The International Contemporary Art Fair of Athens
16–19 May 2013
Opening: Thursday 16 May, 19–22:30h (by invitation only)
Hours: Friday 17 May 14–21h,
Saturday 18–Sunday 19 May 12–21h
Faliro Pavilion (TaeKwonDo)
Hellenic Olympic Properties
2 Moraitini str., 175 61 Palaio Faliro
Athens, Greece
Hours: Friday 17 May: 14–21h
Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 May,12–19h
www.art-athina.gr
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Launched in 1993 by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association, Art-Athina stands today as one of the longest-lasting contemporary art fairs in Europe and as the largest annual visual arts event in Greece, attracting 18,000 visitors. A meeting point for international artistic creation, Art-Athina brings together significant Greek and foreign art galleries, cultural institutions, curators, collectors, art critics and art lovers. This year, the fair will proudly present more than 800 artists from four continents, and will unfold a rich parallel programme composed of talks, round tables, presentations, exhibitions and interactive activities.
For full details about the participating galleries in Art-Athina 2013, please see the complete exhibitors list of the 18th edition of Art-Athina here.
Parallel programme
For the parallel programme, Art-Athina invited Marina Fokidis and Artemis Potamianou to organize and curate four different vibrant projects in specially designed spaces in the fair. The curators in collaboration with recognized galleries, globally renowned artists and art theorists prepared a series of exciting projects that boast discussions on contemporary art.
Marina Fokidis organises the Symposia and invites 12 renowned international art personalities to present and discuss their curatorial methodologies and challenges. The speakers list includes Chiara Bertola (Curator of Contemporary art in Querini Stampalia, Venice and the Furla Prize, Bologna), Kimberly Bradley (freelance journalist: Monocle, Art Review, Art Agenda, The New York Times and more), Florence Derieux (Director of the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims), Galit Eilat (Research Curator at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and President of the Akademie der Kunste der Welt in Cologne), Juan A. Gaitán (curator of the Berlin Biennial 2014), Jens Maier-Rothe (co-founder and director of Beirut, Cairo), Ricardo Nicolau (Deputy to the Director of the Serralves Museum), Filipa Ramos (art critic based in London and Milan), Alya Sebti (Artistic Director of the 5th Marrakech Biennale), Marieke van Hal (Founding Director of Biennial Foundation), Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (writer and critic based in Beirut), and Adnan Yildiz (Artistic Director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart).
The two main thematic strands of the symposia will be the notions of contemporary “biennials” as a paradigm of the mega show which happens sporadically under a steady pace, as well as the notion of the contemporary “institution” (museum, art center, meeting place, production agency) as a paradigm of building permanency within the era of ever-changing parallel lives.
Artemis Potamianou organizes the Platforms project @ Art-Athina and curates the Art-Athina Contemporaries exhibition. The objective of the Platforms @ Art Athina project is to map artistic action as it is produced in the context of collective initiatives by artists who decide to join forces in seeking answers to artistic questions. The artist-run platforms group is given the opportunity to present an art project at a specific site—booth—and thus provide a picture of the independent art scene. Platform Project will present 46 platforms—artists’ initiatives from 17 countries with more than 500 artists. The platforms come from Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Finland, France, Russia and Serbia.
Art-Athina Contemporaries is an action-exhibition that aims to showcase the contemporary artistic activity as it is produced and presented today. The artists in the exhibition come from the participating galleries in the core programme of Art-Athina. The show will establish and promote a constructive dialogue among the artists, their art and their works which will reflect the current state of affairs, the practitioners’ preoccupations and the variety of expressive media—a dialogue which could not take place through the separate booths of each gallery.
VIP programme
The VIP programme is open to international art collectors and dealers offering the opportunity to network and meet with the key international and Greek art galleries during Art-Athina. This year, the programme will also include visits to local collectors and participation in the parallel events and panels alongside Art-Athina. Art-Athina’s VIP programme is held in collaboration with local and regional institutions and will take place mainly on Thursday 16 May to Saturday 18 May 2013.
