• Athènes n’est pas en Grèce

  • Presentation

    Mylène Jampanoï

    Le Corbusier once said : « I would rather draw than talk. Drawing is
    quicker and leaves less space to lie ». Mylène Jampanoï’s drawings, a
    french artists that works in Athens, are just like that : personal, sensitive
    but objectives. Her portraits, with a pure and precise line invoke
    Cocteau’s. Just like the jack-of-all-trades poet of the twentieth century
    was greatly inspired by antic stories, the faces drawn by Mylène Jamanoï
    evoke those of Olympus godesses and gods. « I always prefered mythology
    over History, because history is a truth that gets twisted from mouth to
    mouth and becomes lie, whereas the myth, from mouth to mouth gains
    strenghts and becomes true » explained Cocteau in The Greek prestige in
    1960. For the artist, the drawn figures transcribe a greek mythology both
    fantasized and personal, and her faces, with accents of ancient divinities,
    remind us of Alekos Fassianos’s, a greek contemporary artist for whom
    mythological myths have had a major influence. The link between her art
    and poetry is obvious, and some of her drawings even come with poems.
    Mylène Jampanoï studied at FEMIS (the National School of Image and
    Sound Professions) in screenplay between 2016 and 2018 where she
    discovered the power of writing. She considers drawing as a form of
    writing and as the best extension of her work and of her life.

     

    Marina Mankarios

    « Hilarious, laughing out loud, the moulder deforms, shifts, mixes : when
    Achille has his stomach in his heels Morpheus lowers his arms and the
    beautiful Hélène begins to do a handstand … now free to leave his mold and
    manhandle his models, our moulder finally becomes a sculptor. »
    This is the story that Marina Mankarios offers to us in order to understand
    her work. The sculptress uses the mold as a major tool of creation, that she
    hijacks until we completely forget its very use. Molding allow not only
    duplication and reproduction of works but also, paradoxically, a liberated
    creation that plays with the very principle of imitation. But what is the use
    of the molding if it is not to copy an artwork ? The principle of the mold is
    indeed generally associated to serial reproduction of sculptures. However,
    the artist offers us a different interpretation and use of the technique of
    molding. « the moulder deforms, shifts, mixes » she says. The molding
    considered successful is the one that hides its very essence of copying.
    Conversely, Marina Mankarios plays around the technique of reproduction
    by emphasizing the process. In this manner, she plays with deformation,
    shifting of works. The model and the copy differ, but no matter, this is the
    aim of the sculptress that incorporates error into her work in order to
    deconstruct premade concepts of traditional aesthetic and create moving
    and animated figures.

  • press release (Fr)
  • press release (En)

Athens is everywhere, in our lifestyles, our philosophies, our customs, but especially in art – ancient and contemporary.  Today, Athens is invited to the sobering gallery through the eyes of two artists: Marina Mankarios and Mylène Jampanoï.

In 1755, Johann Joachim Winckelmann defined Greek art as follows: “a noble simplicity and a quiet grandeur, both in attitude and in expression, here is the general trait that distinguishes par excellence the Greek masterpieces”. Ancient Greco-Roman art constitutes a corpus of images that has entered popular culture and is generally elevated to the rank of epitome of beauty and perfection.

Marina Mankarios and Mylène Jampanoï revisit Ancient Greece by assimilating its artistic language in a free relation to the History of Art and to this fantasized culture. Thanks to technology, which allows a better capacity of production and reproduction, as well as through various inspirations and mediums – painting, sculpture, but also drawing, engraving, cinema, photography – the two emerging artists propose their own interpretation of the myth of an apparently white and immaculate ancient Greece, with a timeless and universal character.

Marina Mankarios, Achille fragmenté, 2022, Plâtre, 57 x 40 x 32 cm.
Marina Mankarios, Chute ornementale, 2022, Plâtre, 43 x 60 x 23 cm.
Marina Mankarios, Fragments #11, 2021, Plâtre, 24,5 x 12 x 13 cm.
Mylène Jampanoï, Athéna, 2022, Technique mixte, 80 x 70 cm
Mylène Jampanoï, Athéna, 2022, Mixed technique, 60 x 50 cm (UNAVAILABLE)
Mylène Jampanoï, Ama, 2022, Technique mixte, 30 x 40 cm
Mylène Jampanoï, Ama, 2022, Mixed technique, 30 x 40 cm (UNAVAILABLE)
Mylène Jampanoï, Thémis, 2022, Technique mixte, 50 x 70 cm
Mylène Jampanoï, Thémis, 2022, Mixed technique, 50 x 70 cm (UNAVAILABLE)
Exhibition view, Athènes n’est pas en Grèce, artworks by Marina Mankarios and Mylène Jampanoï.