Category Archives: Exhibitions

Timeless Light Entanglement 2023 The physics of light and the role of techno-sciences Symposium and Exhibition

IONION CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE
Timeless Light Entanglement 2023
The physics of light and the role of techno-sciences
Symposium and Exhibition


Design credits: Nada Abdallah
The ‘’Timeless Light’’ is a challenging approach to the Light in multiple ways through Arts, Sciences, Philosophy, Religion, Technology. The entire project is a path investigating the Nature of the Light. Monumental thoughts, scientific axioms, wisdom through the ages or innovation are inviting creative and provoking minds to add a new vocabulary, a new approach to the Light as Entity.
28 ,29, 30 September 2023
under the curatorial supervision of Sara Buoso
at the
Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture, Metaxata, Kefalonia

Participants artists: Juan Lesta, Anthony Lyons, Lisa Pettibone, Judith Röder, Laura Santamaria, Elena Vertikova,Tobias Zimmer, Sophie Kagadis, Kurtis Lesick, Tsu Ou-Yang, Yana Chebotova.

Τimeless Light Άχρονο Φως /Light Across Universe Φως Διατρέχον τα Σύμπαντα /Light Realm Φωτός Επικράτεια / Light Radiant Φως Ακτινοβόλο / Light Intense Φως Έντασης / Light Εmitting Φως Εκπέμπον / Light Absorbing Φως Αναλίσκον / Light Reflected Φως Ανακλώμενο / Light Refracted Φως Διαθλώμενο / Light Dispersed Φως Διεσπαρμένο / Light Diffracted Φως Διαχεόμενο / Light Transformed Φως Μεταλλασσόμενο / Clear Light Φως Καθαρό / Cosmic Light Κοσμικό Φως /Constant Light Συνεχές Φως / Time and Light Φως και Χρόνος / Light Visible Φως Ορατό / Light Cognitive Φως Γνώσεως /Light Particle Φωτός Σωματίδιο / Light Wave Κύμα Φωτός /Quanta Light Κβαντικό Φως /Speeding Light Φως επιταχυνόμενο/ Light Reflected Φως Ανακλώμενο/ Light Refracted Φως Διαθλώμενο / Light Dispersed Φως Διεσπαρμένο / Light Diffracted Φως Διαχεόμενο / Light Transformed Φως Μεταλλασσόμενο / Clear Light Φως Καθαρό / Cosmic Light Κοσμικό Φως / Constant Light Συνεχές Φως /Time and Light Φως και Χρόνος / Light Visible Φως Ορατό / Light Cognitive Φως Γνώσεως /Light Particle Φωτός Σωματίδιοo /Light Wave Κύμα Φωτός / Quanta Light Κβαντικό Φως / Speeding Light Φως Επιταχυνόμενο / Light Dominion Κυριαρχία Φωτός / Light Essence of Creation Φως, Ουσία της Κτίσης/ Light Evoking Eternity Φως Πρόκληση Αιωνιότητας/ Infinite Light Φως Άπειρο / Timeless Light .-
’Light is the primary medium of the creation. It is both impermanent and ephemeral; becoming an analogy to represent consciousness. We see the light as the architecture of the mind that our consciousness inhabits. By rethinking the relationships with our surroundings in the physical world we are able to change perspectives. Optical illusions illustrate the way our perception can color and distort the reality of what is in front of us. It is now, more than ever before, important to rethink our connection to the natural world. Human impact on the environment is causing ecological collapse and global warming. Using light abstractions we explore patterns in nature, a unique multimedia experience’’.
IONION CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE, https://ionionartscenter.gr

Timeless Light Entanglement 2023/Artists’ Profiles

Laura Santamaria
Artist’s Statement:
‘’The artistic investigation that I have been conducting since 2017 was activated thanks to the residency at the MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, A Coruna, where I came into contact with the Planetarium – Casa de la Ciencia, starting a series of scientific drawing of the figures of Lissajous, with the use of the “harmonograph”.
Lissajous curves are related to harmonic motion and planetary orbits. To the preliminary investigations based on the drawings, I associated the creation of wall drawings, drawing ellipses in a chaotic motion, assuming that uncontrolled motions could exist in the universe that could generate an energy activity that is still unknown. The possibilities that can be undertaken through works of art is the generation of a hypothesis that is formalized through a creative act.
Experimental processes allows us to intercept the potential of the invisible, an unexplored area yet familiar to those who, through the works of art, lead energies to a visible form.
In the same way Lissajous was able to discover the harmonic motion through the vibrations produced by two different tuning forks, the vibrations were made visible with a ray of light reflected on the mirrors connected to them.
Art and science are metaphysical practices, in which the invisible that happens in front of our eyes is brought to consciousness and revealed into multiple meanings. This is an important parallel with art and quantum physics, it makes the sense of an intangible space more familiar, since imagination takes its possibilities out of tangible reality. The idea that everything can happen without a limit, without the coherence of a temporal axis, without space, resembles what happens in dreams, for which it is necessary to subvert the way our senses orient us. The invitation is to go beyond the confines of the senses, relying on the same faculty that allows us to understand time without perceiving it’’.
Works presented:
Lissajous Composition 2023, prints and drawing, graphite on paper, variable dimensions
Hypnero 2012 site specific installation, variable dimensions, 9 x 4,3 m, spotlights, pigments (mother of pearl, white and gray mica, oxides)
Bio: Laura Santamaria, born in Monza, Italia, in 1976. Her practice includes a wide variety of media: drawing, painting, installation, talk, publication. Her site-specific projects and sculptures present to the viewer a parallelism between micro and macro cosmos thus reflecting on systems and processes of interconnectivity. She studied Painting at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milano, revealing a profound interest in Pictorial Techniques, Art History and Aesthetics which are a fundamental part of her approach to Visual Art, with specific references to Abstractionism, Arte Povera, Spatialism to which Santamaria corresponds in her own work, with a strongly experimental approach to art process and scientific themes. Laura Santamaria’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums as Whitechapel Gallery London (London Open, 2015), MAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, A Coruña (2019), GASC, Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, Milano (2021), Palazzo Manin, Udine (2023), International Institute of Architecture, Lugano (2020), Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano (2019), Alliance Française, Bologna (2019), Herrick Gallery, London (2018), ViaFarini, Milano (2018), Chelsea College, London (2018), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Fondazione Cini, Venezia (2015), Kunstverein Neukölln, Kunstraum t27, Berlin (2012). Her work is represented in collections including: Museo del Novecento, Milano, GASC, Milano, Artphilein Foundation, London Trade Art, Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte. Archives and Library: Castello di Rivoli, Museo del Novecento, Milano, Biblioteca Civica D’Arte Luigi Poletti, Modena, Docva, Milano. Recent Lectures include: “Light and stars” CSIA Center for Artistic Industries, Lugano (2019), International Day of Light Symposium – UAL University of Arts, London (2018).

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Judith Röder

Artist’s Statement:
Light is a dangerous material. It bears many technical and optical attractions those turns into sensational effects easily. I lose the context of meaning. The reflection of water or a simple lightspot on the wall, contains already the whole information, I want to draw attention to. I observe the everyday life and filter out the seemingly insignificant. The view of the world in the beginning is very real, as an idea. In the end, after light, glass and technique are applied, it is almost immaterial. This does not happened on its own accord. You need to know the resonance of the material, classify its severity or lightness. My compositions are reduced to the essential, the minimum of representation. The the utmost precision and formal rigor implements clarity of content. It does not require a big investment or advanced technique to discover that which is interesting, and it takes attention, focus and quiet to understand what is important.
Works presented:
Lichtpunkte 2021, glass, sandblasted, framed each 30 x 21 x 3 cm
Irregular spots were etched on both sides of paper-thin sheets of glass. Each spot is a record of a ray of sun shining on a wall of the artist’s workshop. In the time it takes to register its outline, the ray’s position changes, forcing repetition of the activity. The sequences that create the record of light’s movement are at the same time its materialization in the form of glass.
Schirm 2015 glass, LED-spots, DMX-player, tripods 170 x 95 x 25 cm https://vimeo.com/260663029 Two opposing spotlights seem to be sending beams of lights of changing intensity towards each other. Between them a small double glazed window is positioned. The window has mirrored dots on each pane. Their surfaces reflect the vibrating rays of light and direct them back to their sources. The work refers to Jacques Lacan’s reflection on the concept of the screen (écran)..
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JUAN LESTA

Εxhibition (Vídeo) for TIMELESS LIGHT (Curated by Sara Buοso)
JUAN LESTA
‘’Visual artist and audiovisual director, my recent work is focused on the landscape and the dialogue between audiovisual experimentation and music, and the intervention of the natural space by immersive installations based in light, as part of the Tronante collective.

As music video director I worked for Brian And Roger Eno, Dark Sienna (Deusche Gramophon, 2020), and important musicians from Spain like Carlos Ordoñez, Retortoiro (Ferror Records 2021).
My works in different formats were exhibited at museums like Pompidou Metz (Metz, France) Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (Paderborn, Deutschland), CGAC (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), or ARTIUM (Victoria, Spain) among others.
VideoLight as a path.
Light, music and landscape are three “materials” I always have present as main topics on my work.
On these four works I present I cover different aspects connected to light. Starting on a microlandscape in witch a laser beam that leads us from dark to light; the sun writing a path through a window; sea fog as a natural filter that difumine our perception of reality, or a underwater observation of the sunlight.
On these four videos, the light was the guide and the final objective I used to transmit to the audience four different experiences all of them with a deep connection with nature.
As a sum-up I propose a four stops travel starting on the night, going through underwater, observing the movement of our star, the Sun, and finally losing the perception of the limits of the landscape’’.

-Retortoiro 3 min

-SUN-WINDOW
2 min
-The dark opens the way 8 min
-Dark Sienna (for Brian and Roger Eno) 6 min

Equipment required on display: Screening system (Tv or video monitor) compatible with MPG4 video with loop function
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Elena Vertikova
Artist based in Poland. Her main areas of artistic activity are
video and installation in public space. She works with the theme of Human/Nature.
Participant of numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Since 2021 PhD student
at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. The topic she is
working on – what effect does light have on building human relations.
“My inspiration comes from nature. Sometimes I turn to science, to the
physics of light, to time, to chaos. I am inspired by both the presence of light and its
absence. In my work I explore natural and artificial light and the effects of nature on
humans. I search for ways to achieve with light (lighting) similar results that humans
get from natural light sources such as sun, fire, candle”.
Video title: Shadow trace
Date of create: 2023
‘’This video work is part of my artistic research. Light, which interests and
inspires me for several years now, has become one of my main mediums in my
works. For the last two years I have been working with natural light sources (also
sunlight), the most basic example of which for me is a candle.
The work shows the interaction of light and shadow, which are essentially
inseparable. The installation presented in the video work includes natural and
artificial light. The scene shows the natural light of the candle and the shadow that
falls on the surface. The shadow appears with the help of directed artificial light (the
light source is not visible in the scene). During the video the candle burns out. Only
the shadow of the burning candle is visible throughout most of the work. Candlelight
plays a key role, as there is no shadow from the fire. G. Bachelard in his work The
Psychoanalysis of Fire refers to the candle as the dying sun.
The installation consists of a mirror, dichroic filter, a candle and an artificial
light source’’.

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Lisa Pettibone

With an interest in astronomy and physics, Lisa Pettibone’s practice investigates the cosmos in terms of energy, forces and form as filtered through human perception. She creates sculpture, installation and print to explore areas where humans and nature intersect through the lens of science. Using a variety of materials, including glass, she records spontaneous phenomena, such as the pull of gravity, evoking sensory experiences that aim to connect people to their environment. Processes often incorporate periods of research into scientific concepts, collaboration or site-specific work.
Lisa has an MA in Art and Science from Central Saint Martins, London and was artist-in-residence at Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL) funded by Arts Council England from September 2018-2019. In February 2022 her work was sent to the International Space Station as part of the Moon Gallery ISS Test Mission.
Working from her studio in Surrey, Lisa develops work for exhibition, takes commissions and teaches advanced glass-making courses several times a year. As an advocate of interdisciplinary practice, she has organised and participated in art/science events at institutions including CERN in Geneva, European Space Agency NL, University College London and Central Saint Martins, London. She is currently on the Moon Village Association UK Committee contributing to the Cultural Considerations working group. Part of the Lumen Studio collective, she is also a member of arts organization Art Can and a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors UK.

Originally from California with a background in graphic design, she has a BA(Hons) 3D Design in Glass from University for the Creative Arts, Farnham UK in 2005. Her work is held in private collections and exhibited internationally. She was selected for The Aesthetica Art Prize 2013 and appeared in the Corning Museum of Glass (New York) publication New Glass Review 35. In 2012-13 she completed two commissions for the National Trust – Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire and The Vyne near Basingstoke. In 2015 and 2018 her work was included in the prestigious Discerning Eye Exhibition, London and in 2017 she won the National Open Art Prize Installation Category. She was selected to create a glass and metal installation for Collect Art & Craft Fair at Somerset House, London in 2022.
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Tobias Zimmer

Contribution: workshop (29th), panel discussion (30th)
Artist’s statement:
‘’Programming my own artistic software and the fascination for algorithmic thinking and Quantified Self have accompanied me since my bachelor studies. With a focus on the intersection between programming and design, I completed the Intermedia Design course at Trier University of Applied Sciences.

My bachelor thesis, Food Data, was particularly concerned with collecting everyday data using computer vision. The data was processed and finally aesthetically expressed on engraved ceramic plates. The work demonstrates my experimental and analytical approach as well as my efforts to transfer digital art from the screen into the physical world, employing different materials.

During my master degree in Media Art at Bauhaus-University Weimar, which I am about to complete, I focused on interdisciplinary studies between computer science and media theory. Throughout my studies, I exhibited in multiple international museums and galleries as a media artist. Besides already being immersed in algorithmic systems and being bombarded with respective buzzwords through my generated feeds, my interest in AI was sparked by participating in university classes dealing with neural networks, machine learning and computer vision.

In my work I fundamentally deal with the question how the algorithmic paradigm of computer systems is paralleled by repetitive behaviors and automatisms of our daily lives. I question whether the quantification of daily experiences and sensations is accompanied by a feeling of contentment and safety. By means of writing my own programs or using analogue techniques, instead of using standard apps, I collect and visualize data to enable haptic access to abstract data as artistic material, which often has not much to do with our experienced reality otherwise. I shared my personal approach in academic teaching at Bauhaus-University in my class titled Algorithmic Art. In addition to classical programming basics, it focused on making algorithmic processes tangible by developing instructions for fellow humans instead of CPU’s, resulting in analogue drawings.

In the field of AI, the paradigm of the algorithm, by definition a clear instruction for solving problems, seems to shift to less clear operations and hidden layers of deep learning systems. Similar as my public installation Database made surveillance and data collecting technologies transparent to passersby, it is important for me to raise the general understanding of AI systems, to ensure agency in an increasingly normative and ‘remote-controlled’ living environment. In my performative work Identical Walk, I’m submitting myself to a self-imposed algorithm, to experience the nature of repetition in daily life and comprehend the essence of iteration in programming. Identical Walk is based on the notion of the human longing for an automated life, supported by external entities that relieve us of our decisions and labor. A notion which is also the far end of the promise of AI, promoted by researchers and marketing strategists. It comes in either dystopian or utopian flavours, while the real merits of current ‘AI’ labelled systems still lie in dry statistics, set to work by massive amounts of often questionably collected data and involving an immense consumption of energy.

Work presented:

Waves³
experimental photo series, 2013
light, water, sound, photography
… ……………………………………………………………

Anthony Lyons, www.alyonsmusic.com
‘’Light Ripples’’
An audiovisual work by Australian composer/artist Anthony Lyons that is inspired by the light, foliage, rock and mirrored blue waters of Zervati Cave. Through a process of bio-mapping and re-imagination of the sounds, plant data, light and wave patterns of Zervati as they resonate onto and off the cave walls, the work tries to capture moments of suspended beauty, emergent patterns and rhythmic processes through the interplay of light, shadow and sound. Light Ripples integrates field-recordings, synthesis, plant sensors, and video. The work aspires to unveil fresh perspectives and direct attention toward UNESCO Global Geopark sites — extraordinary realms of ecological significance and rare beauty.

Artist Statement

‘’Light Ripples emerged from several visits to the Zervati Cave across August/September 2023. During these visits I would sit in different parts of the Zervati site at different times of the day, and do my best to listen, observe, and absorb.

I have long been interested in ‘sound mapping’ unique locations as a way to deepen understanding and my trips to Zervati involved taking numerous field-recordings of the sounds and ecology of the environment including capturing bio-data from the plant life using sensors picking up changes in the electrical activity occurring in the plants. These sounds and plant data inform many of the sounds in the installation and also provide inspiration for my own re-imaginations and creative expression in thinking about connected ecologies.

While my initial focus for the work was a creative ‘sound mapping’ one, the importance of light and what it says about a location became increasingly important to me. I discovered that there is a moment in each day where if the weather conditions are right, the sun hits the water in one of the caves in a particular way that throws up beautiful natural projections onto the cave walls. The movement of the water, insects, falling leaves & debris from trees above would then create beautifully intricate wave patterns – ripples on the water that refract upward to the cave walls and then reflect down again. The clarity of the water at Zervati, like a mirror, is a great enabler of this evolving process providing a natural visual narrative through light of many of the processes and patterns occurring in the cave that might otherwise remain hidden’’. September 2023.

Anthony Lyons
Anthony Lyons lives in regional Victoria, Australia. He is a composer, musician & sound artist whose practice is an interdisciplinary one traversing moving image, performance, design and installation. Much of his work explores the intersections of music, art, technology, and environment.
Anthony’s creative output includes works for orchestra, electronic & electroacoustic, installation, and audiovisual mediums. He studied composition at the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, as well as electronic music production at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/ Musique), France. His compositional style pursues sonority and site-specific context often incorporating visual and field-recording elements. He embraces multiple modes of making and is drawn to the inner worlds of sound and its connection to memory, identity, sonority and place.

Anthony’s creative work has been performed and installed internationally, including at the MA/IN Festival in Italy, the Porto/Post/Doc Film & Media Festival in Portugal, the Cultural Centre Barcelona, the Sound-Image Festival in UK, the New York City ElectroAcoustic Festival, the Melbourne Recital Centre and the Melbourne International Film Festival. Anthony has performed with Australia’s highly regarded Syzygy Ensemble and has collaborated and performed with the rare EMS Synthi 100 synthesiser at the Melbourne Recital Centre. In his duo project Au Revoir Hands he plays the Buchla Easel synthesiser, having released a debut album Hemispheres in 2021. Anthony collaborates frequently with Australian animator Paul Fletcher and their large sound & light work, Audio Visual Garden, was a featured installation at the 2022 Conflux Bendigo Festival.
Anthony is a passionate educator and has instigated several sound mapping projects with groups investigating sites of cultural, historical and environmental significance. He is a Senior Lecturer in Music (Interactive Composition) at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.
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Sophie K. Giannakis
TIMELESS LIGHT (video)
Artist Statement
The ‘’TIMELESS LIGHT’’ started the year 2018 as α personal project and exhibition at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. A research path of the present era, with unknown or invisible in the Universe starting point, with potential extension the Infinity. Not a life or a single vision is enough to investigate the Entity of Light. Thus the project invites thoughts and sights and visions to explore and express the Nature of our Existence through the Light’’.

BIO: Sophie Kagadis Giannakis has dedicated over 40 years of her life to Art, Design, and Cultural Management. She holds academic titles in Cultural Management, European Studies, Art Preservation, Restoration of Ancient, Byzantine, Contemporary Monuments. Sophie is the Executive Director of the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, which was established in 2006. This Center operates in a Global environment in the fields of Higher Education, Arts, Sciences and Research, with focus on the protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage. Sophie is dedicated to building networks with Universities, Institutions, and personalities from all over the Globe through collaborations, art events, and programs based on education, academic research and creative activities.
‘’I discovered the meaning of the world a Christmas night when I was 4 years old. Keeping the hand of my father under the candlelight’s of a small ancient church I sensed the depth of the hymns and on the temple alive the eyes of the angels and saints. The art beauty opened deep in my heart a conscious alive space of exquisite light. I am in continuous search of that light ever since’’.

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Tsu Ou-Yang
”The Ripple Effect of Consciousness”
Artist Statement
‘’Wave functions exist not only in the quantum reality but in the higher dimension. Oneness, the unified consciousness, is inclusive; all living beings and everything are intrinsically connected to the soul of the Universe. Individual consciousness is like a floating bubble originating from the vast ocean of consciousness. Each thought has specific energy with frequency and vibration. It may make one small ripple on the ocean surface and fade away; however, some ripples may become waves. ”The Ripple Effect of Consciousness” is a serial artist’s book that represents this phenomenon and emphasises the significance of spreading goodwill. If people are willing to be helpful and empathetic with suffering spirits, such light and its influences will be infinite. Ιf human beings can realise the truth of ”the Self”, they are becoming the light for the whole, the real eternal’’.
TSU OU YANG was born and currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her Master of Visual Arts: Book Arts from the University of the Arts London in 2015. The development of her work is a reflective journal embodying her individuation process. In search of the life essence has been at the core of her philosophy, and finding the true self can be regarded as her long-term project. Her practice is to explore various art forms and materials as the medium of self-awareness, which is an excellent catalyst for her transformation in many aspects. Specifically, ‘book arts’, ‘printmaking’ and ‘photography’ have been the crucial parts of her aesthetic approaches. As if she creates book-like works; meanwhile, her creations complete her. Her works have been selected for various exhibitions, including ”EARTH SPEAK: Giving Voice to Paper, International Biennial for Paper Fibre Art” (2023/24, Taiwan), ”TEN: the Turn the Page Artists Book Fair 10th Anniversary Book Competition” (2022, UK), ”The 3rd Ulsan Asian Prints Exhibition” (2021, Korea), ”Taiwanese Artists’ Books: Materials and Interfaces” (2020, ART TAIPEI International Contemporary Art Fair, Taiwan) and so on.
tsuouyang.com
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Kurtis Lesick

‘’Most men do not think things in the way they encounter them, nor do they recognize what they experience, but believe their own opinions’’.
Heraclitus.

‘’Theories are living and breathing reconfigurings of the world. The world theorises as well as experiments with itself. Figuring, reconfiguring. Animate and (so-called) inanimate creatures do not merely embody mathematical theories; they do mathematics. But life, whether organic or inorganic, animate or inanimate, is not an unfolding algorithm. Electrons, molecules, brittlestars, jellyfish, coral reefs, dogs, rocks, icebergs, plants, asteroids, snowflakes, and bees stray from all calculable paths, making leaps here and there, or rather, making here and there from leaps, shifting familiarly patterned practices, testing the waters of what might yet be/have been/could still have been, doing thought experiments with their very being’’.

Physicist and philosopher, Karen Barad.

The power of the material world to think, theorise, experiment, and synthesise will always exceed the limitations of human intellect. Here “material” designates a process through which things “come to matter” rather than a world of preconceived substance. The world is perpetually “working itself out”, trying out new paths, new combinations, new expressions. Whereas our brains succumb to orthodoxies of knowledge, politics, time, and experience, the material world can think with unbridled complexity, beyond contradiction, time, space, and the illusion of the autonomous human subject.

Guerrilla Philosophy presents performative explorations in material thinking where both human and natural bodies consider their complementary roles in the negotiation of material reality. Our bodies are mapped into the world, boundaries delimited, forms reconfigured, hybridized, and subsumed into other bodies. Far from being discrete entities, boundaries, forms, and relations of bodies are in constant negotiation. The works in Guerrilla Philosophy put bodies into open conversation, perform bodies in isolation, and abstract the relations we take for granted between bodies so that we can think along with other material forms about our perpetual collaboration in constituting material reality.

Kurtis Lesick BIO
Kurtis Lesick is an artist, writer, researcher, and award-winning creative content specialist. His installations, media works, digital performances, and cross-media collaborations explore the limits of materiality, knowledge, and themes of indeterminacy. Lesick’s practice draws heavily on his experience in archaeology, anthropology and philosophy, as well as both his love and disdain for technology. His work has been presented and exhibited internationally in Canada, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. He is an Associate Professor at the Alberta University of the Arts where he teaches in Media Arts, has held an adjunct professorship at the Digital Futures Initiative in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (Canada), has been visiting faculty at the Banff Centre (Canada) and the University of California at Irvine (USA), and was a Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol (UK).

kurtislesick.com

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TIMELESS LIGHT # 3 METAPHYSICAL WAVE FUNCTIONS, Tsu Ou-Yang

TIMELESS LIGHT # 3 METAPHYSICAL WAVE FUNCTIONS: Not just light, everything is a wave, including your thoughts
Βy Taiwanese Artist Tsu Ou-Yang


Exhibition Dates: September 3rd & 4th, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 3rd, 13.00 pm
Exhibition Venue: Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture, Metaxata, Kefalonia

”Timeless Light” is the essence of the soul, and this exhibition presents works of art that interpret this notion in multiple layers. Wave functions exist not only in the quantum reality but in the higher dimension. Oneness, the unified consciousness, is inclusive; all living beings and everything are intrinsically connected to the soul of the Universe. Individual consciousness is like a floating bubble originating from the vast ocean of consciousness. Each thought has specific energy with frequency and vibration. It may make one small ripple on the ocean surface and fade away; however, some ripples may become waves. ”The Ripple Effect of Consciousness” is a serial artist’s book that represents this phenomenon and emphasises the significance of spreading goodwill. If people are willing to be helpful and empathetic with suffering spirits, such light and its influences will be infinite.

Another serial work ”Devotional Petroglyphs” is inspired by paintings of Mother Nature. As a slice of history, texture on rocks and woods recorded the complex forming process related to earth, water, fire, and air. Its energy is substantial yet fluid. Every element of Nature mutually infiltrates, similar to the symbiosis between humans and living things in the Universe. These mixed-media works collect beauty devotional presents for Mother Earth and blessings for the world.

Through the works of art, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and raising public awareness of the conserving environmental treasures in Kefalonia are highlighted. Once humans identify ”the ecological self” with coexistence based on mutualism, an inclusive worldview full of interactive dynamics and connections may derive from that. Thus, during explorations of connecting who we are and the natural world, people could realise they are Nature itself and also part of it, rather than the dominator. As long as they have such perceptions, the world within and without will harmoniously synchronise and inclusively be as one further.

Ultimately, if human beings can realise the truth of ”the Self”, they are becoming the light for the whole, the real eternal.

========= Artist Biography =========
TSU OUYANG was born and currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan. She received her Master of Visual Arts: Book Arts from the University of the Arts London in 2015. The development of her work is a reflective journal embodying her individuation process. In search of the life essence has been at the core of her philosophy, and finding the true self can be regarded as her long-term project. Her practice is to explore various art forms and materials as the medium of self-awareness, which is an excellent catalyst for her transformation in many aspects. Specifically, ‘book arts’, ‘printmaking’ and ‘photography’ have been the crucial parts of her aesthetic approaches. As if she creates book-like works; meanwhile, her creations complete her. Her works have been selected for various exhibitions, including ”EARTH SPEAK: Giving Voice to Paper, International Biennial for Paper Fibre Art” (2023/24, Taiwan), ”TEN: the Turn the Page Artists Book Fair 10th Anniversary Book Competition” (2022, UK), ”The 3rd Ulsan Asian Prints Exhibition” (2021, Korea), ”Taiwanese Artists’ Books: Materials and Interfaces” (2020, ART TAIPEI International Contemporary Art Fair, Taiwan) and so on.

TIMELESS LIGHT 2023, IONION CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE /All rights reserved
Ν. 2121/1993 , N. 3057/2002 (άρθρο 81) Ν.3207/2003 (άρθρο 10 παρ. 33)

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EXHIBITION ‘’Nature Gives Life”

EXHIBITION
‘’Nature Gives Life”

Giorgia Vitale Painting

15 – 20 September 2023
Opening September 17th 7.00 p.m.
Ioniοn Center of Arts & Culture, Metaxata, Kefalonia
Artists :Evangelia Papanastasatou, Giorgia Vitale, Sofia Zerva, Maria Yfantidou, Marina Stathi, Miss Vrouvaki, Olivia Afionis, Poly Vartziotis, Franzesco Adamopoulos-Terzani, Yana Chebotova, Evi Fotopoulos.
The Exhibition is part of the International Festival ‘’ WE ARE NATURE’’

Conducted in honor to the 2023 memory events for the Massacre of the Division Acqui, supported by the Mediterraneo Association and the Italian Embassy.

Curatorial Supervision Dr. Marina Gonda
***


“Art is a reflection of Nature and Human is added to it.
Honoree de Balzac said: “Art is concentrated nature”
A society consists of heterogeneous human beings, who obey certain rules in the context of aesthetic pleasure in the presence of beauty.
Nature provides rules that ensure beauty and life.
Its value is experiential for the physical, mental and spiritual health of man.
Trees and flowers have a soul, they feel, they respond, they express themselves with sounds and fragrances.
Forests offer shelter to the animal kingdom, recycle water, oxygen, clean the air, stabilize the temperature.
The sea opens up horizons, facilitates communication, provides abundant food and economic prosperity.
The destruction of the planet Earth by wars, fires level and blacken the flora and make many animal beings disappear.
Toxic waste pollutes aquifers and subsequently the seas.
Factory chimneys and carbon dioxide create respiratory and heart diseases.
The bomb-damaged area, the scorched earth, is completely dead.
It takes time and human intervention to become sustainable, usable, friendly.
Nature is a bridge of heaven and earth; it is a magical city of another Galaxy.
The Druids knew this well 2500 years ago, this sacred caste of the Celts and the forests were an attraction and the beginning of their Mysticism. Their religion was a model of philosophy of the symbolic image of the world, a symbol of cyclical time and the recycling of life.
Let’s teach with the Art respect and love to the pillar of oxygen, which gives us life.
May the Visual phenomenon be an exhortation to stop wars, disasters and fires, because if we continue at this rate over time the most precious element…life , will disappear.
An olive branch, the sacred symbol of peace”.

Dr. Marina Gonda, Philologist-Art Historian, Sorbonne PhD.

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1ST INTERNATIONAL KEFALONIAN FESTIVAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS: “WE ARE NATURE’’

ΙΟΝΙΟN CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE

1ST INTERNATIONAL KEFALONIAN FESTIVAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS
Title “WE ARE NATURE’’

Design credits : Professor Nada Abdallah

‘’Today, works of art and the creative activities representing them are excellent tools for municipalities and art-carrying cities, aiming to establish themselves on the international map of Cities of Art. The subject ‘’art and public space’’ remains extremely relevant, whether in the form of urban art creations or landscape interventions, creation of spaces for social activity or the corresponding conversion of sites. The process of utilizing art in space concerns not only art experts, but constitutes a positive social experience for the inhabitants of the modern cities”. Dr. Haytham Nawar (https://www.aucegypt.edu/fac/haythamnawar) .
‘’Perhaps at no other time in the human’s history has connecting with our environment been more important. Our species is just starting to become aware of the impact of its actions on the planet. Our species survival may be dependent on our future actions’’. Dr.Pierre Liechner (www.leichner.ca).
The 2005 UNESCO Convention, a comprehensive compendium of past declarations and conventions, remains a landmark in international cultural policy as, based on human rights and fundamental freedoms, it provides a theoretical and legislative framework for participatory systems of culture-driven governance. Through the Convention, the inseparability of culture and development was officially recognized, so as to define the focus of the creative economy. In its context, it was formed by defining the implementation of policies and measures that support the protection, creation and access to cultural goods and services” from an article of the Ionion Center for Arts & Culture (https://ionionartscenter.gr/)

Image credits: Dr. Pierre Leichner

A. “We are Nature” Festival

1. GOALS
The main goal of a multi-media environmental art festival is to strengthen the relationship of Kefalonia residents with their environment. At the same time, the festival through the activities will provide us with information on what we can do to improve our environment at a local level, while we will have the opportunity as a society to participate ourselves in the creation of art or to enjoy art events.
Another goal is to establish a bridge between the arts and the sciences. During the events, the opportunity is provided for presentations related to the environment by local agencies, experts and scientists. It is also the opportunity for local and international artists to share their works, thus enabling the possibility to make Kefalonia an international destination of ecology and art.
‘2. Cooperating Entities
Geopark, OΦΥΠΕΚΑ (and organizations proposed by the Geopark)
Municipality of Argostoli
Municipality of Palliki
Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture
Rifortso Cultural Association
Community and Voluntary Association of Farsa

I. ENVIRONMENTAL ART AT THE KEFALONIA FESTIVAL
Environmental art can take many forms:
It often takes the form of installations created with natural materials and projects designed to be non-destructive or ecologically beneficial, site-specifically applied.

Image credit: Ioulia Kagadis

The festival includes:
Sound arts or lighting arts, environmental poetry, visual interventions, such as ephemeral or permanent sculpture installations, painting exhibitions, environmental poster exhibitions, etc.
The Environmental Art Festival will provide live art experiences in the everyday life of the island and through the projects and events will advocate for a healthy and sustainable environment.
There are examples of environmental festivals and parks dedicated to environmental arts. The present proposal, which was initiated by Dr. Pierre Liechner, in the case of Kefalonia it will be unique because: It will bring the local scientific and artistic community in contact with the international field of arts and environmental protection through a variety of events, which will highlight the island and its environmental wealth.

II. DURATION
August 1st –September 30th 2023

III. SCHEDULE
August 2 -9, 2023 Jillian Cremens “PLASTIC REFRACTIONS OF THE IONIAN SEA” installation exhibition at the Ionian Center for Arts & Culture.

August 6, 2023, Craig Dongoski, Kostas Frantzis, Emily Williams “Children of the Algorithm”

August 10, 2023, Professor Craig Dongoski, Exhibition

August 12, 2023, Dr. Pierre Liechner, EARTH WORMS Laboratory

https://leichner.ca/Paintings/cephalonia/wawk_install_web.jpg

19 -20-21 August 2023 lighting of buildings in Lixouri, Farsa, Argostoli, Nick Azidis & Rose Staff.
August 22-23, 2023 Blueprint Workshop led by Ioustini Drakoulakou.
August 23, 2023, Dr. Pierre Liechner ”Every Venus Tells a Story” Exhibition of figurines at the Korgialenio Library.
August 24-25, 2023, Dr.Pierre Liechner, “Root sculptures” installations in the Park of Koutavos.
https://leichner.ca/Installations/RememberingRoots/RememberingRoots.html.
https://leichner.ca/Photographs/grassrootsprojectphotos.html.

August 28 to September 6, 2023 ”Every Venus Tells a Story” Figurine Exhibition at Kefalonia Geopark (http://leichner.ca/Installations/Venus/venus.html, http://leichner.ca/Installations/everyvenus/everyvenus .html).
August 29, 2023. Ephemeral eco-art installations by the local community in Koutavos Park. (https://leichner.ca/Curating/VictoriaPark/VictoriaPark.html, http://leichner.ca/Curating/Ephemeral/ephemeral.html, http: //leichner.ca/Curating/Contour/contour.html).

IV. ART SECTORS
1.
● Visual exhibitions (on the subject of the environment)

a. Jillian Cremens, PLASTIC REFRACTIONS OF THE IONIAN SEA” installation exhibition
b. Dr. Pierre Liechner, Exhibitions and workshops
c. Tsu Wang, Exhibition
d. Dr. Yana Chebotova, Project exhibition and workshops.

● Sound & Multimedia Arts

a. Georgia State University, USA, Professor Craig Dongoski

b. Melbourne University, Australia, Dr. Anthony Lyons,

c. Hunderfield University, U.K. Dr. John Bonner,

d. Concordia University, Canada, Dr. Kurtis Lessing.

e. Being Sound Technology (Mary Keena Frisbee, Gueorgui Borov, Giulia Gallina, Hugo Santos, Iana Misuina , Matt Lindsay , Lua Brice , Fateme Banishoeib).

● Lighting Arts (Nick Azidis – Rose Staff)

August 19, 2023 lighting of buildings in Lixouri
August 20, 2023 lighting of a building in Farsa
August 21, 2023 lighting of a building in Argostoli

● Video : Pam Longobardi, film presentation: “Kefalonia Plastic Free Island”
Susan Knippenberg, presentation of the video “Antisamos”

● Workshops and art exhibitions that will address the local community or give an opportunity to local artists and the local public to participate by creating and exhibiting the works
Specifically:
August 23, 2023, Dr.Pierre Liechner(www.leichner.ca) ”Every Venus Tells a Story” Exhibition of figurines at the Korgialenio Library.
August 28 to September 6, 2023 ”Every Venus Tells a Story” the Figurine Exhibition will be installed in the Kefalonia Geopark (http://leichner.ca/Installations/Venus/venus.html, http://leichner.ca/Installations/ everyvenus/everyvenus.html

● Bioart workshop, exhibition and demonstrations for the public by Dr. Pierre Liechner, in Argostoli (Koutavos) and Lixouri. Presenting a series of art paintings created with earthworms.

● August 22-23, 2023, Cyanotypes Workshop, to be organized and supervised by Ioustini Drakoulakou, offered to the local community by Ioustini Drakoulakou & Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture.

● August 24-25, 2023, Dr.Pierre Liechner, “Root sculptures” installations in the Koutavos Park.
https://leichner.ca/Installations/RememberingRoots/RememberingRoots.html.
https://leichner.ca/Photographs/grassrootsprojectphotos.html.

Roots sculptures will be installed in Koutavos with a parallel presentation to the public of the value of the environment. The dried roots can later be preserved and become part of another indoor art installation in another space.

● August 29, 2023. Ephemeral ecological art installations with natural materials. They will be created by the local community along the trails in Koutavos Park. (https://leichner.ca/Curating/VictoriaPark/VictoriaPark.html, http://leichner.ca/Curating/Ephemeral/ephemeral.html, http:// leichner.ca/Curating/Contour/contour.html).

2. DAY MEETING ON THE ENVIRONMENT
In collaboration with scientists and artists, an international meeting on the environment and its protection (topics to be discussed /decided in collaboration with the Geopark, etc. agencies. TBC the possibility of including the earthquakes of 1953 in the topics). The Ionion Center offers its premises free of charge for the conference/meeting).

V. BENEFITS EXPECTED FROM THE FESTIVAL
International promotion and recognition of Kefalonia as a destination for arts, environmental awakening and protection.
Announcement of the continuation of the festival for 2024 with a greater range of activities and scope.
Participation of the local community and especially families and young people in events that promote a better tomorrow.
Awareness of all social structures, private and public, regarding the environment and its protection.
Economic advantages for the local community
Attracting an international audience, scientists, artists, activists and communicating their knowledge and work.
Long-term advantages that will be obtained by the Municipalities and the Geopark.
Offer of 2 awards, one to a local and one to an international artist.

Sets of sculptured roots by Dr. Pierre Liechner will be installed in the gardens, with a parallel presentation to the public of the value of the environment. The dried roots could later be preserved and become part of another indoor art installation in another space later.

Image credits: Dr. Pierre Liechner
● Ephemeral installations of works with natural materials, which during the festival, the community will be invited to create along the paths of the park- Koutavos

● Creation of a catalog in edited form including the entire Festival, available by the end of the activities.

IONION CENTER FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE
Metaxata 28100, Kefalonia, Greece
info@ionionartscenter.gr, www.ionionartscenter.gr
All rights reserved Ν. 2121/1993 , N. 3057/2002 (άρθρο 81) Ν.3207/2003 (άρθρο 10 παρ. 33)

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MURmur, JESSICA SNOW & KATE TEMPLE, IN ABSENTIA, GILL GATFIELD

Jessica Snow’s current work explores a technique she calls Ionian pointillism, which achieves a fluid effect through applying small dots to a wet canvas. Each morning
she dips her canvas into the sea and works on the beach, allowing the paint to dissolve and swirl in unexpected ways. With each painting, an Ancient Greek goddess
inspires the work — Ios, Demeter, Nyx, and Artemis.

Kate Temple works in the area of installation, painting and drawing and initiates dialogue with the seemingly silent world of nature. The ancient site of Dodona was known for its divinatory practice of listening to the rustling of trees, the sounds and flights of birds and the murmuring of water to determine the correct actions to be taken by people. In the film “Once Upon A Time” she performs one of her drawing practices- a conversation with a tree, sunlight and the wind. In Kephalonia, she is using the same process to create drawings with four trees that figure strongly in the Kefalonian landscape and culture: the oak, the olive, the pomegranate and the lemon.
Black clay objects evoke amulets and devotional objects were placed on trees In Kephalonia for the month to amplify attention and conversation and have been re-assembled in the gallery for viewing.
The work presented is the result of a deep immersion into the quality of Kephalonia and is offered as a reflection and exchange.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

GILL GATFIELD -IN ABSENTIA

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