PANTELIS LAZARIDIS, "PARKOUR. STOPS, VIOLATIONS AND MANOEUVRES", EXHIBITION AT THE BENAKI MUSEUM
2008
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Exhibition at the Benaki Museum, dedicated to the work of Pantelis Lazaridis, artist and professor of architecture. The exhibition is a retrospective of forty-seven years of active presence in the fields of art, architecture, education and politics, focusing on the relation between art and the political consciousness of the artist, Athens 2/11/2008 - 11/1 / 2009. Curator of the exhibition and the catalog, that accompanies it, is Effie Strouza, art historian, President of the Greek Section of the International Association of Art Critics.

The characteristic title of the exhibition, Parkour-Stops, Violations and maneuvers, implies continuous risking and adventurous mobility in the public sphere and is associated with Pantelis Lazaridis’ complicated personal travelogue in the areas of artistic, academic and political activity.

The approximately 250 works, presented on the ground floor and the atrium of the Mpenaki Museum building at Piraeus Street, cover a period of almost fifty years, from 1961 up today. Subjects, methods and techniques are employed, reflect features from the period of neo-avant-garde quests up to the recent approaches of media image and language: paintings and works of plastic, gaskets, structures, environments, installations, sound environments, digital projects, video-projections.

Of particular importance is the 'laboratory' where the viewer can process digital images of the artist's record, by performing an interactive relationship with the artwork.

The works of the last period, from 2000 to the present, beyond the content, style and reference to the public element, suggest a different treatment of artistic work, which stems from the political position that seeks to overcome the notion of the 'original' and the 'value' of the 'unique'.

Processed and digitally processed images of the media, played multiple instruments, hung in the space available in alternative ways. With sarcastic wit, the artist attempts to synthesize values ​​beyond the market, introducing the viewer to a new relationship with everyday life, architecture and usability of artwork (from the text by Efi Strouza from the exhibition catalog).

Ineractive laboratory

The "Laboratory" is an installation that is part of the report is not complement. It is the place of decoding, of information and participation in the data and the processes used and could become a place of creative ferment and action.

In "Laboratory" visitors can browse the image database, either in digital form "Image Base", either in real. In the "Laboratory", visitors can browse the image database, either in digital form "Image Base", either in real

Parallel Events

Within the framework of the exhibition, articulated around the issues raised by the work of Lazaridis, several parallel events were organized:

-          The Workshop-Symposium on "Contemporary Art and Politics", organized by the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly

-          Music event entitled «The image in Music," a concert by internationally renowned pianist George-Emmanuel Lazaridis works with Schumann (Carnival op.9), Granados (Goyescas, works dedicated to Goya), Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition ) and Lazarides (Improvisation).

-          The Sound as image and the image as Audio, audio intervention by the 12-member vocal ensemble improvisation at the University of Thessaly, in response to the exhibition. Alternative reading and interpretation of a ambiguous, broken puzzle in response to the challenge of creative interactive relations. An exploration and an expressive approach to the artistic event through another art form, without obvious mappings to the artworks. Animation-Chair: Maria Thoidou.

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Database of Images