Astrid Kensinger Almkhlaafy

Astrid Kensinger Almkhlaafy  is currently assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s school of art design and media in visual communication. She holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in classical & near eastern archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. She works in the tradition of Somatics, where direct experience and the body are key ingredients in exploring the inner world through physical engagement with location. As an artist much of her understanding of place is through walking and mapping.

 Her current major projects involve investigations of sacred and historically rich sites, examining the process of pilgrimage and methodologies of performing and delineating such actions. Her work has been shown in Asia, America and Europe.

While at the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Astrid has been working on a series of studies based on the number 20. She is inspired by Penelope and the theme of waiting. Using GPS, video and photography, she has been mapping distance and time with a focus on repetition, patience, endurance and occasional humor. To wait 20 years is epic. In a series of 20 studies time will explored and Penelope honored.

Τhe works under the title // 20 in 20 // were  exhibited at the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture  16^th of July 2013  evening  20.30

Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture

 Invites you in the

DRIFTERS PROJECT- KEFALONIA 2013

Pam Longobardi,   Dianna Cohen,   Sarina Basta

presents

Endless : Ocean of Plastic

an innovative international  academic-artistic – research project

collaborating with Evyenia Yannouli  leading the Project A.ShoRE 

Exhibition-Presentation : Friday July 19, 2013,  20.30 pm

at the  Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture

 Drifters Project returns to Kefalonia for its third year and in an academic–research collaboration  with Dr. Evyenia Yannouli’s  Project A.Sho.RE.   Drifters Project founder, artist-academic  Pam Longobardi (US) and team members artist Dianna Cohen (US) and curator Sarina Basta (FR) clean sea caves of plastic pollution while investigating new protocols for collaborative research and education with the underwater -archeological team

 Project  A.Sho.RE.

The new film of this year’s Drifters Project actions by Greek filmmakers Nickos Myrtou and Ioulia Mermigka will be screened.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Dianna Cohen, co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition, presents a mural made in collaboration with elementary students in Spain and will lead a workshop for Kefalonian children on Saturday  July 20, 19.00- 20.30 pm

Free entrance

LINKS    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wuFebfwc8Yhttp://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/projects/plastic-free-campuses/

http://blog.conservation.org/2013/07/reducing-global-plastic-use-is-key-to-fight-ocean-pollution/

https://rally.org/driftersprojectkefalonia

 Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture,Metaxata,28100,Kefalonia, Greece

Information- enrollment :  26710 41126   

www.ionionartscenter.gr,  info@ionionartscenter.gr , www.i–node.org

sponsors: Ionian Galaxy 90.8,    Odysseia 

Iryna Shuvalova is an emerging Ukrainian poet who is said to be one of the most enigmatic representatives of contemporary Ukrainian literature. Her first book of poems “Ran” has gathered some of the country’s most important literary prizes, and her second book “Os” is currently in print. She comes to ICAC to work on her project “Glossolalia”.

Short Biography

Iryna was born in 1986 in Kyiv, where she also earned her two graduate degrees, in Philosophy and Translation; recently she has been awarded the Fulbright scholarship to study for her Master’s degree in Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College in the U.S. Her poetry has been translated into 7 languages, including Greek. Iryna also works as a poetry translator – recently she became a recipient of the international Stephen Spender / Joseph Brodsky prize for poetry translation. She is the member of the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine.

Style

 According to press, Iryna can be considered “possibly the most interesting postmodern poet-mythmaker “. Indeed, her texts are closely connected with mythological topics and archetypes. In fact, many of her poems deal with characters and images taken from the ancient Greek myths. In her verse, Narcissus “is an arrow and an archer a swift and a shaft / and thirty-three veils of the soft flesh”; while addressing Icarus she writes: “You will be pulled from outside / poked from under the shoulder-blades / by the soft memory of wax / this relapse of the birdness”. As one of the literary reviewers has written, “Iryna Shuvalova is never lost even in the bright literary surroundings: she stands out due to her extreme sincerity, complete openness and an unforgettable timbre of literary voice”.

 Project

 During her three-weeks-long stay at the ICAC, also made possible due to the grant provided by the program “i3” of the ”Development of Ukraine” fund, Iryna is going to work on her literary project “Glossolalia”. The project’s aim is to explore the cross-sections of Greek and Ukrainian languages by means of poetry. Such exploration can, in turn, help to discover the lost shades of words’ meanings or to create the new ones. In a way, it is a return to the roots, because the first borrowings from Greek into Ukrainian date back to the 5-th century B.C. According to the poet herself, for the Western civilization Kefalonia and Ithaca represent a unique geographic and cultural spot – the point of eternal return, which makes ICAC a perfect setting for work on a project such as “Glossolalia”.

Contacts and Further Information

E-Mail: serpiente.de.luna@gmail.com

Skype: iryna.shuvalova

Website: http://thatis.me/shuvalova,

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iryna.shuvalova

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shuvalova