In early 2020, Erie Arts & Culture launched a visiting artist residency program in collaboration with Long Road Projects. Through this program, Erie Arts & Culture and Long Road Projects provide contemporary artists with dedicated time and space to reflect, research, and create new bodies of work – outside of their usual environments. This program also creates opportunities for new perspectives and creative processes to be shared, which in turn positively impacts the cultural and creative landscape in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, April 19, join EAC's current visiting artist in residence, Christina Tsantekidou, at 1020 Collective for an artist presentation. Artists interested in receiving a professional critique of their work from Christina are encouraged to bring either a portfolio of their work or select work samples to share. We encourage you to sign up in advance to participate in a critique, as time is limited. Critiques will be limited to 10 minutes per artist.
Christina Tsantekidou was born in 1987 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Russia, and grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece. She lives and works in Berlin.
Her practice employs a wide range of materials to address complex histories of cultural identity and universal themes of human nature. Focusing on social, political, and psychological subject matter, she explores the nature of our existence, where reflections on circumstances of the past bring an awareness of the present. In many works, she explores historical narratives of which little may be known or where facts are opaque, misconstrued, or disputed. As these stories can frequently be lost to time, Tsantekidou gives voice to the often-unheard protagonists, and sheds light on accepted truths and denied positions present in these particular conditions. Whether autobiographical, collected from firsthand accounts, or originating through research, Tsantekidou’s works find continuity between these diverse themes and subjects, allowing for the consideration of our complex, intertwined histories. Her most recent body of work and research focuses on the Greek Genocide. As a consequence of political and social upheaval in Anatolia (Asia Minor) during and after World War I, the indigenous Pontic Greeks were systematically and methodically forced from their homeland by the Ottoman Turk government, dispersed to other countries both near and far. As many attempted to “return” to what we now know as modern Greece, the situation became highly volatile for many reasons. As is common both then as well as today, an influx of individuals to a particular place can also bring unwarranted fear, prejudice, and discrimination. These works have been shown in exhibitions such as Common Ground (Berlin, Germany, 2019), Thresholds of Life (Nicosia, Cyrpus, 2019), and Perpetual Lines (Lahti, Finland, 2018).