fleVes eco project

 ΟΙΚΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ  ΕΥΣΥΝΕΙΔΗΣΙΑ In Situ

It is not the recognition of meaning that is important, but the purpose behind the meaning.

Purpose is important.

Modern artworks are created in the private studios of the creators and are then exhibited to the public.

The eco project FleVes is about the creative approach of the visual art community regarding the violent landscape change stemming from human activity. It is an exploration of its ecological dimension through images that portray the human footprint on the rapidly changing landscape.

Man’s power over the environment, especially in recent years, is the reason behind the symbolic intervention on the island of Fleves and the purification of its beaches from the sea-borne waste. The artists used this in order to create visual art. This art is created by the actual waste itself, which was collected from the island in October 2018. It was initially exhibited at the Kallithea Marine on 20 January 2019, and the purpose of the exhibition was to amplify the ecological awareness of the public through presentations, visual events and workshops. The purpose of the intervention is symbolic, inspired by the name fleVes + Φλέβες, which refers to the internal organs of the human body and its extension as part of the natural environment.

Asking the question of what happens to us internally and the landscape image changed?

Starting with this question, the group of artists participating in fleVes (the eco project) and Tidal Flow Art (a non-profit making company dedicated to the arts), which co-ordinates the group, submits ideas, and creates projects, comes into contact with the public, trains and are trained through a collective process in order to explore the rationale of ecological consciousness.

What is happening to us? What can we change? Where can we begin from in order to be meaningful and delimited regarding the way we should behave in the environment in which we exist?

How can art help with that and become a communicator with meaningful results?

Participating Artists :

Sofia Kyriacou

Μanolis Merambeliotis

Anthi Zahou

Penelope Kouvara

Penny Gkeka

Αpostolos Papageorgiou

Chrysa Skordaki

 Paulina Kyritsopoulou

 Stavroula Kaziale

Lydia Margaroni

Μaria Andonatou

Thomas Galatos

Eva Rentzou

In the context of the fleVes exhibition, The eco art project, a two-hour art workshop was held by the artist Sofia Kyriakou on Sunday, January 20, 2019, from 15:00 to 17:00, entitled

“How do you prefer the beach?” Based on the action that took place on the island of Fleves which was cleaned by a group of visual artists to make visual works with the materials they found there.

The children printed on the paper reflections of the surface of the sea with references to the work of D. Hockney, while under the surface they drew waste that they captured with the collage technique and with painting.
The purpose of the workshop is for them to learn how they can see through the perspective of visual language with a careful eye their everyday life, learning that protecting the environment is a conscious daily practice and that it concerns us all as we are an integral part of this environment.

fleVes, The eco art project is an ecological proposal made for the first time with the concerted effort of the art community to give a new perspective to the awareness of the protection of the natural environment.

On March 21, 2019, Tidal Flow Art is organizing an event dedicated to poetry in support of the ecological project fleVes at the Coco mat hotel in Kolonaki. Artists and poets collaborate for a good cause with interactive projects and works inspired by poets focusing on nature and ecology. The purpose of the organization is to contact the public to spread the action of the visual community on Fleves Island regarding how waste can become a poetic discourse and how poetic discourse can become an occasion to think about nature.

The participating artists
they are: Sophia Kyriakou, Anthi Zachou,
Penelope Kouvara, Penny Geka, Manolis Merabeliotis,
Apostolos Papageorgiou, Chryssa Skordakis, Manina Koudounis, Polina Kyritsopoulou,
Stavroula Kaziale, Lydia Margaroni and Thomas Galatos.

A new collaboration started with the Municipality of Dionysos. With the presentation of the intervention and cleaning of the coasts on the island of Fleves and then the presentation of a workshop on “How do you prefer the beach?”
by the visual artist Sofia Kyriakou.

There will be a retrospective of the action and a reference to the works made by the participating artists with the waste collected from the beach. This will be followed by a workshop based on art history and the experiential nature of art, as this can be the occasion to sensitize children to act protectively in relation to the natural environment, as children and later as adults. To feel nature as an extension of the human organism. To think that their action and attitude every day will determine the future of the planet, because finally we can take a stand and change our view on environmental protection.

Lately much publicity has been given to the destruction brought about by the thoughtless use of plastic and the unconscious acts of human recreation (inflatables, plastic toys, disposable products, etc.). Because it is not enough just to clean the beaches, but above all we need to become conscious consumers.Τα συμπεράσματα από την ποιοτική έρευνα carried out by the visual artist Sofia Kyriakou, prove that the most important issue arising in changing attitudes is conscious consideration of the first parameters of human-caused disasters on the planet, such as species extinction, climate change, deforestation, air pollution and of waters etc., 2nd, taking responsibility and finding meaningful solutions, such as for example the conscious consumption of products, 3rd the protection of the environment as a daily practice.  These three positions are the ones that will be approached through art for active action and consciousness. So that we learn to live harmoniously and protectively as rational beings in a meaningful relationship with our environment.