ON THE BREADLINE

K-Gold Temporary Gallery

K-Gold Temporary Gallery is a nomadic platform for contemporary art that was founded in 2014 in the Greek island of Lesvos by Nicolas Vamvouklis It focuses on collaborative approaches to cultural production within its locality and beyond by activating alternative spaces and offering artists and curators the opportunity to expand their research and practice through art commissions, exhibitions, performances, educational programmes and other artistic projects that strongly connect communities. K-Gold Temporary Gallery, beside its activities in Lesvos, collaborates with cultural institutions in Greece and abroad, while in 2015 it received a distinction as Innovative European Citizen Initiative by Nantes Creative Generations.

Kallitexnimata Choir

“Kallitexnimata” choir is one of the most eminent choirs in Greece. It is a member of the Union of Choirs of Greece, of the House of Hellenic Choirs and of the international choir Interkultur. The Choir “Kallitexnimata” is consist of two departments, children department from 8 up to 17 years old and women department from 18 years and over. The members of the choir are trained in the polyphonic choral song according to the basic principles of the Kodaly system. The choir took part in many important cultural events in her country and in other European countries. In July 2017 the women department took part in the International Choir Competition Open Competition, organized by Intercultur in Riga, Latvia and she won the bronze medal. In October 2018 she took part in the Choral Festival and Competition Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, Italy, representing Greece, where she won the bronze medal.
Maria Michalopoulou is the director of the choir since its foundation. She is the director of the music publishing company Kallitexnimata, piano teacher, conductor, music educator and author of music and pedagogical books.

Athens Performances

73:19

I decided to trace my breadline right in front of the Faculty of Architecture: the Polytechnic, the place where students protested in 1973 asking for education rights and freedom. I was there at 6 am, a simple and silent action, covered with flour the entrance of the University. I wondered a lot about what the revolt of ’73 left: a closed gate that no one can force anymore, after the irruption of the tanks of the colonels regime that made a slaughter. I tried to trace that time frame that it has brought up to today, passing over – symbolically with a repetitive gesture – also to the crisis that began in 2008. The black asphalt was tinged with white. The flour deleted and at the same time highlighed a physical figure. The bodies do not always need words: it is the presence in the public space, in the squares, in the streets that becomes uncomfortable. The memory remains attached like powdered flour that does not go away …

SOKRATIS

Football unites people, separates and brings them together. Every national team has its own shirt. I choose the one of the captain of Greece, Sokratis for a face-to-face duel with Europe. I tried – under the blazing sun over the Acropolis at noon – to play it wearing the clothes of the Greek national team. A match between Greece and Europe, played with the sound of the ball on a wall of the city covered by graffiti and where i draw the European flag – that has my body’s size. The concrete’s wall is hard, it doesn’t fluctuates in the wind as is appropriate.
Sokratis is a defender but in this case roles doesn’t count and they reverse between attack and defense. The ball slams against the wall, an exchange of words in the silence of the firee match between Sokratis and cemented, lapidary Europe.