biography – Lydia Dambassina

Born in Thessaloniki (Greece). At the age of fifteen years she moves to Lyon (France) where she completes the secondary school. She studied at the School of Fine Arts of Grenoble and Psychopathology and Pedagogy at the Universities Paris V and Grenoble. She has worked as researcher in psychiatric epidemiology and as art director in film production. Since 1976, Lydia Dambassina has been working with different mediums such as painting, photography, installations and video projections. In 2004, she started working on a series of staged photographs in which the image co-exists with texts -mainly excerpts- from the greek and french daily newspapers. Amplifying news fragments into weighty ontological or existential gestures seems an efficient way to deal with all this tragic absurdity. In the last ten years, her work focuses on the global economic and moral crisis and inequalities that develop geometrically.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023	“Lorem Ipsum”, Κέντρο Τεχνών Δήμου Αθηναίων \| “Lorem Ipsum”, City of Athens Arts Centre κατάλογος \| catalogue
2018	“Mors”, Museum Katsigra, Larissa catalogue
2016	“Gini coefficient, Yeni Cami, 51e Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki catalogue
2015	“2100 mots d’amour, 2500 mots d’amour”, Underground Ottoman Fountain of Splantzia, Chania catalogues
2012	“Party’s over – Starts over”, State Museum of Contemporary Art – Contemporary Art Center, Thessaloniki catalogue “Party’s over – Starts over”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art – Alex Mylona Museum, Athens
2008	“What scratches the glass from the inside”, installation, Ad Lib group dance, Athens Festival
2007	“Real Freedoms that people enjoy”, “Nuit Blanche”, Saint Eustache, Paris “Family story”, Hôpitaux Universitaires, Geneva “Family story”, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens “Real Freedoms that people enjoy”, Unfair, Zita-Mi Gallery, Athens-Thessaloniki catalogue
2006	“Wonderful rooms”, installation, Ad Lib group dance, Athens
2005	“Family story I”, Zita-Mi Gallery, Art-fair, Athens catalogue
2000	“Les matelas ne disparaîtront jamais”, Ιnstitut Français, Thessaloniki catalogue “Preservation”, Artio gallery, Athens
1997	Zita-Mi Gallery, Thessaloniki Metamorfosis Gallery, Thessaloniki
1996	“1996”, Gallery 3, Athens catalogue
1995	Antonia Havani Gallery, Corfu
1994	Zita-Mi Gallery, Thessaloniki Vourkariani Gallery, Kea
1989	Zita-Mi Gallery, Thessaloniki
1986	Psychico Gallery, Athens
1984	Zita-Mi Gallery, Thessaloniki
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2022	Reality check chapter II, INNER SANCTUM, Ψυχιατρικό Νοσοκομείο Αττικής, Δαφνί \| Psychiatric Hospital Dafni, Athens general catalogue Art Forest, L’arbre dans l’art contemporain, Musée de l’eau, le Grand Séchoir et le Couvent des Carmes, Pont en Royans
2021	Radium Palace, KGold Temporary Gallery, Λέσβος \| Lesbos general catalogue ΠΡΑΣΙΝΟ ΠΕΡΑsMA, Μουσείο Αλιείας και Ναυπηγικής Αλιευτικών Σκαφών, Πέραμα \| GREEN PATH, Museum of Fishery, Perama L’art, l’eau et les femmes, Galerie Analix Forever, Γενεύη \| Genève The Right to Breath, Undercurrent.nyc, online Group exhibition Reality check, Ψυχιατρικό Νοσοκομείο Αττικής, Δαφνί \| Psychiatric Hospital Dafni, Athens general catalogue ΜΟΝΟΣ by Marios Fournaris and his seven guests, Galerie Analix Forever, Γενεύη \| Genève
2019	“Τα δημώδη”, a touring exhibition, Museum for Popular Craft & Tradition, Athens general catalogue “Still Alive”, The Project Gallery, Athens “Hommage à Gounaro”, Gounaropoulos Museum, Athens “Welcome: The European Philoxenia and its Borders”, The Project Gallery, Athens “ΩΩΩ Δ Ι Σ Ι Α”, Museum of the Winds, Athens “+9”, Iera Odos, Athens digital general catalogue “Poisons”, Kechagia Square, Amfissa general catalogue “ a.O. – b.c. (after Olympics – before crisis)”, State of Concept, Fine Arts School, Athens
2018	“The Memory of the Revolution”, a touring exhibition, Katsigras Museum, Larissa, School of Fine Arts, Athens catalogue “Τα δημώδη”, The Symptom Project #9, Amfissa catalogue “Looking Out Looking In”, Murat Centoventidue Arte Contemporanea, Bari
2017	“New Acquisitions”, (2014-2017), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) “Shared Sacred Sites”, a touring exhibition, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Yeni Cami, parallel program of Thessaloniki 6^th Biennale, Thessaloniki catalogue “anafora periptoseon (Report on Cases)”, Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens “The Body is Victory and Defeat of Dreams”, Municipal Gallery of Mythimna, Lesvos catalogue
2016	“Genii Loci”, Greek art from 1930 to the present, Museum Manege, Saint Petersbourg catalogue “Identifying loss”, The Symptom 07, Amfissa catalogue “Welcome – The European Hospitality and its Borders”, Museum of Visual Arts, Heraclion “Open studios”, Fondation Anokato, Keramikos
2015	“Rims and Frontiers”, The Symptom Projects, Amfissa catalogue “Philoxenia”, Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Olivepress, Chania
2014	“Body Memory”, State Museum of Contemporary Art – Contemporary Art Center, Thessaloniki “Tradition Reversal”, Collection of Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo “Unhappy ready – made”, KUAD gallery, Istanbul
2013	“Transition”, Μunicipal Pinacotheque, Athens catalogue Biennale4, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki catalogue “Sacred and Profane Love”, Dourakis winery, Chania catalogue “Bohemians”, The Breeder Gallery, Athens
2011	“Proposal for the Monument dedicated to the Holocaust Jewish victims in Athens”, Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens catalogue “Σύγχρονη Ελληνίδα”, The Hub, Athens catalogue
2010	“Others”, The Biennials of art of Marrakech, Istanbul and Athens in Palermo, MuseoRiso and Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Catania “Escapism”, Kourd Gallery, Athens catalogue Kunsthalle Athena, Αθήνα, Athens “I would like to give you my heart for ever”, Zita-Mi Gallery and Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art,Thessaloniki catalogue
2009	“Heaven”, 2nd Athens Biennale catalogue
2008	“Environment, Action 08”, Villa Kazouli, Athens catalogue “Places”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
2007	“Heterotopias”, 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art catalogue “Places”, Benaki Museum, Athens catalogue
2006	“Flowers in Contemporary Art”, Benaki Museum, Athens catalogue
2005	“Caravanserai”, Caucasus Centre of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi catalogue “AmartyaSen”, Dialogues, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki “Unclaimed Luggage”, Artrageous Group, Circulo de BellasArtes, Madrid catalogue
2004	“Cosmopolis I”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki catalogue Greek Embassy, Istanbul
2003	“300+1”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki catalogue
2000	“Paradise is a personal matter” (director D. Arapoglou), 90 mn film, art direction, Athens
1998	“New Acquisitions II”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki catalogue
1997	“Montrouge-Athènes”, 42e Salon de Montrouge, Paris catalogue “De Valigia”, Cross Cultural Exhibition, Cross Cultural Exhibition, Cultural Capital of Europe, Thessaloniki catalogue “New Acquisitions I”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki catalogue
1996	“Women/Beyond Borders II”, Cross Cultural Exhibition, Basel catalogue
1982	“Centenaire du jouet Français”, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
1980	“Bateau ivre”, choreography Daniel Lommel, Aenaon Dance Theater, assistant to Alexis Akrithakis, Athens Zita-Mi Gallery, with Yves Fajnberg, Thessaloniki