recent activities
Debris (Enlightenment Panel no 2)
(2025)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Sculpted and painted wood, combined with treated rusty objects. Duct tape with boat paint models for metal sheet sculptures, 2020. Digital drawings, 2021, 2023. Dutch steel sailing boat part-restoration and renovation, Amsterdam (with Sean A. Hladkyj), 2019 until summer 2020.
I exposed relief and improvised sculptures made with industrial paints, as well as found objects, to weather conditions, including heavy rain and wind, over a few months on a floating timber raft. Working with the changes the weather was causing to the ad hoc studio, I made changes until the painting was finished, photographed, then dumped. Someone collected the relief. I applied the colours from those available in a symbolic manner, abstracting the view of a ghetto in a large city. The objects stand for the landmarks.
The pieces would comprise of the scenography for a theatre performance, informed by my conversations with a theatre lighting technician. The performance would also include a donation event of the art objects. See external link for the theatre play, based on the tradition of the philosophical dialogue and employing the idea of performing philosophy to make it accessible to a wider audience.
Political asylum has been traditionally offered to people who flee from their countries of origin and citizenship, because of violations of their dignity, which is a human right, and other basic human rights, such as safety and liberty, due to their political beliefs and related activities, if any. Currently, seven human rights of mine, five basic, have been infringed in the United Kingdom, where I have been a citizen since 2011; the origin is my native Greece. Political asylum is only offered to people, who are non-citizens of the country where asylum is sought from. At the same time, political asylum has become harder to offer, due to the global nature of persecution of whoever is perceived as a dissident by authoritarians.
Since 2020, Forza Nuova, the Italian affiliate of the Greek Golden Dawn, has participated in the organised international criminal case, of which I have been the target, originating from my native Greece, "accelerating" in the Netherlands and the UK in 2020, Covid-19. This happened with the theft of my personal details, specifically my Greek driver's license number, by Italians, in Amsterdam, in the winter of 2020. My number was used on three fake Italian driver's licenses,in my name known as (aka), for criminal activity in the UK. My name known as (aka) was also used on three fake Italian passports for fictitious female Albanian citizens.
Notably, Roberto Fiore, Forza Nuova's leader, inherited briefly Alessandra Mussolini's post in the EU parliament. All the more so, after mediation with the Albanian government, the Italian government settled in the autumn of 2024 one remaining fake Italian passport for a fictitious Albanian citizen, probably in connection with Golden Dawn, who had their own three MPs in the EU parliament. Rumours have it that Fiore was once upon a time an MI6 agent. It is confirmed that he has ties with the British National Party (BNP), the British XRW component.
Drawing on the philosophical notion of impossible objects, the works attempted an indirect postcolonial critique: a suggestion for alternative, autonomous and communitarian lifestyles; and a performative metaphor for global refugees of all kinds. At the time, in autumn 2019, I had attended an environmental protest in Amsterdam that was generally peaceful.
Investigatory research with artworks, some of it carried out in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where I was a philosophy student, from 2017 until late 2019, and remained until the beginning of autumn 2020. I did not have student insurance, as it was obligatory, because I was covered by the NHS through EHIC (European Community coverage), while the UK was still in the EU. I didn't have travel insurance either. Dutch travel insurance, under the reference number E111, was opened by unknowns on my behalf in the summer of 2020, to cover the expenses of routine women's healthcare and family planning tests, but was closed as fraudulent after I reported to the Dutch fraud authority that I didn't open it myself; neither I had any knowledge about who might have done that.
I don't have Italian citizenship. Nevertheless, I have one-sixteenth Italian ancestry from a great grandfather on my father's family's side. His first name was Gianni. Locals in Greece, where he moved in the nineteenth century, used his Italian first name to create a Greek surname in order to hellenicise him. The reasons for leaving his native Italy to go to Greece then are unknown; so is his Italian surname.
The title "Enlightenment Panel" comes from Peter Sloterdijk's 'Critique of Cynical Reason', published in 1983, which critically discusses philosophical and popular cynicism.
This exposition is in progress.
See exposition, also in connection with expositions under 'Art and Activism Exposed as Research Blog'.
XRW (Implicature)
(2025)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
50 A3 drawings black and coloured markers, including:
3 A3 collages on paper with newspaper cutouts and printed photos.
12 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers + 1 A3 with black ballpoint pen and markers.
13 A3 drawings on paper with black marker, and red, pale blue, gold, pink and orange markers +1 A3 wo-sided.
17 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
1 text drawing on sketchbook cover inside.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover back inside with black, orange and gold markers.
Some of the above is preparatory work for 4 large prints and 13 paintings.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
I made the art between 2023-2024, from the perspective of the observer. Most of the research material came out of crime and fraud reports. I started writing the blog afterwards, from the summer of 2024.
I adopted the visual vocabulary of the graphic novel, which I partly studied and read a lot about looking at different graphic artists' work, when I was attending classes at the University of Malmo, Sweden, in 2012. I mixed this with stylistic elements of the architectural sketch, using heavily the black marker and stick figures. Much of this work is, amongst other, about children. I wanted to emphasise that, by intentionally applying stylistic elements from children's drawings, in a naive and loose architectural composition. Using this visual approach, I wanted to evoke a comically sharp twist to the otherwise dark subject matter.
"Pop and Politics" (Pop Og Politikk)
Where does the boundary run between art and popular culture? Pop art embraces the iconography of mass culture. Themes are taken from advertising comics, cinema and TV. The slick, impersonal style is a deliberate provocation.
In Norway, pop art is part of a broader left-wing protest movement. Everything from capitalism and imperialism to environmental and gender politics is subjected to critical scrutiny. The exclusive, unique artwork is replaced by mass-produced prints and posters, well suited to spreading a political message."
From the National Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2024.
The text is written like a trip-hop song. Some of the text is inspired by Saul Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein's example of mathematical calculation. The art is influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Saul Aaron Kripke was the inventor of the possible worlds philosophical hypothesis, which was seminal for philosophers working in the area of contemporary analytic metaphysics, including the theory of counterparts and the theory of names. He died in 2022.
Lauren Berlant was a cultural theorist and gender studies scholar. She died in 2021.
For Nikos ('Rama', 'Mr X'), Filip ('Philip'), and Brandon - August, September, and October 2024. For "Tricky" and 'Eric' ("Paul V.") - January 2025. Who are not politicians, but are doing something political.
See exposition in connection with "The Origins of The Game", "Debris", and "The Loot".
The Loot
(2025)
Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Islington studio flat 4, at 14 Barnsbury Road, London, 2022, privately rented. Interior design and styling, as art installation. Looted, 2024. Investigatory research with artworks, 2023-2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_(magazine)
My personal belongings were still at the property for two months, after I left on 27 March 2024 and was asked to collect them by 3 or 4 April from Woolwich. After I left, the landlords moved in two or three under aged, who I have never met, so that they pretend to be my daughters. Subsequently, they must have been 'removing' them one by one over the last few months and until October 2024.
14 Barnsbury Road was deemed illegal through the courts, on 22 April, shortly after I was forced to leave at the end of March. The maintenance employed many Polish citizens, all dressed in black with black caps, adopting the XRW supporters' fashion code.
Twenty-one (20+1) digital photographs of the studio, for twenty (20) missing Albanian and of Albanian ethnicity, non-EU immigrants; as well as one (1) missing Italian citizen. Golden Dawn has taken responsibility.
The twenty-one persons whose details got stolen were abducted by mainly Golden Dawn and, secondarily, the NRM; they are deceased. My personal details were stolen, too. Was I going to be the twenty-second victim?
Twenty-two (22) and twenty-three (23) photographs, including 2 (two) of myself: NOT a missing person.
Golden Dawn were originally pagans, drawing from the ancient Greek mythology and ritualistic practices, including human sacrifice.
The visual imagery and the art included in the photographs is influenced by the marketing and advertising industry; I brushed shoulders briefly with students in the creative industries teaching at the Winchester School of Art. I used this an ironic commentary on Golden Dawn trying unsuccessfully to create a brand through propaganda, not political marketing.
The art world has been traditionally male dominated. This has not changed dramatically in contemporary art. Female artists have sometimes adopted male attitudes, or personas, to break into the art scene; see Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin from the YBA movement. I hold the view that art is not gendered, that there is no art for women or so-called women's art. Good art transcends such categories, tapping into more universal experiences. Saying this, I would like to quote Nancy Spero, who doesn't crudely distinguish between male and female art, as follows:"What if the default gender for 'artist' were female? What if, when we looked at a work by a woman, we said to ourselves, "That is art," and when we looked at a work by a man, we automatically identified it in our minds as 'men's art'?"
In 1999, I wrote a long essay about the architectural uncanny, which I submitted as my graduation thesis for my first MA in architectural theory. I called it "Space as a 'Bad' Object: A criminal investigation on the notion of space". I got inspiration from detective novels and real-life crime stories. The long essay was about the role of architectural space in crime. It was completely unsupervised: I received a distinction by a Bartlett staff member. I took the digital photographs in conceptual adherence with that essay.
I was a postgraduate philosophy student 9/2017-11/2019 at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
In this exposition, I include two new photographs from a series of digital photography called "Forensics", taken with my mobile phone, after I was forced to leave the property I was renting, on 27 March 2024. I gave the photography series that name, because it has served the purpose of investigating, recording and tracking a crime, for which architectural space, such as private rentals, has been used.
For Chris, who was suddenly transferred by his employer, from London, where his daughter lives, to somewhere outside of London; and for Lawrence, whose temporary post was prematurely terminated, though he was planning to return to his legal studies. And for 'Ali'. In memory of Howard, also a tenant at Bellview. To all those who don't just "play" the cultural and racial diversity clause; they don't just rely on identity politics, because the class problem has not been resolved for them, either. Saying this, the UK must still be scoring high on racism.
A Nigerian was amongst the Golden Dawn victims of assassination in Greece.
The exposition is inspired by jazz music.
See exposition in connection with "The Origins of The Game", "Debris", and "XRW (Implicature)".
recent publications
Principy dialogu
(2025)
Šárka Zahálková
Ve své disertační práci zkoumám jak praktické, tak teoretické aspekty veřejného prostoru jako sociální hmoty a roli umění jako aktivního prostředníka potenciálních pozitivních změn v něm. Namísto fyzické podoby uměleckých děl, soustředím se na dynamiku komunikace na různých úrovních, které se podílejí na kolektivním utváření těchto prostorů v širším kontextu okolního světa. Můj přístup je založen na ekofeministickém a neantropocentrickém chápání sdíleného prostoru dialogu a vychází z mé dlouholeté kurátorské, umělecké i aktivistické praxe.
Principy akustické ekologie, vědomého naslouchání a chůze využívám jako nástroje pro zvyšování citlivosti vůči okolnímu prostředí. Z přírodních věd si půjčuji pojem ekoton, označující přechodovou zónu mezi různými společenstvy. Prostřednictvím této analogie reflektuji prostupnost komunit, odolnost, hierarchii, empatii a v neposlední řadě umělecké gesto rozprostřené v čase.
Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze, 2025
Ateliér: Intermédia 2
Školitelé: prof. Mgr. art. Dušan Zahoranský, doc. MgA. Pavla Sceranková Ph.D.
Konzultantka: Mgr. art. Magda Stanová Ph.D.
Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto práci vypracovala samostatně a uvedla všechny použité zdroje. Asistenti AI jako ChatGPT a DeepL byly použity pouze jako vyhledávací a překladatelské nástroje, nikoli pro vznik nového textu.
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In my PhD research, I examine both the practical and theoretical aspects of public space as a social substance and the role of art as an active mediator of potential positive transformations within it. Rather than focusing on the physical form of artworks, I concentrate on the dynamics of communication at various levels involved in the collective formation of these spaces within the broader context of the surrounding world. My approach is grounded in an eco-feminist and non-anthropocentric understanding of shared dialogic space and is informed by my extensive curatorial, artistic, and activist practice.
I employ principles of acoustic ecology, conscious listening, and walking as tools to enhance sensitivity to the surrounding environment. Borrowing the term ecotone from the natural sciences—where it describes the transitional zone between different communities—I use this concept to reflect on the permeability of communities, resilience, hierarchy, empathy, and, importantly, the artistic gesture unfolding over time.
Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, 2025
Studio: Intermedia 2
Supervisors: prof. Mgr. art. Dušan Zahoranský, doc. MgA. Pavla Sceranková Ph.D.
Consultant: Mgr. art. Magda Stanová Ph.D.
I declare that I have prepared this work independently and have listed all sources used. AI assistants such as ChatGPT and DeepL were used only as search and translation tools, not for the creation of a new text.
FTVS-podden / INNKU-konferansen 2024
(2025)
Nina Frederikke Grünfeld
Velkommen til film, tv og spillskolenes podkast ved Universitetet i Innlandet.
I denne podden møter du fagansatte, stipendiater og studenter ved landets ledende utdanningsinstitusjon innen spill og det audiovisuelle feltet, dvs. alle oss som jobber, underviser, forsker, virker og lærer ved Den norske filmskolen, TV-skolen og Spillskolen.
Denne podkast-eksposisjonen er en dokumentasjon av det som ble formidlet under INNKU-konferansen på Hamar 30. og 31. oktober 2024.