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Exhibition in Zen Center Athens 2015
Works by Christoph Ziegler & Loukia Richards
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An ephemeral exhibition on the charm of everyday life at the lobby of Zen Center Athens
“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” The phrase belongs to Zen. It can however also explain the reason that artists Christoph Ziegler and Loukia Richards decided to present their work inspired by the perpetual switching of creation and nothingness, for a few days at the entrance of a Bauhaus building, home to Zen Center Athens at Monastiraki.
The two artists who are working in Hamburg, Berlin and Athens, transform public spaces into ephemeral gallerys – stairways & entrances, railway wagons on the go, temporary structures made of recycable materials in squares or parks etc. – allowing the viewer to become a part of & determine with his own presence the visual composition. The lights and sounds of the street, traffic and comments of passersby, architectural details of the building and live performances complement the actions of the two artists.
Careful observation of everyday life is part of the artists work, who detect the charm of trivial expressions in long walks within the urban fabric. This expresses itself in the huge spiral tapestry of Richards that the artist makes from junk by crochet, but also in the “ritual Moebling” with objects of everyday use – stools, brushes and brooms, socks and towels – of Ziegler, a kind of shadowboxing against ghosts of his house.
Most of the work in the exhibition was born in Greece in the difficult summer of 2015, like compositions with landscape, city and parts of ancient Greek temples that the intensity of the crisis crushes in cubic equilibria and harmony. Graphic and photographic psychograms of internal and external landscapes, Ziegler calls the monotypes with India ink, graffiti markers and impromptu plastic seals. The “Cyclopean” of Richards represent the nebulae in the vortex of the galaxy and attempt to connect the modern man with the universe through the creative use of consumer waste. Humor is used in the approach of both artists work and also obvious is the effect of martial arts and yoga on their thinking and actions. Life and art are one, an endless space without containment in perpetual motion and evolution, both the artists say with their work.
Zen Center Athens is a non-profit organization aiming to promote the meditative school of Buddhism, called Zen. The enlightenment brought about by practising Zen helps in recognising the unity of ourself with the universe. Zen Center Athens is a teaching space of Eastern philosophy practices (meditation, martial arts, yoga) relating to all aspects of human life and affecting the development of the individual through the development of self-awareness and self-discipline.
We'd like to thank Zen Center for this cooperation!
WHERE: Zen Center Athens, Libona 2 and Vasilikis St. Agia Irini Square, Monastiraki.
WHEN: Opening December 17, 18.00 – 22.00. 18-20 of December, 17.00 – 22.00.
