Project #4: Birthday Group Show
Eλπἰς (Elpis)

KYAN Project Space is pleased to present the group show Eλπἰς (Elpis) - A Hopeful Ode to the Human Condition and the Power of the Hand. This show is a celebration of KYAN’s one-year birthday as an artist-run project space, and therefore a dedication to the creator and the victory of faith in the craft.

The focus of this exhibition is to embody the notion of hope (ελπίς - elpis) through a quest for its spiritual aspects. Referencing various philosophical and theological sources, from Einstein’s notes on technology and society (Ο Σηµερινός Κόσµος- Mari Editions, Athens 1983) and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (Penguin Books,1964) to The History of God by Karen Armstrong (Ballantine Books, New York), a historical, humanistic and cultural visual investigation unfolds. Through emphasis on more traditional mediums of expression, the artists pay homage to the human touch in an era of total digitalization, technological dependence and rapid mechanization.

Spotlighting the idea of storytelling with contemporary narratives, painters Aristeidis Lappas, Ioanna Limniou, Claudio Coltorti, Calliope Pavlides and Kyvèli Zoi construct the mise-en-scene of the project space by assuming it as a temple of hope. The large paintings in clockwork presentation reference murals or frescoes of a somewhat holy space, with both Orthodox and pagan symbolism, and depictions of human vs nature. This painterly ambience sets the mood that comes to embrace the three-dimensional creations that are placed in the epicenter.

Royer’s hanging heavenly body-like forms, in addition to the sculptural sarcasm of Sitbon and Fragakis, pursue incredibly different manifestations of hope. Alongside them the semi-familiar feeling of Ingarden’s nurturing watering-pot and the ceramic universe of Matrella, complete the materialized condition of the human presence. The room is transformed into a translucently figurative sensation of the spirit, which with the help of the hand, communicates the actualization of hope