I woke with this marble head in my hands;
it exhausts my elbow and I don’t know where to put it down.
It was falling into the dream as I was coming out of the dream
so our life became one and it will be very difficult for it to separate again.
George Seferis, Remember the baths where you were murderer

K-Gold Temporary Gallery presents the group exhibition “I woke with a marble head in my hands” curated by Nicolas Vamvouklis, taking up a neoclassical residence at the village of Agia Paraskevi in Lesvos.

In an attempt to outline the complexities of our times, the show explores the notion of the wunderkammer. The empty house as an open showcase becomes the stage of presenting various methods of mapping, collecting, and archiving in artistic practices.

The title of the sixth summer show refers to the poem by George Seferis, which, as a contemporary Odyssey, points out the continuity between past and present, and how it is inscribed in both personal experience and cultural memory.

Lesvos has a significant history of collecting that ranges from prehistoric findings of the Petrified Forest, archaeology, and folk culture to the unique collection of Tériade who opened on the island the first Modern Art Museum in Greece.

The participating artists compose a contemporary cabinet of curiosities. Their artworks reflect on fragments of today’s society, raising questions about their role and preservation. They highlight the therapeutic value of art in a materially saturated world and point out what do these objects – physical and digital – reveal about our identity as collectors.

Visitors are invited to follow these objects and connect the traces between myth and reality by facing their own personal limits and challenges.

Participating artists

Joan Jonas, Ilias Papailiakis, Virginia Russolo, Bas Jan Ader, Guendalina Cerruti, Christos Delidimos, Anna Franceschini, Louis De Belle, Jonathas de Andrade, Ørjan Amundsen, Eugenia Vereli, Petter Solberg, Adonis Archontides, Sarah Cockings, and Harriet Fleuriot

The exhibition is accompanied with parallel events: dance performances, workshops for children, guided tours, screenings, and a bilingual catalog. K-Gold Temporary Gallery finally presents its photography journal “The Wild Ones” featuring Polly Brown, Diego Saldiva, Martin Sekera, Elena Subach, Daniel Everett and Christian Michael Filardo.

PARALLEL EVENTS 

Dance performance
Friday 9 August, 20:30

There's a moose growing out of my back
Choreography: Julie Rasmussen
Performers: Julie Rasmussen, Maren Fidje Bjørnseth, Hilde Ingeborg Sandvold 

JunkDance
Choreography: Xenia Koghilaki
Performers: Nefeli Kadinopoulou Asteriou, Venetsiana Kalabaliki, Efthimios Moschopoulos 

Educational Programme
Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 August, 11:00 – 13:00
Creative workshops for children with educator Katerina Zagli 

Guided tour of the exhibition
Wednesday 14 August, 20:00
With the curator Nicolas Vamvouklis 

Screening Programme
Daily, 21:00 – 23:00
At the residence’s yard

K-Gold Temporary Gallery
K-Gold Temporary Gallery is a nomadic platform for contemporary art that was founded in 2014 in the Greek island of Lesvos by Nicolas Vamvouklis. It aims to bring wider audiences closer to contemporary culture, by activating alternative spaces and offering artists and curators the opportunity to expand their research and practice. Besides its activities in Lesvos, it collaborates with cultural institutions in Greece and abroad, while in 2015 it received a distinction as Innovative European Citizen Initiative by Nantes Creative Generations.

The exhibition “I woke with a marble head in my hands” is realized under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Youth of the Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs.
With the support of the Cultural Services of the Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture, the Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism of the Municipality of Lesvos, and the North Ae-gean Prefecture

Creative Collaborators: Cultiva Ekspress, FLUKS Centre for Young Art, University of Agder (Norway)

Donor: Hellenic Petroleum
Opening Sponsor: Ouzo of Plomari Isidoros Arvanitis