Maria Papadimitriou: Larger than Life

a photo from the TAMA catalogue

Dummies 1996 (courtesy: Beltsios Collection)

Maria Papadimitriou is a greek artist and a friend. One of her known projects is TAMA, an ongoing collective project on the nature of nomadism which involves a settlement of gypsies in an abandoned area of Athens. Due to her fantastic speech in a discussion forum last Saturday I think I owe her a post in this blog big time! The topic of the discussion was how an art-fair should be and how it can function in a city like Athens. Maria described her personal experience with the Greek reality in the most enlightening and engaging way.

Future betrayed us

Back in the 70's some studies were made for the creation of space colonies housing 10,000 people.
( source: Make Blog and Nasa website)

Blogebrity: Perez Hilton

Perez Hilton(right) with Amnesia Sparkles

Which website is Hollywood's most hated?PerezHilton.Com!...mmm not really anymore, it is simply the new source for A-list Hollywood gossip. Perez Hilton aka Mario Lavandeira has his "headquarters" at the Coffee Bean (on the corner of Fairfax and Sunset), the "office" as he often refers to it. Since his blog became a hit all over America, celebrities are rushing to the west Hollywood "office" just to claim their own spot on celebrity.

Motto of the Day

Happiness will be our revenge
(photo taken by Andreas Angelidakis in Metaxourgeio)

Corona Issue No1

Corona Magazine is a new magazine made by artists Naotaka Hiro and Sid M. Duenas.

Marissa Nadler

Marissa Nadler perfoming at the Small Music Theatre in Athens

Last night I went to the Small Music Theatre to see the perfomance of Marissa Nadler. The cute little space was unexpectedly packed. Nadler came out around 11 after 2 other performances. I liked her perfomance a lot but I missed the finale 'cos I was gasping for fresh air- the place was fully packed by heavy smockers. As Wikipedia describes her "Nadler is an American folk musician and fine artist She is often categorised as a member of the "New Weird America" movement, a notion she rejects: "I really dislike that whole brand of the New Weird America because I think a lot of these artists don't have anything to do with each other, except that they're from America and are playing interesting music that's not part of the mainstream. More accurate would be to describe Nadler as a balladeer with American Gothic leanings." Visit her home page here

The art of the 70's in Greece at EMST

Chryssa Voudouroglou

Bia Davou

Constantin Xenakis

Chryssa Romanou

Chryssa Voudouroglou

Yesterday I visited the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. It was the last day of the "The Years of Defiance:The art of the 70's in Greece" so I rushed to go and see it. The exhibition traces the 70's years of social and political unrest; a decade in which the Greek reality was called into question and transformed, but also influenced artistic activity. I attach some photos of the artists Chryssa Romanou, Chryssa Voudouroglou and Bia Davou. (more info here)

Experimental Jetset

Experimental Jetset is a group of designers based in Holland. They are having a show at London's Kemistry Gallery. They show a selection of posters created over a 10 year period of time, featuring the one they did for the Neen manifesto.
Experimental Jetset was founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Danny van den Dungen and Erwin Brinkers: its main focus is installation work and printed matter.
Influences range from early modernism to contemporary subcultural movements (De Stijl, Punk, Situationist International, Concrete Poetry, Psychedelic Pop, Provo, etc.), and are in evidence conceptually rather than formally. In form, their work refers to the aesthetic language of late modernism, a language that the members of Experimental Jetset regard as their mother tongue.
(links: Manifesto, Experimental Jetset)

Rebecca Camhi Gallery comeback

On the 25th of May I will be participating in a group show with Andreas Angelidakis and Miltos Manetas at Rebecca Camhi gallery. The gallery will operate again at a temporary space located in Gazi (Konstantinoupoleos 44). The show will run until the 30th of June 2006.

Immigrants and the US of "AMERICANS"

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping yesterday and marched in dozens of cities from coast to coast. Their reason: loosening the USA's laws on immigration. Here above a photo from a Los Angeles protester (source Boing Boing)

Much Better Than This

If you happen to be in Amsterdam, artist Rafael Rozendaal is showing his latest piece MuchBetterThanThis.Com at Stedelijk museum's restaurant Club 11. More info about Rafael here newrafael.com

She was a He

Everybody knows but I just found that the famous Lassie dog was a boy. According to Wikipedia " ....All 9 Lassies have been male, playing a female character. The female collie loses her coat at least once a year making it unsuitable for use year round. Also, the male is larger and a child actor can play opposite the dog for a longer period of time...."

Cul Variété

(Source:D-listed)

Andreas, dancing in Blue-Boy Club

Angelidakis is always the first to go on a dancefloor in both his real and second lives. Here above, dancing at the Blue-Boy Club in (his) Second life.

A new kind of gay bar

I just came out from the only gay bar on Second-Life. It is called the Blue-Boy Club. It's interior is kind of psychedelic, tacky but very atmospheric. Kind of 8th Avenue meets Grand Theft Auto. I danced for a while but we were only 3 people, no audience :( Blue-Boy Club is open 24 hours and there are not the usual real-life restrictions. I will check regularly so I find the best time to hang out in there. Isn't it funny, trying to find the right time in a virtual space? My Second Life name is Angelo Click.

Iranian Image

With all these videogames I am playing these days I am in a "militant" state of mind. This image above is so W-O-W ( the W-orld Of W-arcraft begins in a while)
(Source The New York Times)

Razzle Dazzle: When Art meets War

Marc Kremers has sent me an email a couple of days ago about these arty boats above. Early on in World War I, artists were brought in to custom paint camouflage on war ships and large passenger liners. Based in part on the artistic fashions of the time, particularly Cubism, this soon became known as "Dazzle Painting" and continued to be used until the end of World War II.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I am absorbed into Oblivion today. A new role-playing game. I almost forgot my real life....

Evoluon

This building above is called Evoluon and it is located in the city of Eindhoven in Holland. I passed by in early 2005 and since then it has stucked in my memory for obvious reasons. It was built to house the Man and Progress Museum (a project of Philips) and was designed by the architect Louis Christiaan Kalff.

New Gay Memorial unveiled

Today I read on JockoHomo-Datapanic blog about the New Gay Memorial in Berlin designed by artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. The artist duo who won the competition will exhibit their design in May. The proposed design consists of a concrete block, to be positioned in the Tiergarten city park, across the street from Peter Eisenman's Holocaust memorial. The structure will have an oblique window featuring a black and white video of an endless kiss between two men. This memorial will mark the Nazi's persecution of homosexuals.... a rather belated apology.

The heart is deceitful .. now on theatres

I read the book "The heart is deceitful above all things" in 2003 and I was not so fascinated about the Jt Leroy "phenomenon". I am very curious to check the movie adaptation with Asia Argento having the leading role. This month is being played in selected theatres around the US. Read here the New Yorker magazine review.

Panic Room at Deste Foundation

Gunji Yusuke

the centepiece of the show by Assume Vivid Astro Focus

Today I visited Deste Foundation to see the drawing exhibition called Panic Room-works from Dakis Joannou Collection. The new space of the foundation is a spacious and unpretentious building located in one the city's most unexpected suburbs. The show has artworks from Assume Vivid Astro Focus (the centerpiece of this exhibition), Devendra Banhart, Matt Leines etc. The show opened early this year and it was really worth going to see it. I attach some photos from the stuff I liked v. much.

Matt Leines

Dita Von Teese: part II (video)

She is so flash animation.

Bernhard Willhelm sunglasses: Part II

I found this new Bernhard Willhelm sunglasses while browsing new Arena Homme Plus+ today. These are kind of Neen....

Bernhard Willhelm sunglasses

I am reading on Hint about the new fluorescent sunglasses of Bernhard Willhelm. Hint says.." are so bright you'll need to wear, er, shades.." There are no photos on the web yet, all I found is this photo of fashion blogger Diane Pernet wearing similar BW back in Oct 2005.

Dita Von Teese

I had this discussion about the real and fake Vons these days. Of course Dita was the main topic. Read here one of her latest interviews.

War kilims

I found this strange Afghan kilims in a vintage store. They were been made by peasants in Afghanistan during the Afghan-Soviet war.

Miniatures

We made a short visit to Switzerland yesterday and we stopped (thanks to Andreas) at this amazing Miniature museum just outside Lugano. More photos here

Elio Fiorucci on Coca-Cola Light

I just had my favourite drink wrapped by Elio Fiorucci.

The Launch of the Neen Book

We gathered yesteray for the Neen Book launch at Galeria Pack.

Back to Milan

Grass armchair.

First find the right spot, because once the armchair has grown you won't be able to move it!! This is for Salone di Mobile immediattely!!!

(source Boing Boing)

The longest domain on the web.

http://www.thisisthelongestdomainnameintheworldandyouareluckytobrowseitnow.com/

The first book on Neen

We will be presenting the first book written on Neen with a cocktail at Galleria Pack on Friday at 18:30 pm. The book is published by the italian publishing house Charta.

(photo still of Jesuswimming.com)

The art of Dimitris Papaioannou

Yesterday I saw a rehearsal of an upcoming perfomance-theatre directed by Dimitris Papaioannou. The perfomance was really great. The soundtrack was made by Konstantinos Beta and it was a poetry. Even though it was a rehearsal everything seemed so well organised and in the right position. I did not take photos but I will post some very soon, I hope.
(photo:Dimitris Papaioannou)