With 28 galleries representing over 450 artists through 1,500 works, with 5 museum exhibitions and with over 20 simultaneous projects, the 3rd Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair will open its doors from 22 to 25 November at Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre in Pavilions 10, 9 and 8. The honoured artist at this year's event is internationally acclaimed sculptor Takis.

Art Thessaloniki is being jointly organised by TIF-Helexpo and the Artistic Director of the event, Mr Pantelis Tsatsis.

This year, important galleries from Greece and abroad are participating in the Fair, while India, the Honoured Country at the 84th TIF, will also be present.

In the context of the side events of the 3rd Art Thessaloniki, museum exhibitions will be held, featuring works by Alekos Fasianos and Pavlos from the collection of Giannis Angelopoulos, as well as works by the American artist Sol LeWitt from the collection of Efi Piplikatsi-Andreadou.

This year’s Fair will hold a number of surprises for art lovers. One such surprise is the charity auction of art works, to be held on 23 November, in order to support the Nea Michaniona Health Centre, with a token starting price of 100 euros. The ‘Art Walk’ project will also be held during the 3rd Art Thessaloniki, sponsored by the Thessaloniki Tourism Organisation,

in the context of which 20 paintings have been placed at prominent store fronts in the city centre. One tour has already taken place and another, open to the public, will be held on Saturday, 17 November.

On Friday, 23 November, starting at 09:30 am, pupils from Secondary Schools from all over Northern Greece will visit Art Thessaloniki, escorted by special tour guides.

“This year’s event vindicates our partnership with Pantelis Tsatsis”, stated the President of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Tasos Tzikas, during today’s Press Conference in view of the opening of Art Thessaloniki, stressing that the participation of the national exhibition agency in the event demonstrates its historical interest in culture and the visual arts in particular.

In turn, the CEO of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Kyriakos Pozrikidis, remarked that Art Thessaloniki is a joint investment by the company and Mr Tsatsis, and invited the public to visit and further strengthen its third incarnation, which is crucial for its success.

“We are ready to face the challenge at every level and see Art Thessaloniki established as the top artistic event in South-Eastern Europe”, stated the Artistic Director of the event, Mr Pantelis Tsatsis. According to Mr Tsatsis, the slogan of this year’s Fair is ‘Investment - Information - Recreation’.

The Deputy General Director of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Alexis Tsaxirlis, also stressed the importance of this year’s event, adding that a new plan will be necessary in order for the Fair to become even more dynamic and effective in the future.

Rich schedule of events

The schedule of events - both precursor events and those to be held during the Fair - of the 3rd Art Thessaloniki also include:

-The project Group Exhibition: ‘I Fell Asleep on the Backseat’, a group exhibition by the artists Miltos Digkas, Akis Giousmis, Filippos Tatakis, Nikoleta Aggelidou and Vasilis Georgoulas,

curated by Aris Stoidis. The exhibition is open every day at the Open Art Lab of TIF-Helexpo, from 5 to 16 November.

- Homage to Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi).

- On Friday, 23 November, at 18:00, at the presentation area of Pavilion 9, Dr Yannis Fikas, Professor of Philosophy at New York College, will give a speech titled ‘Symbolic Elements in the Works of Lafcadio Hearn’. Lafcadio Hearn, who was of Irish-Greek descent and is better known by his Japanese name, Yakumo Koizumi, was one of the most important Japanese writers, best known for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories.

- Earlier, at 17:00, in Pavilion 9, artist Vena Naskrecka will stage a performance on women’s hairstyles and their importance in Japanese culture, inspired by the stories of Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi). Following this performance, artist Maria Kompatsari will recount short stories by Lafcadio Hearn at the same venue. The storytelling performance will be repeated at the same venue on Saturday, 24 November and Sunday, 25 November at 12:00.

- On Saturday, 24 November, at 16:30, Mr Manos Stefanidis, an art historian and professor at the University of Athens, will give a tour of the galleries and museum exhibitions to visitors.

- On the same day, at 18:00, Mr Manos Stefanidis will give a lecture at the special presentation area on the life and work of renowned painter Vincent van Gogh.

- On Wednesday, 14 November, at 20:00, in cooperation with the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the film ‘Renoir’ by Gilles Bourdos will be screened at ‘Olympion’ Cinema on Aristotelous Square.

- On Thursday, 22 November, at 17:00, the youth music group ‘Percussionistas’ will perform using instruments made of recyclable materials. After the end of their performance on Fair premises, they will hold a musical walk throughout the central streets of the city.

- On the same day, at 19:00, internationally renowned tenor Filippos Modinos will sing popular arias from much-loved operas.

- On Friday, 23 November, at 19:00, the duet ‘Duo con senso della Musica’ (Letti Pappa on piano and Nikos Bacharidis on trumpet) will take us on a journey full of blues and tango music.

- On Saturday, 24 November, at 19:00, the youth string ensemble ‘Spira Minore’ will perform a repertoire consisting of classical works.

- On the same day, at 21:00, ‘Alma Kalma’, the International Research Laboratory of Performing Arts, will present the PIETA project, inspired by Sylvia Plath's poem ‘Winter Trees’. The performance addresses the term ‘deposition’ through a spiritual sculptural approach, at times inspired from Michelangelo’s Pietà and at times producing abstract forms.

- The events of Saturday will end with a dance music party featuring the internationally renowned DJ Dest.

- On Sunday, 25 November, 19:00, the music group ‘Passa Tempo’ (Alexandros Kallifatidis, Giannis Poimenidis, Nakis Petropoulos and Odysseas Empeirikos) will perform swing and rock’n’roll music.

- Every day of the Fair, the 40-minute film ‘Theodoros Stamos - The Irascible of Color’, an idea of Takis Efstathiou realised by director Giannis Katomeris, and the video titled ‘In the Age of the 3D Reproduction’ by Babis Venetopoulos, will be screened at the presentation hall.

- Pavilion 10 will house a construct named ‘Egg Installation’, consisting of 42 works by renowned artists.

The sponsors of the 3rd Art Thessaloniki Fair are the companies Cosmote, Karavias, Kyfonidis (Catering sponsor), Zythos-Dore (Catering sponsor), while gratitude is extended to the City of Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki Tourism Organisation.

There will be free parking for visitors entering the premises from the Trade Gate.