‘Art is a way of communicating your inner thoughts’: Kalliopi Lemos on art, finding protection and the meaning of life
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Filming: Kate Wolstenholme and Beatrice Prutton / Editing: Kate Wolstenholme and El Watson
Sainsbury Centre exhibition Joy Like Time explores how memory, ritual and renewal intersect through the work of internationally renowned artists Marina Abramović, Kalliopi Lemos and Gillian Wearing.
Kalliopi Lemos presents her Ritual Garments (2020–2022) which she created during the pandemic, a series of painting garments that carry prayers, faiths and rituals across cultures. They are presented for the first time in the UK alongside the moving image work Something is Brewing in the Pond (2023), which actualises the Ritual Garments’ inherent ceremonial performativity while also pointing to the notion of circular time.
Sainsbury Centre PR and Media Manager Kate Wolstenholme joined Kalliopi Lemos in her studio to talk about this work and the importance of art to talk about life’s biggest topics.
“I do love the Sainsbury Centre, because of the breadth with which it deals with important questions of everyday life, problems, challenges, inviting people from all over the world to express themselves. It is a very very necessary Centre, helping people to understand each other.” – Kalliopi Lemos
Kalliopi Lemos in her studio. Photo: Kate Wolstenholme