MARIA KONTI
“Anna
Cecilia Maria Unknown”
13. 11. 2007 - 22. 12. 2007
vamiali’s gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition
of Greek artist Maria Konti entitled “Anna Cecilia Maria Unknown”.
The artist presents an installation consisted of twelve drawings made
by carbon on Fabriano paper, a large drawing on watercolor paper as well
as an architectural model. The exhibition is being accompanied by a publication
with different texts in 250 numbered and signed copies. The drawings are
different copies of two female portraits by Leonardo Da Vinci, made by
carbon paper.The first one is Cecilia Gallerani, “The Lady with
an Ermine”, (1490) and the second one, which might not be an original
work by Da Vinci, pictures an unknown woman “La Belle Ferroniere”,
(1490). Each one of these two portraits is drawn 6 times, the final result
in Konti’s multiple drawings is a fine trace of blue ink with a
careful selection of the paper texture. For Konti every thin line has
its own semeiology and every different paper its own qualities. The large
drawing, also drawn with carbon, is taken from one of the most classic
paintings by Da Vinci, “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne”,
(1502-06).
In
the architectural model is reconstructed the interior of a pharmacy, a
simplified uncomplicated construction made out of plain materials (model
paper and wood). On the shelves that supposed to place the medicines is
placed the publication with the texts. The size of the model corresponds
to the size of a large scale dollhouse.
Maria Konti repeats the same gesture as an attempt for further discovery. She created three visual stories from the fictional past, the past and the present. The drawings are not sharp, mechanical reproductions of the original work. She adds and takes off those elements in each drawing that provide the translation of the object and the subject by encouraging multiple readings. She uses the female figure with biographical data that is located in the distant past through the centuries. These figures start from the beginning of the millennium, travel through Renaissance period and end up at the present. They are portraits of “real” women that they have passed to the sphere of mythical, of the sacred existence because of their fate and that have been transformed into myths not because of their biographical life but because of the endurance of art.
Maria Konti was born in Athens where she lives and works. She studied in Athens School of Fine Art and Central St. Martins College in London. She has participated in many exhibitions including "Common View", National Theatre (forthcoming 2008), in Byzantine Museum, Athens (2005), "The dismantle of the archive", D624 Project Space, Athens (solo, 2006), "Pro-Tasis", Action Field Kodra, Thessaloniki (2006).
All drawings "Anna, Cecilia, Maria, Unknown", ink and pencil on paper, 77x107cm each, 2007
All drawings "Anna, Cecilia, Maria, Unknown", ink and pencil on paper, 77x107cm each, 2007, installation view
"Anna, Cecilia, Maria, Unknown", ink and pencil on paper, 166x204cm, 2007