The time finally arrived for the exhibition of the results of the collaborative open call titled Peri Physeōs, organized in conjunction with Athens-based THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY. Below, we proudly exhibit the submissions of Pato Hebert, Elena Stavraki and Natalia Manta, and Caspar de Gelmini.

We thank all artists for submitting their work, and especially during such trying and uncertain times as these. We thank THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY for collaborating with us on this project, yet another cross-platform art initiative.

As a reminder of our original concept:
Physis as the encompassing notion of nature spanning from its pre-Socratic sense as νόμος, nomos, in Homeric Greek, as discussed among Stoics, in the Ionian School, by Plato in book 10 of Laws as well as by Aristotle.  He who has claimed that the physis is dependent on techne. This call is an invitation to approach the subject at hand through the routes of philosophy, mythology, and the pervasively nearly-exhausted notion of Anthropocene. What we are asking, is if we can reframe the cultural, economic, and environmental crises that we face today within the ancient concepts of physis and tēchne, and most importantly phronesis. Phronesis, wisdom. This is especially true as it pertains to our understanding of what nature is and what technologies create in relation to this.

The three finalist submissions:

Pato Hebert:

Pato’s Bio: Pato Hebert is an artist, educator, and organizer. His work explores the aesthetics, ethics, and poetics of interconnectedness. His projects have been presented at Beton7 in Athens, PH21 Gallery in Budapest, the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Quito, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, the Songzhuang International Photo Biennale, IHLIA LGBTI Heritage in Amsterdam, and the New Image Gallery at James Madison University.
He has been a BAU Institute/Camargo Foundation Residency Fellow in Cassis, France, and an artist-in-residence at PLAYA, and with the Neighborhood Time Exchange project in West Philadelphia. Hebert’s work has been supported by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, the National Education Association, and a Mid-Career Fellowship for Visual Artists from the California Community Foundation. In 2008
he received the Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award from Center in Santa Fe. He teaches as an Associate Arts Professor in the Department of Art & Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, where his students have twice nominated him for the David Payne-Carter Excellence in Teaching Award. He has also worked in community-based HIV prevention initiatives with queer communities of color since 1994. He continues these grassroots efforts at local and transnational levels, working with social movements and community organizations to develop innovative approaches to HIV mobilization, programs, advocacy, and justice. He curated exhibitions and led creative initiatives at the International AIDS Conferences in Vienna (2010), Melbourne (2014), Durban (2016), and Amsterdam (2018).
© Pato Hebert

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Elena Stavraki and Natalia Manta:

Elena’s Bio: Elena Stavraki has a BA in Theory and History of Art from ASFA, and currently doing an MA in Cultural Documentary Film Production at the University of the Aegean. She got into cross-disciplinary philosophy through neurology and animal studies. The most recent themes of her essays are ecological evolutionary biology, feminist studies, queer studies, cognitive science theory – her approach is synergic and material-semiotic. Elena has curated exhibitions, some of them being: Crystals in Soil, Athens 2019; 16 mins of love [A New Sentimentalism], Swindon 2019.

Natalia’s Bio: Natalia Manta was born in 1994. She was admitted under the special provisions in the Athens School of Fine Arts for extraordinary talents at the early age of 16, before completing high school. In her second year of studies, she received the prestigious sculpture award in Italy. She studied under the world-renowned sculptor Giorgos Lappas and also with Afroditi Liti, Giorgos Kazazis, and Giannis Psihopaidis. Immediately after receiving her degree in Fine Arts with honors, she proceeded to have her first personal exhibition in the prestigious Kappatos Gallery in Athens. She also recently exhibited her new works at the ART ATHINA 2018 art fair. Since February 2018 she has been working as an assistant professor in the School of Fine Arts in Athens. She has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions and several performance projects doing improvisational visual arts.

Website: https://nataliamanta.com/

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Caspar de Gelmini:

Bio: Caspar de Gelmini studied after a preparatory training in composition in Berlin at the University for Music and Performing Arts Rostock where he obtained his baccalaureate exam. He then studied until his Diploma Examination at the University for Music Franz Liszt in Weimar. He took postgraduate Studies at the University Mozarteum Salzburg as well as a Master’s degree from the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart. During his studies, he was Exchange Student at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, at the University for Music in Basel, at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris and at the IRCAM. His teachers majoring in composition were: Helmut Zapf, Peter Manfred Wolf, Michael Obst, Annette Schlünz, Pär Lindgren, Karin Rehnqvist, Georg Friedrich Haas, Michel Roth (music theory), Tristan Murail, Marco Stroppa, Frédéric Durieux, and Hèctor Parra.
He was a finalist and winner of the Weimar Spring Festival Award (2005, 2007), winner of the BMW Composition Prize of Musica Viva in Munich (2008, 2010), winner of the Reading Panel IRCAM (Manifeste 2012; Cursus 2014) and a finalist in the OE1 Talentebörse composition prize in Austria (2013).
Scholarships: Gerda and Luigi Prade Foundation, Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, German Academic Exchange Service. Since 2007, his works are published by Verlag Neue Musik Berlin. He worked with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, IRCAM Centre Pompidou, Work in Progress Berlin, Ensemble Phorminx Darmstadt, Ensemble Junge Musik Berlin and many others.

Website: http://www.caspardegelmini.de/

For a presentation of this work please visit this link submitted by the artist.

Acknowledgments:

We would like to extend many thanks to everyone who took the time to create and submit their work to our very first collaborative Open Call. It was an honor to study it all.

We thank our finalists for their participation and hard work, as well as for providing us with all the necessary presentation material.

Finally, we thank THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY and its director, Georgia Kotretsos, for the wonderful collaboration on such a creative initiative, especially during times as hard as these.