Sunday 21 June 2015

Fireflies in the Night, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, 22.06 - 24.06.2015


“Fireflies in the Night”
All-Night Video Art screenings under the artistic direction of Robert Storr,
with the participation of over 50 Greek & foreign artists and collectives 
 
The screenings start on the 22nd and last until the 24th of June, 
starting at 23:00 of each night until 06:00 of the following day

On Monday, June 22, the Stavros Niarchos Park turns into an outdoor cinema, and presents the three-night video art program “Fireflies in the Night”, organized by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art, with curators Barbara London, Kalliopi Minioudaki and Francesca Pietropaolo. 

On the same night, at 22:45, Robert Storr will be at the Stavros Niarchos Park, to introduce the works of the Greek and foreign artists, which will then be screened to the public.
 
The Program, which is part of the events entitled “Light Up the Night at the Stavros Niarchos Park”, includes non-stop screenings of some of the most important works of the international video art scene, covering a wide and inclusive range of formats, styles, themes, and moods. Brief “shorts,” both comic and poetic, intersperse “feature length” documentaries and dramatizations that comment on contemporary life in far flung places, contemplate eternal questions of human existence, or critically explore a variety of important issues that concern the people around the world. 
 
As part of the programmed screenings, the Park’s visitors will have the rare opportunity to experience Matthew Barney’s epic masterpiece “The Cremaster Cycle” (1994-2002), which will be presented, in its entirety, for the first time in Greece, on the night of Wednesday, June 24 (from 23:00 till 06:00 of Thursday the 25th). On the two previous nights (June 22 & 23), the program will present works from a diverse range of over 50 artists and collectives from different generations, both from Greece and abroad.  
 
Conceived “like a cross between performances of classic Greek plays in an ancient amphitheater and walk-in ‘drive-in’ movie”, as put by Robert Storr, the videos will be projected back-to-back on one or multiple screens, at the heart of the Park (at the Great Lawn) on a stage that has been specially constructed by the architect of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Renzo Piano. 
 
The screenings will start every day (June 22-24) late at night, lasting until dawn of the next day (23:00-06:00). With no end and no beginning, visitors will be able to attend the screenings freely and watch for as long as they like. 
 
Be advised that given the late hour of these screenings the program was selected with mature viewers in mind. 

List of artists, whose works will be screened in “Fireflies in the Night”:
Chantal Akerman, Alterazioni Video, Francis Alÿs, Michel Auder, Mathew Barney, Dara Birnbaum, Olga Chernysheva, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Danica Dakić, Patricia Esquivias, Haroun Farocki, Omer Fast, Yang Fudong, Shaun Gladwell, Marco Godoy, Rodney Graham, Gary Hill, Susan Hiller,  Sanja Iveković, Joan Jonas, Isaac Julien, Jesper Just, Anna K. E., Amar Kanwar, Mary Reid Kelley with Patrick Kelley, Mike Kelley & Ericka Beckman, William Kentridge, Ragnar Kjartansson, Meiro Koizumi, Katarzyna Kozyra, Sharon Lockhart, Marilyn Minter, Joshua Mosley, Wangechi Mutu, Nikos Navridis, Maria Papadimitriou, Sophia Petrides, Paul Pfeiffer, Artemis Potamianou, Theo Prodromidis, Laure Prouvost, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Pipilotti Rist, Anri Sala, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Ann-Sofi Sidén with Jonathan Bepler, Vassiliea Stylianidou, Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, Bill Viola, Guido Van Der Werve, Sue Williamson, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, ZimmerFrei.

Each night's program, along with descriptive notes on the works by the curators will be available at www.snfcc.org/countdown