Papatheodorou-Valyrakis' retrospective exhibition in Syros

Almost every summer, in Ermoupoli, Syros, Greece, I visit the exhibitions held during Ermoupoleia, the annual cultural festival of Syros. Many of them are held in the Pinacotheque of Cyclades, hosted next to the old customs office building, at the Warehouses in the port of Ermoupoli, and honestly that's the main reason I love visiting the exhibitions so much! Last august I attended the retrospective exhibition of Mina Papatheodorou-Valyraki, a figure that always puzzled me. The subjects of her big-sized paintings, for the ones unfamiliar with her work, are machines, vehicles such as cars, race cars and ships, cranes, sport related subjects, etc, all portrayed in a dynamic powerful manner with flashy colours and thick black lines.

I love her car series

What did you think she might look like after seeing her paintings?

Through her paintings I imagined her strong-willed, wild, kinda angry in a 'feministic' way, full of energy bursting outwards. I imagined her controlling and needless of men, bossy and probably not that good-looking but impressive woman. A chubby short brown fuzzy haired feminist. Yeah. Except that she looks nothing like that at all! I was right about the impressive part at least. I feel her looks are so contrasting to her work! She could be Barbie's mother or aunt.

See more of her art and the artist herself here: http://www.minapapatheodorou.gr/

Part of the jet-set for a good old time, she looks like the kind of person that never was deprived of anything, and maybe that played a huge role in her artistic success. Nonetheless, her work captivates me, and even though it's often not in sync with my personal aesthetics, it doesn't fail to gain my respect. Jet-set, creme de la creme, through a beneficial marriage, young money madame or not, she's worth attention and her career proves she got it.

I love to go close up to her paintings and look how the paint is stuck on the canvas in thick specks. Artists that work with big quantities of material fascinate me, probably because I was never capable of something like that myself, not only because it costs a lot (lol) but also because it's not in my character to be that brave, especially with colour. I rather work in small details, than grand gestures.

Rubber duckyyyyyyyy

So the famous huge rubber duck installation by Florentijn Hofman has arrived in Seoul in october 2014, after appearing in many cities around the world since 2007. Everybody talks about it in Seoul, the news mention it etc, and of course I went to have a look myself, mostly cause I happened to fancy mega art! There's a special place in my heart for enormous art pieces exhibited in open public spaces and I happened to be aware of Hofman's work. So, the ducky is floating in the Seokchon east pond, right next to Jamsil station, and the autumn colours of the surrounding trees suit it nicely :)

But similar photos (less pretty than mine of course lol) you can see pretty much everywhere. What most won't show you is the very characteristic craze in which most Koreans respond to such events.. So many people that you can barely see the pond water behind them at the closest to the ducky part of the path. The beautiful pictures above where taken from the sides exactly because of the crowd. It creates mixed feelings in me. I hate it cause the crowds never allow me to enjoy an event, while I also feel like it has to do more with following trends that genuine curiosity about art. The brand new (horribly unfinished and notoriously troubling during construction) Lotte world tower has already attracted crowds and abandant attention to the area. On the other hand, it's always nice when people are willing to take a glimpse of something arty even if the motive is a bit shallow. Seoulists at least seem interested and up for anything, which I concider a healthy habbit.

 All that being said it would be a blessing if garbage wasn't left behind for once!!!!

The pop-up shop is plain ridiculessly overprised. You have to wait in line just to get inside the container itself and the merchandise is all too simple and  not worth it. Plus the rubber duckies are sold out :( myeh myeh

So, i do suggest that in case you visit, you go round the pond and enjoy the beautiful path under the trees while taking photos of the ducky, instead of getting packed in front of it as if you were in the zoo.
 Also, in case you guys are interested in mega art like me, why don't you have a look at this edition: 
Overs!ze - the mega art and installations by Victionary. I personally enjoyed it a lot :)