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.
Relief and improvised sculptures made with industrial paints, as well as found objects, were exposed 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. The relief was collected. 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, for their political beliefs and related activities. 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.
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.
Notably, Roberto Fiore, Forza Nuova's leader, inherited briefly Alessandra Mussolini's post in the EU parliament.
Drawing on the philosophical notion of impossible objects, the works attempted an indirect postcolonial critique; a suggestion for alternative, autonomous lifestyles; and a performative metaphor for global refugees.
Investigatory research with artworks.
XRW (Implicature)
(2024)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Sketchbook of 53 A3 drawings with coloured markers, including 4 A3 collages with newspaper cutouts and printed photos. Sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
Preparatory work, 2023-2024.
Although dealing with dark subject matter, 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. This visual approach gives a slightly comical note to the subject.
CARCEREIRA II
(2024)
Ivan Santos Ferreira, Ana Beatriz Pinheiro Oliveira, Matilde Marques Moutinho da Costa Vinagre, Fabbio Augusto Savioli da Silva, Inês Juliana Silva Moura, Oceane Lourenco Ribeiro
"(...) a cidade (...) consiste somente de um lado de fora e de um avesso, como uma folha de papel, com uma figura aqui e outra ali, que não podem se separar nem se encarar", um lugar onde as partes, os contrastes e o movimento participam numa dança infindável. E é a busca pela compreensão da linha ténue entre o sim e o não, o claro e o escuro, o tudo e o nada, que dá nome ao nosso trabalho, Oppositions.
“(…) the city (…) consists only of an outside and a reverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure here and there, which cannot be separated nor face each other.”, a place where the parts, contrasts and movement participate in an endless dance. And it is the search for understanding the fine line between yes and no, light and dark, everything and nothing, that gives name to our work, Oppositions.