The group show Fernweh, or Nostalgia for Unknown Lands introduces the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection space to the public. This inaugural exhibition unveils a representative selection from the collection’s multifaceted holdings, spanning from the 16th century to the present, and emphasizes its distinctly international perspective. It also foregrounds collecting as an intricate practice that involves research, documentation, archiving, preservation, and the protection of objects. At the same time, it attempts to decipher the underlying impulse behind the formation of the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection, which appears to be a sustained desire for exploration, driven by a pursuit of understanding both the world and the self.
This urge to discover the unfamiliar is aptly encapsulated in the German word Fernweh [fern (“far”) + weh (“pain”)], which can be rendered as “pain for distant places” or loosely translated as “nostalgia for unknown lands.”
The concept of Fernweh serves as a poetic axis of the exhibition around which the exhibits and their stories, whether real or imagined, unfold. Through visual artworks, folk art objects, archival materials, books, manuscripts, maps, historical documents, and artifacts of applied arts, visitors are invited to trace the threads that weave the collection together. The exhibition is structured into five distinct sections and its spatial arrangement evokes the form of a book, with the storage panels for the artworks functioning as the pages of different chapters, or as a system of intertextual references.
The sections are the following:
I. Romanticism – Greek Antiquity
The idealized quest for the beautiful and the sublime, and the projection of Greece as the “cradle of Western civilization” viewed through the lens of Romanticism, the Philhellenic movement, and contemporary interpretations.
II. The Journey of Being
The spiritual and existential dimensions of both physical and metaphysical journeys, seen as a deep-seated need for introspection, autonomy and personal growth.
III. Explorations and Expeditions
Human curiosity as a foundational impetus for the advancement of science, geography, and culture, spanning from the Age of Discovery to the present.
IV. Conflicts and Displacements
The darker aspects of travel: war, displacement, refugee flows, and the continual renegotiation of identity within shifting social and cultural landscapes.
V. Ideal Worlds
Envisioning and striving for a better world—utopias and imagined escapes towards ideal realms; a section devoted to hope, longing, creativity, and the critique of prevailing systems.
Featuring:
Alexis Akrithakis, Francis Alÿs, Andreas Angelidakis, Yüksel Arslan, Richard Artschwager, Kader Attia, Minas Avramidis, Maja Bajević, Petrus Bertius, Selina Bracebridge, Vlassis Caniaris, Louis-François Cassas, Étienne Chambaud, Salvador Dalí, Paul Alfred de Curzon, Alphonse de Neuville, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Stelios Faitakis, Ormond Gigli, Pegeen Vail Guggenheim, José Gutiérrez de la Vega, Nikolaos Gyzis, Ernst Haas, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Thomas Hartley Cromek, William Heather, Lito Kattou, Christoph Keller, Bouchra Khalili, Rallis Kopsidis, Maria Loizidou, Kostas Malamos, Alain Manesson Mallet, Takis Marthas, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Ron Nagle, Adrian Paci, Giorgos Paralis, Callirhoe Parren, Angelo Plessas, Georgios Prokopiou, Polykleitos Rengos, Chryssa Romanos, David Sampethai, Charles Sandison, Wilhelm Sasnal, François-Louis Schmied, Sister Corita, Edward Steichen, Thomas Struth, Rosemarie Trockel, Panos Tsagaris, Yiannis Tsarouchis, Spyros Vassiliou, Eleni Vernadaki, Alix Vernet, Vincentius Demetrius Volicius, Johann Jakob Wolfensberger, Francesca Woodman, Constantin Xenakis, Raed Yassin and anonymous artists.
Credits:
Production Coordination: Katerina Hadji
Communication: Mare Spanoudaki
Graphic Design: The Birthdays Design
Text Editing: EG Figure of Speech (Geli Mademli & Eleanna Papathanasiadi)
Art Conservation: Vassilis Argyratos, Foteini Fragkaki
Artwork Transportation & Installation: Move Art
Artwork Insurance: DAES
Photography: Nikos Alexopoulos, Alexandra Masmanidi
Video: Vasia Ntoulia
Special thanks to Philippos Tsangrides – Panagopoulos.
