Monodrome

The 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME is considered the final part of a trilogy which started with DESTROY ATHENS 2007 and continued with HEAVEN 2009. Drawing upon the life and work of Walter Benjamin and inspired by his book by the same title (One way Street, 1928), MONODROME is curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and X&Y (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou and Poka-Yio, co-founders of the Athens Biennale). It is a narrative broadcasting from historical venues in the centre of Athens and articulating an imaginary dialogue between The Little Prince and Walter Benjamin. As the intellectual retreats defeated in the face of the escalated distress, the Little Prince keeps questioning this condition with the disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child.


MONODROME is being realized despite the Crisis that affects Greece heavily. Produced in a state of emergency, and through the synergy of all participants and a large group of volunteers, MONODROME assembles the diverse pieces of an exploratory puzzle, addressing the "here and now". At the same time the exhibition attempts to question historical narratives that have functioned as dictums of the Greek sociopolitical and aesthetic identity and resulted in the country's perennial suspension between a ‘before' (tradition) and an ‘after' (modernization). Being usually perceived and promoted as an emblematic city, Athens today is the epicentre of the Greek upheaval, a place of massive demonstrations and public discussions.

MONODROME aims to provoke debate around something that has broken down, but also offer the possibility at a glimpse of something new to come.

Participants: Bas Jan Ader, David Adler, The Angelo Foundation, Archisearch, Aristide Antonas,Badlands Unlimited, Vassili Balatsos, Kostas Bassanos, Hans op de Beeck, Filanthi Bogea, Pierre Bonnard, Yannis Bournias, Andrea Bowers, Vlassis Caniaris, Freddie Carabott, Paul Chan, Pantelis Chandris, Nikos Charalambidis, Marcus Coates, Ida-Marie Corell, Cultural Center of Olympic Airways Employees' (POLKEOA), Josef Dabernig, Daily Lazy, Mark Dion & Robert Williams, Jimmy Durham, Shannon Ebner, Sean Edwards, Elmgreen & Dragset, Matias Faldbakken, Floater, Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapić, Sam Forsythe & New Forms of Life, Dimitrios Galanis, Liam Gillick, Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville , Katerina Gogou, Vangelis Gokas, Jens Haaning, Vasileios Hatzis, Imagine the City, Yota Ioannidou & Teresa Maria Diaz Nerio, Georgina Kakoudaki & 4Frontal, Stelios Karamanolis & Toula Ploumi, Agni Katzouraki, Michalis Katzourakis, Kavecs Projects, Janice Kerbel, Kernel, Jakob Kolding, Nikos Koundouros, Panayiotis Lambrou, Julien Langendorff, "Leaking" Intervention, Esther Lemi, Lucas Lenglet, Norman Leto, Andreas Lolis, Tonis Lykouressis, Lucky PDF, Makis Malafekas, Caroline May, Vassilis Mazomenos, Metahaven, Tracey Moffat, "Neos Aristophanes", Periodical circa 1889-1894, Yannis Oikonomides, Henrik Olesen, Orizontas Gegonoton, Jean Painlevé, Rallou Panagiotou, Maria Papadimitriou, Rena Papaspyrou, Christos Papoulias, Vicky Pericleous, Paris Petridis, Phrixos, Julien Prévieux, The Public School, Józef Robakowski, Tom Sachs, San Francisco Actor's Workshop / Herbert Blau, Kostas Sfikas, Dionysis Sotovikis, Spyros Staveris, Studio Karamanolis, Fiona Tan, TANK TV, Yannis Theodoropoulos, Theophilos Hatzimichael, Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter, Jalal Toufic, Under Construction, Yorgos Vakirtzis, Ino Varvariti, Vangelis Vlahos, We Never Closed, Uygur Yilmaz

3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME
23 October - 11 December 2011