Byronic Heroes - Lydia Venieri

The Museum of Modern Greek Culture presents at the Tzisdarakis Mosque, in Monastiraki, one of its flagship exhibition venues, the Byronic Heroes exhibition, with works by Lydia Venieri, inspired by the heroes and stories of the poems of Lord Byron. It is a body of tableaux vivants, which the artist has produced in the form of deferred mythopoeic snapshots: young people, dressed in costumes redolent of the Byronic era, are photographed in constructed idyllic settings. The artist then uses digital means of processing to complete a sensual pseudo-painterly construct. In the tradition of artists such as Luigi Ontani and Eleanor Antin, Venieri studies the elements of the Byronic case and the process of their signification in terms of acting out and enacting.

As Venieri herself says: “Passion, romance, revolution, the need for what we call the truth, combined with a curiosity about the world, an adventurous spirit and a festive mood that alternates with a melancholy one, the mathemaBcal feeling that creates archetypal motifs which recur in fatal people who are not defined by social norms or behaviours and end up as stars, tearing through the layers of existence – all these things are for me the quintessence of my life and work.”
Referring to Venieri’s work, Robert Α. McCabe wrote: “Lord Byron’s poetry is strong in rhythm, music and imagery, and Lydia brings his heroes and heroines to life with an original vision. [...] The overall impact is a vivid amplification and enhancement of Byron’s forceful imagery through Lydia’s unique lens”.
Byronic Heroes is the first part of the “Byronic Code”, Lydia Venieri’s magnum opus, which will be shown in its entirety at the National Museum of Modern Art in the autumn of 2019.

Exhibition duration: 7 April 2019 - 31 May 2019

Venue: Tzisdarakis Mosque, Monastiraki Square
Opening hours: 8:30-16:00, every day except Tuesdays

Information: 210 3242066, 210 3249698 and www.mnep.gr