information
CYPRUS: GREEN LINE | KOSOVO: NORTH-SOUTH MITROVICA | N. IRELAND: BELFAST | ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: BADME | WEST BANK- PALESTINE: WALL | INDIAN-PAKISTANI ADMINISTERED KASHMIR: LINE OF CONTROL | MEXICO-USA: BORDER FENCE
Walls have a longstanding relation both with liberty from fear and subjugation to another’s will. After 1945, walls acquired an unprecedented determination to divide. They spread like a bushfire from Berlin to Palestine, from the tablelands of Kashmir to the villages of Cyprus, from the Korean peninsula to the streets of Belfast. When the Cold War ended, we were told to expect their dismantling. Instead, they are growing taller, more impenetrable, longer. They leap from one continent onto the next. They are globalising. From the West Bank to Kosovo, from the gated communities of Egypt to those of California, from the killing fields of old Ethiopia to the US-Mexico borders, a seamless wall is meandering its way, both physically and emotionally, on the planet’s surface. Its spectre is upon us.
Yanis Varoufakis
biography
Danae Stratou was born in Athens, Greece. She studied Fine Arts and specialized in Sculpture and Installations at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London (1983-1988). She taught as Adjunct Professor at the Post-Graduate Program of the Superior School of Fine Arts in Athens (2007-2013).
Her work consists of large-scale site-specific installations and audio-visual environments. She uses various media ranging from digital and audio technology, video, photography as well as metal and natural materials and elements. The artist uses a minimal, geometric visual language and engages in contemporary issues such as the climate crisis, immigration, life in contemporary cities, the growth of population, the relation to the environment as well as political and social tensions worldwide. From 1997 until today he has a systematic presence in important group and solo exhibitions internationally.
Representative of her work are projects such as: Desert Breath (1997), one of the largest land art installations worldwide located in the Sahara Desert, The River of Life (2004), a video installation recording the flow and rhythm of the world’s seven largest rivers, and Cut – 7 Dividing Lines (2007), a photographic installation that investigates the connections between politically or religiously divided parts of the world, Upon the Earth Under the Clouds (2017), her largest site-specific installation in Greece conceived for the Old Mill and the ancient city of Eleusis. She has exhibited widely, including in the 48th Venice Biennale, Italy (1999), the 1st Valencia Biennale, Spain (2001), La Verriere, (Fondation D’ Enterprise Hermes) -Solo Show, Belgium (2010), Istanbul – Culture Capital of Europe 2010 International Program, Turkey (2010), the Adelaide International Festival 2012: Restless, Australia (2012).
In 2010 she initiated and co-founded the non-profit organization Vital Space, a global, interdisciplinary, cross-media art platform addressing the pressing issues of our time. Since 2016 he has been active in DiEM25 and has played a central role in the implementation of DiEM Voice, the movement's artistic platform, which aims to strengthen the dialogue between art and politics at a broader level.
She is Chair of mέta, the Centre for Post-capitalist Civilization, which through art and research, works to break with a dystopic present so as to imagine the world anew.