Georgia Sagri: IASI
Thursday 3 September - Saturday 10 October
From January to March this year, Sagri worked with individual participants via private and anonymous one-to-one sessions as part of her research into self-care and recovery – a 10 year long body of research which includes voice tuning, breathing exercises and movement techniques. The upcoming exhibition in September (which began this January and prematurely closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic) will showcase the case studies developed over the three month period, taking shape in the form of performances, objects, drawings and writings by the artist. A screening of a performance by Sagri titled Breathing (5-1-5) which took place in Mimosa House in March 2020 will feature as well.
Sagri’s ongoing research was the basis for her iconic work Dynamis, which featured at documenta 14 (Kassel and Athens, 2017) and involved sharing these techniques with 200+ members of the public across the two cities. During this process, Sagri observed an improvement in the general wellbeing of participants, and continues to explore the stages of recovery in her work, IASI.
The collaboration with Mimosa House is Georgia Sagri’s first institutional exhibition in the UK, and is also the inauguration of her research practice IASI, and her long-term commitment to working directly with the public. This chapter of her research is being developed in overlapping phases across three international organisations, each of which will host Sagri’s one-to-one sessions, research and respective case studies. The organisations are Mimosa House in the United Kingdom, TAVROS in Greece, and De Appel in the Netherlands.
In February 2020, Sagri introduced her project IASI at Mimosa House, in conversation with institutional allies Daria Khan (Mimosa House, United Kingdom), Maria-Thalia Carras (TAVROS, Greece), and Monika Szewczyk (De Appel, The Netherlands) – a video of the conversation is available to view here: https://youtu.be/m8C8fhRadlE
Addressing the pathologies of our time, Georgia Sagri identifies her role in this process: “... to support, listen and navigate with each participant the compass of their discomfort, and its causes and effects. The treatments are approached as a creative practice, in which we work together through voice, gesture and movement techniques. Each participant will find movements and behaviours that allow them to learn from their pain, become stronger and empowered, and facilitate the potential of further self-recovery”
On the project, curator and Mimosa House founder Daria Khan has said:
“Georgia Sagri’s ‘IASI’ brings a unique and new opportunity to Mimosa House: to explore the impact of artistic practice on the public, as well as to ask wider questions about artist labour, self-care and pathologies of our time. ‘IASI’ is an experiment in establishing in-depth collaboration with individual members of the audience, through a process of sharing knowledge and bodily practice which have a long lasting effect beyond the exhibition’s timeframe and space.”
The exhibition will be open to the public from 3 September to 10 October at Mimosa House on Princes Street, London.
Should the government’s guidelines change and impact the opening of this exhibition, we will communicate this via social media and newsletter.
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About Georgia Sagri
Georgia Sagri (b. 1979, Athens) lives and works in Athens (GR). At the centre of her practice lies an exploration of performance as an ever-evolving field within social and visual life. Much of her work is influenced by her ongoing engagement in political movements and struggles, regarding issues of autonomy, empowerment and self-organisation. Her book Ίαση: Stage of Recovery will be published by Devided Press on March 2021. In 2014 Sagri initiated Ύλη[matter]HYLE (hyle.gr) a semi-public/semi-private space in the center of Athens, Greece. Her first monograph catalogue was published by Sternberg Press, following her solo exhibitions Georgia Sagri Georgia Sagri at Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Georgia Sagri and I at Portikus. She is the Tenure professor of Performance at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Georgia Sagri has exhibited internationally in various solo and group exhibitions: Portikus, Frankfurt/ Main, Germany (2018); Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2017, 2018); Cycladic Museum, Athens Greece (2017); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2016); Sculpture Center, New York, USA (2016); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2016, 2015); Forde, Geneva, Switzerland (2015); Kunsthalle Basel Switzerland (2014); MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2013); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2013); Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (2011); MoMA, New York, USA (2011); Macedonian Museum, Thessaloniki, Greece (2011); The Dakis Joannou Collection, DESTE Foundation, Athens, Greece (2006). Sagri has also participated in documenta 14 (2017), Manifesta 11 (2016), Istanbul; Biennial (2015), Lyon Biennial (2013), Whitney Biennial (2012), Thessaloniki Biennial (2011), and Athens Biennial (2007).
Exhibition and Public Programme kindly supported by Arts Council England.