Kentro Synchronis – förlag

A monograph exploring Smith’s fascination with the human body and its ability to project emotional vulnerabilityThe art of Kiki Smith (born 1954) confronts what it means to be human. Her sculptures are often feminine figures that become personifications of sexuality, trauma and abjection. This monograph contains an essay by Margot Norton examining Smith’s fascination with the human body and its ability to project emotional vulnerability.

Ancient Greek art, archeology and artifacts invoke both the ritual and the mythological in Waliszewska’s paintingsThe totemic, symbolist paintings of Polish artist Aleksandra Waliszewska (born 1976) can be viewed as engaging in a specific kind of irruption: the sudden, forceful entry of ancient visual tropes into the present. The 15 works featured in Irruption of Antiquity are testament to this anachronistic intermixing of modern aesthetics with classical imagery, specifically that of ancient Greek art and mythology. Serving as both documentation and extension of the exhibition installed across two floors of Athens’ Benaki Museum, this book collects writings by the exhibition's curator, Alison Gingeras, who probes the charged iconographic tensions between objects spanning Neolithic Greece, classical antiquity, the Byzantine world and the modern Greek era, and Waliszewska’s intense psychological tableaux.

Imbued with the collective memories of Romanian culture, Andra Ursuta's (born 1979) work uses her grim past to tackle our harsh present. This book includes an essay by Ali Subotnik on Ursuta's stark recreations of cultural turmoil.

Through painting, performance, sculpture and design, New York–based artist Kerstin Brätsch (born 1979) depicts the mutation of images over time, and the volatility of data consumption. This book includes an essay by Massimiliano Gioni on her engagement with the social lives of images.

Critical insight into the gesturing hand piece from Kara Walker's monumental sugar sphinxKara Walker’s (born 1969) Figa, a sculpture monumental in both size and symbol, was installed at the DESTE Foundation’s Hydra Slaughterhouse in 2017. Once a part of Walker’s colossal 2014 installation A Subtlety at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, Figa is made up of the hand piece from the anamorphic sphinx that gestures a “fig sign,” at once both a symbol of fertility and a “fuck you.” In making a return to the site of the Sugar Factory work and the work’s progeny in Hydra, this book offers critical insight on A Subtlety and Figa. Through extensive photographic documentation of the installation of the hand sculpture in Hydra by Ari Marcopoulos and seven fables written by Walker illustrating the power of folklore, mythology and black identity across the history of the United States, Figa in book form captures a blockbuster exhibition in two parts.

Jeff Koons (born 1955) became prominent in the mid 1980s by targeting the meaning of art and spectacle in a media-saturated era. Since his first solo exhibition which consisted of small-scale assemblages of toys and found objects, his later works evolved into the now iconic monumental pieces which can be found permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. His methodical inquiry into the ways in which everyday items become works of art by reflecting our desires draws attention to the continuity of images as they pass through time, combining art historical references with colloquial imagery.This monograph, part of the 2000 Words series published by DESTE, features an essay by Massimiliano Gioni and Natalie Bell, which examines Koons' parallels to Duchamp and the function of readymades over the course of his career. Koons has created a prophecy fueled by the ecstasy of materialism, where the image or object becomes its own ouroboros consuming itself.

A rich panorama of Athens' thriving contemporary art scenePublished on the occasion of the 2019 exhibition The Same River Twice, organized by the DESTE Foundation and the New Museum in collaboration with the Benaki Museum in Athens, this catalog features the work of over 30 Athens-based artists of all ages and nationalities.From underground happenings and activist orientations to the rise of artist-run spaces and the critical realm of self-published art zines and journals, The Same River Twice offers a portrait of a city with an artistic dynamism that continues to unfold as artists seek new models for creative output and exchange.Artists include: Eleni Christodoulou, Anastasia Douka, Pavlos Fysakis, Eva Giannakopoulou, Delia Gonzalez, Navine G. Khan-Dossos/GTSA, Lakis & Aris Ionas/The Callas, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Katerina Komianou, Panayiotis Loukas, Petros Moris, Rallou Panagiotou, Angelos Papadimitriou, Vasilis Papageorgiou, Rena Papaspyrou, Eftihis Patsourakis, Anastasia Pavlou, Yorgos Prinos, Kostas Sahpazis, Socratis Socratous, Eva Stefani, Valinia Svoronou, Iris Touliatou and others.

A concise introduction to the subversive career of contemporary art’s great tricksterNew York– and Milan-based artist Maurizio Cattelan (born 1960) has provoked controversy and admiration alike with his subversive sculptures, installations and publications. His playful, satirical body of work—which includes Comedian (2019), a banana duct-taped to the wall at ArtBasel Miami Beach, and America (2016), the 18-karat gold toilet he later installed in the Guggenheim’s restroom—reflects a pointed critique of institutional and cultural norms in the art world and society at large.Part of the 2000 Words series conceived by Massimiliano Gioni and published by DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, this monograph contains an essay by Gioni that excerpts his previous writings on Cattelan, his close friend and collaborator.

Leading and emerging artists and recent exhibitions from Dakis Joannou’s DESTE FoundationMore than just a catalog of recent exhibitions, DESTE 33+: 2015–2022 is a map to the fascinating web of collaborations and friendships at the heart of Dakis Joannou’s curatorial world. A rich array of archival images and new essays lend an overarching view to the DESTE Foundation’s recent work. Studded with contributions by such artists as Urs Fischer, Kara Walker and Jeff Koons, it also introduces members of the younger generation continuing to shape and challenge contemporary art. "DESTE has always had a stake in the current climate," Joannou notes, and, even in the face of the pandemic’s upheaval, continues "engaging in a global dialogue and offering a platform for new voices." Eight years after the release of DESTE 33 Years: 1983–2015, which introduced a broad audience to the DESTE project, this volume is an essential primer on the state of art today.

Documenting Koons’ multisensory homage to the sun god, a timeless dialogue with ancient historyThe definitive record of Jeff Koons’ (born 1955) Apollo Wind Spinner, his transcendent offering to Apollo, this volume brings together lush plates of the eponymous 2022 DESTE exhibition alongside an essay by Daniel Birnbaum and an extensive interview with the artist by Dakis Joannou. Koons’ multisensory installation shone a light on the interwoven history of Greek myth, readymade sculpture and contemporary art to wide acclaim—so much so that the inhabitants of Hydra voted unanimously to have the work remain permanently installed on the roof of the DESTE Slaughterhouse building.The many threads of this particular story are explicated here through a detailed "glossary of terms," tracing references from Plato to Duchamp and enlightening the reader on one of Koons’ most distinctive works of the last decade.

Like a chessboard on which players showcase their skills, this amusing exhibition becomes a whole greater than its partsFriends and artists were invited by Massimiliano Gioni and Dakis Joannou to select works for The Greek Gift. The exhibition was assembled through a series of moves and countermoves. Like a chessboard on which the players showcase not only their skills, but their love of the game, the exhibition became a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Works from Cao Fei, Marcel Duchamp, Pipilotti Rist and more examine the impact of technology on the human imaginationA fresh perspective on the future of art and innovation, Dream Machines walks the line between utopia and paranoia, fearlessly exploring the interplay of man and machine. Amid the growing prominence of AI in our daily lives, the exhibition catalog encourages us to reflect: can we keep up with the evolution of our own creations?

Using Victor Turner's theory of states of limbo, Anti-Structure approaches an event horizon based on Urs Fischer's gravity-defying sculpturesNamed after a term coined by anthropologist Victor Turner, describing a state of limbo during a rite of passage, Anti-Structure places Urs Fischer's (born 1973) gravity-defying sculptures in dialogue with an eclectic assortment of artists from across time and genre including Nausica Pastra, George Lappas, Pantelis Xagoraris and Takis Zenetos.

Astonishing sculptures and canvases from a classically trained artist who embraced failure and repetition, experimenting with unorthodox approaches to casting and paintingBased on her posthumous 2022 exhibition Never Enough at the DESTE Foundation in Athens, this publication celebrates American artist Kaari Upson (1970–2021), who worked across mediums—including sculpture, video, drawing and painting—to probe the depths of our collective psyche. Over her brief yet prolific 15-year career, Upson developed an elaborate universe woven out of memory, conjecture, fact and fiction. Imbued with a mystical animism, each work merges personal and collective traumas, desires, fears and fantasies. The colorful design of the exhibition, which featured 31 artworks spanning Upson's career, is faithfully reproduced in the book, which includes an essay by Dakis Joannou about his friendship with the artist and how he acquired the works in the collection, as well as a history of the making of these works by the late artist's close friend and collaborator Michael Benevento.

Twenty-plus Greek and Cypriot artists from Generations Y and Z whose practices serve as prototypes for myriad possible futuresThe third in a series of collaborative exhibitions organized by the DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, In a Bright Green Field brings together the art of more than 20 Greek and Cypriot artists working in painting, sculpture, film, performance and other mediums.

Probing the many sites and sources of inspiration for Condo's vivid, paranoiac paintings and totemic sculpturesThis catalog documents Condo's (born 1957) exhibition The Mad and The Lonely, the site-specific installation at the DESTE Foundation's Project Space at the Slaughterhouse on the island of Hydra in Greece, which included a number of small-scale paintings and sculptures selected from the artist's long career and recontextualized in the storied space. With a vivid 40-page leporello, this square hardcover book includes a text by Dakis Joannou and an essay by Condo himself that probes the many sites and sources of inspiration for The Mad and The Lonely.

Ursu?a’s anachronistic artifacts transport viewers into a realm of ancient tropes, grotesque votives and scarred bronze figuresRomanian artist Andra Ursu?a (born 1979) draws from the visual language and display strategies of archaeological museums to invent faux-historical artifacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. Apocalypse Now and Then documents the titular site-specific installation in Hydra, Greece, wherein Ursu?a displayed fragments of sculptures and studio detritus that had been successively built up and destroyed with analog and digital tools, including Desolation Ware, a series of lost-wax cast bronze sculptures. In addition to ample installation shots, the volume explores the work’s themes—such as the history of object-making and sculpture and the ways in which this manually derived system of knowledge and speculation has come to shape our visual world—in new texts by DESTE founder, Dakis Joannou, curator Elena Filipovic and the artist herself.

Using Victor Turner's theory of states of limbo, Anti-Structure approaches an event horizon based on Urs Fischer's gravity-defying sculpturesNamed after a term coined by anthropologist Victor Turner, describing a state of limbo during a rite of passage, Anti-Structure places Urs Fischer's (born 1973) gravity-defying sculptures in dialogue with an eclectic assortment of artists from across time and genre including Nausica Pastra, George Lappas, Pantelis Xagoraris and Takis Zenetos.