Oblique Strategies

Halid Chrisinas Elaggan, Andreas Vousouras, Konstantinos Patsios, Maja Erdeljanin, Irena Kovač, Monica Sigeti

29 June 2023 – 20 July 2023 Athens PARTICIPANTS Halid Chrisinas Elaggan, Andreas Vousouras, Konstantinos Patsios, Maja Erdeljanin, Irena Kovač, Monica Sigeti

Halid Chrisinas Elaggan,
Freiheit ist Music,
collage - mixed media on paper,
72 x 52 cm,
2022

Kolonaki and Novisad listen to Brian Eno!

In the mid-1970s, painter Peter Schmidt and musician Brian Eno released a black box containing 115 handmade cards, each card offering a piece of advice. The box was named “Oblique Strategies,” and the purpose - mission of each card was to provide “useful” advice for creation and decompression, using a method reminiscent of Asian fortune cookies, and address the dilemmas and concerns that plague both artists and their audiences!

Irena Kovač,
A look under the eyebrows,
oil on canvas,
100 x 100 cm,
2021

Connected to Fluxus and Dada, Surrealism and perpetual experimentation, in essence, the 115 cards created by Schmidt and Eno did not resolve the dilemmas; instead they amplified concerns, creating new dilemmas within old ones. As Brian Eno sardonically remarked during his last visit to Athens when asked about the cards and the issues they addressed, “Whatever, those old dilemmas were”. The Oblique Strategies emerged during the heroic days of the 1970s, they playfully attempted to push the boundaries and provoke new reflections on art and creation, even if this meant that the two artists had to sabotage themselves in order to create something new.

Andreas Vousouras,
Untitled (Half sky),
mixed media on melamine and osd,
40 x 65 cm,
2018

Here are some of the advice provided by the oblique black by Shmids and Eno:Tape your mouth / Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify / Decorate, decorate / If a thing can be said, it can be said simply / Bridges-build-burn / Trust in the you of now / Use filters / Do something boring / Get your neck massaged…

These angled and diagonal tips, manifest the Oblique Strategies, they flow and lean towards freedom and chaos, they provoke, arouse and abolish all connection with the existing meanings, in order to produce new ones:

Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic / Into the impossible/Something always will be missed / Turn it upside down / Intensions (Intentions?) -credibility of -nobility of -humility of / Twist the spine / Use an old idea.

Monica Sigeti,
I see,
mixed media on paper,
23 x 28 cm,
2016

Within the 115 cards of Oblique Strategies and some of the their advices for good luck, lies the understanding of the polymorphic language of this exhibition, as well as the keys, the techniques of translation, if you will, of the artworks, the style and the temperament of each of the three Athenians painters Alma Gallery recently presented at Novisad, and the three artists that galleria Bel Art will now present in Athens, in the context of this original exchange of artists, techniques and ideas.

Konstantinos Patsios,
Arthur had a dream,
painting and collage on canvas,
80 x 80 cm,
2023

Andreas Vousouras, Irina Kovac, Konstantinos Patsios, Maya Erdeljanin, Halid Chrisinas-Ellagan and Monica Sigeti correspond, yet abstain, they share a connection but also maintain a certain distance from each other. Their “Strategies” sometimes align and sometimes diverge. They employ various techniques such as Collage, painting, layers, over-layering, filters and ambiguous meanings, Is it finished / Is there something missing / Just carry on / Make a blanc valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame / Discard an anxiom, returning to the cards by Shmidt and Eno, their thought constitutes the adhesive raw material of this exhibition.

Maja Erdeljanin,
Ladybugs,
mixed media on paper,
35 x 50 cm,
2021

Observe each artists of Amla and Bel Art galleries this united “collation” and reflection close enough, and you will discover that despite their differences, they share many commonalities: they avoid sharpness and clarity, exposing their subjects to fallacies that each artist appropriates, borrows, inverts, transforms, transposes, incorporating meanings within meanings, following yet another rule of Oblique Strategies: Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; Incorporate.A fruitfully apt collaboration therefore, with six artists embodying the “strategies” that the curator of the exhibition, Stefanos Tsitsopoulos, put into consideration, asking them to attempt a dialogue with Peter Schmidt, Brian Eno and their famous nowadays black box-way of thinking. The three artists embody the “strategies” which they “borrowed” from Peter Schmidt, Brian Eno and the famous nowadays black box - way of thinking: Trust in the you of now / Use an unacceptable colour / Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency.

Stefanos Tsitsopoulos is a journalist at Athens Voice newspaper, radio producer (Rock Radio 104.7- Thessaloniki) and author (Flaneur) (Ianos), Rock Star (Metaihmio), The Pale Fountains of Fokionos Negri (Oxy).