Arts Flanders

Under the title Damnesia Vu, Kunsthalle Basel presents the first solo exhibition in Switzerland of the crossover-genre work of the artist Danai Anesiadou. Following her participation in the 5th Berlin Biennale in 2008 she has increasingly gained recognition in the visual arts scene as an independent performance artist, and subsequently appeared in several group shows in Europe.

Anesiadou's practice attests strongly to biographical reminiscences. A German-born Greek, raised in Belgium and resident in Brussels and New York, the artist regards her present situation as temporary permanence, constantly renegotiated between the past and the future, and immediately palpable only in those magical moments when both these dimensions appear to coincide. For Damnesia Vu at Kunsthalle Basel, the artist creates a surreal environment incorporating iconography related to her Greek background as well as to B-movies and Nouvelle Vague films: scenery in which the reality of cinema and the fiction of everyday life appear to mingle. With Damnesia Vu – a play on Anesiadou's last name and the words déjà vu, amnesia, and damnation – the artist moves beyond the crux of a personal quest for identity and love to address the auspicious, ironic game of life itself, a game that ultimately leaves one guessing as to who one really is.

Danai Anesiadou (born 1973 in Pirmasens/D) lives and works in Brussels. Anesiadou studied Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent and also graduated from the Postgraduate Programme of Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance Studies at DasArts in Amsterdam. Previously she worked in the field of costume design and scenography for theater plays, dance performances and short films. She participated in the residency programmes of Banff Center, Banff (CA) in 2010 and of the International Studio and Curatorial Program (I.S.C.P.) in New York in 2011.

Image: Danai Anesiadou, Mandagloire, 2010, Video, The Other Tradition, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels. Courtesy the artist and Elisa Patteau & Cie Galerie, Brussels. Photo: Diana Duta

Danai Anesiadou
Damnesia Vu
25 September - 13 November 2011

More information: www.kunsthallebasel.ch