Events:
CRISS CROSS 1 | HYDRA ANNEX OF ASFA AND PUBLIC SPACE, HYDRA, MAY 25-28, 2018
CRISS CROSS 2 | ASFA AND A-DASH, ATHENS, SEPT 20-22, 2019
Criss-Cross | Αrtist on artist convergencies is a project by Eva Giannakopoulou, Yiannis Melanitis and Panos Sklavenitis that attempts to examine the influential marks of encounters between artists. Departing from relationships which determined the life and the creative development of the involved subjects, as well as the way that history of art is constructed, the project attempts to reflect experimentally on those meetings and re-examine their dimensions and importance. Longstanding collaborations, friendships and love affairs, momentary encounters or short conversations, spiritual proximities and rivalries, seem to have composed an alternative archive of ‘relational’ history of art.
Antonello da Messina meets Jan Van Eyck, Pier Paolo Pasolini interviews Ezra Pound, Robert Rauschenberg erases a Willem de Kooning’s drawing, Joseph Beuys states the silence of Μarcel Duschamp to be overrated. These registered or rumored encounters between historical figures are undoubtedly appealing; however, they are also political: they hold roles and authority, social class, race, gender and sexuality. The subjects performing those are poor or rich, black or white, homosexual or heterosexual, slim or fat, liberal or conservative, famous or unknown.
They might establish love or hate relationships, their encounters might be fateful, inevitable or even tragic: Camille Claudel dies in a psychiatric clinic and Ana Mendieta was found dead on the terrace of a delicatessen, 33 floors under the window of her apartment.
Τhe project Criss cross - Αrtist on artist convergencies goal is to compose a wide network of collaborations between artists, art theorists and social scientists, attempting to create encounters accompanied by workshops, participatory or collective actions, performances and talks.