Aggelika Korovessi’s (born 1952) exhibition opening in the halls of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece initiates a conversation between contemporary Greek sculpture and its ultimate origin, the sculpture of ancient Greece. This is certainly not the first time that modern works of art are exhibited in major international museums’ halls but there is a uniqueness to this specific exhibition as it manages to abolish the vacuum between creation in the prehistoric past and in the present, instead bringing the focus to the ever-present creativity of man. Numerous connotations and co-declarations challenge the viewer to participate in concurrent meditations, whose meaning depends on the spectator’s experience.
So, in Hall 4, next to the Mycenaean Period findings and right next to jewels with herbal imagery from that same era, we can witness Korovessi’s “Evolution Disk” (Olon), containing ten soundgraphs, each one belonging to a geometrical shape or image. The ancient language and writing of the Mycenaeans, Linear B, coexists dialectically with elements from modern Greek. Equal harmony reigns between the vibrant imagery found in a copper 15th century handbook, depicting seascapes with navigators in its embossed decoration (a finding from the vaulted graves of Vafeio in Lakonia) and Korovessi’s stainless steel “Rowing”. Here, the depiction of the element of water links the two civilizations.
Hall 7-8, is home to the Amphora of Dipylon, a work from 760-750 BC, which was found in the cemetery of Kerameikos and compares the rhythmic balance between the meander pattern and the will of the departed. Next to it sits Korovessi’s “Sonic Alphabet”, which was created for this exhibition and depicts each letter of the Greek alphabet along with is waveform. If we think of the amphora as a sculpture with a dynamic presence, we can also consider ‘Sonar Alphabet’ to be an utterance of sculpture.
In Hall 9, we bear witness to the Kouros Couple, obviously the marble archaic statues of two brothers, from the Tombstone of Tanagra, made of limestone in the first quarter of the 6th century BC. Konstantinos Romeos has noted correctly that the essence of the sculpture is about unseen, latent movement. In the same hall there is the colossal head of a Kouros from Dipylon, a work dated back to 610 BC. Korovessi’s “Bonds” (made of stone, wood and iron with the use of a simple ancient agricultural tool, the harrow) flanked by the sculptures of the hall, highlights yet another interpretation of the rustic duet and the element of luck in each execution. In both works we note a relationship free of pretence or afterthought.
The marble statue of the free, winged goddess Nike from Delos in Hall No. 11 (a bold attempt, for 550 BC, to depict striding movement as it was placed in the position of the acroterium in the pediment of a temple) has a somewhat awkward sense of movement. In the same hall there is a rigid Kouros from Milos (also dated 550 BC), whose body is about to take a step. Korovessi’s “Flight”, is a kind of compensation for these two statues. Its direction, highlighted by a number of upward successive diagonals, gives a baroque element to the structure of the design, which is also present in the second work of the sculptress exhibited in the same hall, “Air”. Located right next to the marble bass relief tombstones from Attiki, this work introduces us to the aesthetic of sanctity.
Two marble archaic kouroi are exhibited in Hall 13, the first from Kea and the second, named Kroissos, from Anavissos, both dating back to 530 BC. Behind their stocky but lean posture, lies Korovessi’s work “Transmutations”, made of wood, iron, glass and bronze, a triad of totem-like figureheads mirroring the same vertical arrangement. In the far end of the same hall, just behind the most recent-dated kouros of the museum’s exhibition, Aristodikos (480 BC), “lean and able in his youth, just holding back a smile” (as described by poet Christos Karouzos), stands the artist’s “Balancer Changes”, made of bronze and stainless steel. A reminder of a free man’s continuous critical instinct to self-regulate.
The grandiose brazen statue of Zeus located in Hall 15, which was found in the sea of Artemisio, dates back to nearly one generation after Aristodikos, to around 460-450 BC. Its X-shaped posture along with its godlike head epitomises the inner strength of its form which the artist reflects with her works “Fisherman” and “Balancer Perhaps” (stainless steel and bronze). In these works, the figure’s movement turns into an agonising balancing act between life and death.
The work “Freedom” in which the birds fly away, taking away with them all kinds of earthly burdens and worries is placed at the staircase on the ascend to the first floor. The fluidity of the soundform and the ‘boat of Hades’ in the work ‘Water’ in Hall 17 turns the insuperable informality of the figures that have crossed the legendary river Acherontas (including the exceptionally carved Archestrati) into an other-worldly experience.
The central exhibit of Hall 21 is a horse mounted by an Artemisian rider, dating back to the 2nd century BC and characterised by an urge to flee on a diagonal axis. Korovessi’s work “Agon”, consisting of several minutely processed figures, made of brass, stands in agreement. On the right side of the hall, lies the artist’s work “Horsepower” (bronze), which presents a transformation of the natural horse to a mechanical object, a motorcycle, a speed-driven Moloch equivalent for our times. This work is located between Diadoumenos from Delos (100 BC and a copy of a work by Polykleitos), and the footing for the statue of a young athlete (currently on loan to an exhibition in Berlin and possibly a copy of a similar work by Polykleitos, from about 440 BC).
The Hall of the Stone Sanctuary, found near Thiseio, dating back to about 210 BC and dedicated from the Municipality of Athens to the goddess Aphrodite and the three Graces, is currently home to the work “Air” (limestone and brass) structured by a composition of sticks with bell endings, reminiscent of reeds in the wind. In the same hall we find a marble relief pedestal from the Cave of the Nymphs in Penteli, and a marble statue of Pan, from Sparta. Just before exiting the hall, on the right side stands the body of Aphrodite, a copy of the original from Praxitelis, created in the later Hellenistic Period. In the same corner the artist’s work named “Eros” (wood, iron, pigment), presents the waveform of the same word.
In the Epidavros Hall 22, right in front of the sculptures taken from the pediment of the Temple of Asclepius depicting the Fall of Troy which date back to 390-380 BC, stand two works by Korovessi, entitled “Peace” in Spanish as well as in English. Two bronze compositions, consisting of parallel vertical units, fluctuate from the center towards the ends thus simulating the structure of the pediment. Right in front of the currently empty pedestal where the statue of the Anticythera Youth should be, a work dating back to about 340 BC which was found at the bottom of the area and is one of the very few statues of large proportions that has been salvaged along with several other statues, stands Korovessi’s work “Sea Travelers” made of stainless steel, bronze and stainless wire rope. This suspended vibrant composition feels as if it is traveling, just like the youth of Anticythera.
Right in front of the Roman sarcophagus which is exhibited in Hall 33, stands the artist’s work “Life”, made of wood, bronze, and strings. A musical instrument based on the title’s soundwave. This anthropomorphic figurine is transformed into a kind of speaker, pouring out echoes of the pulsational vibrations of the strings, the sound of Life. The two works symbolise two aspects of life; the sarcophagus guards it, the figure releases it.
Through all of the works exhibited, Aggelika Korovessi persists in investigating and wondering about primordial concepts and structures of human history. Language and its sound, materials and their meanings, constitute crucial aspects of her sculpture. By comparing and contrasting her work with works from the most glorious moments of ancient greek sculpture inside the National Archaeological Museum, she manages to highlight the personal uniqueness of her own artistic creations.