Polis – flows – tensions – osmosis
On Thursday 14 September at 19:30, the group exhibition “Polis – flows – tensions – osmosis” opens at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation (Pireos 206, Tavros). The exhibition is made up of works (painting, photography, video art and installations) by 30 contemporary artists who have explored and visualised questions and concerns about the idea of the contemporary city and the relationships among those who live in it.
How does the many-sided crisis of our times affect the redistribution of populations? Who are today’s suppliants, and from whom do they seek protection? What is the ambiguous relationship that forms between the city – as a pole of attraction – and its new inhabitants? What kinds of osmosis are taking place, and what are their catalysts?
These are some of the questions raised by the first strand of the programme “Ancient Drama and Urban Studies / Urbanism”, which the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation is running this year as part of the project “Establishing and Promoting International Institutions of Contemporary Culture in Attica”, “Ancient Drama: Interdisciplinary and Cross-Arts Approaches”.
The artists explore and bring out moments, consolations, relationships, conflicts and forms of osmosis between populations, cultures, state and citizen, groups and individuals, humankind and nature, in the contemporary city. Ancient drama is the archetypal background of the exhibition, but not its subject.
Participating artists:
Katerina Aslanidou, Kelly Vardaka, Stratis Vogiatzis, Thalassini Douma, Polina Zioga, Maro Kouri, Natasa Kotsambasi, Konstantinos Koukoulis, Afroditi Krontiri (Ende Neu), Thekla Malamou, Andreas Maratos, Nektarios Marinos, Eleni Mouzakiti, Kostas Bombos, Ismini Bonatsou, Nikos Papadimitriou, Afroditi Papadouli, Maria Pastra, Alexandra Salimba, Maria Sevastaki, Angela Svoronou, Foivos Sofikitis, Alexandra Stravoravdi, Sonke, STMTS (Stamatis Mitsios), Dimitris Taxis, Martha Tsiara, Utonom (Utn), Nikos Christofakis, Thodoris Chrysikos.
As the art historian Athina Exarchou comments in the exhibition catalogue: “The city may be a field of social friction, but it also deserves to be explored, to be seen beyond the clichés of the tourist gaze, to be walked in psychogeographical terms, to be valued for the micro-cultures it allows to spring up and for the efforts to resist the ills that have been inflicted on it. Through the artists’ works, viewers are invited to consider their own role in public space, their participation in public life and their withdrawal into private life.”
Visitors to the exhibition will make their way among the works and watch the screenings in the video room, on the first and second floors and the ground floor of the Foundation, with the chance to read the artists’ own comments and reach their own conclusions.
The exhibition opens on Thursday 14 September at 19:30 and runs until 30 September.
Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Pireos 206, Tavros, tel. 210 34 18 550
Foundation spaces: ground floor, first floor, second floor and video room (ground floor)
Opening hours: Monday–Friday 18:00–22:00, Saturday–Sunday 11:00–14:00 and 18:00–22:00
The exhibition is part of the European Heritage Days 2017 celebrations, POL(e)IS – 22–24 September 2017
Plus! Photography exhibition by students aged 14–17
“I Observe and Photograph My City”
Alongside this, from 20 to 30 September, the ground floor of the Foundation will show photographs by students aged 14–17 who live in the Municipality of Tavros–Moschato, created at the intensive one-day workshop “I Observe and Photograph My City”, held as part of the exhibition and led by Eleni Mouzakiti with a team of photographer-artists – Tatiana Angouraki, Argyro Galani, Argyris Drolapas, Ioanna Mantzorou, Anastasis Meletis, Sarantis Raftopoulos and Ioanna Tsakalou – who are giving their time free of charge.
Admission is free.
