DORA ECONOMOU - Naturalist

About

Ribot is pleased to present the first solo show in Italy by Dora Economou (Athens, 1974): a selection of recent works realized by the artist for the exhibition.

“Everyday I walk the streets and I leaf through books and I collect stuff, or rather residues and remembrances of stuff, may these be images, gestures, materials, atmospheres, or fragments of language and sound. …”

Through these words, Dora Economou tell us about her approach to the world and to her artistic research. A reflection on the decontextualization and the function of the objects as well as the manipulation of the forms that the artist fragments, reassembles and remodels giving them a “new” life. A dialogue with the everyday living emerging in many sculptures shown, that raises food for thoughts about the relationship between opposites: natural and artificial, material and spiritual, authenticity and imitation.
For this exhibition too, according to her artistic practice, Dora Economou started creating her sculptures in Athens, in her studio, but found their fulfillment in the cohabitation with some elements collected in Milan during her stay in the city before the opening of her solo show.

Naturalist includes the design and production of an exclusive artwork in a limited edition of ten examples. Economou's drawing, depicting the leaves of the five most common trees of Athens, has been printed on silk in the nearby city of Como. In all the editions, each in a different colour, the audience can discover the relationship between arts and crafts, between Athens, her native town, and Italy, the country where her new experience is taking place.

"The last couple of weeks, we’ve been sheltered in a pocket of deranged Summer.
It’s mid November, but it’s warm enough to spend long hours outdoors, in nature.
In the streets of Athens, people go around in outfits fit for a soap opera casting.
Some in coats and leather boots, others in shorts, flip flops and tiny tops or various combinations of the two that don’t look very natural.
But maybe the earth flipped itself around its axis. And the seasons momentarily swept places, in perfect symmetry.
I recently visited the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. It was built in perfect symmetry.
In accordance, the royalties of the time sent the Last Sultan gifts in pairs. The name of the palace could be freely translated to the “pocket garden”.
The twin brothers in Greenaway’s Zoo cultivate universes of disintegration in pairs.
One of the first records I bought was the Cure’s Disintegration.
The cover was very red.
The owner of the Motherland hotel –a cult Turkish film of the 80s- gets a haircut on the other side of the world watching the Cure.
Sometime on the Spiral Jetty, the camera travels through the New York Museum of Natural History saturated in Blood Red.
There is nothing natural about the natural history museums.
It’s the time of year they prune the trees. They collect the branches and barks in heaps on the sidewalks. Waiting to be set on fire to burn off the Indian Princess on top of her diseased master.
But she escaped on time, caught up with Phileas Fogg and went around the world fast.
She had never seen snowflakes before. Like the spines of Autumn leaves, each one is unique.
My studio is in a nice neighborhood. You can tell a nice neighborhood by the care they put on the things they discard.
They fix the cut branches into neat bouquets. My friend Kostas helped me carry a few of them down to the studio.
I’m loving my underground garden. But I’m afraid They Live.
How long does it take to go around the world these days?"

Dora Economou
Athens, November 2015

Dora Economou (1974) lives and works in Athens. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens and at the Pratt Institute in New York. She has held solo and group shows in prestigious international institutions and galleries, among these: The Breeder, Athens, 2014; Françoise Heitsch Gallery, Monaco, 2014; Greek Art Institute of Athens, Athens, 2012; Athens Biennial, Athens, 2011 and 2009. She also took part in many residency projects and workshops, mention should be made of Triangle Artist in Residence Program in DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York, 2012; Harold Arts, Ohio, 2012; Artspace Visual Arts Centre, Sidney, 2008; Scanning Istanbul, Istanbul, 2005; Royal School of Architecture, Copenhagen, 2004 .