Details
Description
Edition print of 40 by Chrysanthi Koumianaki for ‘SECCMA Trade: Details of Love’, a project curated Kostas Stasinopoulos organized by SECCMA Trust, with all profits in support of Emantes – International Lgbtqia+ Solidarity.
Chrysanthi Koumianaki is an artist based in Athens. Her practice investigates the idea of translation, creating symbolic systems, codings, scores and alphabets focusing on a non verbal communication. She reconsiders and manipulates rules and methods of a global visual language, creating new narratives which reflect upon different times. Her main body of work are installations combining different media like prints, ephemeral drawings, video, sound and metal constructions. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in institutions, museums and galleries which among them include: ΝΕΟΝ Foundation(2020); Fondation Hippocrène, Paris (2018); Netwerk Aalst, Belgium (2018), Kadist, Paris (2017); Danske Grafikeres Hus, Copenhagen (2017); Benaki Museum, Athens (2016); MENTISBenaki Museum, Athens (2016); State of Concept, Athens (2016); Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2015); Athens Biennale, (2013); EMST, Athens (2013). Her work has been presented in exhibitions by museums and foundation such as: Fondazione Prada (2017), PHENOMENON (2017), DESTE Foundation (2016) and New Museum New York (2016). She has participated in residencies and programs such as Studiotopia (2020), Onassis Air (2019), Artworks (2018) και PHENOMENON (2017). Since 2012, along with Kosmas Nikolaou and Paky Vlassopoulou, she is one of the co-founders of 3 137 artist-run space in Athens.
Emantes – International Lgbtqia+ Solidarity is a Social Cooperative Enterprise based in Athens, Greece, that was founded in July 2018 by experienced volunteers in the LGBTQIA+ refugee field as well as in feminist and/or queer groups. Some of the founding members were refugees/asylum seekers at the time. Emantes’ mission is twofold. On the one hand, they provide direct or indirect psychosocial support to LGBTQIA+ refugees/asylum seekers. On the other hand, they raise awareness on the issues the LGBTQIA+ refugee/migrant community faces, by highlighting the multiple repressions posed by its dual identity and its invisibility within the general refugee/migrant population. Emantes means “we” in kaliarda, the slang used by homosexuals in Greece during the 1940s, in order to safely communicate with one another. In modern Greek, “imantes” means straps, which to Emantes are a symbol of solidarity. Straps can lift or hold together very heavy objects. So, in a way, Emantes understand and envision solidarity through diversity and adversity, a connection with “others” in the most unlikely combinations.
SECCMA Trust is a creative venture of SERAPIS that aims to form an alliance supporting the growth and expansion of contemporary art locally and internationally.