Art exhibition "Ark of Speech. Art and Writing"

From the letter and the word to the symbol and the visual act, writing becomes the axis of the group exhibition “Ark of the Word. Art and Writing”, which opens on Sunday, October 18th, 2026, at 12:00 p.m., at the Kalamata Dance Megaron (Black Box Hall), curated by art historian Bia Papadopoulou.

The exhibition is organised by the Visual Arts Department of the Municipality of Kalamata, under the direction of Panagiotis Lambrinidis, and hosts a creative dialogue between works by 32 distinguished visual artists from Greece and the Diaspora. Representing different generations and artistic backgrounds, the creators explore the relationship between speech and image through a wide variety of media and techniques.

Paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, environments, engravings, visual prints and the artist’s books, from 1957 to the present, compose a single narrative with a wide conceptual and temporal spectrum. The exhibition’s journey extends from pre-alphabetical writings, the first human communication systems, to today’s digital age, highlighting the different forms that writing can take when it passes from the field of speech to that of art.

“The exhibition entitled “Ark of Speech. Art and Writing” highlights the importance of human communication. Speech is transformed in the hands of artists into a methodological tool. It appears in the works in the form of letters, words and phrases. It functions as a structural element. It gives a message to paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, engravings, printed images and art books. It becomes an aid to the interpretation and understanding of the works. Or a riddle. A Gordian knot that activates the mind and frees the imagination”, notes the Mayor of Kalamata, Athanasios Vasilopoulos.

A separate station in the exhibition is two large tributes to emblematic figures of the visual arts scene with special ties to the region. The first focuses on the internationally recognised pioneer Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichalis (1933–2013), known internationally as Chryssa, who was born in Athens, originally from Mani, active artistically in America and already in the 1950s explored writing as a visual medium. The second honours Kalamatian artist Yannis Bouteas (1941–2026), bringing his historic installation from the 1990 Venice Biennale to his birthplace for the first time. Both tributes are realised with the special contribution of the Hellenic Diaspora Foundation.

Bia Papadopoulou, in her curatorial note, describes the exhibition as a “ship of ideas” that “imaginarily travels the viewers through space and time. In familiar and unknown fields. The works themselves, par excellence carriers of messages, unite present, past and future…” As she notes, “as an ark of the Word, the exhibition symbolically rescues History, collective memory, culture, language, communication, logic, thought, wisdom, love, humanity. An embrace of the protection of timeless values ​​in an era of destruction and genocide where ancient civilisations are in danger of being destroyed by the vanity, fury and rage of today's powerful everywhere". The exhibition, it concludes, "envisions peace, order and light, attempting to illuminate the darkness".

Panagiotis Lambrinidis, Director of the Visual Arts Department of the K.E., refers to the starting point and rationale of this year's exhibition, "art is not only a way of expression. It is a way of looking at the world, of questioning what we take for granted and of creating new possibilities for communication. Our exhibition this year begins with this need for communication and dialogue. We are looking for what happens when two of the oldest forms of human expression, speech and image, meet. “The Ark of Speech. Art and Writing” follows this encounter, where the word becomes an image, writing a visual act, and the readable even becomes an enigma.”

This project has a double aspect. On the one hand, it approaches the different ways in which writing penetrates the works of artists, examining its function; on the other hand, it establishes a socio-political visual narrative for the situation today.

The visual event is organised by the “Faris” Public Benefit Enterprise of the Municipality of Kalamata, with the contribution of the Greek Diaspora Foundation and the George N. Vogiatzoglou Art Gallery.

Information

Exhibition: “The Ark of Speech. Art and Writing»

Participating artists (alphabetically): Alexis Akrithakis, Steven Antonakos, Pavlina Vagioni, Spyros Verykios, Steve Gianakos, Ria Dama, Eleni Exarchou, Yannis Ziogas, Dimitris Zouroudis, Theodore (Papadimitriou), Elli Kelemendris, Dimitris Kontos, George Lazogas, Panagiotis Lambrinidis, Kostas Lefkochir, Despina Meimaroglou, Christina Mitrentse, Kyriakos Mortarakos, Kostas Bassanos, Giannis Bouteas, Konstantinos Xenakis, Agni Oudinotti, Nina Papakonstantinou, Pavlos (Dionysopoulos), Angelos Skourtis, Theodoros Stamos, Stergios Stamos, Giannis Stefanakis, Nakis Tastsioglou, Dimitris Tataris, Giorgos Harvalias, Chrysa (Vardea-Mavromichali).

Artistic Director: Panagiotis Lambrinidis

Curator: Bia Papadopoulou