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Athena's Antennae
In Athena’s Antennas, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, in collaboration with two performers, proposes a series of ephemeral public sculptures. Turning her gaze to the rooftops of Athens’ apartment buildings as the city’s edges, she imagines the buildings as bodies and their rooftops and balconies as limbs. The industrial equipment found there transforms into an evolving form of public sculpture, like a peculiar parasitic forest or an open-air sculpture gallery. Satellite dishes are translated into wicker hats and become props within an evolving stage setting.
Dates and times
Friday, October 10, 18:30 - 19:30
Address
Port of Piraeus, Gate E8
Chrysanthi Koumianaki
2025
Duration: 60’
Performers: Eva Vlassopoulou, Maria Tzani
Straw hats production: in collaboration with Liza Sarigiannidou
In n the work Athena’s Antennas, Chrysanthi Koumianaki proposes a series of ephemeral public sculptures. Continuing her observation of public space, she turns her gaze to the rooftops of Athens’ apartment buildings, seeing them as the city’s edges. She imagines the buildings as bodies and their rooftops and balconies as limbs. The industrial equipment found there, sometimes abandoned, sometimes still functional, becomes an evolving form of public sculpture, resembling a peculiar parasitic forest or an open-air sculpture gallery.
More specifically, in this project, satellite dishes are translated into straw hats and transformed into props for a performance. In collaboration with two performers, a dialogue unfolds as these woven sculptures become costumes, proposing living almost parasitic sculptures.
The work belongs to a new series of works in which the artist develops a network of artisans within the city. She maps workshops that, through their production, preserve, evolve, and revive complex and often time-consuming techniques, mechanical and at times almost magical, creating small sanctuaries, oases of craft-based creation. Through this practice, she seeks to redefine contemporary modes of production, the artistry of those involved, and to open a dialogue around materials, techniques, and the challenges faced by crafts that are fading or nearly extinct.
Courtesy of the artist and CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery, Athens
Chrysanthi Koumianaki
Chrysanthi Koumianaki (b. 1985, Heraklion, Greece) is a visual artist based in Athens. Her practice focuses on installations that integrate multiple media, including sculpture, drawing, printmaking, performance, video, and sound. She explores themes of public space, decay, urban use, and personal interventions within the built environment, forming a key part of her research and artistic inquiry.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at institutions, museums, and galleries, including CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery, Athens (2025); The Nordic House in Iceland, Reykjavik (2024); EMST, Athens (2023); ATOPOS CVC, Athens (2023), Greek National Opera, Athens (2023); Theocharakis Foundation, Athens (2022); NEON, Athens (2021); Netwerk Aalst, Belgium (2018); Fondation Hippocrène, Paris (2018); Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens (2018); Kadist, Paris (2017); Benaki Museum, Athens (2016); Athens Biennale (2013), among others.
Her work has also been featured in exhibitions organized by institutions such as Fondazione Prada (2017), DESTE Foundation (2016), and New Museum, New York (2016). She has participated in artist programs such as Studiotopia (BOZAR & Onassis Stegi, 2020-22), Onassis Air (Onassis Foundation, 2019, 2023), and Artworks (Stavros Niarchos Foundation, 2018).
Courtesy of the artist and CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery, Athens
