Sculpture Workshop: Emotion as a tool for large-scale artworks

Occasioned by the exhibition of Louise Bourgeois’s Maman at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, this sculpture workshop revolves around large-scale artworks and how these relate to our emotions and bodies.

In Bourgeois’s work, emotions take on a material form, evoking human and non-human bodies. Her sculptures wish to invoke both an emotional and a physical reaction in their viewers, while Bourgeois refers to her work as a means of dealing with her personal experiences.

Particularly Bourgeois’s spiders, as they shift in size over the years, act as both autonomous sculptures and preparatory studies for her large-scale work Maman. Her works appear in relation to the viewer’s body, at times as small sculptures, the size of a brooch; at other times on a near-human scale; and eventually in compositions that occupy entire rooms or public spaces. In this way, the emotions depicted by the artwork transcend the body, occupying the space around it.

Through the work of Bourgeois, we can see the capacity of large-scale sculpture to surround the viewer and cause him or her to physically experience emotions, at times repressed ones: intimacy, fear, affinity, isolation, desire. Bourgeois’s sculptures teach us something valuable: the fact that emotions persist, surrounding us; and although it may sometimes be difficult to put them into words, they can be expressed as forms.

In this workshop, the aforementioned concepts are implemented through the technique of the scale model, as an experimental tool for form expression and a study for large-scale artwork. Bourgeois culminates in Maman gradually, through a process of negotiating body and space. Participants of the workshop are invited to explore their own feelings through compositions that can act as small sculptures or mockups for large-scale works. The workshop’s objective is to understand key principles of large-scale art through an immersive experience.

To this end, the workshop will focus on one emotion per meeting, in order to examine the inner self of both Bourgeois and the participants, in conversation with the artworks that will be produced. Αffection (13/4), Αnticipation (4/5), Fear (18/5), Loneliness (1/6), and Desire (15/6) are the series of emotions that will take shape as objects through the sculptural approach.

At the same time, the workshop will analyze basic principles of large-scale sculpture, in order to clarify how an object can function as a small sculpture as well as a mockup for a piece of public art. Participants will experiment with a variety of materials, simple and pliable, such as textile and clay, which will be combined with found objects to create their sculptural compositions. Participants may also bring along personal objects that they would like to incorporate into the emotion-artwork they will produce.

Design - Implementation: Stefania Strouza, visual artist

Workshop support: Elina Loukou, Architect 

Wednesday 13/04 | 18.00-20.00
Wednesday 04 & 18/05 | 18.00-20.00
Wednesday 01 & 15/06 | 18.00-20.00

MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN 

For adults | Up to 20 participants
Free entry via online pre-registration

For the activity on 13/04 pre-registrations starts on Friday 08/04 at 12.00
For the activity on 04/05 pre-registrations starts on Wednesday 27/04 at 12.00
For the activity on 18/05 pre-registrations starts on Wednesday 11/05 at 12.00
For the activity on 01/06 pre-registrations starts on Friday 27/05 at 12.00
For the activity on 15/06 pre-registrations starts on Monday 06/06 at 12.00

 Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants. 

courtesy: Stefania Strouza & a.antonopoulou.art
photographer: Studio Vaharidis