“Athens Art Residency,” was established in 2013 as the first official Art Residency in Athens and supported by a European fund (NFRS: National Strategic Reference Framework 2007–2013) and the public art programme “Publicscapes: Art and Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere.”

Located in the historical centre of Athens, overlooking the Parthenon, the programme supports artistic research and production for art professionals from around the world and will select established and emerging artists to share a live/work space for a six-week programme marked by intimate studio visits with, and public lectures by, distinguished leaders in contemporary art and curation and to exhibit for the following four-weeks at the Exhibition Space.

 “Athens Art Residency” is supported by the European Fund (NFRS) for the production of the project “Operation of Hosting of Artists and Personalities of the Arts and Production of Cultural Activities, Visual Artworks and the organisation of Exhibitions, Publications, Art Events and Educational Workshops and their respective publication” that offers an engaging programme, open and free of charge to the public, and that has an impact on Greek contemporary culture by addressing both local and international audiences. The residency aims to accommodate artists so as to promote international exchange of practice and knowledge in the arts (visual and sound art, architecture, performance) and to investigate points of intersection between the arts and the public sphere by means of public interventions and educational programmes.

Accommodation and Exhibition Spaces

The cultural and educational programme take place at “Pantheon’s” exhibition centre and residency (430m² venues) that are located at 12 Athinas street in the historic centre of Athens (Monastiraki).

The Art Residency is quartered in two floors of the building, the 320sq.m exhibition space is situated on the 2^nd floor and the accommodation on the 7^th floor a 111sq.m space with a panoramic view of Athens, in particular of the Archaeological sites of the Parthenon, of Thission and Lycabettus. The exhibition space of the residency and the space for the production of works by the artists is located on 2^nd floor while on the 7^th floor the art-professionals are accommodated in an astonishing flat with a 150sq.m terrace.

The Non-Profit Organisation

The organisation is actively committed to the research, development and presentation of influential contemporary art exhibitions (ROOMS, Visions, Unfair). “Pantheon” is best known for its critical contribution to contemporary art in Greece, and has presented innovative art events in public venues. The non-profit organisation is committed to the promotion of emerging artists and organises/curates the historic annual exhibition since 2000, entitled “Rooms,” in collaboration with established curators and art historians, that aims to present talented emerging artists that haven’t yet presented their work at solo exhibitions. “Pantheon” has been awarded a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the production of the contemporary art exhibition ROOMS2012. The non-profit organisation is registered at the bureau of the Greek Ministry of Culture and is associated to Kappatos Gallery, a gallery that has introduced to the greek public acclaimed international artists such as: Marina Abramoviç, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Phil Collins, Nasos Daphnis, Jan Dibbets, Rebecca Horn, Roni Horn, William Kentridge, Kai Schiemenz, Penny Siopis, Theodoros Stamos.

“Athens Art Residency” launches a distinctive programme that will appeal to the contemporary art world as a ground-breaking visual art institution and aims to enhance the Athenian cultural sector by promoting international artistic expertise and new art movements. The implementation of these objectives is a priority for all the decisions made by the board of the Residency in relation to the exhibition programme.

Artistic and Organisational Board (AOB)

The Residency’s Artistic and Organisational Board aims to safeguard the transparency of the programme its international status with regard to the quality of the provided hospitality and the production of cultural and educational programmes.

The Residency’s AOB (Artistic and Organisational Board) has the responsibility of organising the programme and of selecting members to form an honorary consulting international committee, that consists of acclaimed international art professionals: artists, art historians, collectors, curators, academics and directors of museums, art fairs and institutions such as Marina Abramovic, Lynda Benglis, Katerina Koskina and others.

The members of the committee have a significant impact on the Residency’s decision making by proposing artists, by participating at the educational programmes and by discussing with the Art Residency’s staff for the implementation of the aims of the programme.

 The Residency’s AOB is also responsible for the selection of supporters and sponsors, so as to secure the effective operation, the high quality, the consistency and longevity of the programme as a institution that is culturally active in Greece and internationally.

The AOB promotes international exchange and the educational programme of the Residency by travelling abroad and by coming into personal contact and exchange with important institutions, universities and artists, so as to launch collaborative projects, conferences and academic research programmes.

The Art Residency is an original programme that advances cultural growth in the context of contemporary art and constitutes an important initiative for the introduction and establishment of a new institute for the advancement of the artistic and creative activities offered in Athens. The AOB co-ordinates the Residency and implements the educational and cultural programme.

Schedule

–The hosting of two artists or groups every year for the duration of three years, until 31/12/2015. Each resident will be accommodated for 6 weeks at the Residency space.

–Two exhibitions per year for the duration of three years until 31/12/2015. The exhibition of each artist or artist group will be organised for 4-6 weeks time in the exhibition space of the residency.

The aforementioned activities will be documented by the following ways and will be produced as a result of these processes:

-A detailed programme of the Residency, which will be available online

-A folder including the educational programmes and actions for each artist

-Photographic material and video of the artistic events

-Printed material, posters, flyers, programme of events, invitations

-Copies of Press Releases (1/event) and Press Interview

-Copies of printed material

-Copies of press cuttings (articles in newspapers and magazines) with references to the Residency

-Copies of pages from the visitor book

-Website of the residency

Selection Criteria: Emerging and of Acclaimed Artists

The AOB in collaboration with the honorary international committee is responsible for the selection of “Emerging” and “Established” artists (sculptors, painters, new media artists, installation artists, performers, etc.) The established artists are invited by Residency’s AOB.

The “Emerging” artists or artist groups/collectives (sculptors, painters, new media artists, installation artists) are invited to send their portfolio via an open call published at relevant sites and international networks.

The criteria for the selection of emerging artists are based on artistic excellence, research and practice, academic studies, contemporary art production, interdisciplinary artistic creation, interest in the development of interrelations with the local art scene and the audience of the country. In conjunction with participation to international exhibitions, festivals, “independent/alternative” art spaces and contribution to publications and editions of contemporary art.

The residency is committed to promoting and practicing diversity and equality of opportunity.

The criteria for the selection of acclaimed artists are based on their status in the international contemporary art world, the originality and importance of their work, and on their impact on contemporary thought and methodologies; furthermore, on their ability to disseminate knowledge and insights through workshops, masterclasses, and perhaps their interest in the cultural production of Greece, the history and culture of the country.

Athens Art Residency employs scientific personnel with graduate, postgraduate or doctorate degrees in the fields of Theory/History/Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, as well as with experience, knowledge, responsibility and expertise in the art sector.

Athens Art Residency Team

Artistic Director : Dr. Sozita Goudouna

Programme Associate: Foteini Vergidou and Evangelia Ledaki

Athens Art Residency is pleased to invite you to the opening of the spring cycle of the first official residency programme in Athens under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, supported by a European fund (NSRF: National Strategic Reference Framework 2007 – 2013) and the first solo exhibition of the British Artist-in-Residence Martin Creed curated by the programme’s artistic director art historian Dr. Sozita Goudouna and independent curator Nefeli Skarmea.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Santiago Sierra: I pay tribute to Loukanikos

Efimerida Syntakton
If these days you see dogs dressed in black T-shirts that say "I have no money" circulating in Syntagma and in the central squares, do not be surprised. This is the action "Athens stray dogs project" of the famous Spanish artist Santiago Sierra and is dedicated to Sausage and Canellos, the two strays that accompanied the protesters.
The 49-year-old artist, who is in Athens as part of the hospitality program of the Kappatos Gallery, defends the political role of art with a bold, aggressive, groundbreaking work and speech. He studied art in Madrid, where he was born, in Mexico and Hamburg, and since the mid-1990s has been working around the world on works that bring to the fore issues such as repression, exploitation, and oppression.
In 2003 he represented his country at the Venice Biennale and has exhibited in many museums (Tate Modern-London, MoMA PS1-New York, Reykjavik Art Museum, Konsthall-Stockholm, Kunst Werke-Berlin etc.). One of his most famous actions is a huge sculpture with the word "No", which expresses the negatives of capitalism and he carried it around in a truck in various places, such as the European Parliament and Wall Street, while shooting a black and white video as a street movie.
Equally powerful as a punch in the stomach is the black-and-white video for the "Pigs Eating Peninsulas" trilogy now on display at the Kappatos Gallery, where groups of pigs eat a natural map of the peninsulas of Greece, Italy and the Iberian.

• Is this an allegory of the consequences of the financial crisis?
It is an objective and realistic trilogy that one can enjoy as a family. I believe that the Greek public will weep with sadness when they see her. I made large maps from animal feed, and the pigs were celebrating. When they ate the Greek peninsula it was calm and elegant, beautiful and clean, and they were not in a hurry at all. The pigs that ate the Italian peninsula were playful, rummaged through Naples or Tuscany, took shape and fell gliding happily. They even ate whatever was under the map or the plaster on the walls of the room, so that in the end Italy looked like a painting by Jackson Pollock. The pigs that ate the Iberian Peninsula were the most violent. They were on Barcelona, ​​peeing on Lisbon and fighting in Madrid; some vomited ...
• I imagine there are references to the PIGS tip and other labels that cultivate differences between southern and northern Europeans ...
Typically, the villains who rule the world present the victims as guilty: the Indians were savages, the Palestinians are snakes, the blacks are stupid and lustful - they all deserve the worst. Now it's our turn and suddenly they call us pigs, while they even steal our dishes. However, from the perspective of the people, there are no bigger pigs than the capitalists and their friends. And this is exactly what I am telling with the video of my trilogy. There are people everywhere, both in the South and in the North, who are very similar, and do nothing but work to make the tyrants rich. I will not play this game, because the French are like that and the Croats are like that; the differences do not matter, they are tricks to distract you. For me there is only one Europe, of stateless elites,
• Why do you dedicate the "Athens stray dogs" project to the protest dogs, Loukanikos and Canellos?
You can not talk or reconcile with dogs, they have no ideology and therefore are guided by their instinct. At recent social struggles in Athens, dogs were clear when it came to choosing between the world and the extremely violent robocops, what I call "forces of chaos." The Athenian dogs did not doubt whose place it would be. I really like Athenian dogs, and with this work I pay tribute to them. They are heroic and died from the effects of chemicals and wood. We have made T-shirts with the slogan "I have no money" and we distribute them to the homeless in the city with the help of people who love animals, take care of them and protect them. I know that it is obvious and therefore unnecessary to say that dogs do not have money, nor do they need it.

• Would you characterize your art as politics, an intervention in the issues that concern modern society?
I do not understand the intervention. I actually make art that I think the viewer may be interested in. I always think about who my audience is and I try to do projects thinking that it will be worth it for people to come and see them. I am also a part of the art audience and it bothers me when an artist exhibits to show me his introversion. I am not talking about myself, but about us, the world.
• What are usually the reactions of the people to your works?
Except for "beautiful", I have been told everything. But it is natural and it matters who says it. Obviously, a magazine that has ads on its main pages for prostitutes and bank and car ads, which is listed on the Stock Exchange and supports the wars of the empire, will not praise my work. I'm proud that he will not do it. "They bark, that means we are galloping," Don Quixote would say to Sancho Panza. However, I make friends in the places I travel, but they are less noisy than me.


Pirate Club the European Union
• You came back to Greece in 2007 and took part in the Athens Biennale. What differences do you see in the city and in society as we went from growth to recession?
Fortunately, I never saw in Athens a servile and obedient society. Greeks are unruly, like Mexicans or Basques, and that has not changed. It is a city full of anarchists and the anarchists, if they have anything, are right. When I first came to Greece, it was at the height of a time when leaders were stealthily stealing the future. One of my plans that never came to fruition was very prophetic: I wanted to place a banner reading "No to the future" high in a building. I'm afraid we have reached this future that we then deny and now we have to defend ourselves.
• Of course, now we have another government, for the first time Left. Do you think it can build a better future?
It seems like a group of patriots and that's good, it can help. But the only solution to the world's problems is self-organization, the self-management of public affairs, for the people to take power without looking at or following another leader. Do not assign anything to anyone. The European Union is a pirate club and we need to get out of there as soon as possible.
INFO:
Exhibition duration until June 27. Edited by: Dr. Sozita Gudouna. Kappatos Art Gallery, Athenas 12, 2nd floor, Monastiraki. Tuesday-Friday 12.00-20.00 & Saturday 12.00-16.00.

Grand opening

By Ioanna Gomouza - 16/10/2013

With the crisis attracting foreign artists for Athenian residencies, from 17/10 the Kappatos gallery presents its first guest. Drawing inspiration from the proportions of the bilateral symmetry of the human body and its asymmetric expression in the world, the British Mat Chivers will attempt to interpret the Greek socio-political topicality, with emphasis on the elements that can contribute to unity. The exhibition will open with the event-installation "Roots", composed by musician George Symeonidis and choreographer Iris Karagian, a performance which will be presented on 23/11 at Pl. Monastiraki, thus inaugurating the parallel program of the residency "PublicScapes: Contemporary art and curatorial practices in the public space".

Opening Reception: 27/3/14 8pm-11pm

Exhibition Dates: 27/3/14 – 3/5/14

Prior to Miriam Simun’s arrival in Athens for the residency she planned to develop a series of rituals for the ‘eco-city.’ Exploring possibilities for how the human can exist within the urban ecology, these gestures would make use of the individual citizen to provide for the urban ecological environment. Miriam envisioned a series of acts – physical, material, located somewhere between love and futility, in which the human sublimates her own body to care for the larger urban ecological body in which she exists.

Upon her arrival in Athens Miriam Simun immediately began walking the streets. She was absorbing the place, exploring the ecology and collecting debris – a sort of excavation of contemporary archeological artifacts. Certain locations proved particularly fruitful archeological sites, and as my daily route emerged, she encountered the other regulars making the rounds. People expertly sifting and collecting cardboard in shopping carts, rummaging in dumpsters for discarded clothes, carefully searching the trash cans for discarded food. Young and old, disheveled and well-dressed, friendly and scowling, foreign and Greek, serious and drunk, all of these Athenians scavenge daily. In physical, material ways, they forage in the urban ecology to nourish their own bodies. A sort of ‘living off the urban land.’

The work thus adapted, to portray a symbiotic relationship between human organism and lived environment of city streets. At the intersection of ecological and financial crisis, the relationship between the urban body and the human body is shaken. It is restructuring, rearranging, and rife, simultaneously, with despair and possibility. It is within this context that Simun locates a series of rituals for city life.

Miriam Simun creates the series “Three Rituals for the Eco-City.”

Rituals are among the first symbols of culture, often used to perform the human experience of ecological processes, such as birth and death; eating and drinking; markers of time whether passing to adulthood or the change of seasons. Simun interested in exploring the relationship between ecology, human ritual (and the ideology and culture it signifies), and the performance of multi-species bodies in urban space.

For “Three Rituals for the Eco-City,” each ritual proposes a way of being in the world that challenges our conceptions of what it means to ‘live ecologically’ and to build and participate in ‘eco-cities.’ Building on recent work by Bruno Latour, Timothy Morton, and Slavoj Zizek, these rituals reject the concept of ‘nature’ in favor of a more holistic understanding of ecology. According to this thinking, whether or not we accept ’nature’ as inextricably linked to ourselves, the very conceptualization of ‘nature’ positions ecological forces in opposition to the human and human-built ‘civilization.’

‘Nature’ is thus positioned as something other than human. “Three Rituals for the Eco-City” takes a systemic approach to viewing the natural world, understanding the human species (including human industry, artifice and pollution) as a fundamental part of the global ecological system.

“Three Rituals for the Eco-City” imagines three daily personal rituals for a world without nature. Three rituals – intimate and personal activities – are re-imagined as bodily performances that not only perform their human function but address the actions’ greater ramifications on the ecological system within which they reside. Thus the ritual incorporates action/performance, meaning/symbol, and reflection/re-action, displaying an intentionality and corporeality towards not only the human action but a redress to its ecological effect.

During the course of the residency Miriam performs and documents each ritual. Each ritual will involve an object, a performance, and will result in a video piece. The ritual object serves a functional purpose for the action, existing as a physical connection between the human body that performs, and the other urban bodies that are cared for, during the ritual performance. Some performances may include participation of invited audience or passers-by. Each piece will perform a ritual for living in the new eco-city: a ritual for eating, a ritual for cleaning, and a ritual for mourning.

(1) A ritual for mourning: This is a performance developed in New York, that will be adapted for an Athenian context. The urban mourning ritual is re-imagined through an exercise regimen that cares for the living human body and monitors other species’ living bodies while attending to the memory of the dead. Understanding the city cemetery to be a biodiversity hotspot in urban areas, mourners wear video-headbands in a regimen that combines regular exercise, memory, and monitoring of local biodiversity levels. The ritual object is the video-headband, modeled after the sport headband used to collect sweat, but with the addition of video camera to collect images of, and thus monitor, the surrounding species. I will create new video-headbands during the residency (NYC versions already exist), and document this performance in an Athenian cemetery.

(2) A ritual for cleaning: This performance will be further developed and performed during the residency. In ancient Athens, the cleaning ritual was an important social activity in addition to a personal bodily practice. In 3 Rituals for the Eco-city, the bodily cleaning ritual is re-imagined to once again include a multi-species social function. Incorporating not only the fresh water we use to clean our bodies, this ritual makes use of our bodies also to dispose of the used (grey) water in a way that feeds the greater ecological system. How do we maintain our bodies while maintaing the bodies of the others around us? This performance begins in the shower and ends in the street. The ritual object is a water sack that turns the human body into a watering can. Used water collected during the shower is later carried in the street by the clean body, to be distributed to plants within the city through bodily exercises that turn the human body upside down. The ritual ‘watering’ exercises will be developed during the residency. One example might be standing on the head or the hands in places where plants are growing, tipping the water sack so some water is poured on the ground, and thus ‘feeding’ urban plant bodies with water collected during the cleaning of the human body.

(3) A ritual for eating: This ritual will be developed during the residency. I would like to spend some time doing research into the rituals of the Symposium and the Syssitia, as well of the Orphicist and Pythagorean religions, and compare them with contemporary rituals of Athenians eating in public spaces and in the street. From this research I will create an ‘eating in public’ ritual, also with the incorporation of a ritual object.

Artistic Director: Sozita Goudouna
Programme Associate: Evangelia Ledaki

http://www.miriamsimun.com 

In partnership with the Kingston Writing School, we’re proud to announce the second annual International Creative Writing Summer School.

This year the International Creative Writing Summer School will be bigger and better, with specialist workshops for anyone wishing to enhance their skills and talent as a writer. Established writers and Kingston University professors will work in small groups with writers from across the world on an intensive programme, which will involve workshops, a range of writing activities, group discussions, readings and one-to-one tutorials.

Courses on offer will include fiction, poetry, non-fiction, literary translation and a mixed genre course. A series of lectures on contemporary British literature and art in Greece will also take place as part of the summer school.

The International Creative Writing Summer School aims to give writers the opportunity to explore and develop their imaginative and expressive potential, and to raise their awareness of the technical and compositional issues associated with writing.

Courses will be held in English and are suitable for writers at all levels. They will take place every day from Monday to Friday between 18.30 and 21.00 in Athens and Thessaloniki. See below for dates and provisional course details.

Registration opens on 11 March 2014.

ATHENS

Fiction/Flash Fiction Writing Course

Two-week course: 2–14 June 2014
with Adam Baron and Aimee Parkison

designed for aspiring and accomplished writers alike who want to develop and enhance their prose writing skills
combines precise comments in peer-led workshops with individual feedback on written drafts
helps students develop and enhance their authentic voice
Non-fiction Writing Course

Two-week course: 2–14 June 2014
with Maurice Walsh and Norma Clarke

designed for writers working in all types of non-fiction, including life writing (memoir and autobiography), biography, journalism, diaries and personal essay
includes close reading of each student’s work, analysis of examples from literature, classroom exercises, writing time, group discussion and debate
examines and records the students’ own personal experiences as well as the life experiences of others, and explores the benefits of studying all in the context of the other
Mixed Genre Writing Course

Three-week course: 2–21 June 2014
with Bonnie Greer, Catherine Smith and Jonathan Barnes

designed for writers of all levels working across genres, including novels, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, short stories, flash fiction, non-fiction and radio plays
builds students’ confidence and encourages them to discuss and develop their work, and to improve their critical abilities
provides precise, editorial comments and professional advice about the wider direction and ideas of the students’ work
looks at a range of elements and forms related to various genres including form, structure, characterisation, dramatic setting, rhythm, pacing, concision, expansion, tone, point of view, editing, reading and performance
Poetry Writing Course

Two-week course: 16–28 June 2014
with Jane Yeh and Paul Perry

designed for students primarily interested in exploring poetry and language
provides precise, editorial comments as well as advice about the wider direction and ideas of students’ work
emphasises dramatic monologue, syllabic verse, the prose poem, ars poetica, docu-poetry, and contemporary poetics and poetry
Fiction Writing Course

Two-week course: 16–28 June 2014
with Julia Stuart and Dr James Miller

designed primarily for aspiring and established writers who want to develop and enhance their prose writing skills
combines precise comments in peer-led workshop sessions with individual feedback on written drafts
emphasises discussions and exercises that will help students to discover, explore and enhance their personal style and vision
Literary Translation Course

Two-week course: 16–28 June 2014
with David Connolly, Nicole Miller and Simos Zeniou

involves practice in translating literary texts to a professional level
provides theoretical input concerning the strategies for dealing with the problems that arise in literary translation
Lecture Series: British Literature and Art in Greece

Every Saturday: 31 May–28 June 2014 (31 May, 7 June, 14 June, 21 June & 28 June)

This series of five early afternoon lectures (PDF, 89 kb) will explore a range of topics related to British literature and art in Greece. Designed to raise as many questions at they answer, the lectures will examine the complex relationships between British writers and artists in various Greek contexts, including ethnicity, fiction, memoir and photography. Writers will read from their work as well as engage with audiences in a relaxed atmosphere of stimulating critical reflection.

Details

Location British Council, 17 Kolonaki Square, 106 73 Athens

and Art Professionals in Athens Residency, 12 s st, 2nd and 7th Floor, 12 Athinas st, 10554, Monastiraki, Athens

Four Lectures will take place at Art Professionals in Athens Residency

 31 May 2014 | Bonnie Greer

 7 June 2014  | Paul Bailey 

14 June 2014  | Barbara Taylor 

21 June |  Paul Perry 

28 June |  Lindsay Smith

Teaching staff  

Bonnie Greer, OBE, is an American-British playwright, novelist and critic. She is also the Chancellor of Kingston University. Her novels include Hanging by Her Teeth, Entropy, and Obama Music. She has also published Langston Hughes: the Value Of Contradiction and the following plays: Munda Negra, Dancing On Blackwater and Jitterbug.

Paul Perry Paul Perry is the author of acclaimed books including The Drowning of the Saints, Goldsmith’s Ghost, 108 Moons, The Orchid Keeper and most recently The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance. A winner of The Hennessy Award for Irish Literature, he is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing for Kingston University, London and editor of Beyond the Workshop (KUP). With Karen Gillece, he writes ‘Karen Perry’ thrillers, forthcoming with Penguin UK. Holt US.

Barbara Tayloris a Canadian-born British-based historian and historical author specialising in Enlightenment History, Gender Studies and the History of Subjectivity. She is Professor of Humanities at Queen Mary University of London England. She wrote a biography of Mary Wollstonecarft (1759-1797), the early English feminist and republican and continues to speak on her life, for example in 2009 at Newington Green Unitarian Church as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of Wollstonecraft’s birth. Her memoir “The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times” was published in February 2014.

Paul Bailey is one of the most esteemed British novelists who has taught creative writing at major universities in the UK and US. He is the author of eleven novels, two of which, Peter Smart’s Confessions (1977) and Gabriel’s Lament (1986), were nominated for the Booker Prize for Fiction, and four books of non-fiction. His latest novel, The Prince’s Boy, will be published this spring by Bloomsbury. He currently teaches creative writing at Kingston University.

Lindsay Smith is professor of English at the University of Sussex and co-director of the Sussex Centre for Visual fields. A specialist in 19th century non-fictional prose, painting, and photography as well as visual perception, photography theory and early 20th century British literature and art, she is the author of many influential articles. Her books include Victorian Photography, Painting and Poetry; The Politics of Focus: Women, Children and Nineteenth-century Photography; Pre-Raphaelistism: Poetry and Painting. Her next book on the photographs of Lewis Carroll will be published by Reakton Press. Her current research focuses on British photographs of Athens and the Acropolis.

In 2001, Martin Creed won the Turner, Britain's top art prize, for his groundbreaking work "Work No.227, The lights going on and off". In a completely empty room, the lights went on and off every five seconds. The reactions were stormy. Some enjoyed lying in the center of the room with their eyes closed, while others threw eggs at the walls shouting, "this is not art, the end of painting has come."

Since then, Critt has become the first news in art publications with conceptual, post-minimalist works that combine painting with multimedia, ordinary materials with dance and music that he writes, urging the overall art experience. He has made large neon constructions with words like "Mothers", "Feelings", which create positive energy, he has filled rooms with balloons, turning cold spaces into "playgrounds". He has runners running up and down the Tate Britain, surprising - or frightening - the visitors, who were standing in front of the paintings. He also called on his compatriots to ring bells and bells with the song "All the bells in the country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes", which marked the start of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The awesome child of contemporary British art provokes with his work, not with his attitude towards life. Low-key, discreet, reminiscent of Bob Dylan he admires. His phrases come out with the dropper. "I was probably influenced in this by my Quaker parents, religiously and politically active, who believed that if you did not have something substantial to say, do not say it. I do not want to flood the space with words and also I do not want to flood the halls with works. "I do not like gossip in life and in art", the 47-year-old artist tells us. He is in Athens this month. A guest of the Kappatos gallery creates a work especially for Greece, which will be unveiled on March 27.

Born in Wakefield, raised in Glasgow, he studied in London (Slade School of Art) and enjoys traveling. He is visiting Athens for the first time and here he sought his inspiration. He walked around the alleys of the historic center, the market in Monastiraki, went up to the Acropolis, visited the Acropolis Museum and Benaki in Kolonaki, gave a lecture at the Fine Arts for students. He works intensively. She designs on the computer, spreads fabrics in the gallery loft, operates an old sewing machine and plays the guitar in his sanctuary. "Athens is accessible, the people are very friendly," he tells us. "Of course in England I hear a lot about the financial crisis, which excites me to search and find out. "My first impression is of a healthy city."

However, his long-distance relationship with Greece is long-standing. "The philosophical thought of the ancients has fascinated me since I was a student, as well as classical art focusing on the human body, as well as architecture. At first I was scared by the idea of ​​coming to Greece, with its long history, richness of ideas and art. The idea of ​​the project, which I am doing now, is based on all this. Mainly in the body, but in a minimalist process. What you will see will include paintings, pieces of fabric, without cuts and seams, that will form human bodies. A dancer will be in conversation with these figures, in combination with the new songs that I am preparing ".

• What things have defined you as a creator since your youth?

From my adolescence I read a lot, I was interested in psychology, I was learning music, I wanted to study art. I was particularly interested in Austrian Secessionist artists, such as Gustav Klimt and Joseph Hoffmann. The combination of fine and applied arts. I do not separate high culture from popular culture, it is one. A painting, a pop song, fashion, everything is art for me.

• The impression is created that for you emotion is more important than matter.

I believe that emotions dominate the world. Thought and logic is a desperate attempt to manage emotions, to put them under control. But, in the end, emotions always win. Because it is magic. The problem when I work is that I have to be reasonable enough. For example, to come to Athens I had to get on a plane and then get organized where I live, think about what I will do, find the materials ... I had not decided anything in advance. It would be very restrictive, very boring! In the end, a job is good when it is "alive", that is, the opposite of logic.

• Are you anxious every time to show something different?

I try to do new things, but many times this is a way to solve an old problem. At this stage I try to be more direct as I implement an idea. I do not want to be complicated. When I play music I want the stage and the audience to become one, as well as my exhibitions, to be in direct communication with the world.

• Is it easy to communicate with the public, especially if they are not familiar with contemporary art?

I believe that spectators are always involved even when they are standing and looking at a painting. You go to a museum, to a gallery and you walk, you look, you breathe, you think. Paintings are not static, because people move, so art is kinetic. I try to intensify the energy, when, say, I make them walk between balloons, I seek their participation and an experience that makes you ask and wonder.

• And what role does music play in your works?

I play with my band often, and other times alone. My music works both independently and in relation to a project. I grew up with classical music at my parents' house and then got into pop and folk, which is popular in Scotland. I like Johnny Cass and the simplicity of country, but especially Bob Dylan, because he managed to stay true and honest.

• How much has the Turner Prize changed your life?

He definitely changed it ... it had an effect on me, but also on those around me, because I no longer had to introduce myself. If you win such an award, others trust your work, you do not need to try to prove it. I noticed, however, that the younger curators did not include me in their reports, because I suddenly became part of an established, even though I was young. Maybe they found me boring ...

• Does the award keep its momentum today?

When I got it I was constantly on the channels with hourly tributes and interviews. It was considered something "big" then, but now it does not surprise much and does not make so much noise. However, he has created a great art scene, to which I am glad to belong.

Do you think that some Turner Prize winners or nominees, such as Damien Hirst or Tracy Emin, used it to promote themselves more than their work?

The truth is that some British artists, especially Brit Art representatives, have escaped, become ostentatious. Of course, artists by definition seek the attention of others, narcissism is innate. It's ridiculous, perhaps, that what you do is so important that it has to go into a gallery. It is an illusion that you must control. The best works I have seen have been done by vulnerable, sensitive people and reveal humanity.

• Has the criticism that you have received from the media, both praiseworthy and sometimes negative, affected you?

I have not read anything written about me for two years. When I read them I was very upset. I think writing about art is creative, but also dangerous because words are a means in themselves. When I watch the news on TV I feel it is dangerous, because words do not really tell what is happening. A story based on reality comes out, but it is not reality, it is an interpretation of it, a fabricated story.

• Last year was your first retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. What is it like to choose and see 25-year-old works together?

The choice was difficult and finally when the exhibition opened I felt as if they were not the same works I had done. For example, a painting from when I was 15 years old and was in my parents' room, when I saw it in the museum I thought it was something completely different, as if someone made an exact copy.

• Would you describe your work as autobiographical?

I do not separate life from art. I feel that my art is the way I live. My works show a simple, clean approach to life and help me survive in a chaotic world.

Info:

The exhibition opens on March 27, at the Kappatos Gallery (Athinas 12, tel. 210 3217931), as part of the Artists and Art Personalities Hospitality Program in Athens. Curator: Sozita Goudouna, artistic director of the program, Nefeli Skarmea, independent curator.

Professor Semir Zeki visited Art Professionals in Athens Residency on Wednesday 19 of March 2014, in conjunction with the honorary doctorate that he was granted by the Medical School of the University of Athens:

Semir Zeki FMedSci FRS is a British neurobiologist who has specialized in studying the primate visual brain and more recently the neural correlates of affective states, such as the experience of love, desire and beauty that are generated by sensory inputs within the field of neuroesthetics. He was educated at University College London (UCL) where he was Henry Head Research Fellow of the Royal Society before being appointed Professor of Neurobiology. Since 2008 he has been Professor of Neuroesthetics at UCL.

His early work was mainly anatomical in nature and consisted in charting visual areas in the primate (monkey) brain by studying their connections, leading him to define several visual areas lying anterior to the primary visual cortex (area V1) of the brain.^[1][2] This was followed by recording from single cells in these areas, which led him to the view (a) that there is a functional specialization in the visual cortex, with different visual areas undertaking different visual tasks, such as the processing of colour, motion and form ^[3] and (b) that the visual brain processes these different attributes in parallel.^[4]

He later showed, using brain imaging techniques, that the same principles apply to the organization of the human visual brain.^[5] In recent work he has shown that parallel processing appears to extend beyond the mere processing of visual signals to their grouping in parietal cortex.^[6] His work on colour vision was influenced by the work and methods of Edwin Land, whose techniques he employed in his physiological and brain imaging experiments,^[7] and which led him to the view that colour is constructed by the brain and that a specialized visual area, area V4, is critical to this process.^[8]

These findings raised the question of how the signals processed in these separate visual areas are integrated to give a unified picture of the visual world. In psychophysical experiments undertaken with colleagues, he showed that we perceive, and become aware of, different visual attributes at different times, with colour preceding motion by about 80 ms and form (orientation) by about 40 ms,^[9] leading to the view that there is a temporal asynchrony in vision which is the result of different processing speeds for different attributes. This in turn led him to suggest that visual consciousness is not unified; rather there are many visual micro-consciousness which are distributed in time and space,^[10] and that activity in each visual area can acquire a conscious correlate without the necessity of reporting to another cortical area, though acknowledging that there must be other enabling systems, possibly located in the reticular formation.^[11] Thus, functional specialization manifests itself in the temporal sequence with which we see different attributes such as colour

More recently he has also studied the brain reaction to affective states generated by sensory inputs, such as the experience of love^[12] and hate.^[13] His studies of the experience of visual^[14]and musical beauty has led him to suggest that a specific part of the emotional brain, field A1 of the medial orbito-frontal cortex, is critical for such experiences.^[15]

He has lectured widely across the world, giving over 60 named lectures, including the Ferrier Lecture (Royal Society 1995); The Philip Bard Lecture (Johns Hopkins University, 1992); The Woodhull Lecture (Royal Institution, London, 1995); The Humphrey Davy Lecture (Académie des Sciences, Paris, 1996); The Grass Foundation Forbes Lectures (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA 1997; Carl Gustave Bernhard Lecture (Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, 1996; and the Tizard Lecture (Westminster School, London, 2004) among others.

He has published three books, A Vision of the Brain (Blackwell, Oxford 1993 – translated into Japanese and Spanish), Inner Vision: an exploration of art and the brain (OUP, 1999); Splendors and Miseries of the Brain (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2009) and co-authored La Quête de l’essentiel, Les Belles Lettres, Archimbaud, Paris, 1995 (with Balthus, Count Klossowski de Rola) and La bella e la bestia, 2011, Laterza, Italy (with Ludovica Lumer).

He held an exhibition of his own art work at the Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan in 2011 (Bianco su bianco: oltre Malevich).

He was Editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (B) from 1997 to 2004.

He has been a Trustee of Fight for Sight, a Guarantor of the neurological journal Brain, a member and then Chairman of the Wellcome Trust Vision Panel and a member of the National Science Council of France (1998-2002).

He has been a Visiting Fellow or Professor at St Andrews University; Ludwig-Maxilmilians University, Munich; Duke University, USA, University of California (Berkeley), among other institutions. He has conducted a number of public dialogues with writers, artists and art historians, including Dame Antonia Byatt, Balthus, Hans Belting, Peter Sellars, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Tetsuo Miyajima.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (1990), Member of the Academia Europeae (1991), Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg) (1993), Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society (1998), Founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1998), Fellow of University College London (2000) and Honorary Member of the Physiological Society (2013).

D.Sc. (honoris causa) from Aston University, Aberdeen University and University of Athens.

Prizes include The Golden Brain Award (1985), Prix Science pour l’art (1991), Rank Prize in Opto-Electronics (1992) (jointly with A. Movshon and T. Adelson), Zotterman Prize (1993); Koetser Foundation Prize (1997), Award in Electronic Imaging (2002); King Faisal International Prize in Biology (2004), Erasmus Medal (Academia Europeae, 2008), Aristotle Gold Medal (2011) and Rome Prize (Atena Onlus) (2012).