No Scrap No Dream

You go through the day collecting your Freudian ‘day residues’ - fragments of memories, experiences and thoughts - which come together in a dream the following night, creating a new narrative, and a new experience. In a similar way, the exhibition No scrap no dream gathers scraps of materials from the street that come together in a new narrative, a dream state of the wanderer, who, after a long day in the city, repurposes all these scraps to interchangeable goods. Wandering through the city of Athens, one comes across plenty of kiosks - περίπτερα. Many remain active and full but bound to disappear, while others stand out, empty, like relics. Around them, construction materials of different generations accumulate in the dumpsters of renovation and demolition sites. This imagery leaves the subconscious with a sense of fragmentation and abundance of matter. As a miniature reflection of the broader financial system they are part of, periptera create circles of interaction around them in their most minimalistic version. Their tiny windows provide just enough space for a couple of giving and taking hand gestures, reducing the exposure to each other as much as possible. Collectif MASI, with their participatory performance, incorporate the periptero’s functionality, but this is not about a financial exchange anymore - it is a social sculpture. The sculptural compositions - assemblage - of the exhibition create a body of work out of scrap materials as complementary organs. Emerging from the chaos of the city and into the gallery space, this body works as an archive of material fragments encountered and rescued from the dumpster and oblivion. Entering this body, the visitor is invited to take part of the archiving and assemblage - process as the artists. A participatory performance becomes a tool to create spontaneous encounters and associations, mediated by the scraps that pass from hand to hand.

Collectif MASI was founded in 2018 by Madlen Anipsitaki and Simon Riedler.
Exploring the interdependence between people and their environment, they treat a given space, and the possibilities it offers, as their primary material, focusing especially on the relationships that can be formed within it. This practice of social sculpture in public space gives rise to an evolving archive, exhibited internationally.

Born in 1987, Madlen Anipsitaki is a Greek architect and urban scenographer. She graduated in 2015 from Paris-Malaquais inside the Fine Arts of Paris. Since her thesis ‘The Parisian passage in the 21st century : Passage as network through a block ‘, she focuses on experimenting with the links between public and private spaces.
Born in 1991, Simon Riedler is a French sociologist graduated from Paris-Dauphine (2014) and Paris-Diderot (2017) universities, specializing in the field of international migrations and interethnic relations. Since, his social and artistic work has been questioning the city’s ability to integrate people from different backgrounds.

@co.masi
collectifmasi.com

Curated by Auðunn Kvaran and Nikoletta Georgakopoulou
@audunnaudunnaudunnaudunnaudunn
@Nikolettageorgakopoulou

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Photos by Frank Holbein @frankholbein


Press kit