19th GLOBART ACADEMY
DANAE STRATOU
IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES!
museumkrems, Körnermarkt 14, 3500 Krems
September 9th October
26th 2016
During the 19th GLOBART ACADEMY the Greek artist Danae Stratou will present her multimedia installation “IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES!“ in museumkrems .
The vernissage will take place on the 8th of September at 6 pm. Danae Stratou and her husband, the former Minister of Finances of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, will be speaking at the event. Greece, Austria, Europe – the world is in a multiple crisis – economically, socially, politically. IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES!
This art project was a reaction to such a prospect. Distanced from traditional commercial practices, the art project aspired to undercut its own costs, to give voice to and to assist materially as many as people possible, to help attain a deeper understanding of our collective predicament, to empower a joint response to the paralysis that is causing us to ‘freeze up’. The project activated a dialogue constituting, in itself, a collective response to our multifaceted predicament. By opening the ‘Black Boxes’ we symbolically bring to light the words that reflect what threatens us the most, or that which we are desperately eager to preserve.
The installation comprises 100 black boxes geometrically positioned on the floor. The boxes were custom made out of thick black aluminium sheet metal. They are positioned on the floor equidistant from another, so as to form a rectangular grid covering an area of 100m2 situated at the centre of the gallery. The boxes’ lids are open at an angle. Inside each box a black screen is positioned at a 450 degree angle in relation to the floor. The boxes are surfaced with translucent mirrors, thus creating the illusion that they are filled to the rim with a liquid substance and that the screens within them are submerged in polluted water akin to an oil slick.
Upon entering the exhibition space the viewer is confronted by a mixture of sounds such as beeps, heart beats, explosions and flatlines. As one approaches and walks through the installation it becomes apparent that the screens inside the boxes are displaying words and numbers. Each word appears for a few seconds before being replaced by either a countdown or a countup (depending on the word). As the numbers race (down toward zero or up to a specially chosen limit), their pace, style and accompanying sounds resemble a ticking bomb. When the countdown, or count, reaches its climax, each box emits the sound of either an explosion or a flatline. These sounds are designed so as to intensify the sensation of tension, crisis, and alarm.
After the first presentation in Greece Danae Stratou is starting her global art project in an exhibition in museumkrems organized bz GLOBATE. The artist visualizes termini such as Family, Democracy, Immigration, Human Dignity, TTIP, Water, Respect and Populism, that were determined by GLOBART through an Austria wide survey. These answers represent the values that the Austrian population wants to conserve and what it is most afraid of.
Danae Stratou is an installation artist in Athens. Stratou represented her homeland in many Biennales in form of art comprised of digital, audiovisual and architectural components. Her work has already been shown in exhibitions in Venice, Valencia, Sevilla, Istanbul, Gyumri and Adelaide, among others. In 2010 she founded the NGO Vital Space, a global, interdisciplinary art platform that tackles current global problems. Through her marriage with the former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis she offers an artistic as well as a political perspective on the current crisis. Together the couple aims to connect these worlds and dismantle the borders between politics and art.
GLOBART is a vivid alliance between art, science and economy. this year’s GLOBART ACADEMY – a thinking studio for issues of the future is taking place under the title „Realities?” from the 22nd to the 25th of September 2016 in Kloster UND in Krems.
Press Information
Prof. Heidemarie Dobner
+43 676 428 17 28
heidemarie.dobner@globart.at
www.globart.at
A1010
Wien ~ Goldschmiedgasse 10/3/3 ~ Tel +43 1 534 62 87 ~ Mobil +43 676 428 17 28 ~ info@globart.at ~ www.globart.at
ZVR: 183905024
A1010
Wien ~ Goldschmiedgasse 10/3/3 ~ Tel +43 1 534 62 87 ~ Mobil +43 676 428 17 28 ~ info@globart.at ~ www.globart.at
ZVR: 183905024