Working in a variety of different media from printmaking and painting, to small scale installations and performance, Eirene Efstathiou’s studio practice begins with compiling archival source material, as well as material drawn from deliberate wanderings in the urban landscape, as a way to re-narrate minor histories. The works’ engagement with the source material seeks to open up a space for exploring the way found images are evocative beyond their role as illustrations or ‘the news’, and how these minor histories are inscribed on the fabric of the city, in this way performing an informal, idiosyncratic, and humanist archaeology of the present and recent past. The artist attempts to ‘learn’ about the density and legibility of the frenetic present, by observing past events.
In her works Eirene Efstathiou negotiates a history of the defeated and examines what ‘counts’ as history and historical document. When manipulating visual and textual paper archives, the artist’ aim is not to misappropriate their meaning and content, but rather to bring forth past events that some would be only too willing to forget, revive them in a new context and question their hidden narratives.
Having studied both in Greece and the United States, Eirene Efstathiou graduated from the Tufts University of Medford (US), the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (US), and the Athens School of Fine Arts (GR). Eirene Efstathiou received the 6th Deste Prize in 2009 (GR), while her work has been exhibited at Documenta 14 in Kassel (DE), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (US), the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki (GR), and BOZAR (BE), among others. She is part of numerous international collections such as Biddeford Public Schools (US), National Museum of Contemporary Art (GR), or Dakis Joannou Collection (GR).
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Selected essays:
Press:
Biddeford Public Schools, Biddeford Maine, Percent for Art, as part of the Maine Arts Commission (US)
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR)
Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens (GR)
A Jagged Line Through Space, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
Regarding the continuity of disrupted Images, Irene Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
I Draw, I Learn Greece, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
Kiafa, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
Memories of the Present, Mot International, Brussels (BE)
Ieras Odos Revisited, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
Customer/Value/Service, Project Room at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR)
No direction home, Whitney Artworks, Portland (US)
Le pas suspendu, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
En quelques mots… La Maison des Arts, Brussels (BE)
Occupy #3 – Networks, ARCAthens, Athens (GR) (Co)Laboratory on citizenship, Victoria Square Project, Athens (GR)
Anaparastasi: Reconstruction, Reenactment, Reconstitution, Momus-Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki (GR)
Portals, NEON, Athens (GR)
When the present is history, MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR)
Soft Protocols, Counterpublics, Athens (GR)
39th EVA International, cur. Merve Elveren, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick (IE)
Resilience, an aptitude, cur. Cécile Bourne-Farrell, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
A.O. – B.C. an audiovisual diary, State of Concept, Athens (GR)
When the Present is History, DEPO, Istanbul (TR)
Anatomy of Political Melancholy, cur. Katerina Gregos, Athens Odeon, Athens (GR)
Achrome, Irène Laub Gallery, Bruxelles (BE)
Anatomy of Political Melancholy, cur. Katerina Gregos, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos (GR)
The truth is always something else, Galleria Nazionale, Rome (IT)
Politics of Discontent, cur. Jonathan Sullam, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Regarding the continuity of disrupted images, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
ANTIDORON – The EMST Collection, Documenta 14 Fridericanum Museum, Kassel (DE)
15 Young artists for the 175 years National Bank of Greece, former Athens Stock Exchange, Athens (GR)
DESTE Prize: An Anniversary Exhibition, 1999-2015, Cycladic Museum, Athens (GR)
The Equilibrists, cur. Gary Carrion-Murayari and Helga Christoffersen, Benaki Museum, Athens (GR)
KENOPHOBIA, CAN Gallery, Athens (GR)
Topical Resonance: Contemporary Art from Greece, cur. Eirene Massimiliano Gioni and Evita Tsokanta, Grossman Gallery School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston (US)
No Country for Young Men, BOZAR, Brussels (BE)
Group Show, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
The System of Objects, works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, DESTE Foundation, Athens (GR)
How we draw a Dog, cur by M. Xanthopoulou, 3 137 Project Space, Athens (GR)
Vanishing Point, cur by K. Nikou, G. Notti, E. Tsokanta, Action Field Kodra, Thessaloniki (GR)
3 Artists, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
A Perpetual Present, Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland (US)
Reference/ Representation, The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, Zone – D, Thessaloniki (GR)
Contemporary Greek Woman, cur. Marina Fokidis in collaboration with Vima Magazine, Hub, Athens (GR)
Politics of Art, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR)
The Perpetual Dialogue, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (US)
Looking Forward, Southeastern European Contemporary Art, Center for Contemporary Art, Korita (ME)
Head Start, cur by Anna Chatzinasiou & Alexandra Ikonomou, Eleftherias Park Arts Centre, Athens (GR)
Go Sinnlich, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens (GR)
DESTE Prize, Museum of Cycladic Art/ Deste Foundation, Athens (GR)
Roomates, cur by T. Stathopoulos, TinT Gallery, Thessaloniki (GR)
Selective Knowledge, ITYS Institute for Contemporary Art and Thought – MIET Educational Foundation Of the National Bank of Greece, Athens (GR)
Tiny, Whitney Art Works, Portland (US)
Portland Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland (US)
The Other Biennial at Whitney, Whitney Art Works, Portland (US)
New Works, Two person Exhibition, Whitney Art Works, Portland (US)
Traveling Scholars, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US)
Films That Do Not Exist, Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville (US)
Fifth Year 2003, Grossman Gallery, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US)
New Talent, The Hay Gallery, Portland (US)
Memory Measurement Mapping, Upstairs at Johnson’s Gallery, Boston (US)
Scholarship for Graduate Study, Onassis Foundation, Athens (GR)
Winner of the 6th Deste Prize, Deste Foundation, Athens (GR)
Albert Henry Whitin Traveling Scholarship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (US)
