13 Mar 2011

'das Manihesto' by the DaDa Da Academy at State Museum of Contemporary Art

The State Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting the exhibition 'das Manihesto' by the DaDa Da Academy, in its recently established Project Room which has been operating in the Moni Lazariston premises. The exhibition will be opened in March 16 and will run up to April 24, 2011.

The exhibition, which brings together the artists Albert Mayr, Panos Papadopoulos, Elisabeth Penker, Petros Touloudis and Marina Faust, consists of mixed media installations, sound performances and videos that are in dialogue with each other to undermine the conventions in art, to criticize our artificial culture and bring into conflict concepts and ideals, such as those of aesthetics, deconstruction, identity and power. Along with the exhibition in the Project Room of the SMCA, some sound pieces will interfere in the Museum's spaces, while during the opening (Wednesday, March 16 at 20:30) impromptu and interactive performances will be presented.

DaDa Da Academy is a travelling Academy with a strong amount of artistic freedom, consisting mainly by artists of the Viennese avant-garde scene. The group's foremost characteristics are improvisation, interactivity, and a flair of the unexpected. The founding members (Panos Papadopoulos and Elisabeth Penker) give the baseline and keep the pace, leaving enough space for experimentation and initiatives from other artists incorporated in the group each time. The works which result reflect their autonomy and their ironic attitude towards the established order of things, demonstrating vivid elements of sophisticated criticism, caustic sarcasm and intense irrationality. Their arbitrary language explores the different possibilities of the indefinite and elicits irreconcilably contradictory meanings.

Curated by: Eirini Papakonstantinou, Art Historian –SMCA Curator