LA Times – Drag shows meets virtual words in the messy, absorbing ‘Make Me Feel Mighty Real’

“In a final gallery, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou‘s soft vinyl sculptures, evoking oversized, spiked platform boots, serve as appealing signifiers of the tools of drag and drag as tool — pieces that are as tough as they are luscious. At a time in which we all build online personas and inhabit various digital avatars, this is a familiar space — one in which the outward construction of the self takes on additional layers. Is it a true self revealed through artifice? Or a glamorous layer of virtual armor piercing social mores and their attendant hypocrisies? I’d say all of the above.

The bigots won’t know what hit them.”  BY CAROLINA A. MIRANDA




Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar at Honor Fraser

“Similarly, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou’s neighboring film Dentata Pearls (2021) honors the wounds and wisdom of the past through the origin story of a planet governed by the collective care of fearless superhuman beings who cultivate pearls of past trauma to adorn their armor of synthetic vinyl, replete with spiked epaulets and extraordinary footwear. ” 
 
by Isabelle Rust
 
 
 



Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar – Art Papers

“Thankfully, technology can also lead to deeper embodiments. The exhibition closes with Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou’s video work Dentata Pearls (2021), a journey to a fashion-forward, nonbinary planet where six androgynous citizens live as “orphan custodians of our orphan selves.” A voiceover tells us that every pearl is “a wound healed,” as the androgynous inhabitants dress one another in metallic neon festooned with pearls—down to their boxing gloves and mermaid fins. Three “shoes” from the video inhabit the gallery space as sculpture. In the video’s final image, the gender “orphans” lie in a cosplay cuddle puddle, a sleeping rainbow of pink braids and baby-blue thigh highs. Tsagkaropoulou posits drag has technologically advanced as to deliver bliss. Avatars might feel superfluous if everyone could wear what they want and be treated kindly. In such a world, Tay could last longer than a day, maybe learn feminism, maybe try other genders on for size.”
 
 by Patty Gone
 



 

Daily Lazy – Drifting like a Fairy: Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou at Theocharakis Foundation / Athens, Greece

 
 
 
 


 

O Globo – Artista grega debate estereótipos ao preencher galerias com representações da vulva em pelúcia

Antigoni Bunny Tsagkaropoulou cria espaços fantasiosos com pelúcia para ‘libertar’ o corpo feminino e já enfrentou ataques de grupos extremistas
by Eduardo Vanini
 


 
 
 

“It’s all up to interpretation,” she says. “‘Fluffy’ [the exhibition] could be an extremely safe space. But at the same time, depending on your background, it could also be a threatening place. Right-wing blogs were saying, ‘Look what they’re doing to our children with these masculine little fairies and dragon princesses.’”

“But seeing the backlash on social media, you realise you are doing something which creates an earthquake,” she adds. “As the far-right goes higher and higher, queer and feminist voices of resistance get louder at the same time. Now I feel part of a growing community, making art and talking about ideas that I once only read about in books.”

 

by Alex King

 
 
 
 
 

APOLLO International Art Magazine – The museum that’s going out of its way to make you queasy

 
Think the art world is a bit woolly? You don’t know the half of it. Greek artist Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou has made an installation entitled ‘#TextMe_FluffyLibrary’, in which an entire floor of the Atopos Contemporary Visual Culture premises has be taken over by a ‘fuzzy hybrid creature’ that eats books. Images suggest that said ‘creature’ consists of a vast, carpet-like expanse spread throughout the space, with which visitors are encouraged to interact. Some shelf life.
 
 
 
 

Bristol Women’s Voice – Fluffy Library at the Arnolfini

 (…)Stories like these deserve to be heard, yet they so often lost and ignored, or worse, their tellers suffer the same treatment as Zak Kostopoulos. At the end of the day, we are all human. We learn and change and grow as time passes and I feel hopeful that our evolution will lead us to a place where the idea of ‘normal’ is no longer necessary and we celebrate each other for all that we are, but it seems we still have a long way to go. Maybe we could all benefit from learning some of Fluffy’s radical tenderness and embracing our monstrous identities. 
by Suzi Bratt
 
 
 

Künstlerische Intelligenz-Rebublik

Überrascht seien diese Eltern, befremdet vielleicht, aber nie verärgert, sagt die Künstlerin. Inzwischen gebe es viele Anfragen für Kinder­geburtstage. Antigoni freuts, damit hat sie mehr erreicht, als sie zu träumen wagte. Denn im Zusammen­hang mit Kindern, sagt sie, sei die gesellschaftliche Stimmung bei queeren und feministischen Themen ja nicht bloss gereizt, sondern die eines Tabus, gefährlich gar.«Ich spiele mit der Grenze zwischen Kunst und politischem Aktivismus – aber immer mit einem leichten Touch.» Sie wolle dem Publikum nichts aufzwingen, nur spielen, mit der flauschigen Freundlichkeit die scharfen Kanten des Diskurses etwas abwetzen. Schon bald findet der erste Drag-Workshop für Kinder statt.

 
 

und.Athens – Interview with Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou


point contemporain – ANTIGONI TSAGKAROPOULOU – FLUFFY LIBRARY & FLUFFYLAND 1/2

 

ArtDaily-Fuzzy playground takes over Arnolfini’s front room with a landscape of plush fur

Arnolfini’s Director, Gary Topp, says: “Following a year of exploration and change we are excited to be bringing our gallery spaces back to life. From collaborating with local artists and community groups, to the recent show for graduating students from our main partner, the University of the West of England – and now Fluffy Library is an exciting, international artwork that will occupy our ground floor gallery for the summer. Come and enjoy the show, a coffee (or beer), a book or an event at Bristol’s Centre for Contemporary Art.”

Arnolfini Head of Programme, Kieran Swann, says: “We can’t wait to tell more of Fluffy’s fairytale, exploring gender, identity, and monsters. Perfect for summer, this international installation and all its events, workshops, and storytelling welcomes families of all sorts, and anyone who has ever felt like a bit of a monster.”