When I first got the email in July 2015, from Artemis Potamianou (the exhibition organiser) inviting us to participate in the Platforms project at Art Athina in Athens, I didn’t really pay too much attention to it.
It was a nice idea, but would involve too much organisation . I had enough on.
I can’t really remember what the turning point was… when I actually thought, OK, its a lot to do, it will cost a packet… but… this is going to be worth it.
Maybe it was when we were discussing our trip to Sweden that had happened earlier that year – a collaboration that had come about from our involvement in Stockholm’s Supermarket a few years earlier…
ArtMobile were in the next booth to us and despite the language barrier, we had struck up a friendship that has lasted years. We had invited them to exhibit with us in Liverpool…. another participant had invited us to exhibit in Jamestown New York a year later ( we all went across)… then last April we got to see ArtMobile’s studio spaces in Vasteras, just outside Stockholm.
Three years, three Countries, still communicating with each other…. sharing ideas. Different ways of exhibiting, different rationale…all the time learning from each other.
You could see our own work evolving… from time consuming complicated themes and framed works in exhibitions with few visitors, to snap decision works and pop up exhibitions that draw the public in, getting them involved .
Yes, the Athens trip would be worth it. An opportunity to meet a huge array of artists from a different part of the world. New ideas again.
Fundraising began earlier in the year with an auction of donated small works from the group. That went surprisingly well and we raised more cash than anticipated. The ensuing Crowdfunder didn’t go as well… maybe we had just exhausted the sources of donations from the auction… but £250 (a third of what we wanted) wasn’t too bad really.
I began the Gifts for Arts application from Arts Council…. and here we are… 3 days to go before we travel and ready to meet new people.
Links:
SCI : https://sciartistprojects.wordpress.com/
Supermarket: http://www.supermarketartfair.com/exhibitor/scibase/2012
Art Athina: http://www.art-athina.gr/parallel-programme/platform-project/
