KALIMÉRA, KALIMÉRA

Performance action by visual artist PASHIAS at Herakleidon Museum, followed by the closing of exhibition “Oops! I broke the sun” at Space for International Cooperation [SiC]

Performance action: Holy Saturday, 19th of April, 11:00 AM, Herakleidon Museum, Herakleidon 16, 11851, Thiseio - Athens

Exhibition closing: Holy Saturday, 19th of April, 11:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Space for International Cooperation [SiC], Nileos 6, 11851, Thiseio - Athens

On Holy Saturday, 19th of April, before the celebration of sunrise service welcoming the dawn of Easter Sunday, visual artist PASHIAS invites the public at 11 o’clock in the morning to join his performance action “KALIMÉRA, KALIMÉRA”. In collaboration with the Herakleidon Museum in Thiseio, PASHIAS will take over the neoclassical building’s façade, appearing onto its balcony with an amphora on his shoulder. In his long-standing research of historical artefacts and narratives as tools for understanding our present social conditions, PASHIAS parallels the clay body with the human body, visually and conceptually, as universal vessels carrying, safekeeping and spilling materialities, notions, images and values. Every Holy Saturday at 11 o’clock in the morning, the islanders οf Corfu go out onto their balconies to throw away the ‘old’ and welcome the ‘new’, repeating the ritual breaking of pottery, as connected to ancient Greek and later Venetian customs of purification. This shattering gesture results into deafening noises exorcising all evil, and into heaps of clay fragments to take away for good luck throughout the year.

PASHIAS tells us ‘kaliméra’, good morning, expanding this ceremonial act into the unending circle of light and darkness, of life, death and rebirth, through the release of materiality from its defined shape, the release of water into a shared cleansing experience. This live action is the last chapter of exhibition “Oops! I broke the sun”, inviting audience members to its closing, at Space for International Cooperation [SiC], next to the Herakleidon Museum, from 11:30 AM until 3:30 PM. The exhibition is part of the joint artist residency programme of organization Art Futures - Serendipity in Action based in Amsterdam and [SiC], selecting PASHIAS as their Art Futures Fellow 2025. In his Athens residency, the artist visited archeological sites, museums, archives and educational institutions, souvenir shops and touristic representations of culture, interacting with archeologists, curators, academics and craftspeople. PASHIAS created an amalgamation of performance, installation, documentation means and community-based exchanges, opening up space for dialogue, empathy and togetherness.

Coordination: Vasiliki Papakosta, Georgios Papadopoulos