thursday, November 19, as part of Art Cologne’s online edition. Until then, the public can go online and see works by the six nominees and vote for the best projects. There will be three winners, who will each receive €15,000 ($17,700) to bring their digitally innovative concepts to fruition.

Price: Free
Time: November 19 at 10 a.m. EST (4 p.m. CET)

—Nan Stewart

 

Ruth Asawa with hanging sculpture 1952 Courtesy of David Zwirner photo  2017 Imogen Cunningham Trust artwork  2017 estate of Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa with hanging sculpture (1952). Courtesy of David Zwirner, photo © 2017 Imogen Cunningham Trust; artwork © 2017 estate of Ruth Asawa.


10. “Ruth Asawa: Through The Eyes of Her Children” at SCRAP, San Francisco

Hear from two of Ruth Asawa’s children, Aiko Cuneo and Paul Lanier, as they show and tell what it was like to be raised by the artist. Ticket sales for the event will benefit SCRAP, a San Francisco-based nonprofit creative reuse center, materials depot, and workshop space. Asawa served as the first board president of the organization, and was known during her life for her arts education advocacy in the Bay Area.

Price: $25 and up (donation-based tickets), register here
Time: 10 p.m.–11 p.m EST

—Katie Rothstein

 

Alfred Stieglitz Georgia OKeeffe in a chemise 1918 Georgia OKeeffe Museum Santa Fe  Art Resource NY

Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe (in a chemise) (1918). Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa
Fe / Art Resource, NY.

11. “Virtual Happy Hour: Georgia O’Keeffe Birthday Celebration” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

Celebrate the 133rd birthday of famed artist Georgia O’Keeffe with NMWA and the O’Keeffe Museum in this virtual discussion about her life and work. Attendees are encouraged to imbibe a specialty cocktail created in O’Keeffe’s honor, although the recipe hasn’t been released yet. Perhaps it will take a page from her cookbook?

Price: Free with registration
Time: 6:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

 

Thursday, November 19 and Thursday, December 17

Kameelah Janan Rasheed emNourishing Pageem 2020 detail Courtesy of the artist

Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Nourishing Page (2020), detail. Courtesy of the artist.

12. “Virtual Workshop: Are You Reading Closely?” at the Brooklyn Museum

As part of her current show at the museum’s Sackler Center for Feminist Art, “Kameelah Janan Rasheed: Are We Reading Closely?” (through January 20, 2021), the will teach a two-part workshop on close reading inspired by her experiences as a public school teacher. Her exhibition includes the first-ever art installation on the museum’s Neo-classical facade.


Price: $15 per session, $25 for both sessions
Time: November 19, 6 p.m.–7 p.m.; December 17, 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

 

Thursday, November 19–Saturday, December 19

Danielle Orchard emWomen Writing Songsem 2020 Courtesy of Miles McEnery Gallery

Danielle Orchard, Women Writing Songs (2020). Courtesy of Miles McEnery Gallery.

13. “Sound & Color Curated by Brian Alfred” at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York

Artist Brian Alfred brings together a group of talented young artists in this show as a way to explore the role that music plays in art. Taking a cue from historic representations of music, artists such as Devan Shimoyama, Hiba Schahbaz, and Jenna Gribbon each play with the theme. “I was interested in the idea of sound being represented specifically in the visual plane,” Alfred said in a statement. “How artists grapple with picturing sound and its relationship to images. How artists can use the element of sound to heighten the dynamics of an image.”


Location: Miles McEnery Gallery, 511 West 22nd Street, New York
Price:
 Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

—Neha Jambhekar

 

Friday, November 20

Bisa Butler 2020 photo by Nonexitfiction courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery

Bisa Butler, 2020, photo by Nonexitfiction courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery.

14. “Bisa Butler: Clarice Smith Virtual Lecture Seriesat the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Fiber artist Bisa Butler will join the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s virtual lecture series to discuss the familial, educational, and societal influences that inform her monumental quilted portraits of Black life. She’ll touch on her family’s matrilineal sewing legacy, patrilineal Ghanaian roots, and how the AfriCOBRA art movement informs her meticulous quilting technique.


Time:  6:30 p.m.
Price:  Free with registration

—Katie White

 

Saturday, November 21

Mitch Epstein Photo by Nina Subin

Mitch Epstein. Photo by Nina Subin.

15. “Lens Mix: Conversation with Mitch Epstein and Terry Tempest Williams” at FotoFocus, Cincinnati

Instead of moving ahead as planned with its fifth photography biennial, FotoFocus shifted gears to give out $800,000 in emergency grant funding to its vendors and partners. It also started a monthly virtual conversation series, Lens Mix, celebrating its 10th anniversary. For the November edition of the series, FotoFocus artistic director Kevin Moore will moderate a talk between photographer Mitch Epstein and writer and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams. Epstein’s most recent series, “Property Rights,” questions the concept of land ownership through photographs of Standing Rock protests, Black Lives Matter rallies, and Confederate monuments.


Price: Free with registration
Time: 3 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

 

Sunday, November 22

Lonnie Holley Photo by Katherine McMahon

Lonnie Holley. Photo by Katherine McMahon.

16. “Lonnie Holley: Concert and Conversation” at Guild Hall, East Hampton

Outsider artist and musician Lonnie Holley, whose colorful biography includes being traded for a bottle of whiskey as a four-year-old child, completes a residency at East Hampton’s Elaine de Kooning House with a performance and conversation filmed earlier this month, debuting online thanks to nearby Guild Hall.

Price: $10 suggested donation with registration
Time: 6 p.m.

—Sarah Cascone

 

Through Sunday, November 29

Dollhouse at Muse Grobet-Labadi Virtual Tour  Courtesy of Manifesta 13

Dollhouse at Musée Grobet-Labadié Virtual Tour © Courtesy of Manifesta 13

17. “Virtual Visits” at Manifesta 13 Marseille

The dawn of a second lockdown in France spelled an early end for Manifesta, the roving European biennialthat this year touched down in Marseille. But the exhibition’s organizers were quick on their feet, unveiling a program of interactive virtual tours. Guides (or, as the organizers call them, “mediators”) will introduce a theme and a selection of relevant artworks and then hold space for conversation among a group of eight people on Zoom. The discussions are offered in both English and French.


Price: Free with registration
Time: Tuesday–Sunday, 5 p.m. CET

—Julia Halperin

 

Through Wednesday, December 16

Jibade-Khalil Huffman iTRTi 2020 Courtesy of the artist and Magenta Plains New York

Jibade-Khalil Huffman, TRT (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Magenta Plains, New York.

18. “Jibade-Khalil Huffman: Total Running Time” at Magenta Plains, New York

In his first solo exhibition with Magenta Plains, multidisciplinary artist and poet Jibade-Khalil Huffman visualizes personal, professional, and cultural identities as deliberately (if not always voluntarily) edited performances. The show features a range of works created by sampling and remixing imagery that stretches across the cultural consciousness, from tennis titans Venus and Serena Williams, to cartoon nemeses Tom and Jerry, to boy scouts competing in the pages of a vintage McDonald’s comic. Through masterful excerpts and erasures of these disparate source materials, Huffman reinforces that athletics, artistic practice, race, self-concept, and perception are all constructs. The question is, who gets to finalize the design, and why?

Location: Magenta Plains, 94 Allen Street, New York
Price: Free
Time: Tuesday–Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; appointments encouraged

—Tim Schneider

 

Through Friday, January 8, 2021

Freddy Rodrguez emDance in Paradiseem 1987 Courtesy of Hutchinson Modern  Contemporary

Freddy Rodríguez, Dance in Paradise (1987). Courtesy of Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary.

19. “Freddy Rodríguez: Early Paintings 1970–1990” at Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary, New York

Isabella Hutchinson, the former head of Sotheby’s Latin American Art Department in New York, has opened a brick-and-mortar space for Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary, her nearly 20-year-old business specializing in modern and contemporary Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean art. The inaugural exhibition features works from the 1970s and ’80s by Freddy Rodríguez, who fled dictatorship in his native Dominican Republic for New York in 1963. His work blends the aesthetics of the Hard Edge, Geometric Abstraction, and Minimalist movements with influences from his Afro-Dominican heritage and the realities of the Dominican diaspora.


Location: Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary, 47 East 64th Street, New York
Price:
 Free
Time: By appointment

—Sarah Cascone