Αn original hybrid exhibition by PCAI
in collaboration with J. & A. N. Diomedes Botanic Garden
Opening: Thursday 22 September, 4pm – 7pm
Sheltered Gardens is a hybrid, visual arts exhibition featuring more than 35 international artists, writers and performers. Inspired by H.D.’s poem Sheltered Garden (1916) and taking place in J. & A. N. Diomedes Botanic Garden, one of the largest and most important botanical gardens in the Mediterranean, PCAI’s new multimedia programme includes numerous new commissions and performances. Opening on 22 September, Sheltered Gardens will unfold through an online, digital exhibition available at pcai.gr, a limited edition publication, a contemporary art group exhibition and a series of performances at the Diomedes Botanic Garden in Athens.
From Sasha Velour’s drag performances to Linder’s punk photomontage and from Chris Kraus’ super 8 films to Leda Papaconstantinou’s poetic narratives, the exhibition sets as a virtual tour among climbing plants, bamboo clusters and she-shed greenhouses. It acquires a physical existence turning into performances, archives and traces of ecosystems and arguments rising within contemporary female gardens. Sheltered Garden (1916), by avant-garde imagist American H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), constitutes the exhibition’s starting point. A poem on H.D.’s relationship with nature depicting her quests as an early 20th century queer writer. Kinship with mother Earth, as a mythological aspect of cosmogony, garden as an archetype and gender inequalities have been discussed in many significant works by female writers. Alice Walker’s book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983), expresses the author’s own quest on ancestral past, art and identity as an African-American woman during a challenging period for human rights in the United States. In 1919, Virginia Woolf dedicated one of her first works to Kew Royal Botanic Gardens of London, while her personal reflections on issues such as spatiality and gender were vigorously captured in her renowned essay A Room of One’s Own (1929). Sheltered Gardens exhibition is an original hybrid environment referencing Donna Haraway’s (Cyborg Manifesto, 1985) rejection of rigid identity boundaries and spatial-physical restraints and proposing alternative, creative and environmental quests in times of turbulence.
Participating artists: Margarita Athanasiou, Eleni Bagaki, Michel Delsol, Kathleen Hanna & the Julie Ruin, Evan Ifekoya, Irini Karayannopoulou, Lito Kattou, Chris Kraus, Linder, Polonca Lovšin, Campus Novel, Selina Nwulu, Leda Papaconstantinou, Eva Papamargariti, Afroditi Psarra, Gloria Steinem, Eva Stefani, Maria Varela, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), Marina Velisioti, Sasha Velour
Curator: Kika Kyriakakou
The exhibition is organised with the support and the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the support of the British Council and Flunet Productions.
Public programme
From 22 to 24 September, a series of live performances, readings and workshops will take place in the Diomedes Botanic Garden. The entrance is free, by timed ticket booked in advance online at diomedes-bg.gr. Find out more about the public programme ΗΕRE
Participating artists: Theodoros Chiotis, Phoebe Giannisi, Ermira Goro, I broke the vase, Dimitra Ioannou, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Leda Papaconstantinou, Aris Papadopoulos & Martha Pasakopoulou, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), VIGIL (Despina Sanida-Krezia & Fotini Stamatelopoulou), Iria Vrettou.
Curated by: Kika Kyriakakou and VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis)
More about J. & A. N. Diomedes Botanic Garden
The Julia and Alexander N. Diomedes Botanic Garden is one of the largest Botanic Gardens in Greece and East Mediterranean. It was founded in 1951, with the bequest of Alexandros Diomedes and it operates as a Legal Entity of Private Law. With the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and under the supervision of Konstantinos Mitrakos, Professor of Botany of the University of Athens, the configuration works, based on the blueprints of Professor Herta Hammerbacher of the University of Berlin, were completed. In 1975, a major part of the works was finished, and the garden opened officially to the public.
Physical exhibition: 22 September – 9 October, 2022, 4pm-7pm
Digital exhibition: 22 September – 30 November, 2022 via pcai.gr
Performances in the Garden: 22-24 September, 2022, find out more at pcai.gr
Address: Iera Odos 403, Chaidari, Athens
Free entrance, by timed ticket booked in advance via diomedes-bg.gr
From September 22 to 24, there will be shuttle transportation from Aghia Marina metro station to Diomedes Botanic Garden at 15:50, 16:10, 16:30, 16:50, 17:10, 17:30, 17:50, 18:10, 18:30. The last departure from D.B.G to the metro is at 20:00.
Spread the word and use the hashtags
#shelteredgardens #pcai #diomedesbotanicgarden
With the support of:
Activity aligned with Goals 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17