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Penelopeia, just like in "Odyssey" Highlights works of Women artistsThe Greek Embassy's Olympic Arts Marathon By Jonathan Padget Washington Post Staff Writer The Greek Embassy has launched its Olympic Arts Festival with the exhibition "Penelopeia, the Other Journey: Shifting" at the Gallery at Flashpoint. It's the first in a series of U.S. events planned to celebrate Greece's role as host of this year's Summer Games. "The Olympic spirit includes both the body and the mind," notes Zoe Kosmidou, curator of "Shifting" and cultural counselor for the embassy. Details of upcoming festival events are still being worked out, she says, but it will likely include a June exhibition in Los Angeles that will relate, like "Shifting," to the multifaceted Penelopeia Project and coincide with the U.S. leg of the Olympic Torch Relay. The embassy also hopes to mount an exhibition in Washington featuring artwork from every country participating in the Summer Games. The Penelopeia Project plays a role beyond the festival as well. Inspired by the long-suffering Penelope in Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," it was initiated last year in Greece by the country's Office of the European Union Presidency to draw attention to the work of female artists and highlight the alternate paths women often take toward personal fulfillment. (Penelope, if your memory of ancient Greek poetry fails you, was the wife of Odysseus, stuck at home in Ithaca, weaving and fending off suitors while her husband spent 20 years fighting in and getting home from the Trojan War.) Kosmidou organized the first Penelopeia Project exhibition last year at the International Monetary Fund, involving different artists from those in "Shifting." The Flashpoint exhibit features eight women -- four with Greek roots, plus artists from Belgium, Korea, Luxembourg and Mexico -- who worked in pairs to create pieces in various media, from video installation to textiles. Kosmidou envisions the Penelopeia Project as an ever-evolving "art network" that can generate gallery exhibitions and online projects, but that also has the potential to connect women throughout the world and support their creativity. "The Penelope figure is quite symbolic, particularly on the artistic side," says Kosmidou. "Women can make great journeys without ever traveling. And you can use art to reach goals, express yourself and look for better opportunities."
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