Chiona Xanthopoulou-Schwarz and Dr. Kurt Schwarz founded the Samos Young Artists Festival on the island of Samos Their intent was to bring young artists to the island to spotlight this special place. Young musicians, artists and actors come to the island each August and express themselves through the language of art, music and dance. Within this framework, Turkish-born/German-raised artist Nevin Aladağ (photo below) features her “Borderline” at the Art Spacce on the harbor of Pythagorion.
Through this display the artist wants to show that there are different types of borders – geographical and cultural, social and political, as well as invisible borders that exist in the mind. The display’s focus is quite apt when bearing in mind that the Art Space that features it – an old Seventies hotel – offers views of the Turkish mainland. The display on borders at the place where Greek-Turkish boundaries are so evident is of particular interest.
Ms. Aladağ hopes to capitalize on this and intertwine the venue with her own artwork that focuses on the feelings of uncertainty and foreigness that come with borders. A political element is added when bearing in mind that the West represents the gateway to a world without poverty, repression and war. It is this desire that draws refugees to the island of Samos every day. They hope that they can find a better life in Europe.
The artist herself is no stranger to this search for a better life. She was born in Turkey and raised in Germany and had to move between cultures, across boundaries and genres.
Her art, like her life, moves between genres as she uses various types of media to create objects and films that give border crossings a poetic and prolific meaning. Her first show in Greece includes seven video works, a sound piece and an installation. The video work shows the backwash of a ship as seen from the deck. The camera slowly pans over the water and occasionally lifts to the horizon, thereby revealing landmasses. At times, shots of a screen appear, showing the ship’s current GPS position. It soon becomes clear that the ship is following the marine border between Greece and Turkey. In this way, the churned up wake traces the borderline once defined by cartographers. The ephemeral furrow in the marine landscape soon closes again, but the video preserves it – maintaining its visibility.
The display was specially commissioned by the Schwarz Foundation and created at Pythagorion and can be visited at the Former Hotel Pythagoras until October 20. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to midnight.
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