1-16 October 2016, Bouzianis Museum, 27 Bouziani str, Dafni. Part of the 1st European Arts and Mental Health Festival NEFELE. Openning party: Saturday 1st of October, 18.00.
Curator: Maritina Kontaratou
This exhibition is inspired by the convergence of art with psychoanalysis and by the manifestos of artistic movements which meet with Freud and Jung. The landmark of this meeting is automatism, the technique of modernism that unlocks the unconscious, aiming to raw artistic creation («art brut»*). Automatism, according to the correspondence between Breton and Freud, is a parallel to psychoanalysis. Freud used automatism in the diagnosis and treatment of unresolved complexes, while surrealists used it to purge the innermost repressed desires.
The unconscious, and its release, has been the key to modern art. The whole movement of surrealism was based on Freud and Jung. Many artists, expressionists and surrealists, used automatism: Pollock, Dali, Miro, Bacon, De Kooning, Ernst, Ray and many others…
Automatism records around 32 techniques or games that everyone can use to unlock the unconscious. (Some of them are: automatic writing, bulletism, decalcomania, triptography, action painting etc.) Games have been a lifestyle for surrealists, the heart of the movement. Most of them, such as “Exquisite Corpse”, were team games; a “socialization” of contemplation on creativity. In the surrealists’ games, freedom, the “random” and uncertainty were dealt with absolute seriousness.
The exhibition aims to display contemporary artwork based on automatism or some of those games. The visitors are invited to create their own artwork “playing”. They are invited to perceive the unconscious as a playground and exploration field, not something we should hide or be afraid of. At this point we reach to destigmatization.
* Art Brut: what the mentally ill or a child creates, without the restrictions of conscious control.
Participating artists:
Olga Alexopoulou
Manolis Anastasakos
Vanessa Anastasopoulou
Alexis Avlamis
Vasilis Botoulas
NAR (Jacob Volkov)
Beetroot Design
Campus Novel
Grigoria Vrittia
Dimitris Efeoglou
Canuto Kallan
Dimitris Kaliviotis
Christophoros Katsadiotis
Theofilos Katsipanos
Elias Kafouros
Nina Kotamanidou
Michael Kotsaris
Kalliopi Kouklinou
Taxiarchis Mermiris
Christina Mitrentse
Leon Michail
Ivan Masteropoulos
Christina Nakou
Spiros Nakas
Kyriakos Papageorgiou
Babis Papagiannis
Stavroula Papadaki
Katerina Papazisi
Sophia Papacosta
Eri Skyrgianni
Panagiota Staikou
Akrivi Simeonidi
Myrto Ferentinou
Chrysanthos Christodoulou
