The Smile of La Gioconda – Five Centuries of Artistic Appropriation
PRESS RELEASE – INVITATION
The Smile of La Gioconda
FIVE CENTURIES OF ARTISTIC APPROPRIATION
CHANIA – On Saturday 9 December 2017 at 20:00, Match More Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chania – Elaiourgeion present the exhibition “The Smile of La Gioconda – Five Centuries of Artistic Appropriation” at the Match More Underground gallery, Platanias, Municipality of Platanias, Prefecture of Chania, Crete.
The exhibition includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, collage and installations. Curated by Dr Konstantinos V. Proimos and Ioannis N. Archontakis.
Participating artists: Giannis Adamakis, Eozen Agopian, Eirini Vazoukou, Chrysa Vathianaki, Argyri Vasilakou, Ellen Weijers, Olga Verykaki, Andreas Vestakis, Magdalini Vogiatzi, Andreas Vousouras, Nikos Vrouvas, Nikos Giavropoulos, Kalliopi Giatroudaki, Giorgos Depollas, Charalambos Dermatis, Giannis Dimitrakis, Alexandros D. Dimitriadis, Giannis Dialinos, Eigia Ellina, Mariva Zacharof, Antigoni Kavvatha, Vicky Kamenou, Nikos Kambianakis, Eirini Kana, Chrysa Kapagioridou, Giannis Kardasis, Vasilis Karkatselis, Savvas Kois, Vasiliki Koskiniotou, Stella Koukoulaki, Nikos Kryonidis, Evdokia Kyrkou, Athina Latinopoulou, Kosmas Lilikakis, Jan Liodaki, Alexandros Manganiotis, Maria Marangoudaki, Giannis P. Markantonakis, Dimitris Merantzas, Maria Michelogianni, Giannis Monogyios, Dimitra Bakogiannaki, Nikolaos Basias, Lambrini Boviatsou, Konstantina Bolieraki, Ismini Bonatsou, Paula Bullent, Kostas Pagomenos, Maria Pastra, Chrysanthi Petra, Anastasia Petraki, Sylvia Petsoura, Vasilis Polychroniadis, Natassa Poulantza, Evangelos Roussos, Chrysoula Skepetzi, Kostas Spanakis, Vasiliki Spyrou, Aris Stoidis, Renate Stollenwerk, Linda Talbot, Nikos Tolis, Katerina Tsembeli, Katerina Tsitsera, Loes Huis in’t Veld, Antonis Frantzeskakis, Pepi Chatzidaki and Evis Christou.
The exhibition appropriates its title from Manos Hadjidakis’s composition of the same name, which of course appropriated its own title from the international critical literature on Leonardo da Vinci’s oil painting.
The curator and art historian Dr Konstantinos V. Proimos notes: “Marcel Duchamp’s famous work L.H.O.O.Q., which reads as Elle a chaud au cul, was made in 1919 and shows Leonardo da Vinci’s celebrated Mona Lisa, or Gioconda, with a moustache and goatee and a thoroughly obscene title as its caption. It is an appropriation of Leonardo’s work by Duchamp, and whether, and to what extent, it succeeds is still debated today.
As the historian Robert S. Nelson points out, citing the sculptural group of four horses now in St Mark’s Basilica in Venice – which Constantinople first appropriated from Chios, which the Venetians then appropriated from Constantinople, and which the French in turn appropriated from 1797 to 1818, taking them to Paris – appropriation is an artistic process almost as old as art itself.
Appropriation means that I make use of an already recognised work of art, or part of one, for aims of my own that have nothing to do with the work’s original purposes. Some consider every reading of art history and of an artist’s work to be an appropriation. On the other hand, the widespread use of appropriation as an artistic practice in the art circles of Europe and America over the past forty years shows that this way of working is not only especially popular but also brings considerable added value and meaning to today’s world, in which data and images are consumed and recycled at very great speed.”
The exhibition “The Smile of La Gioconda – Five Centuries of Artistic Appropriation” is accompanied by a colour catalogue that illustrates all the exhibits in full and includes an introduction, documentation and commentary by the curators, as well as a short note by the art historian Dr Megakles Rogakos.
The exhibition is part of the programme “CHANIaRT 2017 – Art Trails in the Prefecture of Chania”, whose overall theme this season is “End of an Era”, and which includes art exhibitions, lectures, music evenings and a Creative Hospitality for Artists programme (Art Residency) at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chania – Elaiourgeion. The exhibition is co-organised by the Region of Crete, the Regional Unit of Chania, the Municipality of Platanias, Match More Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chania – Elaiourgeion.
