Lighthouse ahead! Adventure at the Reef

True to its commitment to invest in education and in bringing children into contact with art, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is including in this year's program a brand-new visual arts activity: starting on October 30, every last Sunday of each month, children aged 4 to 12 have the opportunity to create a collaborative artwork, under the guidance of distinguished visual artists and the motto, "Lighthouse Ahead!"A visual arts installation will already be in place at the Lighthouse, under the care of the visual artist of the month, who will then welcome the children to the artwork and guide them through the process of expanding on it.

The artists in charge of the work in progress are: Maro Michalakakou, Giorgos Gyparakis and Vasilis Gerodimos.

Sunday 29/01: Giorgos Gyparakis, Lighthouse ahead! Adventure at the Reef

The Reef is in danger! Corals have lost their color and are on the verge of extinction due to ocean warming. Now what?

Wear your swimsuit over your clothes and follow us to the bottom of the blue ocean. Your mission is to stop the coral bleaching, restore the color of the coral and lead the fish back to the reef. Will you make it?

* Coral reefs around the world are becoming less and less colorful due to high temperatures and they may disappear if warming continues, while reef-dwelling fish have also begun to lose those bright, tropical colors.

10.00-11.00 | For ages 4 to 6 | up to 30 children
12.00-13.30 | For ages 7 to 9 | up to 30 children
15.00-16.30 | For ages 7 to 9 | up to 30 children
17.30-19.00 | For ages 10 to 12 | up to 30 children

The artwork will be open to the general public after the completion of the workshops; visiting hours: 19.00 to 20.00.

Future meetings:
Sunday, Feb. 26: Vasilis Gerodimos, Lighthouse ahead! Hide-and-seek with Masks
Sunday, Mar. 26: Vasilis Gerodimos, Lighthouse ahead! Seas from Above
Sunday, Apr. 30: Vasilis Gerodimos, Lighthouse ahead! New World Atlas

Information about the artists:

Maro Michalakakou
Maro Michalakakou was born in Athens, where she lives and works. Her work, enigmatic and multidimensional (sculptural installations, paintings, drawings, relief on velvet, and performance), featuring strong social and cultural references, is often "interwoven" with personal and family memories and characterized by a rare refined rawness. She creates installations that treat space as a philosophical whole instead of merely a setting, and chooses figures and themes that are always characterized by intensity. Her artistic universe borders on the realm of dreams, with a superficial serenity deliberately situated in the liminal space between reality and imagination. She has participated in many solo and group exhibitions in Europe, USA and Turkey, and has repeatedly collaborated with major theater directors and companies for the creation of set installations (National Theatre of Greece, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Culture, Poreia Theater). Works of hers are featured in several collections, including: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Tate Britain, FNAC - Paris, Istanbul Modern (Istanbul Museum of Modern Art), and many private collections.

Giorgos Gyparakis
Giorgos Gyparakis lives and works in Athens. He studied sculpture at the Aristotle University School of Fine Arts and graphic design at Vakalo Art & Design College. He has participated in the XLVI Venice Biennale, the Sculpture Triennale, and in more than 100 group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He has designed sets and costumes for film, musical and theatrical performances, and performance art shows. Works of his are featured in public and private collections. He is a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the National Technical University of Athens School of Architecture.

Vasilis Gerodimos
Vasilis Gerodimos studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2005-2010) and graduated with honors from the Tinos Marble-Sculpture School of Fine Arts (2005). Since 2015, he has been a member of the nonprofit AMORFI. The majority of his work consists of sculptures and large-scale in-situ installations. He has held four solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions as well as in interdisciplinary projects in Greece and abroad. Since 2015, he has designed and implemented original educational programs for schools, institutions and museums. Together with choreographer Tzeni Argyriou, they have co-created projects that explore the active dialog between visual and performing arts. For more than ten years, he has been in charge of set design for dance and theater performances, staged at: the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Culture, and the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, among many others. From 2003 to 2015, he worked in the conservation, restoration and promotion of monuments at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

The visual arts project Lighthouse ahead! is implemented thanks to a grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).