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PRESS RELEASE 'Self-Portrait' 3 March - 8 April 2023 ( extended ) International Printmaking Exhibition ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI C.N.P.P. invites you to the international printmaking exhibition “Self-Portrait”, presented at ETCH INK art space from March 3 until April 8, 2023. Upon an open call in the summer of 2022, the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI C.N.P.P. invited visual artists, printmakers and artistic groups from all over the world to investigate the artistic and creative potential of self-portraiture and create new, original artworks. Self-Portrait features new productions and past works from the entire spectrum of printmaking, encouraging artists to initiate a fruitful dialogue around this topic and experiment with the various printmaking techniques and visual representations of the face. The participants investigate the theme using a variety of techniques such as linocut, woodcut, etching, aquatint, intaglio, mezzotint, dry point, photo transfer, collagraph, chine collé, monotype, while simultaneously experimenting with the creative combinations between various media such as collage, photography, sketching and digital printing. The outcome of this international call has led to a group exhibition with 55 contemporary printmakers from Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, Morocco, Taiwan, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil and US. Self-portraiture has been a recurring theme in the history of art, bringing the artist’s own image and the notion of the self to the forefront of artistic exploration and visual experimentation. Through the creative potential of self-portraiture and the language of printmaking, participating artists explore themes related to personal experience, identity and performed roles. Its visual language becomes a vehicle for an exploration and deeper understanding of the body, memory and psyche. Alongside the introspective nature of the works, the exhibition focuses on self-portraiture as an indicator and bearer of social messages and policies. The artworks bear the marks and contemporary stakes of the times in which they are produced, while the artist becomes the channel through which these are transmitted and diffused. Self-staged images, either approached through humour and playfulness or immediacy and sharpness, reveal aspects of reality that would otherwise have been secret and hidden to the viewer’s eye. What does a self-portrait actually unravel about our individual and collective bodies? Self-Portrait exhibition focuses on the rich language of printmaking and the visual representations of the self, transcending the mere personal narrative, opening up new trajectories towards collective quests and wider sociopolitical manifestations, while rendering the representation of one’s self and body a political rather than just an individual matter.