Opening on April 20


Hopstraat 63 rue du Houblon 1000 Brussels

Exhibition
: 20 April – 21 May

Wednesday to Saturday, 2-6pm

Curated by Michelangelo Corsaro

Exhibition design by Pegy Zali

Artists: Theodoris Giannakis & Petros Moris, Katerina Kana, Lito Kattou, Natasha Papadopoulou, Zoë Paul, Angelo Plessas, Socratis Socratous

EN

The exhibition Handsome,Young And Unemployed makes the claim that in visual culture there is no such thing as ‘the European Standard’. There are lives and living standards of people who chose to live in Europe. European relationships are not built on harmony but on visual cacophony. Styles and genres are less important than friendship. Visual culture is built together, by a set of personal experiences rather than as a matter of aesthetic consonance. A group of Greek artists travel to Brussels to make an exhibition - because they are part of the problem.

FR

L'exposition part du postulat que dans la culture visuelle, il n'existe plus de Norme Européenne. Nous pouvons distinguer différents modes de vie et conditions de vie des personnes qui ont choisi de vivre en Europe. Les relations européennes ne sont pas construites sur l'harmonie mais plutôt sur un concept de cacophonie visuelle. Les styles et les genres sont moins importants que l’amitié. La culture visuelle est construite conjointement sur un ensemble d'expériences personnelles plutôt que sur une question de consonance esthétique. Un groupe d'artistes grecs se rend à Bruxelles pour faire une exposition car ils font partie du problème.

NL

Deze tentoonstelling vertrekt van de premisse dat er in de beeldcultuur niet langer zoiets bestaat als een Europese Norm. Er zijn verschillende vormen van leven en mensen met een verschillende levensstandaard die ervoor kiezen om in Europa te wonen. De Europese relaties komen niet voort uit harmonie, maar eerder uit een visuele kakofonie. Stijlen en genres zijn minder belangrijk dan vriendschap: een beeldcultuur die we tezamen construeren uit een reeks van persoonlijke ervaringen, en niet vanuit een esthetische samenhorigheid. Een groep Griekse kunstenaars komt naar Brussel, omdat ze deel uitmaken van het probleem.

 Komplot is supported by Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles, COCOF, De Vlaamse Overheid and VGC

Photo Credit: Fabrice Dermience

Socratis Socratous' bouquet is part of Stolen Garden, a series of metal sculptures composed of plants sourced from Athens' National Garden and casted in athenian foundries. Formerly called Royal Garden, the National Garden of Athens is a place filled with contradictions, where a large population of parrots escaped from their cages coexist with the memory of the German influence over the birth of modern Greece and of historical events that lead to the end of Hellenic expansionist aims in Minor Asia. It is impossible to distinguish in these works the conceptual references to the history of contested territories from the commentary on the exoticisation of Mediterranean cities and of their past. It is between the idillic atmosphere of the park and the hectic business of a metal workshop that these references come together. (Michelangelo Corsaro)

"Cats should run stealthily about yards and gardens at twilight.
I’ve got a pleasure in trapping them and slay every cat that comes near me.
Why you do that?
I hate their voice in the night.
The owners of cats hate you. You know that?
When did they first come here?
They have no owners.
Dark wanderers they were.
And the wanderers wear those t-shirts, and they paint on them figures with human bodies or not, and heads
and cats and hawks and rams and lions.
On the third night they spoke a language not a villager could understand.
But the cats did not come. Unheard of rite of beasts.
And the ones remained, for a whole day they did not touch food, they were just swirling their body and doze
by the fire or in the sun.
Very sleek and fat.
They appear. Not a word from their mouth.
He is the king of the jungle’s lord. He speaks her language.
A sphinx is his cousin but he is older than her.
So he always remembers what she is forgetting."

(Lito Kattou, excerpt from Solar Love for the Rapid Felines, Chapter 2, What about the Roar?, 2015)