FENIA KOTSOPOULOU
CURAtion
STRAT/osphere (2024
Date: 2024
Location: 4bid Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
Keywords: curatorial practice/activating performance archives/ co-creation/collaboration/strata film.
Synopsis
The exhibition is tapestry of audio art, still imagery and artifacts generated as part of the collaborative making of the film STRATA and showed February 14 to 17, 2024 at 4bid gallery, Amsterdam. As part of a broader range of inquiry involving archiving and documentation, the exhibition features a range of multimedia visual elements.
These include artifacts from the film and still photographs taken by Marcel Sparmann during production. The images have been processed by Fenia Kotsopoulou using various printing methods such as cyanotype, soil chromatography, and image transfer.
The hybrid techniques on different materials and surfaces are a form of ‘artistic stratigraphy’––Illuminating the materiality, affect, and tactility of both image and the journey of STRATA.
The environment for the audio art installation by Douglas Quin is conceived as a complement to the film. Rather than recreate the film's soundtrack, the installation focuses on conveying some of the experience of the caves themselves with audio gathered in situ, from performances to soundscapes. The approach to the audio for the gallery installation involved drawing from the many hours of location recordings, deconstructing and recomposing the layers and sonic strata to intimate the resonances of Deep Time and collective consciousness.
The soundscape benefits from Daz Disley's elegant sound system, appropriately designed for 4bid Gallery and offering numerous possibilities for immersive engagement in an intimate setting.
With performance portraits by Aldo Aliprandi, Marianna Andrigo, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Giorgia De Santi, Francesca Fini, Nicola Fornoni, Fenia Kotsopoulou, La Saula, Boris Nieslony, Sara Simeoni, VestAndPage, Maite Weins, Susanne Weins.
Original still images by Marcel Sparmann, Fenia Kotsopoulou, daz disley, VestAndPage, and Douglas Quin.
stratosphere.hotglue.me
Date: 2019
Location: x-church - Gainsborough (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/tribute to Sri Lanka/creating artistic bridges for communication and expression
Synopsis
"bridging gaps #1" is a visual based exhibition at x-church (kitchen area) dedicated to Sri Lankan artists, containing 125 photographs and 2hours long video documenting of performances happened during the wonderful performance art event: Theertha Performance Platform 2019 (15-18 March 2019, Colombo, curated by Theertha International Artists’ Collective), 6 prints and written stories related to the images by Gamini Akmeemana, and a touching poem by artist Imaad Majeed, written the day of the blasts...
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10am till 2pm, at x-church, Gainsborough. Go and you will also find much more, such: Jo and Knaith's installation: 'The Hanging' in Chateau Marcus; Mike's new sculptures with chairs, and drum parts made with children; Luke's URBeXhibition
Date: 2018 (14th and 15th July)
Location: x-church - Gainsborough (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/Festival x-24/video art/screendance/human rights/Roberto Ronca
Synopsis
Video program curated by Fenia Kotsopoulou screened during the x-24 Festival 2018. The installation was divided in three sections:
- SCREENDANCE in loop:
a selection of screendance video by international artists. The video will be screened a) on a wooden platform offering to the viewer the possibility to look at the works from a different perspective and on a DIY cinema screen.
- HUMAN RIGHTS #EDU:
a video program part of the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art "HUMAN RIGHTS #EDU, curated by Roberto Ronca. The ten videoartists represent and tell, with their own artistic language, a personal vision of the problem of the right to education representing a story, a concept, a complaint, or showing a future perspective as message of hope or even as a concrete proposal on the opportunities to be pursued to achieve this fundamental goal for the construction of a fair and right society.
- VIDEO ART:
Two old TV screens will play on loop for the duration of the 24 hours, works by Sylvia Toy St. Louis, Christopher Matthews Hutchings, Francesca Lolli and Ruth Sergel.
Date: 2017 (2nd and 3rd of December)
Location: x-church - Gainsborough (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/Festival x-12/video art/drone music/timelapse
Synopsis
VIdeo program curated by Fenia Kotsopoulou screened during the x-12 Festival 2017. An experiment in the midst of winter. 12 hours, 12 things to eat, 12 things to enjoy (at least) and 12 hours of video projections.
Featuring videoworks by: CLAIRE REIKA WRIGHT (UK) DANIEL IVAN, SOL REZZA, DAZ DISLEY, DUNCAN CHAPMAN, GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER, BELINDA ACKERMANN, JAN VAN IJKEN, JEAN-MICHEL ROLLAND, JONATHAN McCABE, MARC SILVER, MIKE OLBINSKI, KATE BUCKLEY, MOORGAN MAASEN. Special screening of the last edition of CONTEMPORARY VISIONS|VIDEOART IN LOOP 2017, curated by Roberto Ronca, featuring 27 videoartists.
Date: 2016 (16th and 17th of JUly)
Location: x-church - Gainsborough (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/Festival x-24/video art/100 + artists and works/30 countries/social engaged art/SARC group/x-church
Synopsis
100 videos from >100 artists in >30 countries : 24H Cinema at Festival x-24 2016 - Curated and Produced by Fenia Kotsopoulou and Daz Disley with additional Curation by Wilfried Agricola De Cologne (artvideokoeln) and Eirini Olympiou (Athens Digital Arts Festival), and projection support courtesy of The Collaborators.
This initiative was taken within the context of the fourth edition of Festival x-24, organised by Marcus Hammond and Slumgothic. The 24 hour long festival is Gainsborough’s best-kept secret and each years grows thanks to the engagement of local people, the youth members of the Slumgothic project and the new-formed SARC group (Slumgothic Artist Resident Curator group).
Date: 2014
Location: Lincoln (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/ GNARL fest/festival/video art/live art/University of Lincoln.
Synopsis
From 27th of October until 1st of November 2014 in Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts, too place the second edition of GNARL fest: the East Midlands Platform exhibiting International and National Live Art. An intensive week of performances, installations, screenings, workshops and discussions over drinks led by emerging and acclaimed UK and international artists. From burlesque to trash, and from transgressive to guerrilla acts, GNARL Fest created an unprecedented event in Lincoln. The festival included artists from more than 20 countries with 2 International and 5 UK Premieres and more than 40 videos & films.
In this context, a part my role as program and documentation coordinator, I co-curated the video art installations, which took place in studio 2, at the University of Lincoln (LPAC):
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"SPEAK, DOCUMENT, MANIPULATE"
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"PERFORMING THE SELF"
BACK
Date: 2014
Location: Lincoln (UK)
Keywords: curatorial practice/mini festival/memory/interconnectivity/video art/photography/live art
Synopsis
The “Interconnectivity & Live Art” festival promotes the idea that artists and audience are interconnected through the artwork and seeks to create an event where the audience experiences the (in)visibly interconnected artworks as a unified body of work.
The work of the invited artists is seen as an autonomous assemblage, a living organism, a new creation- a piece of a new puzzle. This is also the challenge of the festival; to bring in space independent artistic works and create a synergy that is based on the (in)visible and hidden elements within their interconnection.
Artists: Francesca Fini | Vagia Kapousidou | Chiara Mazzocchi| Daz Disley | Irene Atmatzidis | Fenia Kotsopoulou