25 September—16 November 2024
Group show
Murderesses
Group Show
Opening : Wednesday, 25th of September 2024 at 17:00 – 22:30
State of Concept invites you to the opening of the group exhibition “Murderesses” on
Wednesday, September 25th at 17:00 curated by Konstantina Melachrinou and iLiana
Fokianaki with the participation of Eleni Karakou, Markella Ksilogiannopoulou, Miammy, Malvina Panagiotidi, Eva Papamargariti, with new and older commissions. The exhibition explores the archetype of the dangerous woman – femininity that threatens patriarchy, imitating its violent means and tools in the effort of self-determination, salvation and emancipation.
The title of the exhibition refers to Alexandros Papadiamantis’ landmark book “The
Murderess” of 1903, one of the most important psychographics of Greek literature and perhaps an interesting challenge for the feminist reading of patriarchy. A dynamic woman on the island of Skiathos, the widow Hadoula, describes her life and how she decides to take the fate of young girls into her own hands so that they do not experience the cruel face of patriarchy, as she did. Papadiamantis attributes masculine characteristics from the very first pages, perhaps revealing the stereotypes of early 20th century Greek society as to what constitutes feminine. The end of Hadoula Fragogiannou is left unclear by the author; we do not know whether she was punished by God or justice. Female infanticide also occurred at that time, as families did not give dowry for their girls and kept the property intact. Papadiamantis’ heroine responds to the violence of men with violence, a violence that passes from patriarchy to Hadoula and from Hadoula to the girls, even though she sees it as protection, a woman of the time living to serve others and the only salvation she can think of for the new generation of women is death.
The Murderess, a radical text far ahead of its time, discusses what third-generation
feminists are still discussing today: whose violence is acceptable? How far do the tentacles of patriarchy reach? What happens when patriarchy penetrates femininity itself?
The five artists participating in the exhibition use oral narratives of violence, spells, sexual practices, caustic campaigns, medical trolley tables, and hybrid creatures that make us rethink the gender stereotypes that are reproduced not only in society but also in science. The narratives through their works strive to exorcise patriarchy and provide solutions through it, as it is experienced daily 121 years after Papadiamantis’ novel. Each work transforms violence and seeks to shed light on the darkness of the past for a brighter future where gender violence no longer exists.
The exhibition tries to underline a dark phenomenon that has intensified in recent years in Greece and elsewhere: the retrograde resistance from part of society against all of us who are calling for the legal recognition of the term ‘femicide’ and for a change in the legal framework to deal with the murders of women in Greece, precisely because they are women. This resistance is expressed either in public discourse by journalists, in social media, or by groups of young and not-so-young men who claim new terms for parenthood and feel threatened by possible legislation that would toughen penalties for abusers. Reactions are not only to the term ‘femicide’ but also to the action of feminist initiatives, trying to damage the collective effort to create frameworks for protection, and smearing it as women’s demands by ‘aggressive (or even ‘feminazi’) women’s groups.
Eleni Karakou (b. 2000, Athens), studied at the National School of Orchestral Art (KSOT) (2012 – 2016). She is a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts (2018 – 2024), where she attended courses in sculpture, painting, photography, video and performance. She has also worked in modeling, styling and promotion. She has participated in a solo exhibition at O.ART.ATH (2022) and in group exhibitions, at Athens Biennale ANTI with “Cargo” by Panos Sklavenitis (2018) and at EuroFabrique, at the Grand Palais (Paris 2022). Also, she has participated in performances in collaboration with Sinodi Papu group (2021) and in KIN BABY by Eva Giannakopoulou (2020-21) at the Foundation of Arts and Letters in Athens. In 2022 and 2023 she maintained the Instagram persona “Purpelen” with which she took part in the Free the Kitsch- Film Festival as video-artist and cat-walk performer of Rania Spanou.
Markella Ksilogiannopoulou‘s (b. 2000, Athens) practice circulates around performance, video art and character creation. Her characters live in a world where humour, collision, failure and seduction are dominant. Her artistic practice is significantly influenced by anthropological research. She has performed at the Athens Biennale ‘ANTI’ on Panos Sklaveniti’s work ‘Cargo’ and at ‘Kin Baby’ by Eva Giannakopoulou on ‘FUTURE N.O.W’ by the Onassis Foundation, co-created ‘Kivotos Channel’, direction and dramaturgy by Elias Adam and art direction by Eva Giannakopoulou, powered by the Onassis Foundation and has shown her work at Allouche Benias Gallery. She is a founding member of the collective ‘Sinodi Papu’ and a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Miammy grew up in Greece, studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and Gerrit Rietveld Academie during an Erasmus exchange in Amsterdam. She has participated in the transcultural program at Zürich University of the Arts and as a member of the Sinodi Papu Collective. She is a multidisciplinary artist, exploring feminine capital and power dynamics, reclaiming her body as her means of labour. She aim to explore how sex work has become a viable means of income, a form of personal expression as well as sexual empowerment. Working mostly with performance, videos and installations, her artistic research is a testament to the transformative power of embracing femininity, asserting autonomy and reshaping perceptions in a world where the personal and the political converge.
Eva Papamargariti is an artist, based between Athens and London. She uses a variety of mediums such as moving image, sculptural installations, printed material, text and sound that explore the relationships of cognitive and affective interaction between the diverse realities that we live in, as well as the dynamic intra – connection and intra – action of events between these two systems. She has exhibited through solo shows, group shows and screenings in institutions, museums and festivals such as the New Museum (New York), Whitney Museum (New York), Serpentine (London), MAAT Museum (Lisbon), EMST (Athens), Museum of Moving Image (New York), Athens Biennale, Biennale Gherdeina, GAMeC Museum (Bergamo), Pioneer Works (New York), among others. She has been invited as a resident artist at LUMA Foundation in Arles, France (September-December 2023) and at the New Now residency at Zollverein, Germany (February-May 2023). She is currently a fellow at Onassis AiR. Her work is featured in public and private collections such as the Dakis Joannou Collection (Deste Foundation), Onassis Foundation, PCAI Collection, MOMuS collection and more. https://evapapamargariti.com/
Malvina Panagiotidi (Athens, 1985) lives and works in Athens. She studied architecture at the University of Thessaly and the postgraduate programme “Art in Context” at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She has been awarded the ARTWORKS SNF Artist Fellowship Programme (2018) and the J. Spyropoulos Award (2016). Selected exhibitions: Plásmata II: Ioannina, Onassis Stegi (2023); Mr. Robinson Crusoe stayed home: Adventures of design in times of crisis, Benaki Museum, Athens (2021); When You Touch About Me, I Think Myself, SIGNS, Istanbul (2020); Gone Today, Here Tomorrow, annexM – Megaron, Athens Concert Hall (2019); Constellations in the dirt, NEON & Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, Kouphonisi Archaeological Collection (2018); The Equilibrists, DESTE Foundation & New Museum, Benaki Museum, Athens (2016); Hypnos Project, Onassis Stegi, Athens (2016); The Predictions of a One-night King, Chalet Society, Paris (2015); A Monument for the First Gay Emancipation Movement, HKW, Berlin (2015). She is also a founding member of the group Anacolutha (2022) and the artistic research group Saprophytes (2009). https://malvinapanagiotidi.com/