Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show
Paul Chan's Hippias Minor, at the Deste Foundation's Slaughterhouse space on the island of Hydra, is a two part exploration of one of Plato's most controversial dialogues
(Image credit: Courtesy: Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited)

In a timely pre Art Basel odyssey, famed Greek industrialist, collector and philanthropist Dakis Joannou hosted artists, designers and thinkers at 2015's Deste Foundation summer show in Athens and the site-specific installation at the Slaughterhouse Project, a satellite of the foundation located on the tranquil island of Hydra. 'The Slaughterhouse Project began in 2009 in a completely organic way,' explains Joannou, 'with the idea of inviting artists who are in the middle of their careers to create a site specific work.'

This year's invited artist – the American Paul Chan (winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2014) – staged a symposium, Hippias Minor, in the tradition of the debating platforms that were an integral part of Ancient Greek life. In Chan’s version, candidates duked it out on 'The Art of Cunning', which recapitulated one of Plato's most controversial dialogues. Rhetoric and heckling was in force in the idyllic, vine canopied taverna setting. Guests included Maurizio Cattelan, Urs Fischer, Jeffrey Deitch and designer Sophia Kokosalaki, plus curators and friends of the Foundation. The Chan debate closed three days of openings and events that mark out Deste (which means 'look' in Greek) as a unique and much cherished institution.

The not-for-profit Foundation – which boasts a bold and provocative contemporary art collection and public programme – invited musician/artist Kim Gordon to create a performance at the Benaki Museum entitled Noise Name Paintings and Sculptures of Rock Bands that are broken up, on the opening night. The performer hammered out her riffs against a visual background of Ancient Greek art and daubed rock-and-roll name paintings.

This year also saw the unveiling of candidates for the 2015 Deste Foundation Prize, awarded every two years to a young Greek artist. One of six nominees, Socratis Socratous, created a beguiling work of natural detritus (pine cones, branches, leaves) from the National Garden of Athens. The artifacts were exquisitely recast in bronze and scattered over the tiled floor of the Cycladic Art Museum. The work, both political and poetic, spoke of the threat to beauty in a modern Greece suffering under the current economic crisis.

The unveiling of 'Ametria', a joint show between the Benaki Museum, the Foundation and architect Alessandro Pasini, proved a mind-boggling highlight and the concept of Ametria – the rejection of an overall vision – was reflected in the smart curation. The Museum's ground floor space was transformed into a labyrinth, with no signposting or labelling of the diverse artworks that zig-zagged between historical maps, statues and Deste’s contemporary treasure trove. Exploration and discovery was underlined – all agreed it was a stimulating journey – topped off with a joyous dinner and dance at Dakis and Lietta Joannou’s private home, itself boasting provocative artwork at every turn.

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The first part comprises three outdoor works installed on the Slaughterhouse roof. These pieces 'represent Chan's evolving body of work that incorporates aspects of animation, sculpture, sewing, and fluid dynamics, and which he simply calls "clothes for spirits"'. Pictured: An artist's impression of the installed piece. 

(Image credit: Courtesy: Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The second piece is a publication, Hippias Minor or The Art of Cunning, containg a new translation of Plato's dialogue by Sarah Ruden, repurposing the text as an understanding the power of lying as a creative act.

(Image credit: Courtesy: Paul Chan and Badlands Unlimited)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Dakis Joannou, the host of the Deste Foundation summer show, owns a 115-foot megayacht designed in collaboration with Jeff Koons and the Italian yacht designer Ivana Porfiri. 

(Image credit: Andrea Ferrari)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Family Business – initiated in 2012 by artist Maurizio Cattelan and New Museum Artistic Director and curator Massimiliano Gioni – is an alternative, non-profit art space for the presentation of original exhibitions open to artistic experimentation and innovative collaboration. 

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

After iterations in New York's Chelsea district and at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Family Business comes to Athens. In its new incarnation at the Benaki Museum, the space will maintain a symbiotic relationship with both the Museum and the Deste Foundation.

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The space is playing host to 'Dirty Linen' an exhibition organised by Myriam Ben Salah, curator of Special Projects and Cultural Programs at the Palais de Tokyo; the show examines the concept of the family as an 'intricate and weird entanglement of individuals and relationships', as well as encompassing broader national and international relationships made apparent during the ongoing financial crisis.

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Kim Gordon's Noise Name Paintings and Sculptures of Rock Bands that are broken up saw the artist and rock musician hammer out her riffs against a visual background of Ancient Greek art and daubed rock-and-roll name paintings.

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The Noise Name images reference Gordon's work in other disciplines, highlighting a web of reference between authorship, visualisation and the 'reciprocal influence of poetic communication'. 

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Maria Hassabi is one of six nominees shortlisted for the 2015 Deste Foundation Prize. Wall, 2015is a mixed media sculpture constructed from power and control cables, dimmers, paint and wall clips.

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Exhaustion, 2015, is a mixed media installation by the Deste Foundation Prize nominee Yiannis Papadopoulos. 

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The mixed media installation Copies, Columns, Reconfiguration, 2015, by Petros Moris, a shortlisted nominee for the Prize

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Socratis Socratous' entry Stolen Goods, 2009 – 2015, is a beguiling work of natural detritus – pine cones, branches, leaves – from the National Garden of Athens, exquisitely recast in bronze and scattered over the tiled floor of the Cycladic Museum.

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Prize nominee Natali Yiaxi's Posh Taro, 2015, is a ten minute sound installation on 12-inch vinyl.

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Yiaxi's second piece, Untitled, 2015, comprises 50 blank, titled books.

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

Aggelo Plessas – the sixth nominee for the Deste Foundation Prize – presents the mixed media Eternal Internet Brother/Sisterhood (1–3), 2015

(Image credit: George Sfakianakis)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The unveiling of 'Ametria', a joint show between the Benaki Museum and the Foundation, was a mind-boggling highlight of the summer show. 

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

The Museum's ground floor space was transformed into a labyrinth, with no signposting or labelling of the diverse artworks that zig-zagged between historical maps

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show


(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

Fresh rhetoric: Dakis Joannou hosts 2015 Deste Foundation summer show

… and Deste's contemporary treasure trove.

(Image credit: Fanis Vlastaras)

ADDRESS

Deste Foundation
Filellinon 11 & Em. Pappa street, N.Ionia 142 34
Athens Greece

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