Ξηρόμερο / Dryland

Artists

Kostas Chaikalis, Thanassis Deligiannis, Elia Kalogianni, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Yannis Michalopoulos, Fotis Sagonas

Press release

National Participation - Greece

Xirómero/Dryland aims to relate the situated, local experience to the global condition where aesthetic directions change, traditions shift, rural life and celebration take on different forms, whilst the political dimensions of these processes remain an open subject of inquiry.

The work consists of a piece of agricultural irrigation equipment which synchronizes in real time the sound, video and lighting environments that make up the installation. It investigates the experience of a village festival by following a route that leads from the village square to the borders of the surrounding farmland. More specifically, it draws upon the experience of the panighíria -local festivals- of mainland Greece, Thessaly and the area of Xirómero, in Western Greece, which lends the work its title.

Xirómero / Dryland is an interdisciplinary collective installation based on a concept by Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos; and has been created in collaboration with Elia Kalogianni, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Kostas Chaikalis and Fotis Sagonas. 

Commissioner: EΜΣΤ | Νational Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; Katerina Gregos, artistic director
Curator: Panos Giannikopoulos