Liquid Junctions: MEDITERRANEA 19 Young Artists Biennale - School of Waters x ARTWORKS

ARTWORKS, with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) has partnered with the MEDITERRANEA 19 Young Artists Biennale - School of Waters, to organize a series of actions under the title Liquid Junctions. These actions are held as part the Biennale's Digital Swamp Expanded Public Program, which takes place in several cultural institutions across the Mediterranean, instigating discussions around the themes of the Biennale. 

On Friday, June 4th, at 19:00, under the Biennale's expanded program aimed at reaching more cities in the Mediterranean, ARTWORKS will host a public event at the SNFCC Dome, to support and promote the SNF ARTWORKS Fellows who have been selected to take part in the Biennale (Ionian Bisai, Eva Papamargariti, Valinia Svoronou and Chara Stergiou). The program includes a DJ lecture by Chara Stergiou, a performative reading by Quinn Latimer and presentations of works by Eva Papamargariti, Valinia Svoronou, and Latent Community (Ionian Bisai and Sotiris Tsiganos).

MEDITERRANEA 19 School of Waters will present, from the 15th of May until the 31st of October 2021, the work of 70 artists from 21 countries of the Mediterranean, hosted for the first time in the State of San Marino. MEDITERRANEA 19 School of Waters imagines the Biennale as a collective platform for the deconstruction of stereotypes that derive from the Eurocentric interpretation of the Mediterranean basin, focusing on the physical and symbolic nature of water, from both a geopolitical and environmental angle. It is an invitation to discover anew the fluidity that makes the Mediterranean a polymorphous place where diverse life forms and knowledge production processes coexist.   

Participating artists focus on the relationship between ecology and feminism. They draw inspiration from mythology, science fiction and modern history, and from the viewpoint of complex of marine ecosystems, they challenge the supremacy of the human race, and reexamine the ways knowledge is produced.

Chara Stergiou's multidisciplinary practice centers on the overlap between scientific and artistic research. Stergiou's DJ Lectures are hybrid narrative techniques for the dissemination of stories, geographies and identities based on non-locality, and could be described as "radio events of a deviant musicology".

Eva Papamargariti uses time-based media and prints to create sculptural installations that explore the relationship between the digital space and physicality. Papamargariti focuses on the concepts of fluidity, movement, transformation, the entanglement of bodies and the traces they leave behind as they float, sink, and scatter, inside and outside the water. 

The work of the art duo Latent Community (Ionian Bisai and Sotiris Tsiganos), which fuses field study with video art, focuses on identifying and sharing stories of social, political and environmental justice, which are either excluded or altered by the dominant narrative. It includes a study into the way these stories are perceived within new narrative contexts. 

The media Valinia Svoronou employs in her work include text, moving images, augmented reality applications, print publications and sculpture. Taking into account the gendered dimension of the gaze, the artist plays with the boundaries between the observer and the observed. Using references from science fiction and mythology, she proposes alternative ways to recall and to narrate stories through non-dominant perspectives.

As part of the event, the guest speaker, critic and poet Quinn Latimer will hold performative readings based on her work The Samos Lecture (Like a Woman: Essays, Readings, Poems). In a composition teetering between the pages of a book and live performance, Latimer investigates issues of genealogy and influence, precariousness and privilege of the field of action, as well as feminist economies of writing, reading and artistic creation. She will also present the video How to Move Like the Ocean (Liquefaction, Lubrication & Expansion in Twelve Easy Steps), which she created in collaboration with Temitope Ajose-Cutting, in 2020. The two artists pose a series of questions. At times of isolation, what do we miss? How do we learn? What is a body, and what is a body of water? 

Artists: Eva Papamargariti, Chara Stergiou, Valinia Svoronou, Latent Community
Guest Speaker: Quinn Latimer
Curators - Coordinators: Panos Giannikopoulos, Angeliki Tzortzakaki

The conversation will be held in Greek and English.

Friday 04/06, 19:00 - 22:00

DOME

The opportunity to attend Liquid Junctions, in compliance with all necessary measures of safety in accordance with the Hellenic National Public Health Organization, will be given to a limited number of viewers, through advance booking online.

Free entry by online pre-registration. 
Pre-registrations open on Thursday 27/5 at 10:00.

Pre-sale points:

• online through the Ticket Services website here
• by telephone: 210 7234567 (Ticket Services)

Important Information:

• There is a purchase limit of up to four tickets per person.
• Doors open at 18.00.
• Visitors are advised to be at the location 30 minutes prior to the commencement of the event.
• Entrance will be possible up to 10 minutes before the event's commencement.
• Pre-registration is required for both adults and children. No order of priority will be available on-site.
• All SNFCC areas are accessible to people with disabilities.
• For more information or clarifications, please contact the SNFCC switchboard on 216 8091000.

Due to public health measures, the specifics of the event and the number of participants are subject to change. 

This event comes under a grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Alongside the majority of its events, which are free thanks to a series of SNF grants.

MEDITERRANEA 19 Young Artists Biennale - School of Waters is organized in collaboration with BJCEM - Biennale des jeunes créateurs de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (Young Artists Biennale of Europe and the Mediterranean) and the Republic of San Marino (State Office for Education and Culture of the Republic of San Marino, Cultural Services and University of the Republic of San Marino). It will be held in San Marino from the 15th of May until the 31st of October 2021, bringing together young artists from Europe and the broader Mediterranean region. 

Senior Curators: Alessandro Castiglioni, Simone Frangi