First presentation of the artworks Landscape in Motion by Irini Miga, The Resilient Thread by Katerina Nakou, and Long Waves by Stratis Tavlaridis, the three winners of the 2024 Art Prize.
On Saturday 15 June 2024, the George & Aristea Mamidakis Foundation invites you to the first presentation of the artworks Landscape in Motion by Irini Miga, The Resilient Thread by Katerina Nakou, and Long Waves by Stratis Tavlaridis, the three winners of the 2024 Art Prize.
Since its establishment in 2019, the Art Prize has been supporting and promoting contemporary artists by offering them the opportunity to create new artworks, which remain on permanent display in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, and become part of the Foundation’s art collection, joining an important cultural heritage. Furthermore, the prize aspires to support artistic leadership, not only through the creation of new works but also through the careful curation of the proposals and their incorporation into a collection.
This year the prize called for proposals for large-scale works created to be site-specific for a configured environment; works which communicate an internal narrative. Emphasis was also placed on the theme of Care, which permeates a lot of the Foundation’s activities. The selected proposals stood out for their originality, creativity, site-specificity, and connection with the theme.
Irini Miga’s Landscape in Motion is a site-responsive artwork which combines painterly and sculptural elements, portraying an ever-evolving landscape. Inspired by the twirling motion of a leaf in the air, it brings attention to the endangered and rare flora of Crete, encouraging a collective awareness for their preservation.
Katerina Nakou’s Resilient Thread, comprised of large-scale compositions woven on the loom, re-introduces the decorative and endangered artform known as ‘passementerie’. The composition highlights a traditionally decorative element by bringing it to the forefront, both visually and conceptually, demanding our attention and shifting our focus to the details, diversity, and value of unseen forces, and our gaze to aspects of the world which are often overlooked. Each composition retains its unique characteristics while acknowledging a common thread, if only we grasp it and embrace it. It is a choice, in our search for harmony.
Stratis Tavlaridis’ Long Waves is a large-scale installation of hand-made paper created using the papercut technique. It reminds viewers of the sea’s movement and at the same time brings to mind images of fishing nets. The artist aims to awaken the public to the imperative importance of caring for the seas, “and to bring us face to face with something we often overlook or ignore. We are an integral part of the destruction that is happening around us, and we are given the opportunity to reverse it.”
Curated by: Sotirios Bahtsetzis, Yota Dimitriou
Place: Minos Palace hotel & suites
Opening: 15.06 | Permanent exhibition
Participating Artists: Irini Miga, Katerina Nakou, Stratis Tavlaridis
