EXHIBITIONS

Lizzie Calligas. Metoikesis.

Lizzie Calligas. Metoikesis.

Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki

Duration: 24 April 2010 – 6 June 2010

Opening: 24 April / 13:00, Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art (Warehouse B1, Port)

      Imprinted memories, frozen in time. The last moments in their old home. Scenes from the process of moving house. Scenes of departure. Moments of arrival. ‘Suspended bodies', 'Shrouded gods', The Korai statues from the Old Acropolis Museum during their move to the New Acropolis Museum photographed and revealed through the lens of Lizzie Calligas are being presented at the exhibition “Lizzie Calligas: Metoikesis’ organised by the Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki from 24 April to 6 June, as part of the special series on modern women visual artists.

      This exhibition is jointly curated by the director of the Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki, Syrago Tsiara, and art historian, Christina Petrinou.

      Visitors to the exhibition will have the chance to see 25 large-scale photos of the Old Acropolis Museum. The photos were taken in 2007 shortly before preparations began to transfer the exhibits to the New Acropolis Museum. Lizzie Calligas had the opportunity to wander around the location which had been home to these unique works of ancient sculpture from the sacred rock of the Acropolis and capture them on film. Her lens primarily focuses on the sculptures themselves wrapped in white cloth and ready to be transported. She has mainly opted for whole body shots or images of selected limbs, but has also occasionally captured a group of statues together. The actuality of the situation is made clear but only indirectly so: a small detail from a numbered crate or pedestal, packaging materials, exposed limbs next to wrapped ones and the characteristic blue hue of the walls, all offer visual stimuli packed with innuendo, providing both fixed references to a specific location (the Old Acropolis Museum) and information about the events unfolding there (packing the statues for the move). This is no documentary photo shoot, even though such an argument could be made, but an impressionistic take on a critical moment in the 'life' of these specific statues.

The exhibition is part of this year’s Photobiennale-21^st International Photography Meeting being organised by the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography.

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