SOIL HORIZON
ALMA BERROW, ALICJA BIALA, NIKOS CHANDOLIAS (FMDB), AYLA DMYTERKO, FUTUREFARMERS, HYPERCOMF, RINDON JOHNSON, PIA ORTUÑO, PAKY VLASSOPOULOU
Kastro, Sifnos
15 - 30 June, 2024
EXHIBITION
SIFNOS
The island’s rich clay veins have made it the capital of pottery in Greece, which it supplied with functional ceramics for centuries. Traditional Sifniot food is baked in these same terracotta vessels, contributing to the development of a rich gastronomic tradition that continues with fervour to this day.
Mined for its gold, silver and lead since the 3rd millennium BCE, Sifnos was a wealthy island throughout antiquity and one of the first islands to mint coins. Its mines were eventually obliterated by floods as they had been dug below sea level, and some legends suggest that its downfall was due to the wrath of the Gods.
Sifniots have recently restored ancient trails paved by farmers and miners, with part of the island being incorporated in the Natura network, and a new botanical trail to protect Sifnos’ threatened habitat of endemic flora and fauna.
THEME: LAND & FOOD SECURITY
Hypercomf, Film Seed Festival, 2022.
Soil Horizon unpacks the relationship between land and food. It examines the fragility of land against the backdrop of overdevelopment and its causal correlation to food security, cyclical economy, biodiversity and the long-term sustainability of local agriculture.
Futurefarmers, Flatbread Society – Seed Ceremony, 2018.
ARTISTS
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Alma Berrow's (b.1992) practice re-investigates the genre of still-life through a portrayal of contemporary taboos and zeitgeist revealed by the ubiquitous pocket litter left behind. Berrow succeeds in her ability to transform ordinary objects into art pieces that are both humorous and other-worldly beautiful. Berrow lives and works in London and holds a BA in Art and Textiles from Falmouth University. She has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, including ‘IRL: In Real Life’ at Timothy Taylor (2021); ‘Cracked’ at Tristan Hoare Gallery (2021); ‘No More Than Five’ at Lamb Gallery (2022); ‘Smooth Snailing’ at Sapling Gallery (2023); and ‘Seeing Red’ at Phillips (2024).
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Alicja Biała is a Polish artist working across media and scales. Biala initially gained attention with her large scale public paintings, followed by her politically charged Cut-Out series. She has since worked across scales, ranging from architectural sculptures, large interior sculptural lighting, etchings, paintings, and more. Her work incorporates a mixture of pagan themes that bring the political and personal spheres of contemporary life into close proximity. She has received widespread press, multiple awards, and is in numerous private and national collections. She graduated from The Royal Drawing School and holds a Master degree from The Royal College in London.
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Nikos Chandolias (FMDB) is an Athens-based artist and artisan baker who uses dough as a sculptural material. Melding traditional and new methodologies, Chandolias experiments with contemporary heirloom ingredients, flavours, and designs to create installations, sculptures, tapestries and edible garments with sourdough. With a background in interactive art and performative installation, his practice sits at the intersection of computer science, food and sculpture. Chandolias employs the slow analog process of sourdough fermentation and bread-making to combat the dwindling interest in the food we eat, where it comes from, and how our food choices impact the world around us.
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Ayla Dmyterko is a Ukrainian-Canadian artist currently based in the UK. She received her BFA in Painting from Concordia University in Montréal, her MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and was the recipient of the Glasgow Sculpture Studios’ Graduate Fellowship. Her painting practice locates vestiges of freedom in archival silence and expanded fields; at times involving assemblage, moving image, dance, textiles and texts. Interweaving lived experience and diasporic imaginaries, she sheds light on parallel histories of possession and dispossession of lands, bodies and skies. Dmyterko has exhibited and screened her work internationally at institutes, galleries and artist-run spaces including the ICA London (UK), CCA Glasgow (UK), David Dale Gallery (UK), Alchemy Film Festival (UK), London Short Film Festival (UK), VITRINE (CH), Zalucky Contemporary (CA), Alma Pearl (UK), Pangée (CA), Goethe Institut (UK) and the Art Gallery of Regina (CA). Her practice has been generously supported through numerous awards, press, residency invitations and is included in both private and national collections. She has spoken about her work extensively through international publications, interviews, teaching engagements and artist talks.
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Futurefarmers (f. 1995) is a design studio, comprising a group of diverse creative practitioners aligned through an interest in making work that is relevant to the time and place surrounding us. The studio, made up of artists, designers, architects, anthropologists, writers, computer programmers and farmers with a common interest in creating frameworks for exchange that catalyse moments of "not knowing," is a platform for art projects and residency programmes. Futurefarmers deconstruct systems such as food policies, public transportation, campus design and rural farming networks to visualise them, understand their intrinsic logic, and initiate social change. Futurefarmers have published: “A Variation on Powers of Ten,” Sternberg Press, 2012; and “For Want of a Nail,” MIT Press, 2018. They have exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim, 2010, Museum of Modern Art, 2008, Walker Art Center, 2009, and Whitney Museum of American Art, Biennial 2000 (USA), Sharjah Biennale, 2017 (UAE), Taipei Biennale, 2018 (TW).
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Hypercomf (est. 2017 by artists Paola Palavidi and Ioannis Koliopoulos) is a multidisciplinary speculative design identity, based on Tinos island, Greece. Structured around dynamic narratives that feature both organic and inorganic protagonists, Hypercomf’s practice explores the relationship between nature and culture, domestication, industry and science. These processes foster community engagement and interdisciplinary collaborations, and become manifested as space activations, open celebrations, multimedia artworks and sustainable design prototypes and objects. Recent projects and collaborations include “Pytheas Travels” (2023), “Film Seed Festival” (2022), “Marine Caves” and “Benthic Terrazzo” (2020-’22), “Anthemis” and “Biosentinel Services” (2021). Hypercomf have been awarded the Allianz Foundation Fellowship (2023-24), the SNFPHI Fellowship at Columbia University (2020); residencies with the S+T+ARTS EU Commission program (2022) and Pioneer Works, NYC (2019); and a Fulbright Research Scholar Fellowship (2019-’20). They have exhibited widely, including at Laboral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón; GfZK Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; Ars Electronica, Linz; Sea Art Festival, Busan; Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels; and the 7th Athens Biennale.
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Rindon Johnson is an artist and poet. He has based his work in language. Johnson has presented solo exhibitions at Albertinum (Dresden), Chisenhale Gallery (London), Julia Stoschek Collection (Düsseldorf) and SculptureCenter (Long Island City). Johnson has participated in group exhibitions at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum, Kunstverein Freiburg, Hammer Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, Literaturhaus Berlin, HeK (House of electronic Arts Basel), among others. He is the author of Nobody Sleeps Better Than White People (Inpatient, 2016), the VR book, Meet in the Corner (Publishing-House.Me, 2017), Shade the King (Capricious, 2017), The Law of Large Numbers: Black Sonic Abyss (Chisenhale, Inpatient, SculptureCenter 2021) and Ever Given (Inpatient and Francois Ghebaly, 2022). He was born on the unceded territories of the Ohlone people. He lives in Berlin.
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Pía Ortuño (b. 1996 San José) is a Costa Rican artist currently living and working in London. She graduated from the University of Costa Rica with a BA in fine arts (2019) and later moved to Pietrasanta, Italy to work and learn ancient marble and bronze techniques. She apprenticed under Jimenez Deredia in his Carrara studio and worked at the Fonderia Artistic Mariani (2020). She graduated from Painting at the RCA in 2022. Ortuño has exhibited in the UK and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Shadows, Stables Gallery, Switzerland (2022), Books and Things, Helen J. Gallery, Los Angeles (2022), A Blue Fire, Incubator, London (2022), Echoes Across Surfaces, Duarte Sequeira Gallery, Braga (2023), New Ancients, Guts Gallery, London (2023), Matter, Flowers Gallery, London (2023) and The Day of His Wrath at Duarte Sequeira Gallery, Braga (2024).
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Paky Vlassopoulou is a visual artist based in Athens. Her work is informed by the dialectics of traditional sculpture-making in relation to spatial issues, object-hood, functionality and bodily experiences. She is concerned with thematics that deal with knowledge production, history, ruins, while in recent years, her works revolve around the concepts of confinement, care and hospitality. She is an Onassis AiR Fellow and has received the ARTWORKS Artists Fellowship by Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). In 2019, she was selected for a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City. Her work has been presented in solo projects in Greece and abroad. She has collaborated with institutions such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art Αthens (ΕΜSΤ), Thessaloniki Biennale, Onassis Stegi, New Museum, DESTE Foundation, Benaki Museum, NEON Foundation and The Whitechapel Gallery. In 2012, together with artists Chrysanthi Koumianaki and Kosmas Nikolaou, she co-founded 3 137, an artist-run space operating in Athens.
the space
Overlooking the bay of Seralia, on the foothill of Kastro village, KIRKI 2024 will take place in the historic school of 1840.
Directions can be found here.
