PAI 2010 in Thebes, Greece

 

PAI 2010 in Thebes, Greece

Iconography on a ritual vessel from the Cabeirion of Thebes 

On the 27th of December the PAI 2010 events will be presented in the Conference Center of Thebes followed by.the announcement of the 2011 events in Alexandroupolis-Samothrace, by Katerina Kaltsou, general secretary of the Union of Cultural Associations of Evros. Polyxene Kasda will speak about the PAI "borderline phenomenon' and Constantin Angelou will present a video art based on the theme of Pratolaos, Aggeliki Casdas will give a violin performance along with the projection of Hakan Akcura's documentary on PAI 2010 in Samothrace and Maria Pesmazoglou's documents on the PAI2010 events in Patmos island. 
The event will close with the announcement of the Map of the Hidden Treasure in Samothrace and Thebes 
and propositions for the restoration of the ontological value of Thebes and its connection to our present life,
org. City Cultural Events Network.
curator of the event in Thebes;Constantin Angelou
with the support of the Citizens of Thebes
we thank Dimitris Alexandrou for his help .
 ,

PAI 2010 concept

PAI 2010-2011

“The eon is a child playing, tossing {dice}; the kingdom is the Child’s” Heraclites

P. Kasda, "The kingdom is the Child's", mixed media, Athens 2010

Text by Polyxene Kasda
from her intervention, in the inauguration of the PAI 2010 collection,
 in the Municipal Center of Samothrace, Nicolaos Fardis, on the 22nd August 2010.

Mythological foundation PAI 2010
“The accident reveals the essence” Aristotle.

Crisis, spiritual crisis, sheds light on the illusion of homogeneity, revealing the hiatus in the fabric of spacetime as we slide from the palm of familiarity in the abyss of our archetypal roots, to integrate with primordial constituents, our broken memory. At this crucial point, eternity, the archetypal PAI, reveals itself in time, autonomously, as an a priori dispersive structure, fusing our present with our ever young, through continuous rejuvenations, past.
Pai is a psychological organ deep in the human body; it is a law of human nature which contrives us to perform acts leading to self knowledge; acts of culture. As a 'bordeline phenomenon', its function depends on our connection with the past; its malfunction leads, according to C. Jung, to the destruction of our conscious mind by its unconscious content as we are left, rootless, prone to any external suggestion.
In 1994, I was convinced of the truth of this psychic cornerstone which had led me, then, in spaceless PAI’s  fractal space in Crete, Arcadia, Samothrace and Thebes.
The sacred sites of Greece are the concrete fields of the unreachable concepts of the soul; fascinating self-revealing riddles. Our aim here is to restore the ontological value of our land that belongs to those  'matters of the soul' that drive us out of our skin and lead us to our creative destiny..
This was the time when the foundations of the present project were set. The name PAI was the beginning/ arche of this trial adventure that inspired so many good artists to dedicate their precious works to this cause, creating an international pinacotheque of world reference on the 'Island of the Gods'. They were attracted in the fields of the word Pai, as if by the legendary Heraklia Stone which transmitted its magnetic power to the iron rings of the initiates and they, in turn, transmitted to the others the enthusiasm of the Stone; the Spirit of the age, to which, according to Socrates, poets are first exposed.
"The aeon is a child {pai} playing’, vertical, metaphysical idea, which, passing from spacelessness into the insufficiencies of spacetime, threw our soul from the ‘biological horizon’ into the fields of magic, here, in the Island of the Cabirian Mysteries, where Alexander al Acbar was conceived; the PAI who founded the Hellenistic cornerstone of the present age, where like children, we play with the contents of the culture of all civilizations, of all ages.
As my friend, writer, anthropologist, Vasile Avram, who has departed in the other floor of the world, wrote, in his article “Primordial Space”, referring to Samothrace: “a strange island rising from the sea, like a gigantic granite; sovereign breath of Gaia who looks, in her pieces, for a  place that is ready for a new world beginning”.

We thank all the artists participating in the PAI 2010, EPOFE collection :

Eozen Agopian (Armenia/Grece);Hakan Akcura (Turkey/Stockholm); Giovanni Alfonsetti (Italia); Giorgio Carluccio {Italy}; Constantin Angelou (Grece); Mirek Antoniewicz (Poland), Caterina Arcuri (Italia); Marea Atkinson (Australia); Dimitra Bourouliti (Grece); Natasha Manolidou{Greece}; Esther Burger (Holland); Mandra Cerrone (Italia);Marina Comandini Pazienza (Italia); Daria Cornea (Romania); Giselle Diaz Campagna (Puerto Rico); Filli Cusenza(Italia); Silvia De Gennaro (Italia); Dellavilla (France); Danilo De Mitri (Italia); Giulio De Mitri (Italia); Irene Domingez (France); Alexis Duque (Colombia); Mahnaz Dustikhah (France); Piero Ferroglia (Italia); Fosca (italia);Marie-Pierre Legrand (France); Cinzia Fresia (Italia); Polyxene Kasda (Greece); Hilda Kelekian (Lebanon);Lena Kelekian (Lebanon);Hagop Sulahian (Lebanon); Angelika Korovessi (Grece); Barbara Lichtman (USA); Maria Luisa Imperiali (Italia); Elisa Laraia (Italia);Margherita Levo Rosenberg (Italia); Pam Longobardi (USA); Dario Manco (Italia); Andrea Mattiello (Italia); JB Michaux (France) ; Miron Milio (Croazia), Katerina Mourati (Greece); Juan Negroni (Puerto Rico); Antonis Papantoniou/Vim Viva (Greece); Maria Pesmazoglou (Greece); Kevin Samiento Navarro (Colombia); Gio Sciello (Italia); Angela Spoerl (Germany); Dimitris Strouzakis (Greece); Hagop Sulahian (Lebanon); Georges Syrakis (Greece); Vera Tataro (Tsech Republic); Dev Udaiyan (India/England); Masaki Yada (UK); Eva Vereeva (Latvia);Virginia Videa (Romania); Marilena Vita (Italia); Xene (Egypt/Grece);Marjolein Wortmann (Germania); Gheorghe Zaharia (Romania); Annee Kelly{Australia}; Takis Alexiou {Greece}.

The children participating in the installation dedicated to the return of the storks: 
Achilleas Papantoniou; Odysseas Papantoniou; Joziana Papada, Jason Angelou, Dora Riga, Antonis Panayotis Lampeas e Ayshe-Mira Yashin .
And all the local artists who have exhibited their works all over the Chora of Samothrace. 
http://blip.tv/open-flux/pai-2010-limited-documentation-4234974

http://polyxenekasda.blogspot.com/2010/04/polyxene-kasda-project-myth-network.html

Celestial Fragments in Lecce, Italy

Polyxene Kasda meeting Giovanni Alfonsetti, Dario Manco and Giorgio Carluccio

artists who participated in the PAI 2010 collection, in Samothrace, 

in Primopiano Gallery, Lecce, Italy

in the exhibition Celestial fragments curated by Dores Sacquegna 18? 9/10

There, she also met Angioletta Denitto who had participated in the Gargling Sky 2009 collection, in Crete

Looking for PAI, text by Dores Sacquegna

In 1997, artist and curator Polyxene Kasda wrote a book on PAI which was published in five languages. Katerina Kaltsou, general secretary of the Union of cultural associations of Evros, strongly motivated by this text, started to realize Polyxene’s project, by coordinating the organizational and logistic aspects, thanks to the support of the Periphery of the Region of Evros,  the Municipality of Alexandroupolis and of Samothrace, the Prefecture of Evros...

Pai is an ambitious artistic project and itinerary that has coinvolved primarily three curators Polyxene Kasda, Pierre Chirouze and myself and has sollicited the curiosity of numerous international artists and personalities of culture and media communication.

Most of us ignored the significance of PAI, others had never been to Samothrace and others had never heard of the legend

“Pai” is a Greek word inscribed on sacred and votive utencils in the museum of Palaiopolis in Samothrace and signifies “Child”. In the popular iconography, eternity is represented by an infant with the circle of the zodiac [or a snake] revolving around its body. Heraclites, the Greek philosopher, wrote:” “the aeon is a child playing and tossing {dice}. The kingdom is the child’s".

The legend narrates that the initiates who were exposed to the magnetic field of the Stone of Samothrace, called Heraclia, received its precious magnetism and the power to transmit it, through their iron rings, to the rings of others and so on, creating a long chain of magnetic rings. In this way, we received this transmission of energy. On the level of informatics, we have recreated this chain reaction, through the use of telematic transmission, involving not only the artists, but also potential locations for the evolution of the project: Alexandroupolis, Samothrace, Athens, Patmos and Thebes.. creating a momentum that is about to supercede the European confines.

“The aeon is a child playing” is the light motif of our research and of our presence in Greece where we came to get to know the mythic landscapes from inside, to build an authentic relation with nature, territory, costumes and local rituals, but, also, to confront our ideas and to create new and intriguing synergies

It is a project of interchange, of relations and of confrontation, that has as a mission the reinvocation of the archetype in its spiritual and intellectual dimension; to discover one self.

To search for PAI is not a simple thing. It is like searching for a needle in the straw. It is a retrospect voyage in time, on this subtle thread separating the conscious from the unconscious, entering in an atemporal dimension, in direct contact with our energy, feeling the difference between being and becoming

Pai is our internal time; the authentic dimension of the absolute that makes us gods among gods. From this feedback, we have the possibility to recuperate the antique memory of Pai in a process that leads to our transformation, regeneration and growth.

In its course, globalization has dispersed the memory of the archetype, has elevated temples for consumption and has venerated new myths and symbols of contemporary vanity. In the antique world, astrology has served to read the significance of the stars, the horoscope was used for divination. For us, contemporaries, to search for PAI means to make a leap in the past, to revive antique legends, to question our existence and to understand that the mythography of the future can help us recuperate the memory of our roots and live a better life.

Each of us has left carrying his/her proper luggage of experience, but, the greatest experience was the one of interchange among us all and between us and PAI.

Polyxene has been the means to restore our relation to archetypal memory and from there, to initiate our course; the voyage of this small community of persons, in the mythic landscapes of the Island of the Winds, tasting the food of each location, dancing in the rhythm of Greek music, immersing our body in the Aegean and in the cold, tonifying, waters of the waterfalls, walking and climbing on the rough mountain called Moon while searching for the Gate of the Sun...

All this and so much more, are an integral part of a unique collective experience, which has as a final objective the foundation of a new consciousness and the initiation of another voyage that will lead to the discovery of more deeply mysterious landscapes, in which the stars will show us the way.

a tablecloth with the contour map of Samothrace and a model of the future city by Alessio Scarale

A special thank to all the artists and people that made possible this project.
Dores Sacquegna
Primopianogallery. Lecce

photo Fosca

"Lying on an antique stone, under the full moon, all dressed in white, I was holding my breath while following, a theatrical performance in the House of the Great Gods: The sound of the flute and of an ancient organ with a chord, like an arp, resonated as if stretched in the air, for an interval that seemed to me so short; like all unique emotions"
Fosca {Marcella Fusco}

photo Pierre Chirouze

"In Samothrace, where everything is majestic and solemn, I discovered in nature and in people the mysterious roots legated to my existential experience and the reasons underlying the making of my sculptures".
Giovanni Alfonsetti

photo Fosca

"A fantastic voyage in space and time, rich in perfumes and colours, in which people and nature reminded me of the magic of life.  It was like going back home to see old friends".
Silvia de Gennaro

photo: Hakan Akcura

"My mythical experience: the songs, the sounds, the remnants from the past, the Gate of the Sun transported me among the heroes and the gods: in the island of the goats and Ithaca with Odysseus"
Giorgio Carluccio

AthensArt hosts the PAI collection, 1/9/2010

we met V.Videa and G.Zaharia in front of Zaharia's sculpture

and we spotted several works of the PAI collection among the 260 works of the Athens Art exhibiion

M.Vita and Vim Viva 

The work of Silvia de Gennaro in Technopolis Athens

samothrace PAI 2010, impressions

 "Je me trouve dans un endroit merveilleux!

Un paradis d'eau, ou musique se forme au pied des cataractes qui coulent a travers les veines montagneuses.

 Je me vois, assise sur une roche couleur blanche, tendre comme une peau juvenile.

 A cote de moi, une feuille.

 Le vent qui caresse ma peau et souleve delicatement mes cheveux fins la pousse.

 Elle glisse, comme un enfant qui glisse sur un tobogant.

 Comme l'enfant qui glisse sur son chemin de vie.

 Comme l'adulte, glissant sur ce chemin choisi, qui finalement retrouve l'enfant qui dort en lui.

Une glissade vers les retrouvailles avec soi-meme.

Une glissade vers PAI."    Angeliki Casdas

Once again, the  utmost strength of this very special island enveloped me and showed this how we extract a simple self, how we can pollute it. One side was The Gate of the Sun, the other were the small accounts of human beings. Even among ourselves...   Hakan Akcura 

My mythical experience the songs, the sounds. the remnants of the past...all brought me back to the heroes and the Gods...   Giorgio Carluccio 

to be continued

Samothrace, PAI 2010

 

to be continued...........

PAI 2010- Alexandroupolis-Samothrace 22-27/8/2010

General organization: Katerina Kaltsou, general secretary of the Union of Cultural Associations of Evros, EPOFE

Concept/Project: Polyxene Kasda, IAA, UNESCO

Curators of the international collection PAI 2010 inaugurated on  the 22/8/2010 in the Municipal Center of Samothrace:

Dores Sacquegna, Italy, Polyxene Kasda, Greece, Pierre Chirouze, France

The polycentric echibition of local artists will be held all over the Chora

The Children installation Cicogna, Cicogna come back will be inaugurated on the 23/8/2010

Event under the full moon on the  24/8/2010:

Choreographer Apostolia Papadamaki will dance in the sacred site of Palaiopolis

{special permission from the Greek Ministry of Culture}

performance by violonist Angeliki Casdas 

musical performance by Yannis Voultsidis

museum of Palaiopolis Samothrace

INVITATION PAI 2010

Poetry evening with Mehmet Yashin in the Ethnological museum of Thrace on the 20/8/2010

Participating artists:
Eozen Agopian (Armenia/Grece);Hakan Akcura (Turkey/Stockholm); Giorgio Carluccio{Italy}; Giovanni Alfonsetti (Italia); Constantin Angelou (Grece);Mirek Antoniewicz (Poland), Caterina Arcuri (Italia); Marea Atkinson (Australia); Natasha Manolidou [Greece], Dimitra Bourouliti (Greece); Esther Burger (Holland); Mandra Cerrone (italia);Marina Comandini Pazienza (Italia); Daria Cornea (Romania); Giselle Diaz Campagna (Puerto Rico); Filli Cusenza(Italia); Silvia De Gennaro (Italia); Dellavilla (France); Danilo De Mitri (Italia); Giulio De Mitri (Italia); Irene Domingez (France); Alexis Duque (Colombia); Mahnaz Dustikhah (France); Piero Ferroglia (Italia); Fosca (italia);Marie-Pierre Legrand (France); Cinzia Fresia (Italia); Polyxene Kasda (Grecia); Hilda Kelekian (Lebanon);Lena Kelekian (Lebanon);Hagop Sulahian (Lebanon); Angelika Korovessi (Grece); Barbara Lichtman (USA); Maria Luisa Imperiali (Italia); Elisa Laraia (Italia);Margherita Levo Rosenberg (Italia); Pam Longobardi (USA); Dario Manco (Italia); Andrea Mattiello (Italia); JB Michaux (France) ; Miron Milio (Croazia), Katerina Mourati (Grece); Juan Negroni (Puerto Rico); Antonis Papantoniou/Vim Viva (Grece); Maria Pesmazoglou (Grece); Kevin Samiento Navarro (Colombia); Gio Sciello (Italia); Angela Spoerl (Germany); Dimitris Strouzakis (Grece); Hagop Sulahian (Lebanon); Georges Syrakis (Grece); Vera Tataro (Tsech Republic); Dev Udaiyan (India/England); Masaki Yada (Uk); Eva Vereeva (Latvia);Virginia Videa (Romania); Marilena Vita (italia); Xene (Egypt/Grece);Marjolein Wortmann (Germania); Gheorghe Zaharia (Romania), Annee Kelly {Australia}
Among the  children participating in the collective installation dedicated to the return of the storks: Achilleas Papantoniou; Odysseas Papantoniou; Joziana Papada, Jason Angelou, Dora Riga, Antonis Panayotis Lampeas e Ayshe-Mira Yashin .

Pai 2010 exhibition is under the auspices of:
Ministry of Culture in Greece {Athens Art}
Municipality of Athens {Athens Art}
Region of East Macedonia
Thrace, Prefecture of Evros
Municipalities of Alexandropoli and Samothrace, Evros

ΠΑΙ/ "The eon is a child playing"

Text by Dores Sacquegna
http://www.primopianogallery.com/

“The eon is a child playing” is the title of the exhibition based on the idea of artist -curator Polyxene Kasda, an exhibition that co involves numerous artists, each, pouring his own luggage of experience and particular style into this very profound thematic. The term PAI, in its more ample conception reveals the meaning of time, of the infinite, of the archetype.
PAI is the infinite game and the internal voyage sublimated on the confines of knowledge. It is a dialogue between duallity and equilibrium, between memory and myth.
PAI is birth, innocence, truth, revelation and creativity.
PAI is us, contemporaries, in the moment that we enter in contact with the other and recuperate the essence of life
The work ‘Infinitoy’ of Antonis Papantoniou opens the event and is used, most efficiently, as the symbol of the exhibition
The following works are presented by order of thematic approach:

The Infinite
“Puer Aeternus” is the state of the chrysalis described by C. Jung; the cocoon from which springs the new life. Fosca (Marcella Fusco), who proceeds for years with her research on myth, interprets the concept of the infinite with a child that holds a light; a state of grace that emerges from darkness. The Infinite is also symbolized in the abstract painting of Eozen Agopian and eternity in time in the subtle illustrative work of Daria Cornea.

Game
Game and identity are the central themes in the photographic work of Danilo De Mitri, that represents the mythography of contemporary youth and their love for heroes.
“Facendo le capriole” is the title of the installation by Margherita Levo Rosenberg, that is inspired by this game known to all children who like to see the world upside down. Attracted by the transparency of glass, of silicon and of the radiographic pellicule, the artist’s spectacular installations investigate the complexity of language and analyzes the relation between thinking, speaking, action and emotion..
The power of the archetype and the enigmatic symbolism of Pai pervade the painting of Dev Udaiyan. The work of Constantin Angelou represents a child’s toy train with minimal elements in black and white. In his enigmatic painting Alexix Duque distorts the elements and reverses the meaning, while, the object becomes bigger than the subject.  Dimitris Strouzakis plays in the interspace between the ludic and the cosmic world; sand is the first tactile material with which children play and build castles, the sphere represents the balloon but also the earth. Marie-Pierre Legrand plays with the fable of Pinocchio by reversing the significance as the puppet escapes from the strings that tie it to its maker.The illustration of Kevin Sarmiento Navarro is just one phase cought out of his continuous game of tranformations. On love games the naif painting by Irene Dominguez.

Birth
The research of Andrea Mattiello, Caterina Arcuri e Juan Negroni is centred on the theme of birth. The first realizes a series of foetuses in an installation composed of 16 pieces. Caterina concentrates on the placenta, organ of exchange between mother and child. Juan, illustrates love towards the newborn

Archetype and myth
The “archetype of Pai” of Gio Sciello reminds a runic alphabet inscription. Filli Cusenza, presents the “Matrix Natura”, a cloth bearing the iconographic popular representation of the child that is born from a lotus flower in direct connection with Botticelli’s Venus
The myth of the infant Goddess is the theme of the bronze sculpture of Giovanni Alfonsetti. The Child- fighter is the theme of the multimedia sculpture of Giorgio Carluccio and of the captive illustration by Marina Comandini, wife of the unforgettable fumettist Andrea Pazienza.
The site specific installation, which was realized in Samothrace by Pam Longobardi, deals with the relation between man, nature and the artificial materials of mass culture and is dedicated to Nike.
On duality and on the integrative power of the archetype the works of Maria Pesmazoglou and of Katerina Mourati.
Strongly symbolic the totem of Gheorghe Zaharia, as well as his parallel games on paper that bring to mind the legend of the magnetic transmission of the Herakleia Stone of Samothrace to the iron rings of the initiates.
The dialogue betwen life and death is present in the work of Miron Milio. On the popular iconography of religion the work of Marjolein Wortmann, that represents the madonna wearing an apron while holding her child. On the enigmatic bottom of the sea of Samothrace, the work of Georges Syrakis.

Infancy and innocence
La “Scatola del sogno infranto” is the title of Silvia De Gennaro’s installation, a visual game, an open possibility to see the visible otherwise. La fine dell’ incanto; the dream enclosed in a box, the children playing with the moon and then eating the moon; an enigmatic work that provokes strange feelings..
Spirituality and innocence are found in the work of Dario Manco where the white background accentuates the central renaissance perspective; our attention is focused on the physiognomic features of the individual rather than on the representation of emotions, while recurring in the essentials of form and space.
Marvel and stupor are expressed in the photographic work of Cinzia Fresia. The coronation of the Child is depicted in the aquarelle painting by Annee Kelly.
The orphan child, is one of the legated features in the symbology of Pai and is successfully represented in the expressive painting by Mirek Antoniewicz.
JB Michaux deals with the same theme in his ink drawing. Infancy and infinite imagination is the content of the work “In the garden” of Dellavilla; a return to the popular oriental iconography.
Dimitra Bourouliti’s silk thread mythic embroiderie on pure silk, accentuate the continuity of her family tradition in silk making in Soufli of Evros
Natasha Manolidou realizes a naive theatrical clay installation representing the mother washing her child.
In Hakan Akcura’s art- video “Look what beautiful seashells” we are treading on the thread stretched between antinomies, as we are listening to an extraordinary dialogue over a child’s innocent sleep: about the very dark side of the world or just about beauty
Another interesting video is that of Giselle Diaz Campagna, who gets her inspiration from nature, chaos and survival in the human condition. On her childhood memories of fairy tales the painting by Mahnaz Dustikhah.

Voyage and knowledge
For Giulio De Mitri, the voyage is spiritual and represents the correspondence between the world of the living and the other world. The sea is a symbol of memory and vehicule of knowledge.
Elisa Laraia’s video “Zefiro” treats of the voyage in the dream dimension, where the child traverses an atemporal space in which it encounters real life objects. A dialogue between a child and an extraterrestrial is depicted in the affective illustration by Vera Tataro

Dualism and equilibrium
On “the infant that is in you” the photographic work of Mandra Cerrone and Marilena Vita’s double reflection of the child-adult
On equilibrium and balance with universal connotations the work of Aggelika Korovessi.

Time and memory
On the visual cannibalism that characterizes contemporary society, the multimedia sculpture “Give me food for my brain” of Maria Luisa Imperiali.
On nostalgia and memory of lost things the pictorial work of Masaki Yada.
The head of a child that reminds an ancient piece of sculpture is the work of Angela Spoerl.

Creative writing
The composition of elements and symbols dedicated to PAI in the beautiful digital installation Doodling of Polyxene Kasda is spectacular.
Visual poetry shapes the work of Esther Burger

Ecosystem and universe
On the four elements, the ecosystem and time the pictorial installation of Piero Ferroglia and on the mythical universe the digital work of Marea Atkinson. A more abstract approach to the theme characterizes the colourful works of Eva Vereeva, Hagop Sulahian, Lena and Hilda Kelekian. On the relation of man and animal nature the painting of Barbara Lichtman
The return of the storks, is the thematic of Virginia Videa’s painting and is also the theme on which Achilleas Papantoniou, Odysseas Papantoniou, Joziana Papada, Jason Angelou, Ayshe-Mira Yashin, Dora Riga, Antonis Panayotis Lampeas children of two to seven years old have worked with a series of drawings of a particular graphic effect

And finally, Takis Alexiou, who has organized the Athens Art exhibition in Technopolis, which hosted our collection PAI in Athens Technopolis, has offered to EPOFE two art- prints with the title the Egyptian. .

Free translation from Italian language

PAI 2010 in Patmos 8/8/10

While our preparations are going on for the PAI 2010 cultural events 

 in Alexandroupolis 19-21/8, Samothrace 21-27/8, Bulgaria 27-29/8 and Athensart international 1-15/9,

the PAI events, in Patmos, the island of the Apocalypse,  are on

confronted with G.Papa's sculpture

Snapshot from the  exhibition PAI 2010 in Patmos with works by

Erwin, Corine, Carolyn and Giannis

http://mpvisualarts.wordpress.com/