Essays
Introduction by James Lingwood
‘It is a slowly evolving, carefully considered and constructed body of sculpture. These and other of Hadzi-Vasileva’s large-scale works involve repetitive, physical labour by the artist over extended periods of time. She gives herself to the material, and the material gives back. She gives the work the time it needs – and then quietly but insistently asks for the time of the viewer too.’
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God Art: Signs of Faith in Contemporary Art
“Intriguing and thought provoking read of an often overlooked subject in contemporary art practice by an engaging artist and writer.” Rosalind Davis, artist, writer and Curator at Collyer Bristow Gallery “Alastair Gordon talks from the heart about the fast-changing relationship between Christianity and contemporary art... A winning combination of personal experience and a deep knowledge of wider critical debates, God Art sounds a hopeful note that art and faith today may have far more to gain than to lose in sharing their insights and aspirations.” Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Kings College, London.
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Artificial Reality The East Wing Biennial
‘Founded by Art Impresario Joshua Compston in 1991, the East Wing Biennial will
return to promote contemporary art within The Courtauld Institute of Art at Somerset
House in early 2016. The 18-month exhibition Artificial Realities, will feature works by
31 international artists, including Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Jacob Hashimoto,
Rachel Whiteread, Jim Lambie, Laure Prouvost and Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva.
The opening of Artificial Realities is a special occasion for The Courtauld Institute:
2016 marks the 25th year since the inauguration of the East Wing Biennial in 1991.
The concept of East Wing stems from the individual vision of then-student Joshua
Compston, who was keen to provide the walls of the Courtauld with more examples
of “living art”. Opening on 27 January 1991, the exhibition presented the works by
Gilbert and George, Howard Hodgkin and Damien Hirst, among others.’
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Osten Biennale of Drawing Skopje 2018
Kornelija Koneska
‘Awarded artist and exhibition of drawings for the Osten Biennale of Drawings Skopje 2018’.
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Radio
Ljupco Jolevski
‘Ljupco Jolevski, a journalist, published a book with his interviews, and texts he made in five years with musicians and artist in Macedonia. Radio collects his work for the Radio Free Europe on Macedonian language in the past years. Promotion of the book was at the Youth Cultural Center in Skopje on January 18,2019.’
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Razgovori za nas
Katerina Bogoeva
‘The book by journalist Katerina Bogoeva, "Conversations about us", published by "Blesok" contains a selection of thirty interviews, published from 2000 to 2017 in "Globus", "Premin" and "Utrinski Vesnik". The book was promoted by Bojan Ivanov and Emilija Petreska-Kamenjarova. Bogoeva (1965) is the author of the monograph "Contemporary Macedonian Artists", as well as co-author of the monograph "Thirty Years of the Faculty of Fine Arts" and the publications "Krushevo - Habitat for Man", "The Bear in Folk Art" and "Big City".
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Dramaturgy of the sacred
Marta Gabriele
‘This text aims to analyze through an interdisciplinary approach the meaning of the sacred today and the relationship that the contemporary artist has with it, the sacred / religious alternation and the different levels, high or low, through which art, in relation to the sacred, it manifests itself. The author explains this connection by highlighting the fundamental critical and theoretical issues and the most significant artistic contributions, where the question of secularization inevitably acts as support as flexible and open as possible to focus on historical, philosophical, anthropological and psychological perspectives.’
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VISUAL ARTS in Macedonia - 20th century / Book 2.: MULTIMEDIA ART
Author Sonia Abadzieva, Published by OSTEN Skopje, 2017
"This book intends to focus on a strict selection of artists that were active in visual arts during the 20th century, i.e., artists that marked the genesis, evolution, and rise of visual art practice that changed the codes of conventional disciplines in this field of creation. Emphasis is placed on presenting those artists who were assertively innovative and more exposed at exhibitions organized in the country and abroad, as arguments equally for their activity and importance. In considering them, a flexible manner is employed in treating the borders among such areas as painting, sculpture, and/or graphic art; articulation is also given to involvement in an interdisciplinary context; when I say this, I mean presentations of the very concepts or ideas as art entities, incorporation of environment (exterior or interior) in artwork, some new technologies, dance/dancing, underlined use of non-art materials, etc. The second book in this series focuses on 42 artists (born between 1936 and 1974)."
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Sweet and Dandy
Coastal Currents, Arts Festival 2017, text by Tina Morris
“The internationally acclaimed Macedonian artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva will showcase Reoccurring Undulation VI at the Shipwreck Museum in Rock-a-Nore. Reoccurring Undulation is made from wish skin tiles and was originally commissioned for Towner, in Eastbourne, as part of Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive (2011).
The material was selected through a process of engagement with the locality, its landscape and history. Membranes and skins are recurring obsessions in Elpida’s work, taking dead waste materials and transforming them through repetition into new artefacts that demonstrate the latent beauty of this discarded matter. Elpida often endures weeks/months of repetitive and nauseating labour to create her work. It is precisely this repetition that creates an imaginative space, opens up possibilities and allows the work to evolve.”
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An Intimate Gaze
...‘Hadzi-Vasileva’s intention in using animal intestines and internal organs, as well as fish skins and other animal body parts, is not to shock, but to confound our expectations, transforming these biological materials into abstract visual forms that challenge us to set aside our initial shock and revulsion and see them differently. The outer sacs of sheep testicles, some still complete with wool, become ladies’ purses. Caul fat is turned into a translucent fabric, its delicate, foliate filigree of blood vessels reminiscent of handmade Japanese paper. The blood and fluids of a cow’s rectum become an abstract smear of colour, an expressionist brush stroke sliding down the paper.”
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Making Beauty
Essay Walls and Veils by Gill Hedley, independent curator. Published by Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham University, 2016
… ‘By “wall veil” Ruskin meant architectural surface and his ideal was the stone face of that Alp, naturally and powerfully simple. In this regard, if Ruskin were an art critic today, he would have celebrated much of Elpida’s work. He always felt that artists create their best work when inspired by the natural world and he wrote of “changefulness, savageness and naturalism” as essential to art and society, anticipating today’s concerns for the environment, sustainability and craft.’
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In the Beginning ... the Word became flesh
ISBN 978-88-492-3057-4
edited by Elisabetta Cristallini and Micol Forti. Published by Gangemi Editore, Roma, 2015
Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Holy See for the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia in a bilingual edition Italian/English, starts with a first section devoted to introductory essays by Gianfranco Ravasi, Micol Forti and Elisabetta Cristallini, which substantiate and develop the proposed theme, tracing the path of realization through the choice of ideas and artists.
The heart of the book is dedicated to the three artists and to the different parts of the Pavilion. Each work of art is accompanied by a scientific essay and a rich selection of large-scale photographs. Essays by: Octavio Zaya; Ben Quash; Alessandra Mauro.
Paperback, Size: 29,5 x 25,5 cm, Pages 176, Language: Italian and English
Language of Mixed-Media Sculpture
ISBN 978-1-8479772-1-2
Written by Jac Scott. Published by Crowood Press Ltd, 2014
The Language of Mixed-Media Sculpture is both a survey and a celebration of contemporary approaches to sculptures that are formed from more than one material. It profiles the discipline in all its expanded forms and recognizes sculpture in the twenty-first century not as something solid and static, but rather as a fluid interface in material, time and space.
artSOUTH: collaborations
ISBN 978-1-85975-886-1
Curator Judy Adam, Essays by Francis McKee and Stephen Foster. Published on the occasion of artSOUTH: collaborations 7 September – 1 December 2013
New Artist-led commissions in collaborations with other specialists: Claire Barclay, Jordan Baseman, Mel Brimfield, Graham Gussin, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Tom Hall, Jeremy Millar, Annika Ström, Bouke de Vries, Susanne M Winterling.
Silentio Pathologia
ISBN 978-608-4693-18-5
Essays by Gill Hedley and Francis McKee. Published by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva for 55th Venice Biennale, 2013
… Whether Marco Polo was born in Venice or, as some believe, in Dalmatia (politically linked to Venice and once part of Yugoslavia, like The Republic of Macedonia), is not proven. He was certainly one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road, bringing silk and other goods from China to Italy and beyond…
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The Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship: An Archival Record
ISBN 978-0-9557478-1-6
Edited by Judith King. Published by Art Editions North, 2008
Berwick Gymnasium Gallery Marks 15 years of its successful Fellowship Programme with a retrospective exhibition and book.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s work on pages 70 - 74, 144.
Fabrica the First 10 Years
ISBN 978-0-9543380-2-2
Edited by Nannette Aldred. Published by Fabrica, 2007.
Book of extraordinary and unique vision of the world, ten years of ideas, projects, personalities, events and experimentations.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s work on pages 54 - 56.
Meeting Place: Contemporary Art and the Museum Collection
ISBN 0905173953, 9780905173955
Authors Stephanie James and Les Buckingham. Published by The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, 2007.
Publication of a collaborative exhibition between Text+Work and Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s work on pages 28 - 29.
Arts in rural England: why the arts are at the heart of rural life
ISBN 0-7287-1164-8 (publication)
Written by Francois Matarasso. Published by Arts Council England, 2005.
This document looks at the diversity of arts and creativity in rural England, and the key role that the arts play in rural regeneration.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s work on pages 4 - 5.
Deep Breathing
ISBN 9989-888-05-1
Author Sonja Abadzieva. Published by (Skopje: Skenpoint, 2001)
(English and Macedonian texts)
A very personal discussion of issues and ideas about the feminine and female-orientated traditions in Macedonia, overlooking recent cultural politics or history.
Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s work on pages 45, 57 - 59, 154, 203.
Jerwood Sculpture Prize
Text by Richard Cork. Published by Healeys Printers, 2001
Catalogue with images and text of the shortlisted artist for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize 2001.
The selected works where exhibited at the Jerwood Space in London in 2001 and Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh in 2002.
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part 1,
part 2
Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive
ISBN 978-1-871360-18-9
Authors Jill Townsley, Sanna Moore, Matthew Rowe. Published by Towner, 2011
Publication from the exhibition Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive, about the work of sculptors who obsessively use small scale repetitive processes to create large scale installations.
Inherent Beauty
ISBN 978-608-65222-0-9
Essay by Ana Frangovska, Curator at the National Gallery of Macedonia. Published by Public Room, Skopje, Designed by 24 Point, 2011.
Questions about Beauty and Aesthetics are discourses that are very often observed and debated in the history of philosophy, from classical to postmodern.
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Motectum
ISBN 978-1-86174-198-1
Essays by Tracey Warr and Keran James. Published by University of Gloucestershire, 2009
...There is a disjunction between the materials she uses: a cow’s stomach, pigs caul fat, one ton of butter, duck heads, salmon skins - and the exquisite sculptures and installations that she creates...
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Climate change = cultural change
Text by Nicole Wyrsch, Ambasador of Switzerland and Marcus Repnik, World Bank Country Manager.
Published by Swiss Embassy Gallery and the World Bank, Skopje, Macedonia, 2009
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We Are Shadows
Essay by Alison Wilding. Published by Unit 2 Gallery, 2008
...There is an intense desire to find a fragment – somewhat like a fractal – that can be duplicated and endlessly spun into material...
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Butterflies in the Stomach
Essay by Mark Segal. Published by L’H du Siege, 2008
...Elpida is interested in the special, or uniqueness of a place, and discovering Valenciennes lace industry was an ideal start...
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(English translation)
land + the samling
Essay by David Butler. Published by The Samling Foundation, 2001
...‘Road to Nowhere’ a new life for the road running down into the waters of the lake, now floating green, reborn on the surface? Or is this colour field painting in its true environment abstracted form, but contiguous with, the landscape? ...
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The New Forest Pavilion
A catalogue for the exhibition New Forest Pavilion at the 51st International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia.