THE MEDITERRANEAN EXPERIENCE – MACEDONIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

The Mediterranean Experience
18/9/2013 – 31/12/2013
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
http://www.mmca.org.gr/mmst/el/index.htm 

The Mediterranean as a spatial paradigm for the circulation of ideas and meaning. An introduction. The group exhibition features the history of forms which focuses on quotidian practices and social representations. Works by Marina Abramovic, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Miltos Manetas, Dennis Oppenheim and many more.

Curated by Denys Zacharopoulos

The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art presents, in the context of this year’s fourth edition of the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, the exhibition “The Mediterranean experience: The Mediterranean as a spatial paradigm for the circulation of ideas and meaning. An introduction”, curated by Denys Zacharopoulos. The exhibition will open to the public on 17 September 2013 and will be visitable on the 18th of September, when the official inauguration of the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art will take place.

As the artistic director of Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Denys Zacharopoulos notes:
“The subject of ‘the Mediterranean’ has been extensively researched by the greatest historians of the twentieth century. In our exhibition “The Mediterranean experience: The Mediterranean as a spatial paradigm for the circulation of ideas and meaning,” we did not intend to follow a Braudelian approach or ponder on the composition of the cultural environment of a region that lies, in every conceivable way, at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Our approach and research are different; they are based on an intuition, which does not aspire to any kind of composition or even analysis, but simply represents an initial, tentative, critical and systematic taxonomy of our material. Our ambitions are rather modest. We have consciously limited ourselves to the collection of evidence, facts and works, purposely avoiding generalizations, ideological constructs and the pervasive folkloric depictions of the Mediterranean.

Our definition of the Mediterranean experience is about people and things that are not directly related to the Mediterranean as a geographical and historical notion. The history of forms which focuses on quotidian practices and social representations, impressions, experiences and mentalities, now represents an important chapter of historical research, which deals with everyday life. Only rarely, however, are artistic practices and individual artworks studied in connection to the mentalities of everyday life. Even more rarely does art history recognize that artists, from Gustave Courbet onwards, emanate from or participate in everyday life and that their work is inspired by and addressed to their surrounding reality. Had it done so, it would have allowed one to realize that the experiences and practices of everyday life permute, or occasionally overturn, the standards and norms of intellectual, specialized artistic practice.”

The exhibition features works from the following artists:
Marina Abramovi?, Art and Language, Isabelle Arthuis, Nikos Alexiou, Dimitris Alithinos, Alexis Akrithakis, Stephen Antonakos, Mona Breede, Alighiero Boetti, Miros?aw Ba?ka, Marie Jos? Burki, Daniel Buren, Lothar Baumgarten, Marcel Broodthaers, Herbert Brandl, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Pier Paolo Calzolari, G?rard Collin-Thi?baut, Vlassis Caniaris, Lizzie Calligas, Ernst Caramelle, Lawrence Carroll, Cherif et Silvie Defraoui, Jimmie Durham, Diohandi, Danil, Diego Esposito, Donald Evans, Lionel Est?ve, Angus Fairhurst, Michel Fran?ois, Agn?s Fornells, Gaylen Gerber, Apostolos Georgiou, Rodney Graham, Giannis Gaitis, Giorgos Gyparakis, George Hadjimichalis, Giorgos Harvalias, Panos Haralambous, Lisa H?ver, Jenny Holzer, Ann Veronica Janssens, Alain Jacquet, Mike Kelley, Ed Kienholz, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Joseph Kosuth, Tadashi Kawamata, Peter Kogler, Eleni Kamma, Aris Konstantinidis, Martin Kippenberger, Dimitris Kozaris, Nikos Kessanlis, William Klein, Niki Kanagini, Nikos Kouroussis, Richard Long, Jim Lutes, Robert Longo, Anna Lascari, Stathis Logothetis, George Lappas, Yorgos Lazongas, Matt Mullican, Juan Mu?oz, C?me Mosta-Heirt, Reinhard Mucha, Cildo Meireles, Miltos Manetas, Eliseo Mattiacci, Erwan Mah?o, Max Neuhaus, NSK, Xavier Noiret-Thom?, Stratos Dontsis, Rivane Neuenschwander, Nikos Navridis, Gabriel Orozco, Meret Oppenheim, Dennis Oppenheim, Pino Pascali, Manfred Pernice, Emmanuel P?reire, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Maria Papadimitriou, Ilias Papailiakis, Leda Papaconstantinou, Rena Papaspyrou, Ulf Rollof, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Patrick Raynaud, Chryssa Romanou, Thomas Struth, Thomas Sch?tte, Kostas Sahpazis, Remo Salvadori, Joe Scanlan, Adrian Schiess, Mariella Simoni, Georgia Sagri, Yorgos Sapountzis, Vasilis Skylakos, Kyrillos Sarris, readymades belong to everyone®, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Petros Touloudis, Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Thanasis Totsikas, Takis, Theodoros, Henk Visch, Vassilis Vassilakakis, Franz West, Lawrence Wiener, Daniel Walravens, Constantin Xenakis, Georgios Xenos, Gilberto Zorio.

A special edition will published to accompany the exhibition.
The exhibition team:
Curator: Denys Zacharopoulos, Artistic Director, MMCA
Assistant curators: Alexios Papazacharias and Maro Psyrra
MMCA Scientific Team Supervisor: Maria Triantafyllidou, MMCA Director
MMCA scientific team: Thouli Misirloglou, Katerina Siroglou, Ioanna Souroudi, Maro Psyrra
Graphics and design: Ioanna Souroudi
Technical team: Periklis Galanos, Stelios Theodoridis, Stefanos Stathakis

Co-Ordination & Press Office:
Eleni Kotsara +30 2310 240002 eleni.kotsara@mmca-mam.gr

MACEDONIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
154 Egnatia Str. (TIF-HELEXPO) – 54636, Thessaloniki
Museum hours: WE. 10.00-22.00, TH. & SA. 10.00-18.00, FR. 10.00-19.00, SU. 11.00-15.00, MO. & TU. CLOSED.