Curator | Dimitris Palaiocrassas and Maria Marangou

NEON presents the exhibition Flying over the Abyss in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete and its Director, Maria Marangou, co-curator of the exhibition with Dimitris Paleocrassas.

Participating artists, both international and Greek, have been inspired by Ascesis: The Saviors of Gods’ (Ασκητική), the spiritual exercises written by the renowned Cretan thinker, Nikos Kazantzakis.

We came from an abyss of darkness; we end in an abyss of darkness: the interval of light between one and another we name life.

Nikos Kazantzakis

The exhibition establishes a creative dialogue between the artists’ works and the essay, tracing journey towards the enlightenment from the time of birth until death. The original manuscript of Ascesis is on display, a courtesy of The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum.

The exhibition includes works from the following artists: Marina Abramović | Alexis Akrithakis | Matthew Barney | Hans Bellmer | Louise Bourgeois | Heidi Bucher | Paul Chan | Savvas Christodoulides | Robert Gober | Asta Gröting | Jim Hodges | Mike Kelley | William Kentridge | Martin Kippenberger | Sophia Kosmaoglou | Gabriel Kuri | Sherrie Levine | Stathis Logothetis | Ana Mendieta | Maro Michalakakos | Doris Salcedo | Beverly Semmes | Kiki Smith | Costas Tsoclis | Adriana Varejão | Mark Wallinger

Our warmest thanks to the D.Daskalopoulos Collection and Nikos Kazantzakis Museum for their generous loans to the exhibition.