recent activities
XRW (Implicature)
(2024)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
50 A3 drawings black and coloured markers, including:
3 A3 collages on paper with newspaper cutouts and printed photos.
12 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers + 1 A3 with black ballpoint pen and markers.
13 A3 drawings on paper with black marker, and red, pale blue, gold, pink and orange markers +1 A3 wo-sided.
17 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
1 text drawing on sketchbook cover inside.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover back inside with black, orange and gold markers.
Some of the above is preparatory work for 4 large prints and 13 paintings.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
I did the art between 2023-2024.
I adopted the visual vocabulary of the graphic novel, which I partly studied and read a lot about looking at different graphic artists' work, when I was attending classes at the University of Malmo, Sweden, in 2012. I mixed this with stylistic elements of the architectural sketch, using heavily the black marker and stick figures. Much of this work is, amongst other, about children. I wanted to emphasise that, by intentionally applying stylistic elements from children's drawings, too, in a naive architectural composition. Using this visual approach, I wanted to give a comically sharp twist to the otherwise dark subject matter.
"Pop and Politics" (Pop Og Politikk)
Where does the boundary run between art and popular culture? Pop art embraces the iconography of mass culture. Themes are taken from advertising comics, cinema and TV. The slick, impersonal style is a deliberate provocation.
In Norway, pop art is part of a broader left-wing protest movement. Everything from capitalism and imperialism to environmental and gender politics is subjected to critical scrutiny. The exclusive, unique artwork is replaced by mass-produced prints and posters, well suited to spreading a political message."
From the National Museum, Oslo, Norway.
See exposition in connection with "The (Origins of) The Game", "Debris", and "The Loot".
The Loot
(2024)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Islington studio flat 4, at 14 Barnsbury Road, London, 2022, privately rented. Interior design as an art installation. Looted, 2024.
My personal belongings were still at the property for two months, after I left on 27 March 2024 and was asked to collect them by 3 or 4 April from Woolwich. After I left, the landlords moved in two or three under aged, who I have never met, for them to pretend to be my daughters. After that, they must have been removing them one by one over the last few months and until October 2024.
14 Barnsbury Road was deemed illegal through the courts, on 22 April, shortly after I was forced to leave in March. The maintenance employed many Polish citizens, all dressed in black with black caps, like all XRW supporters dress.
Twenty-one (20+1) digital photographs for twenty (20) missing Albanian and of Albanian ethnicity non-EU immigrants and one (1) missing Italian citizen.
The twenty-one persons whose details got stolen were abducted by Golden Dawn, the NRM and possibly Forza Nuova; they are deceased.
My personal details were also stolen. Was I going to be the twenty-second?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_(magazine)
Investigatory research with artworks. The art world has been traditionally male dominated. This has changed a bit in contemporary art, but not dramatically. Female artists have sometimes adopted male attitudes or personas to break into the art scene; see Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin from the YBA movement. I hold the view that art is not gendered, for instance that there is no art for women or so-called women's art. Good art transcends such categories, tapping into more universal experiences. Saying this, I would like to quote Nancy Spero, who doesn't crudely distinguish between male and female art, as follows: "What if the default gender for 'artist' were female? What if, when we looked at a work by a woman, we said to ourselves, "That is art," and when we looked at a work by a man, we automatically identified it in our minds as 'men's art'?"
In 1999, I wrote a long essay on the architectural uncanny that I submitted as my graduation thesis for my first MA in architectural theory. I called it "Space as a 'Bad' Object: A criminal investigation on the notion of space"; I got inspiration from detective novels and real-life crime stories. The long essay was about the role of architectural space in crime. It was completely unsupervised: I received a distinction by a Bartlett staff member. I took the digital photographs in conceptual adherence with that essay.
For Chris, who was suddenly transferred by his employer, from London, where his daughter lives, to somewhere outside of London; and for Lawrence, whose temporary post was prematurely terminated, though he was planning to return to his legal studies. To all those who don't just "play" the cultural and racial diversity clause.
See exposition in connection with "The (Origins of) The Game", "Debris", and "XRW (Implicature)".
Debris (Enlightenment Panel no 2)
(2024)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Sculpted and painted wood, combined with treated rusty objects. Duct tape with boat paint models for metal sheet sculptures, 2020. Digital drawings, 2021, 2023. Dutch steel sailing boat part-restoration and renovation, Amsterdam (with Sean A. Hladkyj), 2019-20.
I exposed relief and improvised sculptures made with industrial paints, as well as found objects, to weather conditions, including heavy rain and wind, over a few months on a floating timber raft. Working with the changes the weather was causing to the ad hoc studio, I made changes until the painting was finished, photographed, then dumped. Someone collected the relief. I applied the colours from those available in a symbolic manner, abstracting the view of a ghetto in a large city. The objects stand for the landmarks.
The pieces would comprise of the scenography for a theatre performance, informed by my conversations with a theatre lighting technician. The event would also include a donation event of the art objects. See external link for the theatre play, based on the tradition of the philosophical dialogue and employing the idea of performing philosophy to make it accessible to a wider audience.
Political asylum has been traditionally offered to people who flee from their countries of origin and citizenship, because of violations of their dignity, which is a human right, and other basic human rights, such as safety and liberty, due to their political beliefs and related activities, if any. Currently, seven human rights of mine, five basic, have been infringed in the United Kingdom, where I have been a citizen since 2011; the origin is my native Greece. Political asylum is only offered to people, who are non-citizens of the country where asylum is sought from. At the same time, political asylum has become harder to offer, due to the global nature of persecution of whoever is perceived as a dissident by authoritarians.
Since 2013, Forza Nuova, the Italian affiliate of the Greek Golden Dawn, has participated in the organised international criminal case, of which I have been the target, originating from my native Greece, "accelerating" in the Netherlands and the UK in 2020, Covid-19. This happened with the theft of my personal details, specifically my Greek driver's license number, by Italians, in Amsterdam in the winter of 2020. My number was used for three fake Italian driver's licenses for criminal activity in the UK. My name known as (aka) was also used for three fake Italian passports for fictitious female Albanian citizens.
Notably, Roberto Fiore, Forza Nuova's leader, inherited briefly Alessandra Mussolini's post in the EU parliament. Nevertheless, the Italian government settled in the summer of 2024 one remaining fake Italian passport for a fictitious Albanian citizen, probably in connection with Forza Nuova, after mediation with the Albanian government. Rumours have it that Fiore was once upon a time an MI6 agent. It is confirmed that he has ties with the British National Party (BNP), the British XRW component.
Drawing on the philosophical notion of impossible objects, the works attempted an indirect postcolonial critique: a suggestion for alternative, autonomous and communitarian lifestyles; and a performative metaphor for global refugees of all kinds. At the time, in autumn 2019, I had attended an environmental protest in Amsterdam that was generally peaceful.
Investigatory research with artworks, some of it carried out in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where I was a philosophy student, from 2017 until late 2019, and remained until autumn 2020. I did not have student insurance, as it was obligatory, because I was covered by the NHS through EHIC (European Community coverage, when the UK was still in the EU), since the UK was still in the EU. I didn't have travel insurance either.
Presentation of work in progress.
See exposition in connection with "The (Origins of) The Game", "The Loot" and "XRW (Implicature)".
recent publications
environment embodiment - towards poetic narratives
(2024)
Fernanda Branco
This exposition presents the PhD Artistic Research project environment embodiment - towards poetic narratives (2020-2024) by Fernanda Branco at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. This artistic research explores experiential agency in encounters between body and environment. It draws from uncanny, embodied, and poetic perspectives and unfolds as a constellation of sympoietic practices.
Fernanda Branco has designed this exposition in collaboration with web designer Ellen Palmeira.
Illustrations by Aza.
Drawings by Francisco Blixt.
Cards and booklets designed by Amanda Costa.
Home page JSS
(2024)
Journal of Sonic Studies
Home page of the Journal of Sonic Studies
Echoes - An exploration of the African rhythmic influence in Costa Rican folk music
(2024)
Nelson BriceƱo Peraza
This exposition presents my final project for the Master of Arts in Jazz Performance, Drumset, undertaken from autumn 2022 to spring 2024. The project was motivated by my exposure to diverse African rhythms, which revealed potential connections with the traditional music of my Costa Rican heritage. Growing up surrounded by Costa Rican folk music, including African-origin instruments such as the marimba, quijongo, as well as cimarronas (street bands), deeply influenced my musical identity. This project aims to explore and integrate these rhythms, tracing their African roots and merging them with contemporary musical forms.
Inspired by Henry Cole's perspective on folklore as the essence and life of music, this research emphasizes the importance of connecting academic knowledge with folk traditions. Throughout my career, I have engaged with various musical traditions, always seeking to blend them with folk music. This project builds on my previous work, which examined the introduction and adaptation of Costa Rican folk rhythms on the modern drumset. In this continuation, I focus on the historical and rhythmic connections between Latin American and African traditions, using artistic research to deepen the understanding and appreciation of these intertwined musical heritages.