Nikos Navridis
30 January – 14 March 2004
Curated by Rosa Martinez
“La Caixa” Foundation Exhibition Hall
Press preview: Wednesday January 28, 2004 – 12.00 a.m.
Oficial opening: Thursday 29, 2004. – 08:00 pm
Calle Serrano, 60 (Madrid)
Hours: from Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sundays and holidays, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.
Tf. +34.91 426 02 02
Fax: +34.91 426 02 44
Image: Nikos Navridis, Difficult Breaths # 9, 2004. Photograph, 186 x 124 cm.
“La Caixa” Foundation’s Exhibition Hall in Madrid is pleased to present a comprehensive exhibition of the work of Nikos Navridis (b. Athens, 1958), one of the leading exponents of the new generation of Greek artists. Navridis has represented his country in the international biennials of Sao Paulo (1996) and Venice (2001) and has participated in the ones of Istanbul (1997), Santa Fe in New Mexico (1999) and the 2nd Echigo Tsumari Trienal (Japan, 2003). He has also shown his work in diverse international exhibitions held in Greece, Sweden, Korea, Mexico and Ireland.In his video installations and projections, Navridis makes use of elements that are lightweight such as latex, or ethereal like breath, in order to articulate the relationships of beings with the world. The main theme of his work is air, and his obsession centres on visualising the processes of human breathing as a basic ability of all living beings. What he does could be deemed as “breathe sculpture” given that his characters mould spaces, enact existential tensions and make the invisible visible through breathing. Conceptually, this objective corresponds with that of modern art, which endeavours to reflect the impossible or the prohibited from a moral, psychological or physical viewpoint, while also presenting it as something which is possible.
Navridis uses representational strategies and languages of his era (mises en scene, screens installed in the space as syntactic elements) and although his work does not make reference to any specific cultural, social or political milieu, it does refer to the present time and to the place in which existential events reveal their meaning. His characters are living structures that move within the “logic of feelings” without yet subjecting themselves to the laws of logos connecting up the ecstatic and the abject, the shining and the sombre parts of existence.
His solo show at “la Caixa” Foundation’s Madrid Exhibition Hall includes his most representative output over the last ten years from his early photographic works entitled Drawings (1995) to his most recent ones, the Difficult Breaths series (2004) which was especially created for the occasion. Five of his main video installations are also presented: Untitled from the series The Question of the Age of the Void (1996), On Life, Beauty, Translations and other Difficulties (1997), Looking for a Place (1999), Traps (2000), and With no Hands or When she leaned on her own Breath (2003).
On the occasion of this exhibition, curated by Rosa Martinez, a catalogue including essays by Joseph Backstein, Rosa Martinez and Denys Zacharopoulos has been published.
For further information and graphic materials, please contact Gloria Cid Gerlach.
Communications Department of “la Caixa” Foundation.
E-mail: gmcid.fundacio@lacaixa.es
Telephone no.: +34 93 404 61 51. Fax: +34 93 404 61 16 / 60 80
