Anastasia Zoi Souliotou
Born in 1987 in Volos (Greece). She lives and works between Paris and Athens
Lieux à partager, 2013
Places to share, 2013
Τόποιναμοιραστούμε, 2013
Installation: plastic tool, acrylics, prints in paper
Site-specific installation
Text by Manolis Karterakis, art theorist, museologist – Curator of the exhibition “Partages”
Entwining a few of the modern theories on multidimensional networks, Anastasia Zoe Souliotou explores, using various materials -paint, sketching, stamps, installation, performance, new media- the contemporary ways of transportation, both natural and virtual, between different places ; especially within urban space, without limiting herself to them. The method she used for her work, which often implies the participation of the spectators, who become the main actor in the functioning of this transport’s medium, unveils a message that is always and universally open and that calls for a surpassing of one’s national frontiers and a participation to the dialogue between cultures.
Her work Lieux à partager, a construction in the form of an ”antique” vase, which contains sheets of printed or painted paper, is the synthesis in situ and in vivo of a process that begun as a blog, all along the artist’s stay at the Foundation Hellénique of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris during the academic year 2012-2013. Firstly, the artist created an on-line invitation, where she invited all the potential participants, and especially the residents of the Cité U, to share with her their own personal locations, real or imaginary, of departure or destination. She then printed on paper and started working in a plastic way, on the names and the images of the locations, which she received. Thus, looking to unveil the intimate milestones that vary in a very discreet way, playful but also respectful, while keeping a personal link with every participation. She emphasised on the diversity of the materials, the forms, the colours, the textures and the aromas.
Finally, all these testimonies where put inside the antique vase -though made with modern materials- where the visitor is invited to ”dig” in order to discover and decipher their messages while implicating their various meanings. This vase, an everyday object since ancient times, has become a symbol of a universal civilisation, with its sober and transparent presentation at the very centre of the Main Hall of the Fondation Hellénique, a place of the everyday activity for its residents, is surrounded by the statements of the residents, who share their personal links with Fondation Hellénique and Greece as a topos of meeting. The vase enables us to recreate the structure of the space in the Main Hall and to install a platform of multi-dimensional, multi-temporal and multi-spatial dialogues. In such a way that the classic form of space is put forward and becomes again a place of contemplating about the values of harmony and of the moderation of different forms ; but at the same time, it is transformed into other places, beyond its walls. The balance between the past history, often lived out, and the present time, is very sensibly inscribed with all its fragility, whereas the value of the human being is put in the centre of the action. Milestones and at the same time a touching gesture, the action swings from the personal statement to the collective sharing and is enriched by its liberating and free opening towards the entire world.
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