Curated by Dores & Rose Sacquegna

From OCTOBER 4th to NOVEMBER 4th 2015

Opening OCTOBER 4th at 7pm -CRYPTOGRAPHIE

　

It opens 4th October at 7pm the opening of THE SPHINX THEBES FESTIVAL to the Conference Center in Thebes (Greece). The Festival is planned and coordinated by IAA Unesco Artists Constantine Angelou and Polyxene Kasda and it is under the auspices of Hellenic Republic, the Greek Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs, the collaboration of the Athens School of Fine Arts, the National Museum and Municipality of Thebes. Sphinx 2015 is an artistic project in the urban and social life of the town of Thebes, where artists specializing in different fields, from all over the world, authors, scientists, directors and the public create by interacting with its mnemonic elements, proposing solutions to “found the city of the future”, the place we want to live in. Project Sphinx is centered around the Riddle of Sphinx　 which Oedipus solved by answering: “Anthropos”, a term which is an unsolved riddle in itself. The Riddle of the Sphinx re-examines the meaning of the human being through his position in space, time, history, that is, his identity.

 

In this context arises the project curated by Dores & Rose Sacquegna from Primo Piano LivinGallery in Lecce, Italy, with the proposal "A fertile city or the riddle of Sphinx” divided into three different sessions (GREEK WAVES, LANDGRAPHIE, CRYPTOGRAPHIE) on the myth , the identity and the utopia, with the participation of very well-known international artists and Greek directors.

 

The session CRYPTOGRAPHIE consists of works of visual art ( painting, digital art, photography, collage, video-installation, installation, live performance) and investigates the urban and hybrid landscapes between MYTH, IDENTITY and UTOPIA. On exhibition the video-installation " CONVULSIONI INTRINSECHE” by Italian artist ANTONELLA ZITO. The new utopias are not at all unattainable and distant, but resemble more concrete programs to transform the real or prophecies, often negative, of disturbing scenarios where the city is represented as a living organism and lymphatic system in the work "MY SOUL IN MY BODY, MY BODY IN MY CITY, MY CITY IN MY MIND .. " by Italian artist MARIA LUISA IMPERIALI. Geometric structures intersect between matter and color to define maps of possible future cities in the work "STRUCTURA 714" by Italian artist MARTA MANCINI.Space, time and history are identified in the work by DORES SACQUEGNA with “INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY” (from floating worlds series), where the human being is in the center of the universe, able to recover the past, live the present and plan the future. Between past and future, also, the work by Spanish artist XAVI DE JUAN-CREIX and COR FAFIANI (from Holland), with the work "COLUMN OF THEBES", calls the impermanence and the formal instability to respect the stability and solidity of the preindustrial past. Thus human existence is drifting in a fundamental spiritual uncertainty, reflecting the character and the restless provisional cultural identity of modern and post-modern civilization . With his installation "TO OVERSHOOT IN / CONTEMPORARY" Italian artist VITO SARDANO returns the idea of the world with a size simultaneously, through a process of cultural hybridization, where objects, concepts and values become status symbols of contemporary civilization consumption, fashion and new economics. With called "UNINHABITABLE", taken from the collection "After the battle", PINA DELLA ROSSA, Italian photographer show an attempt to return to the first material reality of creation of Mother Earth. The literary interest in the myth, the frequent trips to Greece and the meeting with director Theodoros Angelopoulos, led Italian artist GINO FOSSALI to develop a new research phase of mythological subject, placing his work in the origins of time, for a new foundation of human life under the sign of Dionysian Art. On this path the work “ Sphinx thinks links” by American artist MARTHE KELLER, she proposes an alternate very ancient riddle : "There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?" The answer is "day and night" (both words are feminine in Greek). The dispute continues with "PASTA LOTUS", by Italian designer and artist GIOVANNI LAMORGESE, he presents (with Davide Curci as collaboration in soundscape) an aerial and sound installation that transcends time and space, real life and theater (the work symbolizes a family event, a contest between two sisters because of a pasta dish) mixing and redesigning space through sound and matter. The imaginary space created by the artist is the mirror of the future city that allows life and his creative power to show in all its fertile human beauty and divine perfection.

GREEK WAVES Theo Angeloupolos, Stathis Athanasiou, Anastasia Christoforidou, Ifigenia Dimitriou, Dimitris Kollatos, Nikos Kornilios, Panayotis Kravvaris, Maria Lafi, Thanasis Neofotistos, Eirini Steirou & Eliza Alexandropoulou, Thanasis Tsimpinis, George Tsirogiannis.

 

CRYPTOGRAPHIE From Italy: Pina Della Rossa, Gino Fossali, Maria Luisa Imperiali, Massimiliano Manieri, Marta Mancini, Vito Sardano, Antonella Zito, Giovanni Lamorgese, Dores Sacquegna and foreign artists Xavi De Juan-Creix (Spain), Cor Fafiani (Holland), Marthe Keller (Usa).