Pantone Green and a Glass of Lemonade
Vasiliki Sifostratoudaki in collaboration with Jessica Dunleavy
Saturday, 29th November, 3-9 pm
British Council Athens
Snehta Residency
B-HIVE
Babel
Documentation from Yannis Sifostratoudakis & Megaklis Gasias
In a space, which extends through both indoor and outdoor areas divided by soapy walls of glass, there are collections of objects appearing to have been scattered sporadically: A pyramid of lemons, a pile of nicely chopped leaves, a square of sieved oil so as to appear like dust, a cuboid of sliced paper upon which plants and flowers are printed while real plants in pots are nearby, and a tall stack of mismatched tiles stands precariously. On there is a grid marked out in chalk, on one wall is a white rectangle of foam board and by the soapy panes of glass there are watering cans and buckets filled with water.
The first Pantone Green was created in Rotterdam in May 2014. What is described above is a recurring and evolved fruition of the piece that we propose to take place in Athens. Pantone Green and a Glass of Lemonade is a work that has been created for a group of people to interact with: to cut, hang, drag, lay, wash, weave, offer, and to meet and discuss within.
The artwork is the transformed space. During this process of creation, participants will be exploring possible strategies of building and reconsidering the representation of objects. We hope objects will be revealed and concealed anew. The transformed space of Pantone Green and A Glass of Lemonade will represent moments of empowerment and awareness of the environment we inhabit.
Snehta is an art organisation with a genuine interest in social regeneration that invites art practitioners who will engage with the community of Kypseli. As former Snehta art practitioners, we were involved through the project The Skill Exchange Library and worked in collaboration with the neighbouring Babel Day Centre For Migrants through a series of workshops. Strong relationships were formed with a continued commitment to art’s transformative qualities through participation and therapeutic processes.
We discovered Kypseli to be a uniquely diverse neighbourhood and home to both long-standing Athenian families and emerging migrant communities. Pantone Green and A Glass of Lemonade seeks to engage with the breadth of this demographic and offer the possibility of an evolution by taking place within Kypseli itself and encouraging people of all abilities, cultures and backgrounds to take part.
The outcome is entirely in the hands of the participants assisted by their interpretation of the ‘Script/ Score/ Invitation’. Within this novel social space, we hope that the shared creative experience will act as a lubricant between participants to facilitate insight and empathy and enable the changing of perceptions of self and others that the British Council so wishes to bring about through Arts for Social Development.
Location: Athens, Greece
Dimensions: variable
Duration: approx. 3hrs
Materials: lemons, wood, soap, leaves, tiles, pictures of plants, scissors, ice, potted plants, polystyrene pinboard.