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RE-CULTURE 1
>=< Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece


re-culture 1

RE-CULTURE 1, International Festival of Visual Arts, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece,

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ATTRACTION OF THE OPPOSITES presents "Acting Out", a screening of works of 8 international artists who embed role-playing and moving image in pursuing of their projects. The compilation varying in style and scope brings together artist performances ranging between documentary, animation and video art.
"Acting Out" investigates the role of the artist as director, researcher, messenger, mediator and executor; from the politically engaging work of Gil & Moti and Katharina D. Martin and the socio-political approach of Duro Toomato, delving into the subcultural movements of Alexis Milne to jump into the fictionalization of reality of Kiki Petratou and the eccentric rituals of Martin Hansen and on to the personal inquests of Adonis Migkos and Alexander van Merle.

RE-CULTURE 1
Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece
October 20 - November 25, 2012


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Focusing on a new cultural concept for events performed in the city of Patras, the nonprofit organization Art in Progress introduced and organized the first international exhibition RE-culture 1. RE-culture 1 consisted of a wide range of events, starting from visual arts. Art in Progress aim is the production of high quality cultural events. For this reason Re-culture 1 has an international dimension. RE-culture 1 was held in the Argyris Market and hosted important artists from all around the world and from different areas of fine arts.

The cultural event was founded under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports, the Municipality of Patras, the University of Patras, the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Association of Hellenic Tourism & Travel Agencies HATTA.

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Gil & Moti
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Gil & Moti: Available for You- Hanna, 2008-2009, 7:38 min Israel / Netherlands
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In spring 2008, over a period of two months Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen, was housing Gil & Moti's performative and site-specific project "Available For You". Taking as a point of departure their own nationality and the current situation in Israel, concepts such as humanity, atonement and forgiveness acquire an added significance. In "Available For You" the artists offer a number of services to residents in Copenhagen with an Arab background, with a view to creating inter-human relations, which may help to counteract the otherwise so ingrained political hostility. A flyer was distributed; calling for Arab people to contact them. Hanna, originally from Lebanon, asked them to help him out with renovating his apartment and to throw a party celebrating his 44 years birthday. The hard labor and its rituals depicted in the video are mixed up with Hanna's personal observations from daily life to existential and political concerns.

Alexis Milne
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Alexis Milne: Jobseekers, 2011, 4:20 min UK
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"Jobseekers" is part one of a series of videos entitled "The Delinquents" focusing on semiotic analysis by Jean Baudrillard and Dick Hebdige into subcultural movements that Milne was heavily influenced by in his youth such as skinheads, graffiti art, and raving. "Jobseekers" was made before the 2011 sporadic August riots in London and was an outcome of investigations into 'delinquent' self destructive behaviour manifested through a systemic disenfranchised distance from society. Milne was looking for footage of looting and nihilistic behaviour after reading the Situationist International response to the LA riots of 1965.

Alexander van Merle
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Alexander van Merle: About Bas Jan Ader, 2006, 6:08 min Netherlands
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"About Bas Jan Ader" is the last part of a series by Alexander van Merle on the impact the ouvre of Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader has on his work. This video includes 2 earlier works "De onveranderlijke stroming #1 en 2". Theatrical, fragile and powerful.

Martin Hansen
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Martin Hansen: My stamping ground, 2010, 4:30 min Germany / Netherlands
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My stamping ground" records a very personal ritual dedicated to Ceres the goddess of fertility that the artist performs every summer at his garden plot.

Adonis Migkos
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Adonis Migkos: The Adonians Part 4, 2008, 3:52 min Greece
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The work of Adonis Migkos investigates the concept of gravity that the social framework bears on the individual self. With his video-performances Migkos maps the creation of a new experience of the self and introduces ways of escape. In the "Adonians Part 4" he lip-synchs with Billy Holiday and delves into the conception of a character that is neither male nor female, neither black nor white, human or animal.

Kiki Petratou
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

kiki petratou

Kiki Petratou: Unsuspected Time, 2006, 3.20 min Greece / Netherlands
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"Unsuspected Time" is an experimental work playing with anxiety, obsession and drama. It investigates the boundaries between documentary and fiction. It unfolds between scenes of nightlife in the centre of Rotterdam, which juxtaposed with a private performance puts in context the game of the gaze with what it was witnessed and references the atmosphere seen in detective stories and mystery movies.

Duro Toomato
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Duro Toomato: Sleeper, 2007, 5:22 min Croatia / Netherlands
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"Sleeper", seen in the general framework of Duro Toomato's work, questions the classic role of the artist, the "object" and the spectator. His work removes the dominant role of the artist by transferring the production process to an independent engine that can be operated by anyone. It results in the animation of the inert property of "sculpture", in real motion, real time and real space. The work of art thus becomes more and more a part of the viewer's consciousness; unique in its moment in time.

Katharina D.Martin
>=< RE-CULTURE 1, Agora Argyri, Patras, Greece

attraction of the opposites

Katharina D. Martin: Ashes, 2006, 3 min Germany / Netherlands
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In 'Ashes' Katharina D. Martin is sweeping through a layer of cinder until it has dispersed itself well over the borders of the walls into the whole building. The performance took place at the 27 January 2005, 60 years after the KZ Auschwitz- Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army. In the further process Martin transforms the video material into a new arrangement which shows the performative act through a new visual language.