THE meeting of the horse

Artist: Eleni Giannopoulou
Video Artist: Tania Reza

SOLO SHOW ZAZ10TS GALLERY
October 16-30, 2020, January 1- February 28, 2021
10 TIMES SQUARE | 1441 Broadway, New York, NY 10018

The Meeting of the Horse is an immersive installation of theatrical sculptures and costumes that present a woman’s (the artist’s) meeting with the symbol of The Horse by Greek artist Eleni Giannopoulou in dialogue with the video installation of the same title created by Giannopoulou in collaboration with the Mexican artist Tania Reza. The installation simulates the same meeting taking place in a cinema-tographic alternate universe where Giannopoulou is filmed wearing and holding her sculptures.

The Meeting of the Horse is an unconventional theatrical presentation of one of the scenes from Giannopoulou’s unreleased A Play about Rape. The scene is an autobiographical symbolic meeting of the Artist with her Trojan horse. A coming of age moment where she soberly faces and celebrates her sexuality, perverted history, and identifies the trauma that has been manifested into her sexual encounters of the past.

The sculptures are costumes, almost like ceremonial artifacts that are meant to remain empty, holding an open space for the artist and all survivors that have the need to face the reality around their rape.

Beast, Pet, Masculine, Father, Lover, the Horse sculpture is a playful friend, dark and erotic full of miniature scenes, myths, and stories that are hidden in his guts. A real Trojan Horse. Colorful moments, cotton candy, and embroidery are camouflaging the artist’s agony to comprehend the darkness of being raised a woman.

In Reza’s video the artist faces the symbol of a male horse, a stallion, by looking at a little sculpture in the eyes that fits right into her hand while being on a horse herself. It's a gift that she struggles to understand. A horse has been a symbol of masculinity, western colonial power, and oppression. The knight that comes to the supposed "rescue" of women and natives is always on a horse.

The two artists are interested in changing the western patriarchal model of this symbol and are attempting to return it in their own service. Accepting the sexuality it holds, without fearing the objectification of the rider in the video.

Giannopoulou is wearing an armor made of little, sculpted by hand, animal symbols searching for power in the ancient legends that always connected women to the world of beasts and spirits by creating sacred treaties on which the tribes relied upon.

Reza and Giannopoulou choose to collaborate with an all-female and Mexican crew of artists and cinema professionals in an effort to honor and stand in solidarity with the powerful feminist movements that are currently fighting for women’s rights in Mexico.

Exhibition photos 10 Times Square New York by Maxim Ryazansky

The Meeting of The Horse Video

SELECTION OF INSTALLATION ARTWORK BY ELENI Giannopoulou