monsters+monsters ::: Solo Ausstellung Vasso Tzouti

In the organizer's words:

monsters+monsters at the xpon-art gallery

Solo exhibition Vasso Tzouti

Opening on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 7 pm

The artist will be present

Open afterwards until November 24, 2024

What a Body Can Do: A politics of desire for monstrous beings that mean something

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A body is a site of struggle: what it can do, what it should do, what its parts should look like and which body parts may be used for which actions, and how - all of this is controlled by a complex structure of social norms, ideals of beauty, and rigid biological definitions. Deviations from the norm pose a threat to established orders and often lead to sanctions aimed at the body itself.

Greek artist Vasso Tzouti's exhibition explores bodies that defy entrenched expectations and rules, denouncing an increasingly neoliberal language that denies existential vulnerability. Her "monsters" are not objects of observation, but look back at the viewer - and make the viewer himself the object of observation. Tzouti's works celebrate bodies in flux, which have neither clearly defined boundaries nor fixed identities, but are instead porous and vulnerable. These "monstrous" bodies break through the notion of an autonomous, untouched and normative body and show that physicality also means fragility and ambivalence.

The works pose the question: What can bodies do when they refuse to conform to the norm? Tzouti presents figures who define themselves through their own pleasure and whose bodies not only passively please, but actively disturb and irritate. The themes of pleasure and resistance are interwoven in her depictions of non-normative bodies - be it through oversized genitalia, animalistic features or deliberately distorted body representations.

These bodies are political statements. They demand the right to pleasure as a form of resistance and raise the question of who decides how bodies should be and what they are allowed to do, and with which body parts. Tzouti's "monsters" embody the freedom to disregard hegemonic rules through practices of pleasure. Recalcitrance becomes resistance.

About the artist:

Tzouti's work is dedicated to the deconstruction of norms and categories. With her series of "monsters", she opens up a space for alternative physicalities and shows that the potential of bodies lies in their non-conformity.

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If you have any questions, please contact us, if you are thirsty, too. We don't offer anything we wouldn't drink ourselves. Drinks are available for a donation. Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it.

We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions of contemporary art between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public.

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Duration:

Thursday, 14.11.2024 to Sunday, 24.11.2024

Opening hours:

Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from 6 - 9 pm and n. V.

Vernissage:

Thursday, 14.11.2024 at 7 pm

Finissage:

Sunday, 24.11.2024 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Venue:

xpon-art gallery

Repsoldstraße 45

20097 Hamburg

www.xpon -art.de

We will inform you about deviating opening hours on our homepage, our Instagram account @xponartgallery and our Facebook page facebook.com/xponart

In the course of the exhibition, 360° views will be added to the homepage, especially for those who still have to avoid a visit.

We ask you to think about Corona and the flu epidemic and to behave accordingly.

With the kind support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media

Price information:

Free admission, because everyone should have access to culture. However, you are welcome to make a donation if you would otherwise honor it. Drinks are available for a donation. We don't offer anything that we wouldn't drink ourselves. We conceive these exhibitions and run this space because we think it is important that there are constant and challenging positions between state museums and commercial galleries on the one hand and changing platforms for emerging art on the other - on the one hand to better promote artists who are not yet established, and on the other to create a more vibrant culture for communication between art and the public.