Thirst Performance

Thirst Performance – September 30, 2011
Idea: Eugene Ankomah, Aristi Costopoulou, Katerina Fanouraki, Keti Haliori
Performer: Eugene Ankomah, Katerina Fanouraki
Curator: Aristi Costopoulou

The anxiety about the prospect of thirst is recorded through two performances, themed our utopian attitude towards water and our desperate efforts management and pumping it from the exhausted nature.

Two performances titled Ilissos and Thirst performed by artists Eugene Ankomah and Katerina Fanouraki and hosted the Art Space gallery on September 30, 2011 under the general title THIRST.

The exhibition was combined with the participation of World Water Museum in two international conferences on water (mentioned below).

EXHIBITION CONCEPT: THIRST (ΔΙΨΑ)

The show marks the status of the human body in the extreme probability of complete water lack, while averting from the painful direction of its title. Through this questions emerge, on the rationale for the devising and evolving civilizations that rely totally on water’s exhausted use. Could we develop civilizations without or with minimal need of water? How would the prevailing culture seem?

Gradually artists reveal an interest on the holistic approach of the water availability, that we are used to consider for granted. In a live installation show, the most representative mechanisms that push the human body to its limits can reflect.

In contemporary art, performances are among the aesthetic evolutions of conceptual and installation art movements. The materials used in THIRST like the action, the performers’ cultural contradictions, movements, rhythm and sounds are complementary. The industrial materials of today’s culture indicate the underlying reason. The heart though is in the merging of the Western plethora with the African utopia icons, through unsettled and unconscious exchanges of self destruction and regeneration acts. The work underlines the degree of dependency between continents, on the issue of water.

The artists approach fragile and fine senses, further down they analyze them carefully to assist the public assimilate the ideas, after the end of the performance. Like indicating: “what you see is an allusion or a clue of what I am trying to show, without using materials other than my body”.

Τhe challenge here is why World Water Museum installation uses this visual expression. Firstly a live medium referring to a topic like “THIRST” (a sensation known to be felt by live organisms only) is powerful. Moreover both situations, the performance work and the draught, have as common place the unpredictable borderlines.

The performance Thirst is carried along with the participation of World Water Museum in two international symposia. Engineers, academics, environmental planners, filmmakers, artists and decision makers contribute with innovative ways aiming to assist with a common sense on the water challenges. Worldwide community identifies the social challenges of today’s related to water and addresses the environmental issues on a holistic approach, having water as focal point. Analyzing the World Water Museum installation, volunteerism and the environment are the main challenges and the fundamental principle that there is an ecumenical natural heritage. Are we prepared to protect it?

The three artists Katerina Fanouraki, Eugene Ankomah and Keti Haliori utilize transcendentally their works to describe the beginning of an obviously wild environmental evolution, through the subverting language of contemporary art.

Aristi Costopoulou
curator