12 Star Gallery

11 January 2010 to 23 June 2010

The 12 Star Gallery, situated at the European Commission's offices in London (8 Storey's Gate, SW1 map), is the venue for regular exhibitions which celebrate the creativity and cultural diversity that is the hallmark of the European Union. All exhibitions are open to the public from 10am-6pm, Monday to Friday and entry is free.

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Cyprus Moments

Exhibition of photographs

17-26 February

Eleven photographers, members of the non-profit organization for photography, Fotodos, established in 2001 based in Nicosia, present in this exhibition their perception of everyday life in Cyprus. Most of the pictures were taken during the last eight years and reflect the changing face of Cyprus.

Fotodos members exhibit regularly once a year in Cyprus in group exhibitions and also in solo exhibitions. So far they have exhibited in Greece, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Italy drawing always very favourable reviews in the press. www.fotodos.org

This exhibition is part of the program of the cultural department of the High Commission of Cyprus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960.

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Exhalations

Monoprints by Mark Hadjipateras

3-26 March 2009

"The monoprint has played an essential role in Mark Hadjipateras’ practice throughout his nearly 25-year career. These works have served, alternately or simultaneously, as primary images, testing grounds for new forms and playing fields for exploring different formations, combinations and techniques. The monoprint process is rapid and one-off; each print is unique and one brief step removed from the hand or not at all: in some cases, Hadjipateras has added overpainting to the results. The accident and the immediacy inherent to the medium are fundamental to their charm.

"As in all aspects of Hadjipateras’ enterprise, his monoprints are constructed out of free associations between form and content. And while many of the shapes and figures reappear as more refined versions in his sculptures, installations and paintings, it is in this medium that they find their most spontaneous voice."

"For this new body of monoprints, Hadjipateras revisited earlier projects, harvesting elements from his other mediums. The results, like those occurring in the natural and cultural world, are the product of evolution, mutation, natural selection, and cross-cultural influences. His fascination with nature and culture encompasses not only a fusion of what does exist or has existed in the past across the world, but also extends to fantasy realms and what could exist in places yet to be discovered or created."

"The free-flowing gestural imagery in these prints is primarily biomorphic and organic, invoking a timeless realm that is at once primordial and futuristic. The black and white monochrome and the interchange between negative and positive enhance this ambiguity. On the other hand, the architectural and geometric forms that tend to structure Hadjipateras’ three-dimensional work appear are reduced in these prints to ornamental crisscross and checkerboard patterns."

"Culled from Hadjipateras’ personal population of idiosyncratic forms, the figures and worlds they inhabit that emerge in these prints are as familiar as they are alien. From the sublime to the absurd, they call to mind microscopic organisms, creatures of the deep and from outer space, mythological beasties and deities, totems, fetishes, idols, as well as robots, toys, cartoon figures, and household objects. For, as in all of Hadjipateras’ work, the sense of whimsy, humour and a general eccentricity is always present to charm and tantalize the viewer." Andrea Gilbert, Art Critic

Mark Hadjipateras was born in London in 1953. He studied at the Hammersmith School of Art and at the St. Martins School of Art in London, as well as in the John Moores School of Arts in Liverpool. He lived and worked in New York City from 1982 to 2002. His work includes paintings, photography and sculpture. He has had many sola and group exhibitions and his works are in many public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Athens Municipality, Basil & Elize Goulandris Museum of Modern Art, Andros; Municipal Pinakotheque, Athens; Vorres Museum of Contemporary Greek Art, and the Museum of Modern Greek Art of Rhodes.

Organised in association with the Embassy of Greece, London

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“His/tanbul”

Photographs by Vehbi Koca

31 March-16 April 2010

“If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze at Istanbul”. A quote taken from the French writer and politician Alphonse de Lamartine in 1835. Istanbul is a city where different peoples and multiple religions have lived together in peace for centuries. A city whereby contemporary artists from all corners of the globe choose to live and practice. A city that unites not only Asia with Europe but the east and the west, the old and the new; traditional and modern; enchantment and knowledge; splendour and modesty; dogma and pragmatism; the universal and the local.

When you take a breath in Istanbul, you breathe in the sea, the fish, sun, people, airiness, its past, present and future, The city’s soul takes a hold of you. Istanbul is the city of diversity and contrast. For an artist, the city of Istanbul offers endless creative possibilities and surprises .

Vehbi Koca is an internationally acclaimed Documentary and Fine Art photographer. Of Turkish origin Koca lives and works in London and is a member of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). With over 25 years of professional experience in image making, Koca has covered a vast range of documenter and social photography throughout the UK and internationally. He is a committed and emotionally involved artist with a keen eye for the detail. After completing an MA in Photography and Cinema at Westminster University, he has worked as a freelance photographer for a variety of picture stock agencies.

Koca has also been awarded by the Millennium Commission in year 2004 for his documenter project called “Distant Countries” and has worked as curator for a photographic project called “City: Chaos and Charm” in The 1st Istanbul International Biennial of Photography, organized by IFSAK. His works have been exhibited extensively in England, Turkey, USA and N. Ireland. www.vehbikoca.com

Organised together with the Embassy of Turkey

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ANTIFASCISTAS

British and Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War

5-14 May 2010

Antifascistas tells the story of the 2,500 volunteers from the British Isles who joined the legendary International Brigades to defend democracy during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.

Produced by the International Brigade Memorial Trust, the exhibition sets out the reasons why the volunteers took the extraordinary decision to risk their lives in a foreign war – in which more than 500 of them died. The role of the British Battalion in many of the key battles in Spain is described, along with brief biographies of outstanding individuals who took part. It also details the heroic work of the medical volunteers in makeshift hospitals near the front line.

In addition, the exhibition considers the cultural and artistic impact of the International Brigades and their historical legacy, underlining the importance today of remembering their example of international solidarity.

Using many contemporary photographs and striking images, Antifascistas brings to life the idealism, commitment and sacrifice of these exceptional men and women who served in the International Brigades and continued the fight against fascism during the Second World War and beyond.

Website: www.international-brigades.org.uk

This exhibition is supported by the Spanish Embassy in the UK

           

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Only one half of the world is visible, the other remains invisible

Recent works by Vittorio Gui

19-28 May 2010

The statement above is ascribed to Li Xiao Ming, a Taoism teacher. Vittorio Gui has kept to Tao teachings since 1995 and it was this phrase that initiated his search for motifs from a world lying in the hills above Bologna, where he lives a secluded life in harmony with nature. To Vittorio Gui, photography is a meditative moment, a “frozen moment” within endless sequences of time.  He aims at allowing the spectator to settle down and imparting to him that reality is not necessarily what we see.

The motif of his first pictures was animals from his home environment. He did not, though, photograph them in their natural surroundings but staged them in scenery. Yet, when he created the first photo using his own imagination, he was quite sure it was so unusual that he could not but present it to the public. And he knew that he had found his profession.

Gui’s secret? There is none. Flowers appeal to everybody, particularly their blossoms. Captured on black paper, with blurred and, at the same time, sharp contours, removed from any realistic context and raised into a new artistic space, the beauty of the blossoms intensifies the effect of the rather large works. Vittorio Gui protects his photos from misrepresentation and interpretation by putting them in frames which, like a second skin, complete the work of art. Flowers, says Vittorio Gui, keep still. They do not move and, by their immobility, support concentration. To Gui, who has found his spiritual home with Taoism, the pictorial reproduction of the flower-head is no plain portrayal but concentrated energy. 

Since his first exhibition in Bologna in 2000, his work has been displayed in well renowned galleries over the world, making the Italian Cultural Institute and the office of the European Commission in London feel even prouder to reveal Gui’s photographs at the 12star gallery.

Exhibition organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in London

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Fall of the Wall meets Stonewall

9-18 June 2010

June 2010 marks 40 years since Gay Pride Parades first burst onto the streets. Over the weekend of 27-28th June 1970, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people took to the streets of New York , Los Angeles , San Francisco and Chicago to celebrate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

To mark this milestone the 12 Star Gallery will host an exhibition that documents the 10,000 mile (16,000 km) PRIDE Solidarity Tour 2009 by British lesbian, Clare Dimyon as she "Pride-hopped" her way around the Gay Pride parades and other events, in a dozen major cities in Central & Eastern Europe.

Clare says: "This exhibition is part celebration, part tribute to LGBT people across Central and Eastern Europe who face unique challenges of “coming out” in countries still emerging and recovering from totalitarian occupation. The coincidence of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with the 40th anniversary of Stonewall reminds us that this message of liberation has a particular resonance for the LGBT people."

"Gay Pride Parades in Central & Eastern Europe have a significance beyond the struggle for the human rights of LGBT people. They also act as an exercise in democracy, in countries deprived of democratic processes for almost half a century. PRIDE Parades contribute to the strengthening of democratic values as these countries continue to emerge and recover their national and cultural identities in the post-Soviet era. Curiously, this process of emergence: the retrieving and piecing together of identity and culture shares many similarities with the process of "coming out" familiar to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people."

With the support from the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights www.lgbt-ep.eu

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Over Here

23 June-9 July

This exhibition explores the contribution made by architects from the European Union to the shaping of London. In stunning photographs it charts works by émigrés of the inter-war years, many of them fleeing persecution, such as Walter Gropius, Ernst Freud and Eugene Rosenberg, to designs by contemporary practitioners such as Eva Jiricna and Renzo Piano working in today’s globalized market. Among the buildings featured are Mendelsohn and Chemayeff’s elegant house in Old Church Street, Chelsea (1936), the Royal Festival Hall (1951), to which the German expatriate Peter Moro made such a contribution; and Daniel Libeskind’s London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre (2004).

The exhibition is curated by staff of the British Architectural Library Photographs Collection at the Royal Institute of British Architects from which all the images are drawn. One of the finest archives in its subject field, the collection comprises 1.5 million images of architecture worldwide. Images from the collection can be viewed online at www.ribapix.com.

Picture caption: Erno Goldfinger at Trellick Tower, Cheltenham estate, Edenham Street, North Kensington, London (1972)

Photographer: Sam Lambert

RIBA Library Photographs Collection