The discussion with Vassilis Noulas (Green Park), Nadja Argyropoulou (independent curator) and Juliane Stegner (Goethe-Institut Athen) is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition 5 Uneasy Pieces + An Open Investigation at UM Gallery, realized in collaboration with Are | are-events.org and UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design) in Prague. The discussion will be in English. Free admission.
Poor but sexy – it’s not just the decision of the documenta curators to stage next year´s edition in both Kassel and Athens that has led curators as well as journalists to the assumption that the Hellenic capital is about to become the new Berlin of the art world –it’s low rents and a dynamic Off Scene that currently account for the vibrant art scenes in both metropoles.
The reality in Athens, however, paints a different picture: The country has been in a state of crisis of dimensions that go beyond the imaginable. If we only take a look at the political events of the last couple of months and years, a shocking similarity to a modern Greek tragedy is looming. The constant side effects of the crisis are even more alarming: enormous unemployment rates and the increasing impoverishment of the middle class, radicalization of far right wing politics, the imminent Grexit and of course persistent migration movement to Europe via Turkey, that has found its neuralgic points in Greek cities, harbors and borders.
Given these conditions of permanent crisis and budgetary discipline, what can be said about artistic practice? Can cultural practice be conceived as a critical instrument and remedy? Which are the immediate opportunities that arise from these circumstances, whether it be a symptom or a resolution?
One could view the lack and failure of government subsidies as a catalyst, as it obliges artists and curators to experiment with completely new forms of cooperation and to start networking – also on an international level. With this in mind, the crisis could also be considered as meaningful in a certain way: The rather commercially oriented art establishment has been replaced by self-organized projects with a community added value.
In Athens, several places of informal urban action have developed recently. One example is Green Park, an organization occupying a pavilion in a green area with an interdisciplinary agenda: “When the crisis came I was feeling better in a way, because it made you equal“, states Vassilis Noulas, one of the initiators of the park occupation in a recent interview with the art magazine Frieze.
Next to Noulas and more activists of Green Park, curator Nadja Argyropoulou will participate in the discussion at Goethe-Institut as well. She is an independent curator who frequently works with non-governmental players of the cultural scene in Athens, such as the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Onassis Foundation, the Benaki museum and others. In her projects she reflects on the current situation in her country in a global, historical and political context.
Within the institutional landscapes, Goethe-Institut belongs to the biggest non-governmental conveyors. Juliane Stegner is the director of the program department of Goethe-Institut in Athens. With her project “Actopolis. The Art of Action” she reacts on the state of democratic institutions and the dynamics of civic action.
