Στάχυα πέφτουν σε τσιμεντένια δάπεδα

Η 2023 Ελευσίς Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης σε συνδιοργάνωση με το Φεστιβάλ Αισχύλεια 2022, παρουσιάζει το Μυστήριο 22 | Στάχυα πέφτουν σε τσιμεντένια δάπεδα, την in situ εικαστική εγκατάσταση του διεθνώς αναγνωρισμένου εικαστικού Κωστή Βελώνη. Η Έκθεση θα φιλοξενηθείαπό την Κυριακή 28 Αυγούστου έως την Κυριακή 23 Οκτωβρίου στον προαύλιο χώρο πίσω από το ανοιχτό θέατρο του Παλαιού Ελαιουργείου, ενώ τα επίσημα εγκαίνιά τηςθα πραγματοποιηθούν την Πέμπτη 8 Σεπτεμβρίου, στις 20.30.

Η εγκατάσταση αντλεί έμπνευση από τον μύθο της θεάς Δήμητρας, θεά της καλλιέργειας και της γονιμότητας, και της κόρης της, Περσεφόνης. Με μία αυστηρή γεωμετρική οριοθέτηση που λειτουργεί ως ένας μηχανισμός κυοφορίας αλλά και συγκομιδής, οι αγροτικές δραστηριότητες συνδέονται με την ερωτική πράξη. Ωστόσο, η ερωτική αφήγηση στη μνημειακή αυτή γλυπτική εγκατάσταση δεν υπογραμμίζεται μόνο με το τριγωνικό σχήμα της δομής της, αλλά εντοπίζεται και στη λειτουργικότητα της κατασκευής. Οι «μηροί της Δήμητρας» λειτουργούν ως ένα καταφύγιο εντόμων με ορόφους που αποτελούνται από διαφορετικά ανακυκλώσιμα υλικά και φυτά, τα οποία «αποπλανούν» όλα τα είδη των εντόμων, που συνδράμουν στη διαδικασία της επικονίασης.

Ο εικαστικός Κωστής Βελώνης αναφέρει για την Έκθεση:
Η γλυπτική εγκατάσταση «Στάχυα πέφτουν σε τσιμεντένια δάπεδα» έχει ως αφετηρία την μυθολογική και ιστορική παράδοση της Ελευσίνας και αποτελεί μέρος μιας ευρύτερης μελέτης για την τεκτονική σύσταση του ανιμισμού. Η θεά Δήμητρα και η κόρη της, η Περσεφόνη, προσφέρουν την ιδανική αφήγηση για τον σχεδιαστικό εναγκαλισμό του ανόργανου με το οργανικό στοιχείο και το πώς φαινομενικά  διαφορετικές οντότητες και φυσικά φαινόμενα, που ορίζονται από την κίνηση και την ακινησία, την έμψυχη και την άψυχη ύλη, την άνθηση και τον μαρασμό, μπορούν να αλληλεπικαλύπτονται και να μην λειτουργούν αντιθετικά.

Η αρχιτεκτονική κλίμακα της κατασκευής συνενώνει τη μοίρα ως μονάδα μέτρησης με τη μοίρα ως πεπρωμένο και τύχη. Το διακύβευμα αυτού του ορθωμένου και κάθετου ανθρωπομορφικού χωραφιού  δεν αφορά μονάχα στην επιφάνεια της γης και το ύψος μιας «ανεμόφιλης» κατασκευής,  αλλά απευθύνεται  και  σε μια  αντίστροφη πορεία, όπου το ύψος μπορεί να γίνει αντιληπτό ως έσχατο βάθος. Όλες οι αγροτικές δραστηριότητες τις οποίες φροντίζει η Δήμητρα (γη μήτηρ) με το όργωμα,  τη σπορά και τον θερισμό, αφορούν και το χθόνιο στοιχείο. Η Περσεφόνη και η διαμονή της στον Άδη κάποιους μήνες του χρόνου αντανακλούν τη συνέχιση μιας μόνιμης υπαρξιακής αφήγησης με τον φυσικό κύκλο ζωής των φυτών ως σύμβολο γέννησης, θανάτου και αναγέννησης.
Το ιστορικό της Τέχνης της Εγκατάστασης στο Φεστιβάλ Αισχύλεια

Ξεπερνώντας τα όρια του καθαρά παραστατικού χαρακτήρα τον οποίο είχε αρχικά, το Φεστιβάλ Αισχύλεια από το 2004 συμπεριέλαβε ως δομικό στοιχείο του ετήσιου καλλιτεχνικού του προγράμματος την Τέχνη της Εγκατάστασης, γεγονός που αγκαλιάστηκε από την πόλη και τους κατοίκους της. Η πρώτη εικαστική εγκατάσταση που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο πλαίσιο του Φεστιβάλ ήταν το έργο της γλύπτριας Βάνας Ξένου με τίτλο «Έλευσις – Πέρασμα», το οποίο παρουσιάστηκε στο βιομηχανικό συγκρότημα «Κρόνος». Έκτοτε, διεθνώς διακεκριμένοι εικαστικοί φιλοξενήθηκαν στην πόλη της Ελευσίνας, όπως η Καλλιόπη Λεμού, ο Μάριος Σπηλιόπουλος, η Λήδα Παπακωνσταντίνου, η Διοχάντη, ο Stephen Antonakos, ο Στέφανος Τσιβόπουλος, ο Νίκος Ναυρίδης, ο Michelangelo Pistoletto, o Tarek Atoui, η Αιμιλία Μπουρίτη, η Ελένη Πανουκλιά, η Δανάη Στράτου,  η Ασπασία Σταυροπούλου και ο Ανδρέας Λόλης.

Οικοδομώντας σε αυτή την παράδοση και αναδεικνύοντας την Ελευσίνα ως διεθνές σημείο συνάντησης για τη site specific και site sensitive καλλιτεχνική δημιουργία, στόχος της 2023 Ελευσίς Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης είναι να επιμελείται κάθε χρόνο την εικαστική εγκατάσταση του Φεστιβάλ Αισχύλεια. Φέτος έχει τη χαρά να συνεργάζεται με τον διακεκριμένο εικαστικό Κωστή Βελώνη.

Λίγα λόγια για τον Κωστή Βελώνη

O Κωστής Βελώνης γεννήθηκε στην Αθήνα. Σπούδασε πολιτισμικές και ανθρωπιστικές σπουδές (MRes) στο London Consortium – Birkbeck College, ICA, AA (MRES) και Arts Plastiques/ Esthétique στο Université Paris8 (D.E.A). Είναι Διδάκτωρ Αρχιτεκτονικής του Εθνικού Μετσόβιου Πολυτεχνείου και αναπληρωτής καθηγητής στην Ανώτατη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών. Τα γλυπτά του  Βελώνη εξερευνούν την κωμική και αμήχανη συνθήκη του αντικειμένου ως προβολή μιας ανθρωποκεντρικής αφήγησης  με αλληγορίες της καθημερινότητας. Στο σύνολο του έργου του δίνεται έμφαση πάνω στις ηθικές προεκτάσεις του λάθους και της αδεξιότητας, όπως και το χάσμα που προκαλεί η ονειροπόληση και η πραγματικότητα  που τη ματαιώνει. Το πλαίσιο αυτής της ανάγνωσης αρθρώνεται εξίσου και στην «κοινή εστία» του δημόσιου forum με ένα συστηματοποιημένο λεξιλόγιο μορφών και υλικών, που υποδηλώνει την μοντερνιστική γραφή σ’ ένα εύρος αρχιτεκτονικών τυπολογιών· από τα κύρια μέρη του αρχαίου ελληνικού θεάτρου  (σκηνή, κερκίδες, ορχήστρα) μέχρι τα πολιτικά βήματα και προπαγανδιστικά περίπτερα της ευρωπαϊκής πρωτοπορίας.

Πληροφορίες

Διεύθυνση Επιμέλειας: Διεύθυνση Σύγχρονης Τέχνης – Ζωή Μουτσώκου – 2023 Ελευσίς Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης
Συνεργάτις Επιμελήτρια: Ιωάννα Γερακίδη
Αρχιτεκτονική Επιμέλεια: Οι αρχιτέκτονες της Φάλαινας & Διογένης Βεριγάκης
Φωτογραφίες: Πάνος Κοκκινιάς
Επιστημονική και Υλική Υποστήριξη: Γεωπονικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Οργάνωση Παραγωγής: Αλέξανδρος Τηλιόπουλος
Συντονισμός Παραγωγής: Γιώργος Κατσώνης
Εκτέλεση Παραγωγής: opbo studio
Διοργάνωση: 2023 Ελευσίς Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης & Φεστιβάλ Αισχύλεια 2022

Μια παραγωγή της 2023 Ελευσίς Πολιτιστική Πρωτεύουσα της Ευρώπης

Τοποθεσία: Παλαιό Ελαιουργείο, Ελευσίνα
Διάρκεια: 28/8 – 23/10
Εγκαίνια: Πέμπτη 8/9 στις 20:30
Ωράριο λειτουργίας: 28/8-19/9 Δευτέρα-Κυριακή 19:00-23:00 (τις ημέρες των παραστάσεων 19:00- 20:30) 20/9-23/10 Τετάρτη-Κυριακή 17:00-21:00

 

 

 

Monte Verità

Harald Szeemann, Monte Verità — installation view at Kunsthaus Zurich, 1978

 

 

 

 

 

Monte Verità: "The place where our minds can reach up to the heavens..."
Harald Szeemann , April 1985

 

In the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth, the Ticino, republic and canton since 1803, became a gateway to the south and favourite destination of a group of unconventional loners who found in the region, with its southern atmosphere, fertile ground in which to sow the seeds of the utopia they were unable to cultivate in the north. The Ticino came to represent the antithesis of the urbanised, industrialized north, a sanctuary for all kinds if idealist. From 1900 onwards Mount Monescia above Ascona became a pole of attraction for those seeking an ‘'alternative'' life. These reformers who sought a third way between the capitalist and communist blocks, eventually found a home in the region of the north Italian lakes.

The founders came from all directions : Henry Oedenkoven from Antwerp, the pianist Ida Hofmann from Montenegro, the artist Gusto and the ex-officer Karl Gräser from Transylvania. United by a common ideal they settled on the ‘'Mount of Truth'' as they renamed Monte Monescia.
Draped in loose flowing garments and with long hair they worked in the gardens and fields, built spartan timber cabins and found relaxation in dancing and naked bathing, exposing their bodies to light, air, sun and water. Their diet excluded all animal foods and was based entirely on plants, vegetables and fruit. They workshipped nature, preaching its purity and interpreting it symbolically as the ultimate work of art: ‘'Parsifal's meadow'', ‘'The rock of Valkyrie'' and the ‘'Harrassprung'' were symbolic names which with time were adopted even by the local population of Ascona who had initially regarded the community with suspicion.

Their social organisation based on the co-operative system and through which they strove to achieve the emancipation of women, self-criticism, new ways of cultivating mind and spirit and the unity of body and soul, can at the best be described as a Christian-communist community. The intensity of the single ideals fused in this community was such that word of it soon spread across the whole of Europe and overseas, whilst gradually over the years the community itself became a sanatorium frequented by theosophists, reformers, anarchists, communists, socialdemocrats, psyco-analysts, followed by literary personalities, writers, poets, artists and finally emigrants of both world wars: Raphael Friedeberg, Prince Peter Kropotkin, Erich Mühsam who declared Ascona ‘'the Republic of the Homeless'', Otto Gross who planned a ‘'School for the liberation of humanity'', August Bebel, Karl Kautsky, Otto Braun, even perhaps Lenin and Trotzki, Hermann Hesse, Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow, Else Lasker-Schüler, D.H Lawrence, Rudolf von Laban, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan, Hugo Ball, Hans Arp, Hans Richter, Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej von Jawlensky, Arthur Segal, El Lissitzky and many others.

After the departure of the founder for Brazil in 1920 there followed a brief bohemian period at the Monte Verità which lasted until the complex was purchased as a residence by the Baron von der Heydt, banker to the ex-Kaiser Willhelm II and one of the most important collectors of contemporary and non European art. The bohemian life continued in the village and in the Locarnese valleys from then on.

The Mount, now used as a Hotel and park, still maintains its almost magic power of attraction. Along with the proven magnetic anomalies of geological formations underlying Ascona, it is as if the mount preserves, hidden away out of sight, the sum of all the successful and unsuccessful attempts to breach the gap between the ‘'I'' and ‘'we'', and the striving towards an ideal creative society, thus making the Monte Verità a special scenic and climatic micro-paradise.

The Monte Verità is also however a well preserved testimony for the history of architecture. From Adam's hut to the Bauhaus. The ideology of the first settlers demanded spartan chalet-like timber dwellings with plenty of light and air and few comforts. Shortly after 1900 the following buildings began to spring up: Casa Selma (now museum), [...], Casa Andrea with its geometrical façade, the sunniest of the buildings (now converted), Casa Elena and the Casa del Tè - Tea House (now demolished) and the Casa dei Russi (hideout for Russian students after the 1905 revolution and now undergoing renovation). The Casa Centrale was built for the community and allowed for maximum natural light. Ying-Yang symbols were worked into windows and balconies. (In 1948 this building was demolished to make way for a restaurant and only the curving flight of steps remains).

Henry Oedenkoven built Casa Anatta as living quarters and reception rooms in the theosophist style with rounded corners everywhere, double timber walls, sliding doors, domed ceilings and huge windows with views of the landscape as supreme works of art, a large flat roof and sun-terrace.

In the mains rooms of this building Mary Wingman danced, Bebel, Kautsky and Martin Buber discussed, Ida Hofmann played Wagner and the community held its reunions. In 1926 the Baron von der Heydt converted Casa Anatta into a private residence and adorned it with his collection of African, Indian and Chinese art, now housed at Rietberg Museum, and a collection of Swiss carnival masks which is now in Washington. After the death of the Baron in 1964 the Casa Anatta, described by the architecture theorist Siegfried Giedion in 1929 as a perfect example of ‘'liberated living'', fell into disuse and dilapidation. In 1979 it was re-activated to house the Monte Verità exhibition and has been the History Museum of the Monte Verità since 1981. (Open to the public from April to October). In 1909 the Turinese architect Anselmo Secondo built the Villa Semiramis as a guest house and hotel. The Villa, clinging to the mountain side, presents many architectural characteristics of the Piedmont ‘'Jugendstil'' of which the triangular shutters are the most striking example. In 1970 work was carried out to remodernize the Villa, true to the original style, under the direction of the Ticinese architect Livio Vacchini. The arrival of the Baron on the Mount marked the advent of modern architecture in the Ticino The original contract for a hotel in the characteristically rational and functional Bauhaus style went to Mies van der Rohe and was executed by Emil Fahrenkamp, builder of the Shell Building in Berlin and later designer of the Rhein Steel Works. Like Casa Anatta, the Hotel is built against the rock face. The design both of the exterior and of the rooms is simple and clear-cut and the suites are furnished in the Bauhaus tradition. The reception rooms and the corridors are light and airy and the metalwork studied down to the smallest detail.Thanks to the construction of the Hotel, Bauhaus masters such as Gropius, Albers, Bayer, Breuer, Feiniger, Schlemmer, Schawinksy and Moholy-Nagy visited Ascona and the Monte Verità and there discovered what Ise Gropius was to put into words in 1978 ‘‘A place where our minds can reach up to the heavens...''.

 

Text by Caitlin Murray 

 

http://www.impossibleobjectsmarfa.com/fragments/monte-verit?rq=monte%20verita

 

Inside Martin Margiela's All-White Maison

In Paris’s quiet and principally residential 11th arrondissement is the home of fashion’s most mysterious players. The residents are justifiably proud of the 3,000 square foot space which they moved into a little over three years ago, which dates back to the 18th century. It has a suitably grand and – more importantly, given the label in question – evocative heritage. For nearly 100 years, this was a convent presided over by the Sisters of Charity, functioning primarily as an orphanage.

In 1939, one M Andre Peuble took over the building and founded the prestigious L’Ecole Professionnelle de Dessin Industriel. The vast majority of Paris’s industrial design luminaries from that period were alumni including the designer of the iconic Klein-blue Gitanes packet, complete with whirling Romany dancer and curling plumes of smoke.

By the time Martin Margiela and his team arrived in December 2004, the place had been empty for a decade or more. The new occupants took up residence, however, only to find the classrooms had been left in just the same state as the day they were vacated – pens in inkwells, exam papers on desks and lessons still chalked on to blackboards, all covered in a thick layer of dust. Suffice to say, anyone who is familiar with the mindset of Martin Margiela might argue that, at 163 rue S Maure, the designer has found his spiritual home. After all, the effect of time passing on the world has been a career-long obsession of his.

It took four months for the building to be prepared for its new purpose, and the powers that be at Maison Martin Margiela adopted just the same approach to the building’s restoration as they apply to everything else they touch. In particular, the use of white – or whites, in Margiela speak – was central.

“There are two reasons for white – one practical, one conceptual,” says a spokesperson. It is the stuff of fashion legend that Margiela himself has never agreed to a face-to-face interview, or to his photograph appearing alongside any profile of his work. All statements that are issued by the house are careful to employ the pronoun “we” instead of “I”, thereby catapulting the concept of the superstar designer into oblivion. “When Jenny (Meirens, the label’s cofounder) and Martin started out they collected furniture from all over the place. They had no money and it was all in different styles, so to make it seem coherent it was all painted white.”

Of course, not just any old white will do. White emulsion is chosen to paint all surfaces for two reasons, both for its matt finish, and the fact that it is impossible to clean – any wear and tear caused by daily comings and goings are therefore left to tell their story for posterity. Paint is never applied to the whole space at the same time, so some of the rooms are almost yellow with age, while others are pristine in appearance – well, not quite.

Text by Susannah Frankel, April 2015 

more : https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/7363/inside-martin-margielas-all-white-maison

Στολή, τάξη και αταξία: Η έννοια της στολής στο ντιζάιν, στο δικαιϊκό σύστημα, στην τέχνη, στην ποπ κουλτούρα"

Η στολή ως τρόπος ενδυμασίας παραπέμπει στην άνεση, την ασφάλεια, την απλότητα. Από τις στολές των ιδιωτικών σχολείων, έως των ένστολων κρατικών και στρατιωτικών λειτουργών, η στολή άλλοτε δίνει κύρος, συμβολίζει εξουσία, ρυθμίζει κοινωνικές συμπεριφορές  

Ταυτόχρονα η κατάργηση του ενδυματολογικού κώδικα μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε νέα ενδυματολογικά σύμβολα μίας ανατροπής. Η «στολή» του ανήκειν σε ένα κοσμοπολιτικό περιβάλλον διαφαίνεται σε μικρές λεπτομέρειες του τρόπου που ντυνόμαστε, μιλάμε, υποδεχόμαστε ή αρνούμαστε τις αλλαγές στον τρόπο ζωής μας. 

 Η στολή αναφέρεται στο γούστο της ενδυματολογικής συγκατάβασης. Αποτελεί σύμβολο ελέγχου. Αλλά μεταφέρει και μία αίσθηση δύναμης. Η πιο αποτελεσματική μέθοδος ενσωμάτωσης σε ένα σύνολο είναι η ομοιομορφία της ένδυσης.

Η συζήτηση με θέμα «Στολή, τάξη και αταξία» που γίνεται στο πλαίσιο του 2^ου Κινηματογραφικού Φεστιβάλ Ταινιών Μόδας (14/2, Τεχνοπολις)  εξετάζει πως  η στολή ως ένα  τεχνικό ή επίσημου  χαρακτήρα ενδυματολογικό σύνολο  επηρεάζει τη σύγχρονη μόδα, μεταφέρεται στην ποπ κουλτούρα και χρησιμοποιείται κριτικά στην τέχνη. Από τους συμβολισμούς εξουσίας στην ιστορία του ενδύματος και των θεσμών μέχρι τις  διαφημίσεις του streetwear, από την αυτοκρατορία των λογότυπων έως τη σημερινή λατρεία των κόμικς και των εμπορευματοποιημένων προϊόντων η έννοια της στολής πλέει στον χρόνο και νοηματοδοτεί τις αλλαγές .

Οι καλεσμένοι στη συζήτηση μιλάνε για ενδύματα, συνήθειες με κανονιστικό ή όχι χαρακτήρα και για τη μόδα του «ανήκειν» .

Athens Fashion Film Festival 

19.00 – 19.45PANEL: "Στολή, τάξη και αταξία: Η έννοια της στολής στο ντιζάιν,
στο δικαιϊκό σύστημα, στην τέχνη, στην ποπ κουλτούρα"
Επιμέλεια-παρουσίαση: Έφη Φαλίδα
Ομιλητές: Κωστής Βελώνης, Διονύσης Καββαθάς, Αγγελος Μπράτης,

Κυριακή, 16/2, Αμφιθέατρο της Τεχνόπολης, 19.00 - 19.45.

𝙖.𝙊.-𝙗.𝙘.(after Olympics - before crisis)

Kostis Velonis, Athens Community in the Kibbutz 
Hard paper, marble, ceramic, wood, acrylic, brick, 2010

Fifteen years after the end of the 28th Olympic Games in Athens, Greece has not recovered from the crisis. Traveling back to 2004-2010, a re-visiting through the spectrum of culture reveals a lot about the climate then and now. In September 2004, just after the successful hosting of the Olympics, Greece was slowly embarking on a economic downturn, invisible to the majority of the population. It led on April 23rd 2010, to then Prime Minister George Papandreou to announce that Greece was entering the International Monetary Fund (IMF) support mechanism; the beginning to an endless path of austerity.

This exhibition sheds light on a five-year period of rich audio and visual cultural production in the interval between those two events: the end of the Olympics, and the entry into the IMF mechanism. The prevailing global narrative on Greece at the end of the Olympics was a positive one: the cradle of European thinking, the mother of Western culture, succeeded in organising a highly celebrated aesthetically pleasing event that was viewed by millions all over the world. In just five years Greece would have a completely different profile on the front pages of international press, as a bankrupt country, not civilised enough, in a collapsed financial state due to corruption and over-spending of European grants; a country that over-borrowed but was begging for more money. A country that wanted to deceive the economically stable Northern Europe, with Greeks portrayed as "lazy".

This exhibition attempts to trace the footprints of this change over the past five years through examples of cultural production of the period, and to contour what kind of climate was prevailing in Athens by the end of the Olympics, and how it shifted but also to look for possible examples of utopian or dystopian representations for a future for Athens and Greece through the narrative of artists, filmmakers, musicians and designers. 

a.O. - b.c. zooms in specifically on the question of art and its relationship to the fetishistic narrative (both foreign and of the Greek society) of contemporary Greece as a continuation of its ancient heritage as well as its reflection on the concept of “Greekness”, and furthermore aims to unearth the articulation of a glossary that contoured the cultural production of the period. The exhibition aims to highlight the efforts traced in cultural production that formed the basis but also the introduction, to the current international interest in Athens in its post-documenta era.

From artistic collectives, curatorial initiatives and independent movements of filmmakers, to music groups with a newfound political discourse and experimentations through new media, cultural production in Athens between 2004-2010 was a nucleus for the redefinition of national identity, sociopolitical concerns, investigations and positioning but also a ground for a new discourse that described local cultural production in new terms in relation to its past but also the global international scene.

The exhibition serves as a sample presentation of a small section of many examples of initiatives and actions presented at that time, through the memories of State of Concept's team (Vicky Zioga, Electra Karatza, Maria Adela Konomi, Lydia Markaki and iLiana Fokianaki). 

With: 

Loukia Alavanou, Nadja Argyropoulou, Barking Dogs United (Nikos Arvanitis and Naomi Tereza Salmon), Bill Balaskas, Manolis Baboussis, Athens Biennial, Margarita Bofiliou, Mary and the Boy, Amateur Boyz, Voltnoi Brege, Berlin Brides, Kostas Christopoulos, Lydia Dambassina, Dora Economou, DESTE Foundation, Anastasia Douka, Drog A Tek, Erasers, Futura editions, Farida el Gazzar, Eva Giannakopoulou, Marina Gioti, Kyriaki Goni, Yota Ioannidou, Lakis & Akis Ionas / The Callas, Dionysis Kavallieratos, Eleni Kamma, Vlassis Kaniaris, Nikos Kanarelis, Irini Karayannopoulou, Elpida Karaba, Vasilis Karouk, Panos Kokkinias, Panos Koutras, Yorgos Lanthimos, Panayotis Loukas, Greece is for Lovers, Vardis Marinakis, Yolanda Markopoulou, Christoforos Marinos, Dimitris Merantzas, Margarita Myrogianni, Nikos Navridis, Nikos Nikolaidis, Orthologistes, Malvina Panagiotidi, Rallou Panagiotou, Maria Papadimitriou, Ilias Papailiakis, Leda Papakonstantinou, Eftyhis Patsourakis, Tassos Pavlopoulos, Natassa Poulantza, Theo Prodromidis, Kostas Roussakis, Nana Sachini, Kostas Sahpazis, Yorgos Sapountzis, Cristos Sarris, Fani Sofologi, Stixoima, Danae Stratou, Stefania Strouza, Thanasis Totsikas, Sofia Touboura, Nikos Tranos, Alexandros Tzannis, Syllas Tzoumerkas, Panos Tsagaris, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis, Vangelis Vlahos, Eirini Vourloumis, Tassos Vrettos, Poka-Yio, Despoina Zefkili, Mary Zygouri.

Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA)

 State of Concept

12 Dec-15 Jan

https://stateofconcept.org/exhibition/a-o-b-c-an-audiovisual-diary/

The Man Who Flew into Space from his Apartment

Ilya Kabakov, "The Man Who Flew into Space from his Apartment", 1985.

Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics

Frédérique Aït-Touati, Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Gérgoire, The Soil Map (detail), Terra Forma, manuel de cartographies potentielles, 2019. © the artists.

By now everybody knows that there is an existential threat to our collective conditions of existence, but very few people have any idea of how to cope with this new Critical situation. It is very strange, but citizens of many developed countries are disoriented; it is as if they were asked to land on a new territory, an Earth that they have long ignored having reacted to their action. The hypothesis we want to propose is that the best way to map this new Earth is to see it as a network of Critical Zones, which constitute a thin skin a few kilometers thick that has been generated over eons of time by life forms. Those life forms had completely transformed the original geology of the Earth, before humanity transformed it yet again over the last centuries.

Over the years, scientists have installed multiple Observatories to study these Critical Zones and have made us aware of the complex composition and extreme fragility of this thin layer inside which all life forms, humans included, have to cohabit. They have renewed Earth science in a thousand ways and very much in a way that Alexander von Humboldt would have approved. Increasingly, scientists, artists, activists, politicians, and citizens are realizing that society is not centered solely on humanity, but it has to become Earthly again if it wishes to land without crashing. The modern project has been in flight, unconcerned by planetary limits. Suddenly, there is a general movement toward the soil and new attention to the ways people might inhabit it. Politics is no longer about humans making decisions on their own and for themselves only, but has become an immensely more complex undertaking. New forms of citizenship and new types of attention and care for life forms are required to generate a common ground.

The ZKM thus continues the comprehensive engagement and collaboration with local communities and institutions that was explored during the Open Codes exhibition (2017–2019), opening up a space for common action and discussion to recompose the world we live in: Over a period of five months ZKM will host an exhibition conceived as a scale model to simulate the spatial novelty of this new land as well as the diversity of relations between the life forms inhabiting it. It will serve as an Observatory of Critical Zones allowing visitors to familiarize themselves with the new situation. This special combination of thought experiment and exhibition was developed by Peter Weibel and Bruno Latour in their previous collaborations at ZKM. Iconoclash in 2002, Making Things Public in 2005, and Reset Modernity! in 2016 constitute the three former “thought exhibitions” (Gedankenausstellungen) that resulted from their intensive working relationship which now spans 20 years.

The ZKM website will soon publish the intense program accompanying the exhibition. We invite thinkers and scholars, activists and initiatives from all over the world to share and discuss ideas—please contact us at hellocriticalzones [​at​] zkm.de.

Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics
May 9–October 4, 2020 

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe 
Karlsruhe

Curated by: Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel with Martin Guinard and Bettina Korintenberg

Curatorial Committee: Alexandra Arènes, Jérôme Gaillardet, Joseph Koerner, Daria Mille, and the Critical Zones Study Group at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG)

Collaborating partners: Karlsruhe University of Art and Design (HfG), State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, Hydrogeochemical Environmental Observatory: The Strengbach Catchment

https://zkm.de/en

‘Migrations’ series continues exploration of peoples, cultures and borders

Jacques Callot, French, 1592–1635. Bohemians on the March: The Rear Guard, 1621. Etching and engraving. Princeton University Art Museum

In the spring term, Princeton University is launching its second year of a three-year public program around the theme of migrations through “Global Migration: The Humanities and Social Sciences in Dialogue.” A full list of events is available online.

Through lectures, conferences, performances and panel discussions, the public is invited to learn more about the movement of peoples over time and the consequences of those shifts.

“If migration has been a major human experience throughout history, it is taking on dramatic new dimensions in our own era of globalization,” said Sandra Bermann, the Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and professor of comparative literature at Princeton. “It is essential to understand it better. Our aim is to bring global, national and local migration issues to the forefront.”

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/02/19/migrations-series-continues-exploration-peoples-cultures-and-borders