Haris Epaminonda at Rodeo

Artist: Haris Epaminonda

Exhibition title: VOL. XX

Venue: Rodeo, London, UK

Date: January 14 – February 18, 2017

Photography: Plastiques, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London

It is with great joy to present this exhibition in two parts by Haris Epaminonda at the gallery. Guided by the moment and her vast personal collection, and in dialogue with the architecture of the gallery, the artist has composed in the space the nineteenth edition of what Volumes has been since the series first appeared in 2009. Taking disparate material from her hidden collection of pottery, books, historical objects from various geographies and civilizations, she conducts an invisible ritual, a long and quiet performance. During it Epaminonda is finding the right relationship between space, time and matter and when all potentials have almost been exhausted and great (in)balance has been achieved, she stops. This decisive moment in time, this eternal pause is what the viewer experiences, as she could go on and on eternally. The objects close with and between themselves and they form new objects, installations composed by elements in time gone by and in the present: fabrics and drapes as well as carved wooden surfaces by contemporary artisans made under her instructions and design. Her filming practice and her masterful use of paper in collage merge in the physical space when she makes an exhibition, and editing and gluing is what occurs here as well; the void is as important as the filled space.

The full moon rising from the sea of Cyprus becomes the shadow for the works on paper as well as the developed sculptures – the labyrinth – when connections become unclear and geographies merge. This group of collages is a recent series made from books of Roman and Egyptian art juxtaposed with a black and white series of ikebana arrangements; the Portuguese text is open for free associations and interpretations, as everything else.

Haris Epaminonda (b. 1980, Nicosia) lives and works in Berlin. Her solo exhibitions include: VOL.XVIII (Winner of the Günther-Peill-Stiftung 2014-2016), Leopold-Hoesch Museum & Papiermuseum, Düren (2016); Haris Epaminonda & The Infinite Library, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2016); VOL. XVI, Le Plateau, Frac-ile-de-France, Paris (2015); Chapter IV, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (2014); Chapters, Point Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia (2013); Chapters, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2013); South of Sun, Künstlerhaus Zürich, Zürich (2013); Early Summer, two person show with Daniel Gustav Cramer, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2012); Projects 96, MoMA, New York (2011); Chronicles, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt (2011); VOL. VI, Level 2 Gallery, Tate Modern, London (2010); VOL. I, II & III, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2009); Old Earth, No More Lies, I’ve Seen You…, co-representing Cyprus Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (with Mustafa Hulusi), Palazzo Malipiero, Venice (2007). Her group exhibitions include: L’Image Volée, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016); The Museum of Unconditional Surrender, TENT, Rotterdam (2015); Escapes: Fiction as Rigour, Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2014); Preis Der Nationalgalerie Für Junge Kunst 2013, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2013); Suicide Narcissus, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2013); Ciclorama, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico (2013); The Order of Things: Cinematic Moments, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2013); Prompts & Triggers: Surplus Authors, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012); The Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2010); Early Summer, dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel (2012); Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens (2009); Deste Prize 2009, Deste Foundation at Cycladic Museum, Athens (2009); The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York (2009); Provisions For The Future, 9th Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah (2009); When Things Cast No Shadow, 5th Berlin Biennale, The NeueNationalgalerie, Berlin (2008).