ATHENS.- Aggelika Korovessi: Time, Form, Concept presents within the National Archaeological Museum of Athens her sculptures across thirty rooms. On view from July through September 2013 the exhibition includes a retrospective selection of the artist’s works from the late 1980s through to the present day and works specifically created for the museum spaces. Exploring the relationship between contemporary and ancient Greek sculpture it aims to provide the visitor with an opportunity to compare and contemplate art, not only from an artistic point of view but also from a sociological, philosophical and historical perspective.

Korovessi is the first contemporary artist to install such an inter-connecting exhibit within the museum.

The work Peace has been placed by the museum entrance to introduce the exhibition to the visitors and mark its inter-connecting nature. Made out of dozens of people holding hands in a semicircle of unity and solidarity, it compares to Appollo’s lyre, which echoes the harmony of the cosmos. The work was part of the SonArt exhibition that travelled through 10 countries and 3 continents in 2004 and was exhibited in the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington.

Sound Alphabet created specifically for the museum is placed between two rooms of works from the Geometric Greek Art period. Within it, all the letters of the greek alphabet formed as soundwaves are delicately cast in bronze and are welded to an industrial grid-like iron framework creating a cross-webbed visual display of playful geometric interconnecting forms. In the way the alphabet would be a manifestation of spoken Greek in the Geometric period, Sound Alphabet with its geometric form, articulates the letters of the greek alphabet as sounds. This work arises from a series of ongoing soundform-exploring works, which the artist has become internationally renowned for since the 1990’s.

Set in front of a Hellinistic sarcophagus, the work Life represents the sound of life itself, which has become a stringed instrument. It echoes the relationship between the sarcophagus marble encasing and the human body by contrasting its anthropomorphic wooden speaker with the sound of life that emanates upon striking the strings. The work is one of the later wood-based works made by the artist in the 1990s, which also encapsulates a cross-over period between materials used and themes explored.

The exhibition was inaugurated on 4 July by the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports, Mr Kostas Tzavaras.

The curation of the exhibition was undertaken by Dr Georgios Kakavas, Deputy Director of the National Archaeological Museum, with the aid of the National Archaeological Museum staff, Mrs Alexandra Christopoulou, Mrs Bessy Drougka, Mrs Despina Kalesopoulou. In collaboration with Mr Dimitris Pavlopoulos (Assistant Professor of History of Art, Department of Archaeology and History of Art, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens).

The National Archaeological Museum established 1829, is the largest archaeological museum in Greece, containing the most important ancient Greek art in the world, exhibiting more than 16,000 ancient works and with over 500,000 visitors every year.

Aggelika Korovessi (b.1952) is known for her abstract and figural conceptual sculptural works based on sound and word. Her works have been exhibited widely in Greece and abroad, and are included in museums and many public and private collections internationally (France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, USA, China, Russia, Emirates, Japan, India, Taiwan, Chile and others). The artist has represented Greece at many cultural events, at home and internationally.

In 2008 she was awarded the Silver Olympic Medal in the International “Olympic Spirit in Beijing 2008” Sculpture Competition. Her work Peace can be found in a public space in Beijing City.

In 2001 Korovessi took part in the Connecting Worlds: Contemporary Sculpture from the European Union Countries exhibition in the John F. Kennedy Center, Washington, USA. The artist officially represented Greece worldwide for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games with solo exhibitions in Crete, Athens, Cologne, Washington, Los Angeles, The Hague, Brussels and London.

1997 saw her create the National Resistance Monument, located at Karakolithos, Boeotia. In 1994 Korovessi represented Greece in the 4th Sculpture Triennale, France. In 1988 the artist installed the work ‘Communication’ in Mesogeion avenue, Athens, Greece.

The artist lives and works in Athens, Greece.