Art in the 1990s

Satellite communication tools, Computers and the Internet dominate in the 90s and Internationalization is the predominant theme of the era. Nevertheless, art seems to express a subjectivism that deserves to be observed. It has even been presented as heterogeneous and often contradictory.
In all European countries, Postmodern spread as a new style 1990’s. Postmodernism or literally the Intercultural Leadership (Transavanguardia) introduced a spirit of freedom: the freedom of the artist to take evidence from any time and from any voltage from the world of art he likes. Innovation is no longer requested nor a criterion for assessing the work, since everything has been said and
done in art. The artists belonging to the postmodern are very difficult to be considered as a group with similar characteristics. In the 1990 decade, graffiti & video art turned it into two of the most prevalent trends. Video – projections/ video installation was now among the most “innovative” means of artistic expression. Theoretically, it was created within the artist’s attempt to abolish the boundaries between the arts as well as the work of art and the artist. It was also created within the artist’s refusal to accept work (sculpture or painting) as another market-product sale. The art of Transmission (Trailblazer) was colored by nostalgia. It was more like a step backwards rather than a vanguard of new trends although it was accused of shallowness and “superficiality” due to “unhistorically” borrowing elements of past art concerning the format.

The juxtaposition of old and new, especially with regards to taking styles from past periods and re-fitting them into modern art outside of their original context, is a common characteristic of postmodern art.

Art in Greece in the 1990s

Media Art & New Media art

Giorgos Gyparakis, “Luna Deducere”
http://www.goethe.de/ins/tr/lp/prj/art/med/bgt/gri/el9859659.htm

In 1990 Greece was connected to the Internet through the National Centre of Scientific Research Demokritos, which was the first Greek provider to connect to the Web (PSTN / ISDN modem dial-up), linking the country with the rest of the technologically advanced world. In fact, the use of the Internet spread from ’95 onwards even in technologically advanced countries of Europe. Within the last decade of the 20th century, a series of political, technological and scientific events toppled the image of the world as we knew it, so that the scientific reality to compete in ingenuity with science fiction. In this era of media domination, art is another means of critical communication and poses challenging questions about our world. Apart from the cultural and political dimension of New Media art, philosophical issues aroused. In 1990, the Department of Communication and Media, University of Athens, was founded. In 1990-91 Manthos Santorineos created the place where the principle video art exhibition of Greek artists and later multimedia was presented, while collaborating with the Contemporary Art Center IleanaTounta, which through the Department of Art and Technology, presented the Athenian public related lectures and exhibitions. At the same time, places that promoted the presentation of Media Art were the Eugenides Foundation and the CCMR on electronic music. In 1996, the www.artopos.org created the first Greek e-zone about art. Its goal was to encourage selected Greek artists to attempt technological proposals online connecting young Greek artists of media art with international developments and events. In the period 1996-1999, the first infrastructure for the Greek Media Art was created in institutions: the State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki (1997), the Hellenic World (1997) which, initially focused on new technologies and education of young people. In 1998 the Graduate Department of Digital Arts in Fine Arts was established, and at the same year the first Festival of Art and Technology began.

The National Museum of Contemporary art
http://www.emst.gr/EN/museum/building/Pages/NewBuilding.aspx

The following year (1999) the gates of the Technopolis in Gazi opened, an industrial park and cultural center of 100,000 sq.m. which became the meeting place of art and art music, festivals and youth events. In the 1990s, the dominant means of technological art in Greece continues to be video but in a more professional way now. The elements of surprise, of methexis and magic in the most popular video installations have an aesthetic code accessible by regular guests of Greek reports.

Marianne Strapatsakis, “Shadows Rhodes 2004”, 1993
http://www.medusaartgallery.com/en/category/artshop/marianne-strapatsakis/

Makis Faros “Suspect Devices”
http://www.goethe.de/ins/tr/lp/prj/art/med/bgt/gri/el9859659.htm

Street Art

Street Art developed in public spaces and includes a variety of forms and techniques. The wheat pasting, sticker bombing, stencil graffiti, outdoor screenings and installations, the use of mixed techniques, counterfeit road signs contained in what we call in a word today, street art.

http://2lyk-dramas.dra.sch.gr/electronic_magazine/december_papers/solaki_street_art.html

https://www.google.gr/

http://www.lifo.gr/team/u41183/55908

Graffiti- A short history




Graffiti is certainly the great representative of Street Art. The word Graffiti, appeared as a guest in the 19th century and comes from the Italian word “graffiato” (scratched). First it was used by archaeologists as Raffaele Garucci in the discovery of inscriptions and figures on the ruins of the catacombs of Rome and Pompeii, trying to separate this phenomenon from other forms of art. Graffiti is associated in some cases with the social and political conditions of the period. A good example would be that in 1960 during the “revolution” of students in America with the slogan “Ôhe Will have their Say”, the walls of the country's comments were filled with poetry and political messages. In the Graffiti had acquired new techniques and had flooded the New York subway. The “tagging” (signature) is spreading rapidly with the strong influence of the Hip Hop culture and markers are replaced by efficient spray playing with volumes and colors and creating the illusion of depth. Then graffiti was officially banned and cities were almost automatically turned into a battleground between rebellious “young revolutionaries” and authorities. In 1972, the student of sociology Martinez Hugo founded the Graffiti Association United in an effort the graffiti to be acknowledged as an art form but although the organization attempted to expose in galleries, the art world was indifferent. Some years later however some gallery in New York decided to exhibit works and some collectors and museums bought a very small number. In the 1980s the graffiti evolved, using colorful letters, displaying fantasy characters or characters from comics, like imaginary landscapes by adopting a different style from each artist, thus declaring a cultural and artistic ambition.

http://www.artmag.gr/articles/art-articles/about-art/item/2093-street-art

At this period magazines for graffiti, as well as movies & documentaries appeared on the market for the general public. Many young artists like James de la Vega, saw the city as an immense gallery, where artists could expose their works to a wide audience without having to be accepted by the artistic establishments. So in 1985 the homonymous book by Allan Schwartzman was published, according to which, the street artists (or otherwise urban artists, guerilla artists, graffiti artists) are those who have academic art education and choose to practice their art in the street. In the early 1990s, some street artists began to experiment with other techniques, besides spraying. A good example is Fairey Shepardthen, a graphic design student at Rhode Island School of Design who created the largest street art campaign with stickers he had made. Over the past two decades the creators and examples have been multiplying while using traditional techniques or even inventing to communicate massively with the public. An artist who has written his own history is Banksy. He was given recognition by the global artistic community since he is one of the leading representatives of Street Art today. Street art has no limits, it includes various techniques like Wheat Pasting (creating works on paper, pasting them on another surface), Stickering (creating stickers and pasting them in a public place), Stenciling (spraying through cardboard with cut gaps), in an attempt to create three-dimensional objects.

https://www.google.gr

https://www.google.gr

Grafities' photos from Greece.

Athens

 

  Thessaloniki