Deo art programme opened its 4th season with an exhibition of 8 International artists on the lovely island of Chios (Sakiz adasi), right off of Çeşme, in the medieval village Vessa. In the spirit of friendship between the two countries, Turkey and Greece, curator Akis Kokkinos, native to the island, put together an open-air exhibition, My Dreams Were Dashed Against Your Walls, 'exploring the space between movement and inertia, silence and noise, the 'inside' and the 'outside', listening to areas where time itself stands still.' 6 July - 8 September.
The International artists include, Ahmet Doğu İpek, Andreas Lolis, Francis Offman, Malvina Panagiotidi, Georgia Sagri, Socratis Socratous, Hale Tenger, and Antrea Tzourovits.
Andreas Lolis commissioned by DEO. The piece above is titled 12:13pm and the work above it is titled 11:27am which are the times Lolis first walked through the village. Both pieces are in marble.
Andreas Lolis’s work plays with the relationship between time and timelessness, the element of surprise, and the discovery of a piece in an unexpected place. Lolis's poetic sculptural narrative that unfolds throughout the walk in Vessa. His marble sculptures are disguised throught the village and relate to the everyday life of the villagers. 'Familiar objects such as a chair, a sheet, tree trunks, are transformed into monuments of silence, commenting on the slow progress of the village, the past, the present and the future.' Lolis invites us to see every stone, piece of wood, fabric or tree trunk as a piece of art.
Andreas Lolis in Vessa
Hale Tenger I’d rather open my heart than become comfortably numb, 2024
Mixed-media installation including sound. Ready-made tamata and unique handmade silver-plated brass tamata. Commissioned by DEO
Tenger's new outdoor installation is quite delicate and deep. She has placed Tamatas. or ex-votos along the walls of a structure without a roof and inside the sounds of happy children playing are heard. Some tamata are traditional, and others specifically made for the exhibition are in the forms of a bird, a fish, a tree, planet Earth, all simple 'representations of life untouched by human intervention, emphasising the interconnectedness of all life.' 'The fifth tamata, a strawberry– serves as a poignant reminder of mourning for the lost innocent lives and of resilience.'
With this work 'Tenger encourages embracing vulnerability and advocates for a culture rooted in empathy that fosters unity in diversity.'
Georgia Sagri, Sitting with my Breath 2024. Blown glass, wood, iron.
Professor Georgia Sagri is a visual artist and teaches performance at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She studied music and cello at the Athens Conservatoire and has (1979, Athens, Greece) is a visual artist and a tenured professor for
Performance at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She studied music and cello at the Athens Conservatoire and has exhibited her work Internationally including the Guggenheim, Bilbao and MOMA, New York.
Situated on a bench in the courtyard of Vessa's Agioi Anargyroi church Sagri asks us to 'consider the delicate threads of our social fabric, urging a deeper awareness of the communal and reflective spaces we all inhabit.'
Antrea Tzourovits Legacy of little missteps, 2024 Old wooden military crate. Doomed objectives, 2024 2x seamed anti-climbing safety playground net, PVC fabric, iron. In the distance, Dropped noise, 2024 Ipe wood, faux leather, acrylic paint, varnish
Antrea Tzourovits (1987, Danilovgrad, Serbia and Montenegro) lives and works in London. Referring to memories from his childhood, Tzourovits associates contrasting images of excitement and disappointment. Having once worked in manual labour in Greece he holds an MFA in Fine Art from The Slade School of Fine Art, London, with a scholarship from NEON, and a BA in Fine Art from the Athens School of Fine Arts, Greece (2015-2020).
Ahmet Doğu İpek Proposition for an alternative square, 2024 Τulle curtain, burnt tree parts, painted plywood.
Ahmet Doğu Ipek stands and playfully lays amongst his burnt pieces from the island's devestated forests, displayed elegantly and dramatically as a stage set on the village's main square. He lives and works in Istanbul and his work is part of the permanent collections of Arter, Istanbul Modern and Odunpazari Modern Museum. He is represented by Nev Galeri.
Socratis Socratous Untitled / What the sea can’t see (o Σταύρος της Ελένης)
2024 plaster, iron. Above, Socratis Socratous in Vessa.
Socratis Socratous was born in Paphos, Cyprus and lives and works between Athens and Nicosia. 'His political conscience and commitment to the common good, as well as his attraction to the undefined beauty of life drive his work as a whole: a happy-sad mixture of light and darkness, hope and disillusionment, private and collective memory.' The title, What the Sea Can't See is the title for all his pieces around Vessa.
Socratis Socratous Untitled / What the sea can’t see (o Σταύρος της Ελένης)
2024 iron
Akis Kokkinos is the founder and curator of DEO. After years of working for private collections, independent projects and major cultural institutions in the UK and Greece he started this splendid project on his native island Chios.
He did his MA in curating contemporary art at the Royal College of Art, fully funded by a double NEON scholarship, the Schilizzi Foundation, and the RCA continuation fund. In the Saha organisation bio they add, "His curatorial practice is focused on ways to disrupt the ‘objective’ and institutional by introducing or supporting other less appreciated and recognised forms of knowledge. Through multidisciplinary discourses, eco-feminist, non-western approaches, and other non-rational thoughts and philosophies, his practice focuses on the less spoken, invisible or liminal. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022). In December 2023, Akis became the first-ever Fulbright Fellow at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in NYC, conducting curatorial research on the global-art initiatives of the museum."
https://deoprojects.com July 6th - September 8th Vessa, Chios, Greece