Forthcoming I

“Forthcoming  –  Προσεχώς”
space52
27th Jan – 10th Mar 2018
Opening date: 27th January, 2018
Time: 8:00 pm
@ space52, Kastorias 52, Athens
https://www.space52.gr/

Open 5-8pm Saturdays and by appointment

Artists:
Dimitrios Antonitsis, Irini Bahlitzanaki, Hariton Bekiaris, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Martha Dimitropoulou, Iraklis Fovakis, Georgia Kotretsos, Nikos Kyriakopoulos, James Lane, Antonis Larios, Υorgos Maraziotis, Maro Michalakakos, Eva Mitala, Jennifer Nelson, Poka-Yio, Nefeli Papanagiotou, Artemis Potamianou, Georgia Sagri, Giorgos Tserionis, Nicolas Vamvouklis, Pantelis Vitaliotis/Magneto, Vasilis Zografos

Forthcoming #1, is the inaugural exhibition in a series of future emergences. It showcases art works, archival material and notes by Athens-based artists. There are myriad paths one could choose to narrate a tale about our recent past and immediate present. The broad scope of creative practices occurring here makes up the sum of a multitude. Looking more deeply at Athens, it is unmistakable that highly edited gestures are being manifested in abundance by above all remaining serene.

Each artist presents fragments or complete works representative of his most recent inquiry. By doing so, Space52 is collective transformed into an inclusive artist-studio, a reservoir of ideas and proposals. The selected works explore equal parts of theory and practice. At a first glance they may appear incongruous and eclectic yet, a closer look will reveal the unanimous overtone of memory, fragility and sensory experiences.

Sponsor: Psaroulis Wines   http://psarouliswines.gr/

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“Forthcoming-Προσεχώς”

SPACE52
27 ΙΑΝ – 10 ΜΑΡ 2018
Εγκαίνια: 27 Ιανουρίου, 2018
Ώρα: 8:00 pm
@ Space52, Καστοριάς 52, Αθήνα
https://www.space52.gr/

“Προσεχώς” είναι η εναρκτήρια έκθεση. Παρουσιάζει έργα τέχνης, αρχειακό υλικό και σημειώσεις καλλιτεχνών με έδρα την Αθήνα. Το ευρύ πεδίο των δημιουργικών πρακτικών αποτελεί το άθροισμα ενός πλήθους ιστοριών. Υπάρχουν μυριάδες γωνίες που θα μπορούσαμε να διαλέξουμε για να αφηγηθούμε την ιστορία για το πρόσφατο παρελθόν και το άμεσο παρόν μας. Οι εξαιρετικά επεξεργασμένες χειρονομίες εκδηλώνονται σε αφθονία με ευκολία και αναμφίβολα καθιστώντας αδύνατο να μην είναι ορατές.

Κάθε καλλιτέχνης παρουσιάζει ένα μικρό κομμάτι της πιο πρόσφατης δουλειάς του και έτσι διαμορφώνεται μια εικόνα 20 ανθρώπων σε ένα χώρο-studio καλλιτέχνη μαζί. Οι έννοιες σε αυτό το χώρο αναπτύσσονται και μετατρέπονται σε συγκεκριμένη πραγματικότητα. Η αλληλεπίδραση της θεωρίας και της πρακτικής σήμερα φαίνεται να επηρεάζει τα έργα τα οποία σε πρώτη ανάγνωση μοιάζουν τόσο διαφορετικά αλλά στη βάση τους μοιάζουν στην ευαισθησία, ευθραυστότητα, μνήμη αλλά και ψευδαίσθηση.

Συμμέτέχουν: Δημήτριος Αντωνίτσης, Ειρήνη Μπαχλιτζανάκη, Χαρίτων Μπεκιάρης, Διονύσης Χριστοφιλογιάννης, Μάρθα Δημητροπούλου, Ηρακλής Φοβάκης, Γεωργία Κοτρέτσος, Νίκος Κυριακόπουλος, James Lane, Αντώνης Λάριος, Γιώργος Μαραζιώτης, Μάρω Μιχαλακάκου., Εύα Μήταλα, Jennifer Nelson, Poka-Yio, Νεφέλη Παπαναγιώτου,  Άρτεμις Ποταμιάνου, Γεωργία Σαγρή, Γιώργος Τσεριώνης, Νικόλας Βαμβουκλής, Παντελής Βιταλιώτης/Magneto, Βασίλης Ζωγράφος

 

Χορηγός: Psaroulis Wines   http://psarouliswines.gr/

Forthcoming Catalog download   (print 50x100cm plotter)

 

 

 

Forthcoming I: An Exhibition Summary Essay by Dionisis Christofilogiannis
Athens 2018

The Forthcoming I exhibition gathers a diverse group of contemporary artists whose practices reflect a shared inquiry into materiality, transformation, memory, and the socio-political dimensions of art. Across sculpture, painting, installation, and video, the participating artists reveal a deep engagement with both the objecthood of art and its capacity to act as a vessel for critique, ritual, and personal or collective memory. This essay provides a critical overview of the exhibition, contextualizing key themes and artistic approaches while situating the works within broader art historical and theoretical frameworks.

The Forthcoming I exhibition distinguishes itself through a curatorial approach that prioritizes immediacy, intimacy, and authenticity. Drawing directly from the studios of participating artists, the exhibition presents an evocative blend of notes, sketches, unfinished experiments, and fully realized works—many of which are exhibited for the first time. Rather than privileging the polished over the provisional, Forthcoming I repositions all elements of the artistic process as equally significant, allowing unfinished or in-progress pieces to stand as complete expressions in their own right. This decision offers audiences a rare, behind-the-scenes view into the evolving practices of contemporary artists, revealing the raw, unfiltered material of artistic thought and labor. The inclusion of these varied works side by side generates a dynamic, multifaceted narrative that captures the present moment across multiple artistic voices. As such, the exhibition feels both current and compelling—refreshingly unconcerned with market-ready uniformity and instead focused on the living, breathing state of art in formation. This makes Forthcoming I not only a vital reflection of studio practice today but a unique contribution to contemporary exhibition-making.

Material and Metaphor

A significant motif running throughout the exhibition is the transformation of humble or found materials into meaningful artistic statements. Martha Dimitropoulou’s use of pine needles—materials associated with decay and domestic labor—elevates the fragile and ephemeral into complex sculptural forms that question cultural hierarchies and the symbolic value of matter. Similarly, Jennifer Nelson’s bridal dress constructed from bank bills becomes a site of economic critique and collective healing, where craft replaces consumer despair with community resilience.

Hariton Bekiaris and Iraklis Fovakis both explore the passage of time as a sculptural agent. Bekiaris welcomes natural weathering as a collaborator, embracing erosion and growth as legitimate artistic processes that challenge the modernist ideal of permanence. Fovakis’s snake relic, encased in plexiglass and adorned with pearls, reflects on the Jungian and Gnostic symbology of the snake—a dual emblem of danger and healing—offering a visual meditation on instinct and the unconscious (Jung, 1968).

Memory, Ritual, and the Everyday

Memory and ritual are central to Irini Bachlitzanaki’s maquette-inspired sculptures and Dionisis Christofilogiannis’ architectural metal assemblages. Bachlitzanaki navigates the transition between idea and object, emphasizing the prototype as a space of speculative becoming. Her references to performativity and disposability resonate with Georgia Kotretsos’ conceptual studies, which interrogate the viewer’s gaze and the epistemology of art spectatorship.

Giorgos Tserionis’ vessels likewise defy functionality to become metaphors for performance and history, distorted and aged like ancient artifacts or biological entities, evoking Georges Bataille’s notion of the informe (formless) as a challenge to conventional aesthetics (Bataille, 1929). Meanwhile, Nikos Kiriakopoulos’ pen drawings serve as mnemonic devices that preserve relationships lost to time, recalling Susan Stewart’s reflections on the souvenir as a temporal and emotional anchor (Stewart, 1993).

Social Commentary and Political Tension

Several works in the exhibition offer pointed social critique. James Lane’s Jumping Rope video installation responds to the refugee crisis on Lesvos, capturing both the serene beauty and the traumatic dissonance of a contested space. His use of rope as both medium and metaphor underscores the entanglements of denial, complicity, and transience. In a similar vein, Antonis Larios’ grotesque portrait confronts xenophobia and neo-fascism, using carnival imagery and hybrid beings to unmask latent societal fears.

Poka-Yio’s ironic portrait of George Papandreou as an Instagram relic (INSTAGAP) satirizes the intersection of political legacy and digital culture. In contrast, Artemis Potamianou’s The Unknown Masterpiece reclaims the historical erasure of women by reconstructing iconic female portraits using male features—an act of feminist détournement echoing Balzac’s parable and Picasso’s obsession with Frenhofer (Crow, 1995).

Perception, Fiction, and the Nature of Art

Works by Eva Mitala, Pantelis Vitaliotis Magneto, and Vasilis Zografos all grapple with the slippery nature of truth and perception in contemporary art. Mitala’s silkscreens emphasize error and unpredictability, resisting the clean finish typically associated with print media. Vitaliotis stages a pseudo-natural landscape infiltrated by toy-like plastic forms, challenging binaries of real and artificial. Zografos, exploring the artist as collector, reflects on the symbolic gap between desire and ownership—a tension that also informs the consumption of art as commodity.

Dimitrios Antonitsis’ Hypnocrates series opens the exhibition with satirical flair, referencing unicorn farming as a metaphor for capitalist fantasy and speculative ambition. Echoing Jessica S. Marquis’ humorous guide to entrepreneurial delusion, Antonitsis invites the viewer into a critique of belief systems that conflate myth with market logic.

Conclusion

Forthcoming I is an exhibition that excels in weaving together the material, the conceptual, and the emotional. Each artist brings a unique lens to the entangled questions of form, identity, memory, and power. The show’s strength lies in its diversity—not only of media and practice—but in its ability to suggest a shared, forward-looking poetics of making and unmaking. In a world marked by fragmentation and precarity, the works gathered here assert the enduring relevance of art as a site of reflection, resistance, and renewal.

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References

• Bataille, G. (1929). Formless. Documents, Paris.

• Crow, T. (1995). Modern Art in the Common Culture. Yale University Press.

• Jung, C. G. (1968). Man and His Symbols. Dell.

• Marquis, J. S. (2011). Raising Unicorns: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Starting and Running a Successful–and Magical!–Unicorn Farm. Adams Media.

• Stewart, S. (1993). On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Duke University Press.