Exhibition: Immortal Love or Ode to the Past

Rania Bellou

Immortal Love or Ode to the Past

Past

22 February – 14 April 2018

11 Haritos Street, Kolonaki

Venue

KALFAYAN GALLERIES | ATHENS

11 Haritos Street
106 75 Kolonaki
Athens

Press Release

Link

Kalfayan Galleries are pleased to announce Rania Bellou’s fourth solo show ‘Immortal Love or Ode to the Past’ at Kalfayan Galleries, Athens. Theexhibition opens on Thursday, 22 February 2018, 19.00-22.00.‘Immortal Love or Ode to the Past,’ consists of a group of drawings created over the past two years. Their genesis is a diary found by Bellou at anopen-air market in Athens. Covering the period from 28th May 1945 to 16th February 1952, the diary’s author, P. Stais, recorded not only histhoughts, feelings, desires and dreams, but also several love poems. The diary was mostly written in Greek, with some passages in English, andwas dedicated to his childhood sweetheart Martha, from whom he had been apart for thirty-five years after the Asia Minor disaster. There was evena poem which was written in Smyrna in 1919. The old handmade diary was leather-bound in a hardback copy, with a hand-drawn painting of theAcropolis on the cover.The title of the exhibition, ‘Immortal Love or Ode to the Past’, refers to one of the diary’s poems that bears the same name.

The writer composed thepoem in anticipation of the day of being reunited with his dearly loved. The vivid presence of the author’s beloved in his mind was empowered by hisfeelings of loss, and by his persistence in seeking her. Examining the writing, Bellou felt as if the author was holding onto images of his youth,eulogising the present. “Writings often act as proof of narratives through which we are told of a past that is not repeatable, but is reportable,narratives that spiral backwards and inwards into a life’s interior.” An old photograph or a handwritten passage by a long-dead stranger can createa profound personal connection, as we explore who we are now through the past lives of others.Setting herself the task of recreating the world of P. Stais, visualising the events, characters and moments of his life story, Bellou reimagined theseinstants, bringing them to life in a series of technically refined drawings that capture moments in time around 1910-1920 in Smyrna (Ismir), as wellas around 1940-1950 in Athens.During all stages of Bellou’s career, her practice has been based on a rigorous exploration of drawing. Culled from archival sources, the artist’s newdrawing compositions, spectral and fragmentary, range from landscapes to sui generis portraits. With exquisite delicacy and detail through the useof graphite pencil on a new palette of colourful tissue paper, the artist sculpts the light and plays with the translucency of the material, creating anuncanny blend of realism and abstraction. Bellou becomes the new author, allowing personal feelings and memories to intrude and inform thefictional narrative, commenting on the inherent desire we all have to rewrite our and other people’s stories.‘Be your Freedom and Build your own Kingdom, 2017’ is a large-scale drawing on a collage of colourful stripes of paper pointing to a scene takenfrom an open air market in Smyrna. Similarly, ‘Climbing up the Acropolis “I” & “III”, contain architectural traces of Athens’ historic centre – their titlereferring to one of Stais’ poems. The second drawing of the series, ‘Climbing up the Acropolis, 2017,’ with its vibrant shades of blue and sharpparallel lines, reminding us of a flag, juxtaposes with the in-love couple walking inside the Parthenon.Bellou’s artworks on paper often take the form of a book.

The exhibited drawings are accompanied by ‘Immortal Love or Ode to the Past’ 2016, anunique artist’s book composed of thirty individual drawings on a collage of colourful tissue paper. Across the room, a related video projection depictsa viewer leafing through the artwork and allows the visitor to discover its intriguing content. The viewer witnesses a moment where present and pastlife collide; interweaving memories whilst preserving a loving impulse. The voice of the narrator gradually becomes memory before it happens; it isthus an echo before it becomes a voice, a narrative before it becomes reality.

Artists

Rania Bellou

Rania Bellou (b. 1982, Thessaloniki, Greece) lives and works between Athens (Greece) and London (UK). She graduated from Central SaintMartins College of Art and Design in London in Scenography (M.A.) and from the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki,Greece. In 2012 she was a resident at the Royal College of Art Sculpture (London), studio 60: RCA (Richard Wentworth). Bellou was a finalist of theYoung Mediterranean Artistic Scene Prize in 2014. She has been awarded a Scholarship by the Onassis Foundation for the period 2012-2013 andin 2008 she won the 1st Prize of the Jiannis and Zoe Spyropoulos Foundation. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and art festivals inGreece and abroad, such as in Russia, Switzerland, USA, Mexico and the UK. Recent solo shows include: Kalfayan Galleries, Athens (2018);Taymour Grahne, New York (2015); Action Field Kodra, Thessaloniki; Kalfayan Galleries, Athens (all 2014); Europe House, London (2012);Kalfayan Galleries, Athens (2011); Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki (2009). Recent group shows include: National Art Museum of China, Beijing(2017), Vorres Museum, Athens (2017); Megaron, Athens (2017); Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia (2017); Contemporary Greek ArtInstitute, Athens (2016); Contemporary Greek Art Institute, Athens; Erotimatiko? (group show of the finalists of the Young Mediterranean ArtisticScene Prize), organized by HYAM, Artcurial, Paris (all 2016); Anatallaxima, Mytilini, Greece; Re-Culture III Patra, Greece; Centre for ContemporaryArt, Thessaloniki (all 2014); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2013); III Moscow Biennale for Young Artists (2012); Ex-TeresaMuseum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City; National School for the Arts, Mexico City (all 2011); II Moscow International Biennale for Young Art;LUCCADigitalPHOTOFest, Lucca, Italy; Skironio Museum Polychronopoulos, Greece (all 2010). In 2009 she exhibited at the ‘Summer Exhibition’ ofThe Royal Academy of Arts in London, at the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennial of Contemporary Art (Exhibition: ‘1001+1 Praxis’). Rania Bellou isrepresented by Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki.

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