about
residency program
past editions
locations
supporters
contact:
paxosbiennale@gmail.com
about
residency program
past editions
locations
supporters
contact:
paxosbiennale@gmail.com
dates:
05 June - 10 September 2022
participating artists:
curated by:
Marina Tomacelli
Clemens Behr
Mongonissi Greenscreens
wood colored in greenscreen green
> video presentation <
Clemens Behr’s architectural installations usually fit in with their natural surrounding. 'Mongonissi Greenscreens', however, was made to stand out as much as possible in order to operate on two different levels.
On the one hand, the bright green, geometric, and abstract composition apears as a classic, site-specific installation, that gracefully unfolds itself between the rocks and crevices of the especially picturesque Mongonissi environment.
On the other hand, the bright green fashion lets Behr extinguish the installation from it's environment by using it as a green screen in digital postproduction. In this process the geometrical shapes stay visible, while it's surfaces melt back in with the surfaces of the rocks. Thus, Behr's ambigous installation 'Mongonissi Greenscreens' comments on itself and asks one very central questions about the artist's practice and mankinds interference in public space: Do we have the right to change the appearance of our natural environment and if so, how do we define the standards to do so?
www.clemensbehr.com
The Krank
Footprint, 1.000m2 land art installation
> video presentation <
With his giant “Footprint”, Greek artist The Krank created a 1.000 square meters work of land art for Paxos Biennale 2022, which let’s us reflect on our ecological footprint that has become a metaphor for humanities exploitation of natural resources.
The artist silently worked the huge piece of land like a canvas for 15 days. The result is a bold and moving message that has been shaking islanders and visitors in Paxos. With his artwork, The Krank responds to a growing call for active participation in shaping the ‘world we want’ with regards to economic growth, social well-being, and environmental challenges, while the current Covid-19 pandemic continues to cast a shadow on the global conversation on sustainable development goals.
https://www.behance.net/thekrank
Hang on, 5.000 mt rope and found wood and stones
The ruin of Kampos tis Koris, as many of the old houses in Paxos, stand roofless andstripped of its interior fittings. Its empty shell is a time capsule, telling the history ofthe island no less than it tells about its present. It is a memoir of family history, longtime ownerships, traditional construction methods and skills which are losing theirplace to progress, real estate investments, modern materials, building techniques andmachinery.
“Hang On” wonders on the tension between the two allegedly conflicting forces ofpreservation and progress. It is comprised of a series of installations within the spaceof the ruin, which make use of rope and the remains of the original structure found onsite such as stones, wooden beams and furniture. The installations explore states ofbalance between opposing forces: lifted elements and weights, movement vs. stability,in and out. Positioning these forces in dichotomy demonstrates their definition inrelation to the other and raises a question on the possibility of equilibrium: What willstand and what will fall? What should remain and what should change? Which of theopposing forces will prevail?
The construction process of the installation itself employed actions and techniques ofarcheological excavations, site surveys and architectural preservations: site clearing,reconstruction and repairs, piling, sorting and marking of the objects and buildingparts found on site.
https://www.talmonbiran.com
Old wooden beams were tied with ropes to heavy stones on both edges. Thestones were hung on the external facades, acting as weights to balance thewooden beams up in the air of the interior space. Other stones were connectedto large stones on the ground, suggesting an imaginary grid of columns orfoundations.
B. The mound
The pile of stones, gathered together and piled in a straight line resemblearcheological mounds or ancient rituals for burial or worship.
C. The chair
A frame of an old chair was filled with stones in a traditional dry stone wallconstruction method. In this technique, typical for Paxos, the stones are heldtogether without the use of mortar but by their own weight through carefulselection and positioning of the stones to fit together in shape and heaviness.The chair which is characterized with mobility and lightness is here fixed, heavyand rooted in the ground.
D. Datum level
A series of wooden frames, dry branches and rusty work tools found on site leanin line along the wall. Their differences of shapes and height and the fragilecomposition they create together stand in contrast to the completely straight redline which is marked along them. The line acts as a datum level, often used inconstruction as a reference line for all elements of the building. A line in spaceand time. Its existence depends on the ability of the elements to maintainstanding.
E. The inventory
A pile of stones lies in a recessed niche within the wall. Each stone is tied with arope, recalling preserved food or stock lying on a pantry’s shelf. Each of thestones is numbered and marked with the signature of the family who owns theproperty – the common mean of declaring possession of building in paxos. Isownership an inventory? Is it transferrable
Thiago Mazza
The Flowers and the old Ladies
paint on wood panels
When Brazilian mural artist Thiago Mazza arrived in Paxos end of spring, he was immediately drawn into the incredible diversity of flower species he found on the island. After dedicating himself to collecting floral motifs he walked the island extensively, looking for a place to position his work.
He found the perfect spot on the foot-path to Avlaki beach, where he came across one of the numerous ancient olive groves of the island, with trees that can be up to 400 years old. The spot he chose stands out through it‘s extremely dense undergrowth, the immense canopies formed by the olive tree tops, and the magical play of shadows caused by sunlight.
In order to enhance this particular forest light and as a contrast to the lush green olive trees, Mazza chose Spartium Junceum yellow and Trifolium Resupinatum purple as the main colors for his floral mural on wood titled „The Flowers and the Old Ladies“.
https://www.instagram.com/mazzolandia/
Julia Krahn
ST. JAVELIN
photoprints on wallpaper and nautical sheet
ST. JAVELIN is the latest photographic project by Julia Krahn in which the artist invited Ukrainian refugees in her studio to tell about themselves through a series of unique shots and to testify their condition through touching interviews (readable at www.juliakrahn.com/st.javelin).
ST. JAVELIN is the name of a Saint born in war, inspired by the missile “Javelin” sent to Ukraine in support of the resistance, it has become the symbol of the Patroness Madonna. Just the paradox of a mother holding a weapon, death instead of life, was the engine that brought Julia Krahn closer to Ukrainian women.The only weapon that the artist intends to use is empathy, hence the choice to insert a self-portrait in the project.
The artist has in his hands his weapon, the button of the camera and invites the refugees to do the same, describing their weapons of daily resistance, made to build and never to destroy. A mother would never choose war for her children.
“I’m not talking about the war, its impossible reasons to exist or who’s keeping it burning, but the people who are suffering it. Regardless of thought, position or status, they fled to save their children and left their husbands behind. In addition to propaganda there are real people. Each one with his own story. I welcome in the studio those who want to share theirs.” (JK)
The project was born in collaboration with the Municipality of Sorrento and the cultural association Festivà.
https://www.juliakrahn.com/
Torsten Mühlbach
Snowman
Plastic and metal garbage collected at roadsides and at different beaches of Paxos
Some things only stay on this planet for a short time, while others last for longer than we‘d like to imagine. With his sculpture SNOWMAN, German artist Torsten Mühlbach addresses the global problem of garbage, that will still be here when we are not.
Mühlbach chose the snowman, a recurring motif in his work, to describe our finite life as human beings on this planet, both from a temporal and an environmental point of view.
The snowman has a relatively short, cultural history, dating back to the 19th century. And, naturally, it exists only for a short time (with the exception of a snowman, that was exhibited in a freezer by the Swiss artist-duo Fischli & Weiss. This exemplar lasted for as long as the freezer was connected to electricity) - just like us humans do, compared to other species that inhabit(ed) the planet.
Obviously, the sculpture SNOWMAN is not made of snow. High temperatures would not allow it. It was made out of garbage, which Mühlbach collected for just six days on the roadside and on various beaches of the island: mainly plastic garbage, drinking bottles, packaging materials, and garbage from metal, such as beverage cans.
https://www.instagram.com/torsten_muehlbach/
Nuria Mora
Breathing
Fisher net and 7 km of multi colored ribbons (satin and organza)
A fisherman's net and 7 Km of satin and organza ribbon in an abandoned boathouse are the elements that make up Nuria Mora’s piece for Paxos Biennale 2022 in Erimitis. Ribbons of many colours draw on the negative space and compose a site specific sculpture adapting to the cartography of the chosen site, an abandoned boathouse full of "a nameless quality".
This piece speaks of movement, interior and underwater oscillations such as those of the Posidonia Mediterránea algae meadows, the so-called lungs of the sea. (20 liters of oxygen per day and per 1m² of Posidonia meadow). But not only does it pay homage to the oxygenation of the seas, carried out by these endemic seagrass meadows of the Mediterranean and essential for the landscape and aquatic life of Paxos, it also speaks of breathing and its poetic interpretations.
The morphology of this piece emulates these meadows but both its execution and its observation are an invitation to stillness and meditation. They speak of movement of the sea and the wind as well as our place in it. They speak of the need to observe more than to look, a need for a place for analysis and reflection. They speak of immersing themselves like Hans Reiter in Roberto Bolaño's novel “2666”, in an inner world and the need to find a safe place from which to become strong.
He speaks of a landscape and his interaction to it, his being drawn into its depths, but above all the metaphor speaks of the need to differentiate the surface from the background. A place where our own inner world is built and from where we can submerse ourselves in the pleasure of reflection and free thought.
Roberto Bolaño uses the metaphor of the sea to talk about the bottom and the surface.
("In 1920 Hans Reiter was born. He didn't look like a child but an algae. He didn't like the land and even less the forests. He didn't like the sea either or what ordinary mortals call the sea and which is really only the surface of the sea, the waves bristling with the wind that little by little have become the metaphor of defeat and madness. What he liked was the bottom of the sea, that other land, full of plains and valleys that were not valleys and precipices that were not precipices.”)
This installation offers up poetic and aesthetic experiences, it is full of life, it broadens the meaning of art and reaffirms Robert Fillou's quote: “art is what makes life more interesting than art”.
http://www.nuriamora.com/