Anna Tsouloufi Lagiou ○ Independent visual artist (b. in 1971) specializing in sculpture, photography, and art in public space ○ I live and work in Athens. I have lived and worked also in Italy, Germany and the USA for a short period of time. I studied in Athens-Gr, Berlin and Weimar-DE, Chicago-USA. My work Forms of life-survival in the metropolis belongs to the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (New Productions 2012). My work Cabins of Metamorphosis received the 2nd Onufri Prize from the National Gallery of Tirana (2006, permanent collection). I have participated in the 50th Venice Biennale (Program RADAR-Project 2003). I have taken part in the 2nd Athens Biennial, and also to more group exhibitions, Biennials, co-operations and cultural programs in Greece, Italy, Germany, Northern Republic of Macedonia, Chicago-USA, with individual and collaborative projects (Philopappou Art Group, Network Nomadic architecture, ARTENS NPO, PAC Multimedia NGO, ARTOGETHER NPO). My work is mainly anthropocentric. I percieve the human figure as a sculpture shaped by contemporary socio-political imperatives. My artistic practice includes both on-site and locally defined artistic research, with an emphasis on the production process of the work. I express, shape and present through visual means in public space either individually or collectively and participatory works. I make sculptural installations, performative acts, photographic and/or video-installations, sometimes websites. I embrace and espouse any good and nice practice that serves the purpose of the project.
Andreas Vais©2023
I begin with a research for the body and the objects receiving them as mass; a research for space as a field of movement and expansion of human perception; time as the framework for determining human activities in everyday life. I focus on contemporary biopolitics through the sociology and anthropology of metropolises; the way (wo)man acts and lives, her/his temperament, how s/he, by influencing the collective unconscious and cultural memory, creates stereotypical forms for her/himself and for her/his environment. Subsequently, I begin to perceive myself and others as sculptural figures within the urban landscape; as forms, subject to socio-political imperatives. Our characteristics are shaped according to the habits imposed on us by modern living conditions. Therefore, I behave in such a way as to try to subvert these imperatives in order to do creative, liberating, artistic work. Working in both, collectives and collaboratively, I attempt to make social portraits and map contemporary monuments, sometimes through platforms of social dialogue, and sometimes through solitary internal dialogue. Standing in this position, seeing and feeling things from there, my practice is to observe the space and place in which I work each time, to seize elements and dynamics that usually remain unnoticed by the unsuspecting body in everyday life. My work, my art, arises through an attempt to stage my intimate reality, by all means necessary.
Studies:
○ Sculpture, in the 2nd Sculpture Workshop of ASFA with Professor George Lappas
○ Photography, in the workshop of M. Babousis at the ASFA
○ Erasmus undergraduate program at the Art School of Berlin-Weißensee [KΗ-Berlin-Weissensee] in Germany, with a scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation
○ MFA Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany Postgraduate specialization in contemporary art forms expressed in the public sphere, with a scholarship from the Greek Public Benefit Foundation “Propontis”
○ Post-graduate ERASMUS/SOCRATES Program with a DAAD-SAIC scholarship for the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago-USA
Distinctions:
2012 | EMST – ATHENS –New Productions of the National Museum of Contemporary Art
2006 | 2nd ONUFRI Prize 2006, National Gallery of Tirana – 13th International Contemporary Visual Art Competition – Nuk ka si shtepia – Nothing like home, Tirana-Albania
2005 | SAIC & Bauhaus Uni Weimar–DE [DAAD German State Scholarship Foundation] – MFA Guest student studying abroad
2003-5 | PROPONTIS FOUNDATION – ATHENS – 2-year scholarship for postgraduate studies in Germany
2001 | IKY – State Scholarship Foundation – ATHENS – Undergraduate Erasmus/Socrates Program in Berlin-Germany
1998 | IKY – State Scholarship Foundation – ATHENS – Commendation and monetary award for outstanding performance of the first year of studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Activity:
○ Visual artist with the design of individual and collective artistic works
○ Participation in art exhibitions and intercultural projects as collaborator and/or coordinator, group trainer, co-organizer of exhibitions, conferences and presentations of artistic projects
○ Artistic activities in Greece, Germany, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Republic of Macedonia, Albania and Chicago, USA
○ Professional activity in my private business as a sculptor, photographer, painter and public artist in the production of works from 2006 until today
Teaching:
○ Professional occupation in Art Education: Drawing, Color, Sculpture & Clay Plastic, Composition, Art in Public Space, Art History, and New Media
○ Professional occupation in Art Education at: Sivitanideios Public School of Arts and Professions, Public and Private Institutes of Professional Education, Elementary Public and Private Education, Artogether and Artens NPOs, the Cultural Centers of the Pallini and Gerakas Municipality, my private business as well as interbalkan, intercultural programs in the Republic of North Macedonia, teaching practical training and theory of visual arts to adults, adolescents and children.
2012 | Forms of Life – Survival Kit in the Metropolis, Project Room ΕΜSΤ, Athens
2005 | The Outsider in and out of Context–Appearance and Presence in Actual and Virtual Places, Public art Project in Weimar Germany, exhisting as a webpage
2024 I-ola or nothing, Exhibition, presentations, workshops, 21 to 24 June, Athens-Agia Paraskevi, with the support of the Municipality of Agia Paraskevi
2024 Place of Otherworldly Conflicts, Chalandri Settlement, Athens, from June 29 to July 4 in the framework of the Rematia Festival, with the support of the Municipality of Chalandri
2023 «ROI» (Return on Investment*), Chalandri Settlement, Athens, July
2023 Woman Case. Itinerant women living with unknown animals and making wings, Circuits & Currents (ASFA exhibition area), Athens, June
2021 Solus Ipse, Circuits & Currents (ASFA exhibition hall), Athens, November
2021 The Party – Artistic research project for The Party during the Pandemic, Chalandri Settlement, Athens, July
2019 City in Pieces, at 8-Institute of Art and Political Criticism, Athens, June-September
2019 Blind Date- Versions of Cultural Citizenship, Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete-Rethymnon, June-September
2018 Presentation of the Book on Nomadic Architecture, Atrium of the Technical University of Athens, Athens, October
2016 Joy – Back to Athens 4, Ypsilon publishing house, Athens, June
2011 Agoras-Menos [Purchased], Cheapart, Athens, April
2011 Events of the Mavili Movement at the Occupied Embros Theatre, Athens, November
2010 3rd Festival “On The Move”, Athens School of Fine Arts, December
2009 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN, participation with the collective work of the Filopappou Group Et In Arcadia Ego, Flisvos Faliro, summer
2008 Blind Date#12, Thiseion Lofts, Gazi-Athens, December-January 2007-8
2008 Platform Translation-Transleatme, independent showroom Aiolou 48-50, Athens, November-December [https://platformtranslation1.wordpress.com/athens/] [https://www.tovima.gr/2008/12/13/culture/texnientws-82/] /
2007 Cheapart Gallery, Athens, December
2007 Χώρος, Spanish-Greek Archipelago Cultural Society, Naxos, summer
2007 The Transformation of the ground, within the framework of the research activities of the Nomadic Architecture Network in the area of Gazochori, public space of ceramics area, Athens, June
2007 Invisible Systems-Synch Festival 2007, Technopolis-Athens, June
2007 Urban Legends, Epi Kolonos Theatre-Athens, June-July
2007 Antonis Vathis presents: Ten years after friends, Sarantopoulos Roller Mills, Piraeus, March
2007 Near & Opposite – Alternative space PD, Gazi, Athens May-July
2007 Near & Opposite – Alamanas 10 Galatsi, Athens April
2006 13th International Competition ONUFRI 2006 Nuk Ka Si Shtepia [Nothing Like Home], National Gallery of Tirana, 2nd prize, Tirana November-December
2006 The People΄ς Choice-Isola Art Center, within the framework of the research activities of the Nomadic Architecture Network in the area of Gazochori and the project I beg you not to demolish my world, Milan March
2006 A plan on the site, within the framework of the research activities of the Nomadic Architecture Network in the area of Gazochori, public space of ceramics area, Athens June
2006 Site – Pro-Taseis, Field of Action Kodra-Thessaloniki August-September
2006 What remains is Future – European Capital of Culture Patras 2006, September-November
2006 Apolis, Hellenic American Union-Athens, December
2006 Old Market of Kypseli art exhibition and cultural events organized by the Reconstruction Community, Athens December
2006 4th International Social Forum Conference, Elliniko – Athens, May
2005 Transitional Athens – A-Station and Byzantine Museum, Athens and Constantinople, November-December
2005 The Art of the Artist Statement, Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, HMCC Chicago – USA, February-April
2005 Schleier: Schutz-Symbol-Presentation, Κ&Κ KIOSK, Weimar – Germany, February
2004 An den Ränden [On The Edges], interventions in public space area Neues Bauen Am Horn, central tourist bus parking spot, Weimar – Germany, July
2004 Radar Progresses, Athens – Technopolis (Maria Calas Hall), March-April
2003 50th Venice Bienial, Extra 50s, “The RADAR Project”, Giudecca cultural centre – Venice, June-November
2003 Kunstfest Weimar-Μimikry, Weimar – Germany, August
2003 The Piece-Excerpt, Gallery A&A, Venice – Italy, May
2003 The exhibitions of Bar Aspro, Athens, October
2002-3 SUBURBIA-The Vast Expanses of the Athenian Suburbs, A-Station, Athens, November ’02 – December ’03
2001 39 -58′ B/23-43′, A One Night Exhibition, Filopappou Hill, Athens, September
2006 Curator:
I curated the Greek participation with 17 video-art works, in ATTITUDE-Festival of video & short films, experimental cinema & photography. Held in Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia in December 2006, at the Cultural Center “Magaza”, with the participation of the artists: Sofia Simaki, Dionysios Kavallieratos & Sifis Likakis, Kostas Tzimoulis, Vasilis Patmios-Karouk, Maria Sarris & Yiannis Stamatiou, Amusement Park (Maggie Touliatou & Kosmas Kosmopoulos), Tina Kotsi, Georgia Kotretsou, Mary Zygouri, Karen Gina Georgoudi, Mandy Albani, Grecoteam [Kostis Stafylakis, Maria Gorgia, Giorgos Kametas, Vivian Kravariti, Giorgos Giannakopoulos, Orestis Doulos, Liana Glinitsa , Ilias Gratsias, Yiannis Kapelos, Atalanti Mouzouri, Antonia Pafiliari, Litsa Serpigioti, Yiannis Preftis, Sevi Tzambala, Rena Tsagadou], Yiota Ioannidou, ATHLST Group, Gerasimos Kyriakopoulos and Eleni Tzirtzilaki.
2022 Traveling Art Outside (Sponsored by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation) Sponsored coordinator and trainer
2007 Through Woman’s Eyes (Soros Foundation & East/East Program) Sponsored coordinator
2006 Open Door-Art and Youth Platform (Soros Foundation & East/East Program, FIOO-Macedonia and in the framework of the “All Different, All Equal” European Youth Campaign for Diversity, Human Rights and Participation) Sponsored coordinator and trainer
2006 Creativity Encourages Active Participation-Operation Front (Festival Ptuj – odprto mesto organizira: Društvo za miselno rekreacijo POVOD) Sponsored trainer
2003-4 The RADAR Project (Culture2000) Sponsored artist in residency
2022 | Co-presentation of the project Home as Fabric, with Eleni Tzirtzilaki and Nomadic Architecture at the Victoria Square Project in Athens, 8/3/2022
2021 | Urban Ecologies – Discussion – public sharing – Online, at the 8-Institute of Art and Politics Criticism. Athina Arabatzi, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Olga Lafazani and Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou participated in the discussion in conversation with the workshop participants: Christos Giovanopoulos, Eirini Efstathiou, Konstantina Theodorou, Mariela Nestora and Steriani Tsintziloni. Coordination: Gigi Argyropoulou and Kostas Tzimoulis. Athens 28.1.2021
2019 | Beyond the river, in the west – An effort to manage memory | The Movement (before the Eyes) of the Absolute Attitude – City in pieces. Presentation with musical selections of post-punk bands from Peristeri of the 80s that took place at the Eight-critical institute for art and politics, Athens, September 22, 2019
2012 | Counterculture, The Art of Subversion, discussion on forms of political and activist art in a panel moderated by Thanasis Moutsopoulos and interlocutors Maria Papanikolaou and Nikos Xydakis, in the context of the exhibition of the same title. Area cheapart Pl. Kotzia, Athens 2012
2010 | Transferring Raymond Roussel’s Machine and Thought Landscape to the Modern Age of Globalization · the formation of the artistic subject in contemporary cultural representation, workshop Raymond Roussel – Interdisciplinary Approaches, Benaki Museum – Athens 2010
2009 | TAZ (Temporary Autonomous zones) – Temporary autonomous zones in Athens after December 2008, conference Contemporary Architecture and Urban Landscape of the ContempO project organized by the Development Agency of the Municipality of Athens, Foundation of the Hellenic World – Athens 2009
2009 | The Example “Alexandros Iolas”, workshop “E(k)esotericities. Art, politics and society in times of crisis, presentation of the work of the Filopappou Group, Benaki Museum – Athens 2009
2008 | Public Art and its lost definitions, conference Contemporary Art and Public Space, organized by Chamber of Fine Arts – Station 984, Technopolis – Athens 2008
2008 | All Won, May 2008 – 40 years since May ’68, organization publications Eurasia, Booze Cooperativa – Athens 2008
2007 | Action + City, presentation of the research activities of the Nomadic Architecture Network in the area of the former Gazochori. AKTO School Amphitheater – Athens
2006-7 | Presentation of our action as a team for the participation in the Open Door program, the painting workshop of ASFA, and the multiplex FUTURA – Athens 2006-7
2007 | Remap KM and the displacement of residents in Kerameikos area (panel), FUTURA multiplex – Athens
2007 Presentation of the work of the IMA at the workshop Through Woman’s Eyes, Mala Stanica – Multimedia Center, Skopje
2006 | Operation Front, presentation of my work at Magazza Art Gallery, Skopje FYROM
2006 | Art Except, panel moderated by curator Gelly Gridaki and interlocutors Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Zafos Xagoraris and George Georgakopoulos, Cheapart – Athens
2005 | Making Your Art and Your Life – Strategies for an Uninterrupted Practice, Chicago School of the Arts Workshop Symposium – USA 2005
2004 | The Polytechnic Uprising, the Anniversary of November 17, 1973 in Greece – The Anniversary Character of the Uprising and the Celebration, conference ” Unmastered Past in Contemporary Art”, Weimar – Germany
My published texts:
2019 National Theatre of Greece and EMST: An unexpected meeting. Interview for the coupling of detail of my artwork Forms of Life with the adaptation of Victor Hugo’s play The Man Who Laughs, in collaboration between ETH and EMST.
2009 Terror in Art, a discussion between Paul Virillio and Enrico Bai, introduction and editing of the pamphlet, publications on a Libertarian Culture, Athens.
2008 Gestalt and Concept, translation and editing (excerpts) of Carl Einstein’s text, publications for a Libertarian Culture, Athens, Autumn.
2008 What and for whom? about the group “Urban Void” in the electronic magazine kaput, issue no 1 (http://www.kaput.gr) /
2007 Cultural Transformation, for the “Nomadic Architecture Network” in the electronic magazine of the Athens Biennale, issue no 6. (http://www.athensartreview.org/bissues/gr/a-issue6_gr.pdf) /
Articles about my works:
2012 Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou-Forms of life, survival kit in the metropolis, text by curator Daphne Vitali for the exhibition [http://www.emst.gr/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/anna-tsouloufi-lagiou-morfes-tis-zois-skevi-epiviosis-sti-mitropoli]
2012 Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou-Survival Kit for Athens during the crisis, Despina Zefkili, Athinorama magazine 24/4/2012 [https://www.athinorama.gr/cityvibe/article/anna_tsouloufi-lagiou-11889.html]
2012 The Artist and the Multitude, By Panagiotis S. Papadopoulos, Avgi newspaper, 25/04/2012 [http://archive.avgi.gr/nea-avgi/ArticleActionshow.action?articleID=683676]
2012 Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou-The Art of Survival in a Metropolis, by Dionysia Lagiou, newspaper Ethnos 4/2012 /
2005 The Bauhaus Model, Stuart Keeler [Public artist & Independent Curator, Canada-USA], in Public Art Review-ΜΝ-USA
2005 Artists in Chicago with a Written Statement, by Dionysia Lagiou, newspaper Ethnos Out, Sunday 27 March – 2 April 2005
2003 RADAR Program – Budding Artists, by Dionysia Lagiou, newspaper Ethnos of Sunday 25 May 2003
Publications – Catalogues – Publications:
Press articles on the project FORMS OF LIFE: SURVIVAL KIT IN THE METROPOLIS, on the exhibition of the 2nd Athens Biennale HEAVEN, on the work of the Filopappou Group-ALEXANDROS IOLAS CASE, on the exhibitions BLIND DATE, TRANSLEATME, APOLIS, on the festival FIELD OF ACTION KODRA the RADAR Program, the exhibition-workshop SUBURBIA, the exhibition THE TEXNH OF THE ARTIST’S STATEMENT, and the exhibition 9TH MONTH OF INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN ATHENS, the exhibition THE TRANSITION OF ATHENS, have been published in the free-press magazines ATHENS VOICE and LIFO, as well as in the afternoon and Sunday newspapers: ETHNOS, ELEFTHEROTYPIA, VIMA and in the weekly Athenian magazines VIMAGAZINO, ATHINORAMA and TIMEOUT. Articles on the RADAR Project and the programs ON THE OUTSKIRTS AND THE HEADSCARF have been published in the German daily newspaper THÜRINGEN ALLGEMEINE.