The Quarantine Exhibition

Solidarity at this difficult time is an important issue!

“Quarantine Exhibition” is a virtual exhibition during fragile times. The COVID-19 pandemic changes our lives significantly day after day. Despite the current crisis, art is demonstrating its force. In April, after lockdown measures were put in place around the world, our immediate impulse was to bring together artists, friends, peers and professionals from any geographic location, with no limits on age, nationality, or career stage, through the format of a truly open, open call. The artists were motivated to submit a statement and an artwork in any medium of their choice, transmitting their immediate impressions during quarantine.

With a total of 445 submissions, the open call shifted into a plethora of voices and impulses, as well as a cartography of the global sentiment. With a variety of strong and compelling works, the selection process became simultaneously exciting and challenging. Space52 and the selection committee have selected 60 artists that will be included in the exhibition. Selected international artists are invited to engage in a series of online exhibitions, eventually staging a gallery exhibition.

Paying tribute to the solidarity shown by artists and institutions, at a time when art is suffering fully from the effects of a global, economic and social crisis, it became apparent to us that this time of confinement could also become a period of openness through culture. It is the right moment to strengthen the links between artistic creation and society. As the challenges we are living require far-reaching cultural policies, it will be necessary to listen to the voices of artists worlds in all their diversity.

An exceptional international committee voluntarily selected the artists:
Sotirios Bahtsetzis, Independent Contemporary Art Curator, Professor in Art History, based in Athens, Greece, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Visual Artist and Professor at the American College of Greece, Founder of Space52 based in Athens, Greece, Lydia Pribisova, Curator and an Art Historian, Managing Editor for Flash Art Czech & Slovak Edition, based in Bratislava and Nicolas Vamvouklis, Visual artist and Curator, Director of K-Gold Temporary Gallery and Curator at Galleria delle Prigioni, based in Venice.

The selected artists are:
Federico Alcaro, Islam Allam, Silvia Arenas and Guillem S. Arquer, Fotios Balas, Xaris Baskozos, Guilherme Bergamini, Emmanοuil Bitsakis, Vince Briffa, Heimir Björgulfsson, Jacobo Bugarin, Chris Capten, Pelle Cass, Othonas Charalambous, Christina Chatziantoniou, Katerina Christidi, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, DURA, Hannes Egger, Kim Engelen, Sergio Femar, Francesca Fini, Caspar de Gelmini, Eleonora Geortsiaki, Prodromos Haralampidis, Hugo Houayek, Maria Ikonomopoulou, Ids_art.drone. projects, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, Stelios Karamanolis, Panagiotis Karambambas, Akis Karanos, Emilia Kina, Giorgos Kontis, Georgia Kotretsos, Antonis Larios, Quentin Lefranc, Ugo Li, lom-of-LaMa, Alex Lysakowski, Pantelis Vitaliotis Magneto, Nikoς Mainaris, Andreas Mallouris, Zhang Miranda, Eva Mitala, Melina Fakitsa Mosland, Yuto Nemoto, Nocera&Ferri, Andrei Nutu, Ilias Papailiakis, Andreas Papamichael, Dionisiοs Pappas, Dan Perjovschi, Lea Petrou, Miquel Ponce, John Sachpazis, Georgia Sagri, Sissy Schneider, Octavi Serra, Christina Sgouromiti, George Stamatakis, Adonis Stoantzikis, Sebastian Sochan, Anne Cecile Surga, Giorgos Tserionis, Vickie Vainionpää. Wassili Wldmer.

Despite the economic crisis the artist-run Space52 based in Athens finally organized a collective group project, based on the motivations of artists and curators without receiving any financial support.
Space52 was founded by the artist Dionisis Christofilogiannis in 2017 and supports Athens based artists and continuously seeks collaborations with art spaces and professionals from abroad. Our community and network grow by facilitating collaborations, exchanges, and research-based projects. Space52 serves as a hub for local and international creatives, intellectuals and theoreticians. The main focus of all our engagements is the current inquiries of our growing dynamic community. Space52 is an Athens incubator of ideas and experimentations.

The project intends to articulate and organize its potentialities in a series of online displays, to activate the public, artists, and collectors from all over the world, interested in the activities of artists during the current times.

The project seeks to advocate for the local art scene and introduce the works of international artists to the broader Athenian public. The aim of the project is to underline the importance of collaboration, individual participation, and exchange between these different art scenes, suggesting new ways of working that embrace the values of exchange and hospitality during these difficult moments.
I would first like to thank all 445 participants of this call and special thanks to: Pantelis Vitaliotis Magneto for his time on making this wonderful catalogue, Nikos Larios and Charalampos Papadopoulos for their help in visualizing the online exhibition, Ariana Kalliga for text editing and her amazing ‘in-situ’ essay for the catalogue, in which she discusses emergent theoretical approaches through the works of these artists, and last but not least the great team of Space52 for realizing this project: Sotirios Bahtsetzis, Lydia Pribisova and Nicolas Vamvouklis.

Thanks to our Media Partners:
ARTICULATE, CULTURE NOW, INTERARTIVE, ΤΑ ΝΕΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ, KROMA MAGAZINE, OZON, UND.ATHENS

space52, Kastorias 52, Athens 104 47, www.space52.gr, [email protected]