29 Mar – 31 Mar 2024
Armatolon ke Klefton 38, Athens, 114 71, Greece
AK38
Opening: Friday 29 March 2024, 21.00 p.m.
Duration: 30 & 31 March 2024, 19.00 – 22.00 p.m.
Art installation
Concept / curated by: COMOTIRIO
In 1959, German director Fritz Lang’s film “Das Indische Grabmal / The Indian Tomb” is released. In 1955, Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis writes the song “Ilissos”: what’s the name, what’s the name of the river, I love you, I love you (my little secret). On March 19, 1960, the indoor sports hall of Panathinaikos team at Alexandras Avenue is inaugurated, the first indoor hall ever constructed in Greece, commonly known as “The Indian Tomb”. On March 17, 461 AD, Saint Patrick dies having identified the shamrock with Trinity. In the 1st century the shamrock gets associated with luck and Panathinaikos adopts it as its emblem since 1918.
In 2024, Ilissos still flows under the Avenue, with greens, clovers and birds flooding its well-buried riverbed. In the same year and in frantic Bollywood rhythms, COMOTIRIO, committed in highlighting places of historical interest by pairing them with artistic events, interacts with the urban legend of the indoor stadium and the wider area. Two mixed-media sculptural installations reveal unseeable elements of the space, which, as an underground stadium -narrow, with multiple levels and steep descending stairs- was nicknamed as “The Indian Tomb” because it reminded of the homonymous film’s catacomb scenes.
COMOTIRIO is the co-working scheme of visual artists Eriphyli Veneri and Naira Stergiou. The scheme revolves around the thematics of staged experience, fiction, beautification and Beauty. Their main practice involves the organisation of independent contemporary art events in special spaces with historicity and semiology, e.g.: “Let’s Supper, Mr. Iolas / Resurrection RE”, Villa Iolas (2019, with the support of NEON and Marni Films), “Blablablack”, Rebound Club (2019), “The Love Boat” (2020, with support of the European Information Center DA”, “Flowers-Plants-Decorations”, Flower Shops, Syntagma (2021), “Iera Poli I/Eromeni”, Salt Museum (2021, supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, “PETDEMONIUM”, The Creatures Pet Shop & Grooming (2021), „BFFEAE: Best Friends Forever and Ever”, Sophia Laskaridou Gallery (2022), “SĒMAIOSTOLISTICKÉ”, Σημαιοστολιστική Flags Shop & Production (2023).