Common View
Contemporary art at the National Theatre
Contemporary Art at the National
Rhona Bitner / photography
Michel François / video
Maro Michalakakou / sculpture installation
Curated by Eleni Koukou and Katerina Tselou
Common View, the National’s dialogue with the visual arts, continues for a third year, exploring the arena where theatre and other art forms meet. Through this initiative, the National aims to bring theatregoers into contact with contemporary works that share some kind of ‘common view’ with its productions. It is hoped that in this way, the success of similar events at theatres and museums abroad can be emulated and that audiences will gain from the critical enjoyment of non-theatrical works.
To coincide with the National’s production of Uncle Vanya, the foyers of the Central Stage and the New Stage in the Ziller Building are hosting works by three contemporary artists who use different media to examine various aspects of the theatre: Rhona Bitner (photography), Michel François (video) and Maro Michalakakou (sculpture installations).
A performance festival is also planned for spring 2010.
Through their works, Greek and foreign artists will take us on a magical mystery tour of the foyers and events room of the Ziller Building.
Rhona Bitner
The American Rhona Bitner regularly visits sites of live spectacle such as theatres, circuses and concert halls, creating photographs that pick out elements that together define and encompass the experience of the spectator, including, in the case of the theatre, the stage, the auditorium and the lights.
The photographs in the foyer of the New Stage focus on the theatre, where Bitner spotlights these secondary elements.
Michel François
Michel François is one of Belgium’s greatest contemporary artists.
His work, which often appeals to all the senses, moves between sculpture, installation, video and photography. In his videos he records everyday processes and objects, subverting their characteristics or functions. He cheekily plays with the relationship between objects and their depictions, challenging viewers to make their own – often paradoxical – associations.
At the Ziller Building he presents a series of videos that have a strong performative and conceptual character.
Maro Michalakakou
Following her successful playground slide installation last year at the Children’s Theatre, Maro Michalakakou now presents a new installation especially designed for the Ziller Building, which viewers can see in the magically transformed events room, along with a series of sculptural installations in the foyers of the Central Stage and the New Stage. The artist uses techniques that locate her work at the interface of sculpture and painting. On velvet surfaces, sometimes part of period furniture and sometimes hung as tapestries, she has used a scalpel to create allusive scenes that stir the memory, making associations that are suffused with a unique tension.
OPENING: SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., ZILLER BUILDING
DURATION: 19 DECEMBER 2009 – 28 MARCH 2010
DAYS AND TIMES: TUESDAY 12 noon to 4:30 p.m., WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY 12 noon to 9 p.m.
Entrance to Common View is free