Curator | Dimitris Paleocrassas and Maria Marangou

New commissioned work by NEON

16 channel music/ audio installation by 

Stavros Gasparatos and Giorgos Koumentakis.
 

Collaboration between NEON and the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera, in the context of the exhibition Flying over the abyss, at the Athens Conservatoire.
The space where ΝΕΟΝ presents the exhibition Flying over the Abyss, in the unexplored bowels of the Athens Conservatoire, is the starting point as well as the destination of this site-specific sound installation, the Passage through the Abyss.
Musical themes by Giorgos Koumendakis and Stavros Gasparatos communicate with the sound of the building of the Athens Conservatoire as well as the surrounding areas, underlining and recording the path between the sound of life and the void. The sound installation communicates with the five stages of being, which incorporate the backbone of the exhibition, but is placed in an independent sixth space. The spaces of the Athens Conservatoire are wired and recorded so that their endpoints interact with each other as well as with the musical themes, creating an installation which aims to create a new space-time in the rambling building of the Athens Conservatoire.
Creators: Stavros Gasparatos - Giorgos Koumendakis Technical Supervisor: Themis Pandelopoulos Recordings Supervisor: Dimitris Giannopoulos Technical Advisor - Programming: Alexandros Tsilfidis
*The sound installation, Passage through the Abyss, is a commissioned work by NEON to Giorgos Koumendakis and Stavros Gasparatos, marking the collaboration between NEON and the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera, in the framework of the exhibition.

NEON’s exhibition Flying over the Abyss, previously shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete (02/05/2015 – 14/10/2015) and at the Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki (07/11/2015 – 29/02/2016),  was lastly presented at the Athens Conservatoire (18 November 2016 – 29 January 2017).

Participating artists, both international and Greek, have been inspired by Ascesis: The Saviors of Gods (Ασκητική), the spiritual exercises written by the renowned Cretan thinker, Nikos Kazantzakis.

We came from an abyss of darkness; we end in an abyss of darkness: the interval of light between one and another we name life.

Nikos Kazantzakis

The exhibition established a creative dialogue between the artists’ works and the essay, tracing the journey towards enlightenment from the time of birth until death.  The original manuscript of Ascesis was on display courtesy of The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum.

Artists | Marina Abramović, Alexis Akrithakis, Matthew Barney, Hans Bellmer, Lynda Benglis, John Bock, Louise Bourgeois, Heidi Bucher, Vlassis Caniaris, Paul Chan, Savvas Christodoulides, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Stavros Gasparatos, Gilbert & George, Robert Gober, Asta Gröting, Jenny Holzer, Kostas Ioannidis, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Giorgos Koumendakis, Sherrie Levine, Stathis Logothetis, Ana Mendieta, Maro Michalakakos, Bruce Nauman, Aliki Palaska, Ioanna Pantazopoulou, Doris Salcedo, Kiki Smith, Paul Thek, Costas Tsoclis, Mark Wallinger, Gary Webb.