Katerina Fanouraki by Katerina Fanouraki

“DI-POLES” KATERINA FANOURAKI

"Βody, it’s your fault. And deterioration in vain now, sues the soul for sabotages”. Kiki Dimoula (poet) From the poem:”Don’t trust even your soul”. Poems’ collection “Greenhouse’s grass”. Ikaros Editions (2005)

“DIPOLES” The title of my art corpus meets its roots in Taoism and Zen theory. Ζen theory is based on the constant flow of life, the alternation, and the rythmic transformation of the antithetic dipoles, like the basic polar principle of “Ying/Yang”. In every dipole, two elements that are considered contradictory, may coexist, without nullified by each other. My artworks attract their stimuli from the theory of the well known pro-Socratic philosopher, Empedokles. Empedokles refers to “filotita” (attraction and reunion) and “neikos” (animosity, breakage and disintegration) as integral universal powers, an eternal circle that insures the perpetuation of the world. With this universe theory as an impetus, my artworks negotiate gender, identity and relations. “ΑTTACK/DEFENSE” (Plasticity/Rigidness) , “MY IMAGINARY BOYFRIEND” (Love/Hate), “ΤHE CONTRACT” (Sadism/Μasochism), “LIFEDEATH- REBORN (Life/Death), “REGINA DEMENS” (Male/Female), ”ALICE IN WONDERLAND -REVISED”, (ChildhoodTrauma/Adulthood-Remedy), “UTOPIA”-“THIRST”-“ILISSOS” (Man/Nature), “PLIE-RELEVE-PIROUETTE” (Natural body/unnatural desires), “THE BATTLE OF SEXES-THE COST OF BEAUTY” (Men/Women) narrate opposite components, that without the presence of one side, the existence of the other is canceled.

“MY (IMAGINARY) BOYFRIEND”

In this work, the stimulus resulted from a dance show in London: “The Zero Degrees” with the two holly monsters of modern choreography, the Belgian/Moroccan Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and the English/Bangladeshi Akram Khan. These two important dancers and choreographers were dancing o the stage along with their two puppets effigies, made from silicone.

With these images on my mind, I began creating a love story of passion/ hate and a heroine with an “Almodovar style” attitude. She reacts in a surreal way, reminding us our fantasies and demands from our relations, from the companion that exists in our life, for one day, for months or for years. The imaginary picture that we mold for our other half, most times abstains a lot from the real one. The protagonist worships and is madly in love with her plastic sex doll, but, when he “abandons” her, her endless love changes into an abysmal hate and she commits murder. Perhaps his death succeeds salvation for her, because at last she wakes up from her fallacy. Or rather not?

Digital photos on Lambda prints 31 X 46 cm. from the performance “MY (IMAGINARY) BOYFRIEND” (2009) Concept/performance:Katerina Fanouraki Photographer:Anastasia Boykos

“MY (IMAGINARY) BOYFRIEND” (2009) Digital photos on Lambda prints 31 X 46 cm. Photographer:Anastasia Boykos

â&#x20AC;&#x153;LIFE AND DEATH-REBORNâ&#x20AC;?

The period of conception and execution of this project coincided with the time which I won the chronic depression that was torturing me. And I felt reborn through my ashes. At that time I was the newborn child. The decision of my overexposure was a personal experience after all. It felt like I stepped from the womb, purified by my hardships, a blank book, ready to capture again in its pages new experiences, with memories as a legacy. A baby in an adult body.

The second reason which I made this project is my troubled relationship with my own body. The body that has been sexually abused and has suffered from very serious surgical operations in a tender childhood. I used to hate it. Intense weight fluctuations and embarassment for my image were my former reactions. I had embodied the negative aspects of my character. And I managed not only to reconcile with my body but to expose it to public view. I would describe these photo series as a transendence of self and salvation at the same time. As the death of the old self and the rebirth of a new, stronger, more conscious one.

Digital photos on Lambda prints 50 X 75 cm., 35 X 53 cm., 30 X 45 cm. from the performance ““LIFE AND DEATH (REBORN)” (2009) Concept/performance:Katerina Fanouraki Photographer:Anastasia Boykos

“LIFE AND DEATH (REBORN)” (2009) Digital photos on Lambda Prints 51 X 76 cm. Photographer:Anastasia Boykos

“LIFE AND DEATH (REBORN)” (2009) Digital photos on Lambda Prints 36 X 54 cm. Photographer:Anastasia Boykos

“PLIE – RELEVE – PIROUETTE” A couple of years ago I was attending ballet lessons for adults. There was a dance task that terrified me, the pirouette. Because of my scoliosis, while I was doing the exercise, I constantly fell. The centrifugal force, which my not-straight back was developing, caused the unsuccessful pirouette and the fall. I felt miserable, accusing myself of not completing the task, leaving the class full of tears and frustration. At that time, I missed the whole point of dancing which is the delight and joy of it. I transferred this incident to a wider social and conceptual angle creating a…fat ballerina, trying to compete with her super fit idol, the “prima ballerina”, a slim woman with a perfect body. I wanted to roast the western stereotypes on female beauty, obsession with plastic surgeries, exhausting diets and anorexia nervosa. Our heroine is like a caricature of the professional, tall and thin dancer. She is clumsy, trying to complete her dance roots, making us smile. Finally, she fell on the ground, disappointed, angry with herself, injuring herself, struggling to get out of her own skin. At the end she stops moving, burnt out. It seems like a big eraser has attacked her kinetic memories and she must find out a new way to stand up on the floor, to stand up on her feet. And she comes to zero point where she discovers her own body from the beginning. Our ballerina gives the viewers a big bonus: that she actually can dance with grace, liberated from her own superstitions, based on her own powers and bulky body. She even enjoys it, with a naïf style, not paying attention to the look of the others. And she closes the performance with a big hug and the acceptance of herself, leaving the audience wondering of how much women pay the cost, stress and traumas on the altar of beauty perfection in our modern world…

Video dance performance:“PLIE-RELEVE-PIROUETTE” (2012) Duration: 7:14 min Concept/Performance:Katerina Fanouraki Choreography:Elena Prapidi/Katerina Fanouraki Second ballerina: Elena Prapidi Director:Aris Lechouritis

Original music: Aggelos Spyros Paraskevakos Song:”Psychord” http://youtu.be/HCNy5I1EWJ0

“ALICE IN WONDERLAND (REVISED)” The book “Τhe Mystery of Lewis Carroll- Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland” by Jenny Woolf constituted the stimulus of this performance. It presents all the later versions of the writer Lewis Carroll ambiguous personality. One of them shows him as a pedophile. When someone reads the book he understands that the writer was very avant garde for his era and rather misunderstood . I , however, needed to connect this story with the sexual harassment of my childhood in order to exorcise it. This performance, in a first level, refers to the sexual trauma of the childhood but also to the brave action of the heroine’s liberation from this, with her psychological adulthood. She rejects the problematic behavior of sexually tortured individual, and free from complexes, she continues her new life. In a deeper lever the performance represents a political allegory of the economic-social Greek situation today. The political scene afterwards the junta led to the corruptness and finally to the collapse and to the crisis of Greek economy. My “Alice” could be a metaphor of the current Greek situation. Alice behaves childishly, carrying a complex that she perpetuates it. However, she decided with great effort and mental courage to reject it, and continues her life liberated from the psychological traumas. This is my proposal, through the performance, for the Greek crisis. All the citizens of this country should roll up our sleeves, rejecting behaviors of abuse in all levels, and fight maturely and honestly in order to escape from this smelly but not reversible economic situation.

Digital photos 31 X 46 cm. on Lambda prints from the performance

“ALICE IN WORDERLAND (REVISED)” (2011) Concept/performance:Katerina Fanouraki Photographer: Tassos Fragkou.

“ALICE IN WONDERLAND-(REVISED)” (2011) Digital photos on Lambda prints 31 X 46 cm. Photographer:Tassos Fragkou

“THE CONTRACT” The initial stimulus constituted the exploitation of Man from the Capital and the cliental relations in work environments. However I do not stand there. My objective are relations of any kind through lawful frames and written or informal conventions. Consequently, I refer to the personal relations and the sadist/masochistic behaviors of couples through the physical, psychological and verbal abuse. The male customer wears a black suit. The woman employee wears a white shirt. The white and black refers in counterbalancing forces that are necessary in order the contract to be signed from both contracting parts . They both consent through the imposition of physical, psychological and verbal abuse in the relation and they both accept it literally via the signature of contract duration the performance. At the same time however, the Sado-Masochistic Contract is ridiculed by the unexpected spectacle of the blood offer, by the strict and extreme observation of its terms. The eye of “Big Brother” is watching them, a CCTV camera.

Video “THE CONTRACT” (2011) Duration: 2:14 MIN. Lambda print 30 X 45 cm. Installation. Performance/Concept:Katerina Fanouraki Cinematographer: Hasan Hmeydan

Photographer: Tassos Fragkou

“THE CONTRACT” (2011) Video stills

“THE CONTRACT” (2011)

“THE CONTRACT” (2011) Video stills

“THE CONTRACT” (2011) Digital photos

“The Contract” installation

“ATTACK-DEFENSE” The concept of this video dance performance derived strictly from dance techniques and refers to the physical distress against deterioration and time in a first level. And in a deeper one, in my case, (spine fusion because of scoliosis) engages the corporal flexibility that attacks or defenses alternately, the stiffness of the fusion and bones. The choreography is based not in perplexed, demanding dancing routines but in the “Release” technique and the “Physical Theatre”. The “Release” technique contains natural everyday movements (running, walking, falling, standing etc.) and lack of tense and breath control. “Physical Theatre” focuses into improvised action and reaction, the discovery of our internal rhythm, the voice liberation and the development of a physical vocabulary by using instinct as an instrument. The influence of Pina Bausch, the priestess of contemporary dance, is very strong in this video. Her dancers do not only dance, but also speak, sing, sometimes laugh or cry, yell and applaud. Their movements are not at all the stereotype classical ballet ones. They abruptly turn their body, they embraced and caress each other intensely, they pull and sting their ears, roll their eyes. Violent outbreaks that are followed by deafening silences. Daily gestures, completely free from any pose. Pina used to say about her work: “ It interested and interests me only how I can express what I feel”. I dare to say, also the same, with this dance performance.

The choreographies of “DV8 Physical Theatre” and the particularly emblematical “The Cost of Living” -where they used dancer with disabilities- constituted also important stimulus. Finally, I should not forget the great Japanese Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo that incorporates in his movements all the elements that reveal the intensity in “Ying/Yang”, in the circles of life and death.

Dance performance “ATTACK – DEFENSE” (2009) Video.Duration:5:32 min.

Concept/Dance performance: Katerina Fanouraki Choreography:Elena Prapidi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wD0zJL46eA&list=HL1353 242684&feature=mh_lolz

“Utopia”, “Thirst”, “Ilissos” (2011) In September 2011 I was invited by the Greek visual artist Keti Haliori to present a performance and a video art for her project “World Water Museum”. I collaborated with the Ghanaian UK based artist Eugene Ankomah. Our common live performance took place on 30th of September 2011, outside “Technohoros” gallery, in Acropolis area, Athens, Greece. The exhibition was curated by Aristi Kostopoulou and included two new artworks and details of the informing collection of the "World Water Museum"installation. The distress of the thirst's prospect is recorded through three contemporary aspects. Firstly, through the process of collecting water samples from the "World Water Museum". Secondly, with the live performance, whose subject is our utopian behavior towards water and lastly, with the video performance, whose theme is the hopeless attempt to consume water from the exhausted nature. The digital photos are an allegory, a metaphor. I play the role of a businesswoman, but also my role symbolizes the western world and its water abuse. The artist Eugene Ankomah plays a poor African who is despairing because of the lack of water. But also he represents Mother Earth. Finally, earth takes control of water supplies. The alteration of the roles has just begun. The western man is thirsty and hopeless now. The last picture is the reconciliation of Mankind and Earth. Could be a "Utopia"? The future will tell... The video shows a more pessimist view. A bourgeois madam sits on the edge of a stream that has no water. She behaves in a surreal way, believing that nature is her house. Like a spoil brat, she uses all the industrial components of water like tap, hose, plastic cup and bottle, shower head and a… flush. She expects an abundance of water but in vain. She keeps repeating with exhaustion her pointless behaviour in an ongoing loop.

"UTOPIA(?)" -2011 Digital photos Concept/Performance: Katerina Fanouraki/Eugene Ankomah Photographer: Tassos Fragkou

"UTOPIA(?)" -2011

“THIRST” Live performance at “Technohoros” Gallery, Athens, Greece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4SvYc7pxm0&feature=relmfu

Concept/performance: Katerina Fanouraki/Eugene Ankomah

Video: “Illissos” Duration: 6:41 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1YEfBvcVQ Concept/Performance:Katerina Fanouraki Cinematographer: Hasan Hmeydan

“REGINA DEMENS (MAD QUEEN)-2012” This joined collaboration with the renowned Italian-Jordanian photographer Mustafa Sabbagh derived from my study on the fairy tale of Grimm Brothers “Bluebeard”. Unlike the other passive female heroines of Grimm’s fairy tales like Snow white and Cinderella, Judith, the eighth and last wife of the mighty and terrible, wealthy aristocrat with blue beards, is brave, cunning and decides to take her life in her own hands. Bluebeard lives in his castle. He marries a poor peasant girl. Before he leaves the castle, he gives her a golden key and also the following instructions: She can get to all rooms except the one that matches the small golden key. Judith, full of curiosity, unlocks the forbidden door. She stares with horror the murdered, by her husband, previous wives, hanged on the ceiling. The golden key fell on the floor and is being cover by blood. She tries to clean it but the blood won’t come out. Bluebeard arrives and immediately understands that she has betrayed his trust by opening the forbidden chamber. He is about to kill her. But Judith cries out for help to her brothers who kill Bluebeard. And they all live happily ever after by seizing the aristocrat’s wealth and residing in his castle. Judith, the heroine, has to be spiritually strong and shrewd in order to confront her husband physical and social power, in order not only to escape murder but also to gain his fortune. Basically we are talking about two people, with equal powers in order to confront each other. Couldn’t be the two sides of the same coin? Is it a double character? This photo session begins with this drive: a turbulent noble woman, a queen who doesn’t know if she is a male or a female. One moment she is angry, the other mad, or joyful, or seducing, depressed, or sad. All these sentiments are expressed in every still by the changing expressions of the performer. And in our everyday life, we encompass both characters in our behavior. Life is not black or white. We are all grey…

“REGINA DEMENS (MAD QUEEN)-2012”

Digital photos Concept: Mustafa Sabbagh/Katerina Fanouraki Performer: Katerina Fanouraki

Stylist: Simone Valsecchi

“REGINA DEMENS (MAD QUEEN)-2012”

Video and live performance: "Battle of Sexes-The Cost of Beauty" (2013)

WOMEN: Red stiletto heels. Corsets and garters. Red lipstick and platinum hair dye. Plastic surgeries.

MEN: Leather jackets and helmets. Expensive suits and watches, briefcases. Penus enlargement. Hair transplant.Tatoos, six packs and quadriceps.

BEAUTY: Male and female stereotypes. Desired images.Seductive fantasies. For Us or for the Others?

Video and live performance: "Battle of Sexes-The Cost of Beauty" (2013) Concept: Katerina Fanouraki Performance: Katerina Fanouraki, Petros Triantafyllopoulos. Choreography:Elena Prapidi Video Direction:Aris Lechouritis Michail Mavromoustakos Music: "Romeo and Juliet" Suit No.2 for Orchestra Op. 64 ter "Montagues and Capulets” Sergei Prokofiev. https://vimeo.com/69364771 (video performance) https://vimeo.com/67080277 (live performance after 3’25” a short intro of it)

Resume

KATERINA FANOURAKI Emails: katerinafanouraki@yahoo.com katfan_2005@hotmail.com

CURATIONS -Μay 2011: Concept/organization of the international art group exhibition “HOMO SAPIENS IN LOVE” in ‘’BOOZE COOPERATIVA’’, Athens, Greece. Love and sex as a biological/psychic/physical need through a plethora of contemporary art media. Artists from Greece, Cyprus, U.S.A., Norway, United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Albania, Lybanon. PROJECTS -February 2007: Proposal/Case study for the establishment of the Center for the promotion and projection of Fine Arts in Greece and the wider area of the Balcans and the Middle East, under the aegis of Eurobank and Latsis Foundation. -August 2009: Art director of the cd “Se dyo eaftous” (“In two selves”) of the Greek pop electronica music band “ALKI” for the Greek record company “ΜΕLYDRON”. STUDIES/SEMINARS -May-June 2010: Participation in the seminar of the Greek visual artist and journalist Katerina Zacharopoulou about the life and artwork of the performer Marina Abramovic. -February-Μay 2009: Participation in the seminars and workshops of exhibition curation, by the curator team of the Athenian Biennale, “XYZ”: Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Augustine Zenakos and Poka-Yio. -Νovember 2007-June 2011: AKTO college of Fine Arts & Τechnology, Bachelor First Class with Honour, Middlesex University, United Kindgom. -September – Nοvember 2007: Participation in the seminar “Transformations of the human body in Western Art” by Dr.Ioanna Vetsopoulou (Art Historian) at the Cycladic Museum in Athens, Greece. -July – December 2007: Participation in the seminar «Management of nonprofit organizations» by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (e-learning ).

EXHIBITIONS -October 2013: “Art is Hard” Rethymnon, Crete. Art Platform for Video art, live performances and electronic music. . Participation with video performance “Battle of Sexes-The Cost of Beauty”. -September 2013: "BODY VARU" in Opava city, Czech Republic 5/9-11/10 at the above places: Galerie Cella (Matiční 4, Opava), Hovorny (Masarykova 22, Opava), Divadelní klub (Rybí trh 4, Opava ). The exhibition focuses on the themes of sex, nakedness and pornography, showing conterporary art in czech republic and other european countries. Participation with video performance “Battle of Sexes-The Cost of Beauty”.

-September 2013: “RE-culture 2-/”Poverty – Solidarity – Way out”. 2nd International Visual Art Festival Patras The non-profit organization, “Art in Progress”, coordinated and directs the festival. “RE-culture 2” is sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Culture, the University of Patras, the Patras Municipality, the Athens School of Fine Art and the Embassies of Germany and Austria in Greece. Participation with video performance “Battle of Sexes-The Cost of Beauty”. - July 2013: 2nd Symposium of Greek Gastronomy in Amari, Rethymnon, Crete.’’Food, Memory & Identity in Greece & Greek Diaspora”. Participation with the installation “Medea Sarcophagida/The feast of Life. Curated by the experimental archeologist and Greek Food History researcher, Marianna Kavroulaki. -March 2013: Festival “Beauty-Break the stereotypes”, at “Quilombo”, Athens. Participation with common art project with renown photographer Mustafa Sabbagh and live performance with actor Petros Triantafyllopoulos. -March 2013: “Οpen Doors ΙΙ” , in “Technopolis”, Gazi, Athens. Co-organisation of «ΑΚΤΟ College of Fine Arts and Design» and «Technopolis”. -January 2013: Group photography exhibition “NOW”, in “Greek-French Association”, Αthens. Under the aegis and organization of “Vorre Museum”. -September 2012: Balcan photography exhibition “Aspects of Balkan Photography. New route in the time of crisis“, “Photography Center of Salonica”, Muniticipality of Neapoli, Syceon, Salonica.

-June 2012: International group art festival “Carte Blanche IX –Paradize Bonds” at BOOZE COOPERATIVA, Athens, Greece. - May 2012: International group art exhibition “SHAPE OPEN” under the aegis of the U.K cultural organisation “SHAPEARTS” and the sponsoring of HSBC bank, at “Portobello Art Gallery” in Notting Hill, London. -March 2012 : Group art exhibition “REVEALED” about the sexual abusion in childhood together with the Greek artists Kethi Haliori and Aristi Kostopoulou at BOOZE COOPERATIVA, Athens, Greece. -Οctober 2011: Projection of the two video art ”Utopia(?)” and “Ilissos” on the 9th International Hydrogeological Congress in Kalavrita, Greece under the presentation of the “WorldWaterMuseum” installation by the visual artist Keti Haliori. -September 2011: Live performance ”Utopia(?)” in collaboration with the Ghanaian, London based, Eugene Ankomah along with the projection of the video art “Ilissos” at the gallery «Τechnohoros», Athens, Greece. The exhibition synchronized with the second phase of the “WorldWaterMuseum” installation, της by the visual artist Keti Haliori, curated by Aristi Costopoulou. (www.worldwatermuseum.org) -July 2011: BA graduation show ART & DESIGN, of the Greek college «ΑΚΤΟ» in collaboration with Middlesex University -Αpril 2011: International group art exhibition “HOMO SAPIENS IN LOVE” in “BOOZE COOPERATIVA”, Athens, Greece. -February 2011: National group art and literature exhibition of the members of the ”Club for Unesco of Art, Literature and Science of Greece” in Zappeio Megaro, in Athens. -December 2010: Group art exhibition of the “Club for Unesco of Art, Literature and Science of Greece” for the celebration of the World Philosophical Day in the Municipal Hall of Kessariani, Athens, Greece. -November 2010- January 2011: Online exhibition “ERROTICA” on the Brasilian internet contemporary art magazine “FORADOTEMPO”. (www.foradotempo.com/galeria)

PRESS AND MEDIA hhttp://www.artalk.cz/2013/08/24/tz-body-varu/ ttp://www.pelop.gr/?page=article&DocID=122108&srv=14

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