Magic Circle
10 Mar - 02 Jun 2012
MAGIC CIRCLE
10 March - 2 June 2012
The Magic Circle is a curatorial project by Loraini Alimantiri and Christoforos Marinos. After months of research The Magic Circle opened to the public on Saturday the 10th of March 2012. Our starting point and main inspiration was Aris Provelenghios’s building at 8 Kykladon Street, in Athens, that houses the gallery Loraini Alimantiri Gazonrouge since 2009. The building, completed in 1957, was commissioned by sculptress Jeanne Spiteris-Veropoulou (1922-2000) and her husband, the art critic Tony Spiteris (1910-1986). It later became known as Studio Spiteris. The Magic Circle explores the history of its residents since 1957. During our research we invented a narrative of a couple that moves into the building in the year 2012. The building was slowly transformed into a house and all the products of our research were used in the same way they would be used in a private home. This created new dimensions in the final part of the story as we had to take into consideration the terms of our living together now, as a couple in such a space. Thus, apart from historical works, we brought in contemporary works as well as furniture and various objects that a private house would have. These we completed by some of our personal belongings all together displayed in a domestic environment.
Our research went ahead as a puzzle waiting to be put together. We started by gathering information about the building through available sources and persons related to its history. During the 1960s and 1970s a number of Greek abstract and geometric painters and sculptors worked in this building. The artists and the work produced in 8 Kykladon str. became widely known and influential. Our aim was manifold, educational, amongst other things. We decided from the start that for an exhibition such as this there is no need for a typical Press Release or for an announcement of the names
of the participants. Not even the title matters in such an exhibition. For purely practical reasons, we decided to call it
“The Magic Circle”, which is the title of a rare book, published in 1965, containing exhibition reviews by journalist Alekos Drakos. Drakos wrote art reviews for the newspaper Athinaiki and was a supporter of abstract art that bloomed in the late 1950s and early sixties in Greece.
The Magic Circle features more than 120 works by 50 artists, along with objects, furniture, books, plants, posters etc.
10 March - 2 June 2012
The Magic Circle is a curatorial project by Loraini Alimantiri and Christoforos Marinos. After months of research The Magic Circle opened to the public on Saturday the 10th of March 2012. Our starting point and main inspiration was Aris Provelenghios’s building at 8 Kykladon Street, in Athens, that houses the gallery Loraini Alimantiri Gazonrouge since 2009. The building, completed in 1957, was commissioned by sculptress Jeanne Spiteris-Veropoulou (1922-2000) and her husband, the art critic Tony Spiteris (1910-1986). It later became known as Studio Spiteris. The Magic Circle explores the history of its residents since 1957. During our research we invented a narrative of a couple that moves into the building in the year 2012. The building was slowly transformed into a house and all the products of our research were used in the same way they would be used in a private home. This created new dimensions in the final part of the story as we had to take into consideration the terms of our living together now, as a couple in such a space. Thus, apart from historical works, we brought in contemporary works as well as furniture and various objects that a private house would have. These we completed by some of our personal belongings all together displayed in a domestic environment.
Our research went ahead as a puzzle waiting to be put together. We started by gathering information about the building through available sources and persons related to its history. During the 1960s and 1970s a number of Greek abstract and geometric painters and sculptors worked in this building. The artists and the work produced in 8 Kykladon str. became widely known and influential. Our aim was manifold, educational, amongst other things. We decided from the start that for an exhibition such as this there is no need for a typical Press Release or for an announcement of the names
of the participants. Not even the title matters in such an exhibition. For purely practical reasons, we decided to call it
“The Magic Circle”, which is the title of a rare book, published in 1965, containing exhibition reviews by journalist Alekos Drakos. Drakos wrote art reviews for the newspaper Athinaiki and was a supporter of abstract art that bloomed in the late 1950s and early sixties in Greece.
The Magic Circle features more than 120 works by 50 artists, along with objects, furniture, books, plants, posters etc.