Leda Patta constructs a space where she, as a commercial product “Angel”, under the supervision of her pimp, identifies herself with the girls who, inadvertently or voluntarily, are alternated in places where co-ex-change prevails.
The artist is the focus of a well-crafted performance, where the body is mirrored behind the backs of the customers (spectators) as a projection of an act with intense symbolism, in a hotel room and in a culturally burdened area.
The room is set on three levels (reception, waiting and show room) and is transformed to receive reborn “customers” in a mysterious bloodless, untouched and limited assimilation.
Viewers come to a place where the body as a product of art is honored discounted. The artist represents in a critical way the beauty and the ephemeral through an ancient practice of exchange that, until today, is supported by diverse people on multiple levels. In this way she comments on the context of the artist’s profession, exploring in an experiential way the roles involved as well as their function.

Curated by: Michael Iliou

The performance, through this metaphor, refers to the system itself of mechanisms of art production and circulation, and the roles intertwined within this system.
The institutional system that dominates the world of art today is complex, and it is the one that imposes both the very existence of works of art as well as the existence of their creators. Art curators, art managers, critics, collectors, journalists, sponsors, are just some of the powers involved more or less in giving meaning to the artistic act and in developing the official discourse on art.
The art curator, a powerful role of this system, organizes, decides, selects, promotes. The artist, on the other hand, seeks his lost identity, and, at the same time, expecting to be inscribed in the history of art, he is forced to move and survive among all these powers, producing his work. The viewer, puzzled though educated, does not seem to play a particularly active role.
If something moves, it is the system itself, which defines the way in which “works of art” are composed and promoted, as well as the conditions of existence of both the artist and the spectator.

“I decided to reverse the terms of the game. I nominate my curator and give him an additional curatorial role within the project. In this way I give flesh and blood to my reflection on the reasons and conditions of my existence as an artist, a reflection that extends beyond my personal research, as an issue of the domination of a series institutional mechanisms, which suppress every meaning and have a tremendous ability to assimilate.”
Customers are led to watch Angel’s show. Then, they leave carrying on their own body a mark, a seal from a dreamy, elusive and forbidden world. The pimp offers a drink, seals the customers-spectators, and leads them to the main room.
Angel, dancer and stripper, seems to enjoy her work coldly and unpretentiously. Aware of her role, she continues to sell her body to earn a living. She does the pole dancing, enjoying her own body while offering a sensual spectacle for consumption to the spectators-customers.

Leda Patta 2006

“THE SETTING is a hotel room on the third floor of a central Athens hotel. The reception hall is bathed in burgundy-red light where, going past the porter, you are treated by a waiter wearing lipstick to a shot of lemon-cello straight out of the bathroom that has been temporarily turned into a bar. Then the red curtain is drawn and customers/viewers in small groups of five take their seats around the dance floor where Angel the Stripper, clad in a tight outfit and high heels, performs her sensual number. It could be a case of art imitating life, but Lida Patta’s performance, like most of modern art, makes more sense if you know the underlying concept. The performer stands for ephemeral youth and beauty but as a stripper is no more than a commodity. Patta suggests a parallel with the art world’s current state where an artist’s success is to a great extent dependent on a network of art managers, collectors, curators, critics, journalists and sponsors. In this show, curators have chosen all the artists, except in Patta’s case, where it is the artist who has chosen her curator (Michael Iliou, who also plays a role in her show), thus subverting the usual hierarchy.”

CHRISTY PAPADOPOULOU, ATHENS NEWS , 07/04/2006