27 Aug. 2012
OMMU at THE GREEK PAVILLON
organised by the Berlin Kreuzberg Biennale
In 2012 the Berlin Kreuzberg Biennale is in exile.
The idea of a Greek Pavillon has been developed in collaboration with Greek artists, curators and others.
A series of exhibitions features a perspective from inside the Greek reality under the influence of a european crisis.
The aim of this years edition is to draw some attention to the serious situation in Greece as well as to give an inside view of it to the people abroad.
OMMU presents Pre-Paradise Sorry Now
A presentation of Greek artists’ publications starting from the 60s and up to contemporary production, a body of work which from time to time is brought back to the surface. It functions both as an archive, as well as ‘new’, ‘fresh’ work, reflecting to contemporary art practices, book-making and artists’ publishing. The content also relates to art, literature as well as poetry & film.
The presentation is based on a key element which is used to approach the material. The Polygnotan Color Scale.
The colored book covers function as a setting, reflecting the 4 basic colors used by ancient greek painter Polygnotus, a backbone on which we can revisit the archive and place it on a specific background.
The Polygnotan Color Scale uses different visual elements than CMYK, as it totally ignores and omits the color Blue. It is essentially another model of composing a full-color image.
The colors used are Black, White, Red and Yellow (Ochre).
The Scale is transformed into books, which conceivably contain a number of reference Greek art books.
Identifying the nature of the exhibits as a kind of mechanical model – of a return to Paradise – as an electroshock of resuscitation, not from death to life, but from life to Paradise.
From the lost notion of craft, to the sinful print, and from the theatrical heaven of the Persian garden to a Terirem monologue of the Byzantium, the Polygnotan Scale functions as a matrix-uterus on artist book covers, the first encounter with the cover, a question of which color wins you over, the formal Black, the innocent White, the imperial Red, the solar Yellow, the first encounter which resembles the scent of instant Paradise or Hell.
-The title of the show “Pre-paradise Sorry Now’”, is borrowed from Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s theatrical play, his response to the performance ‘Paradise Now’ of the Living Theatre. All rights Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
THE GREEK PAVILLON
KANENAMELLON – EVIL – PRE-PARADISE SORRY NOW
Berlin Kreuzberg Biennale 2012
September 7 2012 – September 9 2012
OPEN MUSEUM / Galerie der Gegenwart / Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
&
September 27 2012 – October 3 2012
PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris