Deste Foundation at the Slaughterhouse, Hydra Island Greece
Since its inception, DESTE—the Greek word for “look”—has been an international organizer of contemporary art exhibitions and a global supporter of arts-based projects and publications. In the early years of its foundation, the Foundation supported exhibitions that showcased the trends of art throughout the 80s and 90s in Greece, Cyprus, and Switzerland, emphasizing the universality of contemporary art.
Every summer since 2009, DESTE has invited an artist or group of artists to develop an exhibition in the Foundation’s Project Space, a former slaughterhouse on the island of Hydra.
Dream Machines - 20th June - 30th October
HOURS Daily 11:00–13:00 & 19:00–22:00
Tuesday Closed (only the first Tuesday 20th June is the exception)
(Please note that there will not be a big street party as in previous years)
Dream Machines, curated by Daniel Birnbaum and Massimiliano Gioni, is a small exhibition that explores the impact of technology on human imagination. The emergence of a new medium always gives rise to new possibilities for art, and each epoch has its key artists in whose creations a novel encounter between technology and creativity crystalize. Dream Machines presents a number of momentous works, from Ulf Linde’s reinterpretation of Marcel Duchamp’s Coffee Mill (1911)–described by André Breton as an infernal machine–to a selection of recent experiments exploring virtual spheres. Installed in the cavernous spaces of the Slaughterhouse in Hydra and in its surroundings, this boîte-en-valise of an exhibition becomes itself a bachelor machine, with works caught in an endless mechanic ballet.
Combining loans from the Dakis Joannou Collection with contributions by several artists, the exhibition features works by Marcel Duchamp, Fischli & Weiss, H.R. Giger, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, Brion Gysin, Jeff Koons, Mire Lee, Ulf Linde, Henrik Olesen, Philippe Parreno, Seth Price, William Reich, Pipilotti Rist, Pamela Rosenkranz, Mika Rottenberg, Sturtevant, Andro Wekua, Ulla Wiggen, and many others.
At the Slaughterhouse 2021
'The Greek Gift' at DESTE Foundation's Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra
Duration, June 22, 2021 — October 31, 2021
Opening hours: Daily 11:00–13:00 & 19:00–22:00
Tuesday closed
Featured image: Kaari Upson, False Foot (Dakis left Donkey right), 2021 | Courtesy of the artistNew paragraph.
Following the postponement of a special project by Jeff Koons commissioned for the DESTE Foundation’s Project Space at the old Slaughterhouse in Hydra, Greece, due to COVID-19, a group of artists and friends of Dakis Joannou and the Foundation have come together to swiftly organize a small group show. This presentation doubles as a portrait of the collector and serves as a miniature survey of his collection.
Coordinated by Massimiliano Gioni, ''The Greek Gift'' brings together a series of new and existing works, alongside found objects and impromptu responses from a variety of artists who have maintained decades-long relationships with Dakis Joannou and the DESTE Foundation.
Part-divertissement and part-collaborative project, this small exhibition borrows its title from a chess tactic—the “Greek gift sacrifice.” This move, for which a player sacrifices a bishop in order to checkmate, in turn is believed to have been named after the mythical gift of the Trojan Horse from the Achaeans to the city of Troy. As any gift, it is a complex tangle of generosity and self-interest.
As in a chess game, several artists have been invited to “make a move” by selecting artworks and objects from the collection; in response, Joannou and Gioni countered by choosing other pieces. Functioning much like a surrealist “exquisite corpse,” the exhibition sets in motion a series of chain reactions between artworks—a domino effect of intense proximities.
Installed in the small, cavernous spaces of Hydra’s Slaughterhouse, the works sit side by side, like toys in a doll house. On its door is inscribed Marcel Duchamp’s maxim: “A Guest + A Host = A Ghost.”
Coordinated by Massimiliano Gioni
* In accordance with the Covid-19 public safety guidelines,
there will be no opening event *
** Visitors are required to wear a mask for the duration of their visit and adhere to social distancing regulations. Please note that there will be a limited number of visitors allowed in the space at a time **
