Monday, June 23, 2008

In Loving Memory of George Carlin (1937-2008)

"Reminds me of something my grandfather used to say. He used to say "I'm going upstairs and fuck your grandmother." Well, he was an honest guy, you know? He wasn't going to lie to a 5 year old."
- George Carlin -

George Carlin on Language

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

In Athens with David Bonetti-Art Critic, St. Louis Post -Dispatch


David Bonetti at The Breeder gallery in front of Stelios Faitakis’ work.

It’s been great having David in Athens. The conversations were great; the walks pretty long and the wine always chilled. Yesterday, we put our comfy shoes and hit the streets of Psirri for some art viewing. We visited the “Lion under the Rainbow” at D.ART, “Entropy” at Kappatos, “Loop Ahead” at Qbox, “Wake me up before you go go I wasn’t planning on going solo” at a.antonopoulou.art, “What a great day” at The Breeder and finally the opening reception of “Mail Order Monsters” at Andreas Melas Presents (AMP).


Andreas Melas of AMP with Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Projects

“Mail Order Monsters” is a group exhibition curated by Kathy Grayson, exploring new trends in fucked-up figuration. Every generation has its unique take on the figure and the freshest figurative art seems to portray the figure as broken, decaying, uncanny, and monstrous! The show was first shown at Peres Projects in Berlin, it then traveled to Deitch Projects in New York and now it is here in Athens at AMP.

Kathy Grayson, Gallery director of Deitch Projects


Cody Critcheloe of Ssion, Leone Reeves and Jaimie Warren

And Yeahhhh! Our own Boots girls were here to represent in classic mid-western style… they performed in rocking standards and dimensions songs by Ssion and here are the photographs to prove it!







Oh! We had to document the happy reunion.


Blonds first: Leone Reeves, Photo guest, Jaimie Warren – Brunettes: Cody Critcheloe, Georgia Kotretsos, Photo guest



David Bonetti, Critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Helena Papadopoulou of Nice & Fit, Sarah Crowner of Dexter Sinister at the AMP opening



Jeff Koons and Jeffrey Deitch outside the entrance of AMP



Dj’n at Mamacas at GAZI
(after-party)

post by-Georgia Kotretsos
Boots agent/Boot Print,Editor-in-chief

Monday, June 2, 2008

Mapping the European Biennial Network Conference

Sunday, June 1st, 2008, Athens
@ B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music
organized by the Athens Biennial


Augustine Zenakos, Co-Director, Athens Biennial, and Project Manager, Biennial Exchange and Residency Programme
Did you know of the European Biennial Network?

How about its members? Well, here they are: Athens Biennial, berlin biennial, Göteborg Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Manifesta, Liverpool Biennial, Lyon Biennial, Periferic Biennial (Iasi, Romania), Tirana Biennial and Venice Biennial.

Apparently, the European Biennial Network is a collaborative structure in the field of contemporary art that aims to promote dialogue, interaction and collaboration between contemporary art biennials in Europe. It intends to use the knowledge, experience and wealth of information accumulated by organisers of large-scale periodic art events, in order to support the communication and mobility of artists and art professionals.

Also, the European Biennial Network has initiated the BERP (Biennial Exchange and Residency Program), a two-year cycle of activities co-funded by the European Commission, that includes workshops, research visits, traineeship programs for art professionals, artist residencies, etc

The participants of the conference took part in a closed workshop the previous day, the results of which were presented at the conference. This is the first public presentation of the European Biennial Network.
It was an introductory presentation within a supportive, friendly and comforting setting.

A discussion regarding the pros and cons of such a network has yet to take place.
It’s always disappointing seeing less than 10 artists at a conference in Athens and especially when the guest speakers are of this caliber. Other than that, during intermission, some orange juice and a cookie of sort should be offered to the attendees of a 10 am to 5 pm conference.

Overall it partly satisfied my geeky nature on a 96 degree Sunday.
Berlin Biennial: Maike Cruse, Communication and Press & Renate Wagner, Coordination office
& Istanbul Biennial:
 Maya Ersan, Exhibition Management
Lyon Biennial:
 Frederique Gautier, Artistic Coordination with Liverpool Biennial: Antony Pickthall, Head of Marketing & Communications
& Despoina Sevasti: International Projects Coordination, Athens Biennia

"Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk? - Visibility and research, can they go together?": Cush Martinez, Director, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, and Chief Curator, MACBA; "The biennial and art as norm":
 Lars Bang Larsen, independent writer and curator
& "Networked Cultures and the Politics of Connectivity": Peter Mörtenböck, Professor of 
Visual Culture, Vienna University of Technology, and Visiting Fellow, Goldsmiths College, London
 & Helge Mooshammer, Research Fellow, International Research Center for Cultural Studies, Vienna, and Visiting Tutor, Visual Culture Department, Goldsmiths College, London