BIG CITY at Zoumboulakis gallery

ΚΑ-ΚΟ Project (Aris Katsilakis - Harris Kondosphyris), installation

Big city, small city. Real city, fictional city...

The exhibition “Big City” presents aspects of the urban space as imagined or seen by artists who create with different means. Inside a space, that of Athens or the Gallery, real or imaginary landscapes which follow us, puzzle us, motivate us are presented. Despite the successive changes, the city is not yet “abandoned”. It keeps on surrounding us. The exhibition does not have the role of a tribute. It attempts to reinvent in a creative manner the urban landscape and renegotiate the relationship of the citizens with their surrounding space.

Participating artists: Diamantis Aidinis, Iannis Ganas, KA-KO Project (Aris Katsilakis & Harris Kondosphyris), Nikos Lagos, Myrto Stampoulou, Kostas Christopoulos and Daniel Egneus.

Inspired by the “Big City”, John Nenes has written a “colorful” text (see below), while León and his band played music for the “Big City” at the opening night.

“BIG CITY, SMALL DETAILS OF COLOUR” Six love stories with different colour in the streets of Athens.

RED

Red lights blinking on the lonely drivers’ faces. Red – dark – red – dark – waiting - and then changing to green, in the river-like highways, in the night, when they are going nowhere, just wondering without cause.

BLUE

Madonna’s stencils, sprayed on the walls of the nightmarish Asklipiou str., flow like brooks dripping the most real, blue, bluest tears this road has ever seen.

WHITE-BLACK

In the end of this crazy little ascent, Herssonos Street, as it climbs, at the half-broken steps just before you come out to the greeneries of Lycabetus hill, a couple of peasants on their donkey, photocopied in their natural size, in big black and white raster and plastered on the wall, they stare into your eyes as if they are ready to return to their natural environment.

PINK

The grey concrete surfaces in Gazi area, bathed in the orange municipal lights, seem always pink, that of the ostrich’s happiness, rundown by a thousand all-stars.

PUCE

Saturday ends up abruptly, with a large “goup”. Late in the afternoon, the Sunday’s newspaper piles bash on the sideways by the kiosks, declaring with a bang their freshly printed weight of the news they carry and the emptyness of their offers. They dash on the colored puce check tiles – dark, rotten pink, and then you know it’s time to return home.

BRASS

You will always cross Didotou Street and throw a disappointed glance at Elli Lambeti’s bust. Someone never showed up”.

John Nenes

BIG CITY ends on March 10th 2012. Opening hours of the Zoumboulakis gallery are