Project Grandmothers, by Mariana Ziku, North Greece

Grandmothers

Girls who lived in the villages of Epirus made in the middle of the 20th century ravishing artifacts. Now in 2009 I met them as grandmothers in the same villages. They kept their handmade rugs (kilimia) in chests (baoula). I asked them to choose one “kilimi” and narrate whatever they wanted about it and about their lifes.
Handicrafts represent a wide and prominent category of material cultures. The weaving textures, the patterns, the stuff and the fiber colors of a rug, may testify the place from which it comes from, comprising this way features and other informations of cultural identities. As in every artifact that follows a long life tradition, the traditional handicraft is a work closely related with the place where it were made and the people who made it.
The weaving art is a universal expression of human civilization. Every culture adjust this craft in their natural and social reality. Geophysical elements as climate and time or social elements as morals, religion and economy, have their traces in artifacts of material culture like rugs.
In the county region of Ioannina there are many villages with tradition in woolen weft-knitted, made by women. Knitting and broidery were a womanly domestic work for every age, used also as pastime. Women that lived in traditional societies weaved to decorate their houses, made clothes and worked the loom.
In modern societies these needs of cloth wear and house decoration are supplied by the industry. However the girls in the villages who used to weave and knit, kept on living. They became grandmothers…


As in ancient times people used to imagine and name constellations in the sky map, I imagined on the earth map one constellation, in which every star represents the village of every grandmother I met. I named this constellation “Grandmothers” (Yayathes).

The idea of the “Grandmothers Constellation” started as sensitization act for the elderly people, for the city-counties which gradually get desolated and for a traditional craft which fades in time. The grandmothers I met talked with passion and humour about their lifes and showed with proud their artworks. They moved me really deep and I wish the Constellation of Grandmothers will grow continuously and bring to light unique stories and artworks.

Mariana Ziku, 10th of July 2009,
Ioannina

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Posted by Poly Kasda

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Posted by Constantine Angelou

Constantine Angelou

Constantine Angelou was born in Athens in 1973.
He studied painting, sculpture and digital technology at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He also specializes in industrial design, which is critical for his artwork. In 2003, he received honorable mention from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation.

From 2002 to 2005 he was the New Product Design Manager for the Cultural Olympiad Institution established by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

Starting in 2006 he begins to write articles, give lectures and participate in round table discussions on topics concerning the relationship between artistic work and social reality and on the possibilities and conditions for free artistic expression in the contemporary age.

That same year, he founded the Independent Artists Network which is a virtual artist’s community exhibiting in Greece and abroad (Syria, Italy, etc…) as well as a cultural network called ARTOOTH. In 2007, along with his associate Poly Kasda, he organized a telecommunication art project called “Miorita, Melusina and the Sphinx” to be showcased in Greece, Luxemburg and Romania simultaneously, for the European Capital of Culture.

The artist is involved in areas such as structure design, dark room installations, digital installations, painting and sculpture. Areas of his main artistic interests are perception, complex models and the elemental representation of thought.

He is a member of the IAA UNESCO and curator of international events of the artistic association Artooth in Athens. Selected works can be found at the Eleftherios Venizelos airport and at the Kato Patissia subway station in Athens.

Mariana Ziku

Mariana Ziku studied Fine Arts and Art Sciences in the University of Ioannina. She attends now her Master in Art History/Theory and Curating. She is a musician and master of piano diploma and classical harmony.

Mariana made the music composition of local theatrical shows that toured over Greece and performs rock and alternative concerts in many stages. She also use to perform in theatrical plays.

She attended three international programs and worked on anthropological issues, comparative folklore studies and voluntarism in the cultural sector in Europe.

Mariana is interested in image and text relations, sound in the artistic context, in narrativity and the concept of myth.
She lived her childhood in Germany. Now she lives in the city of Ioannina.

Mariana's blog

Quo vadis Universe?

UDAIYAN, Aditi and Urania's Gardens

In these times of cosmic struggle we harken back to that ancient enigma: The birth of the celestial bodies by the boundless mothergoddess: Aditi. This time however, the celestial Creatrix has beengiven an insight into our reality and bloodstained paradigm.
All the planets are aligned with the cosmic Om, from all aspects andtraditions. Aditi has become the tree bearing fruit, showing us thefragile stability in our precarious existence. Staring eyes implore usto act - yet we are helpless and have surrendered to the inevitabilityof it all.
Pain, desecration and the futility of the celestial waltz is beingplayed out in our minds. She is waiting for us to ask her for thefirst dance, but we are hesitant still. Beyond Aditi lies "TheNothing" that once tried to claim us but cannot do so again.
The green garden of Ourania, the Muse of Astronomy has beentransformed in my mind to become a Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Symbols,links, directions and hints appear before our eyes to reveal a riddleand a paradox. We know where we need to go and what we need tobecome. We think we are ready but are we true to the truth. Will ourfidelity hold sway and will our intentions remain sound. Will webecome the rock that the universe binds to?
There was once a thought - a moment so silent where we could heareveryone's heartbeat as a whisper through time. Then the calamitousseizure took hold and all beings separated to form their own beats toa different drum. I cast myself back through time, to exist where alltime became one and all moment coincided. Aditi saw me too as avisitor through her reality and offered me a gift. The prophesy ofhope eclipsing the finality.

Posted by Udayan: http://udaiyan.nofear.org/blog