Curated by Dores & Rose Sacquegna

From OCTOBER 4th to NOVEMBER 4th 2015

Opening OCTOBER 4th at 7pm - LANDGRAPHIE

　

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 thread that unites these presences on display for LANDGRAPHIE is the LANDSCAPE with seven video-documentary by very well know artists of the LAND ART and environmental art that operate with large temporary installations in the landscape. The event opens with video documentary "OVER THE RIVER" by CHRISTO & JEANNE CLAUDE, conceptual artists known to the world for the packing of large objects and slices of landscape; the video documenting their installation was created in two years on the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City, in Colorado. Another interesting artist is the multidisciplinary Peruvian artist GRIMANESA AMOROS (based in New York | US), she works with installations involving architecture and landscape, urban spaces and natural areas as "GOLDEN WATERS" at The Soleri Bridge between Scottdale and Camelback Roads in Arizona and "UROS ISLAND" presented among others during the 54th Venice Biennale for Future Pass.

Really sensitive to environmental practices is the American artist PAM LONGOBARDI, with video "GIANT SEA CAVE EXCAVATION" and interdisciplinary action "PLASTIC FREE ISLAND", made in Kefalonia at Ionian Center in 2014 in Greece. The action consists of the removal of plastic objects that pollute water and the beach, to be transformed by the artist into art installations. With video "ART IN ANTARCTICA", a project initiated in 2005 by the Argentine ANDREA JUAN, she creates magnificent installations in situations and extreme landscapes (see also "NEW SPECIES"), the principle of which is based on freedom, on the impact of climate change, glaciers, the oceanic and atmospheric temperatures, the weather conditions of these empty spaces. The energy of the earth, the rite of painting with pigments taken on the sites of various places in the world, is the modus operandi of the great German artist ULRIKE ARNOLD, who since 1980 has traveled and worked on five continents with site-specific installations realized in quarries, on rocky mountains, or, under extreme conditions in the deserts. On display with the video "THE COLORS OF EARTH," paintings based on land, minerals and stones, fragments of meteorites create impressive and cosmological works. French artist GILLES BRUNI - best known to audiences for his large installations created in the early days with Marc Babarit in Europe and North America – he documents his works on landscape, ecology of the place, people and their history in the following videos: "THE ROTTING IN THE UNDERGROWTH" on material reuse, and "WASTE LAND", on the practices of landscape ecology in public spaces. This video-documentary review ends with the video-performance "ALCHEMIST" by Scottish artist RICHARD ASHROWAN (produced in 2010 in collaboration with the performers Alastair MacLennan and Sandra Johnston); the film is a tribute to the medieval Scottish alchemist, astrologer and mathematician Michael Scot and explores the qualities of the landscape through alchemy, with Latin dialogues. The movie participated in numerous exhibitions and won many awards.

 

LANDGRAPHIE :Grimanesa Amoros (Usa), Ulrike Arnold (Germany), Richard Ashrowan (Scotland), Gilles Bruni (France), Christo & Jeanne-Claude (Usa), Andrea Juan (Argentina), Pam Longobardi (Usa).