Athens Conservatoire

ANATOMY OF POLITICAL MELANCHOLY ATHENS CONSERVATOIRE

ANATOMY OF POLITICAL MELANCHOLY

CURATOR’S TEXT 2 ARTISTS KATERINA APOSTOLIDOU 12 MARC BAUER 16 SARA SEJIN CHANG 20 MARIANNA CHRISTOFIDES 24 DEPRESSION ERA 28 EIRENE EFSTATHIOU 32 MARINA GIOTI 36 JAN PETER HAMMER 40 SVEN JOHNE 44 YORGOS KARAILIAS 48 SPIROS KOKKONIS 52 ARIANE LOZE 56 ADRIAN MELIS 60 TOM MOLLOY 64 DIMITRIS MYTAS 68 JENNIFER NELSON 72 YORGOS PRINOS 76 CHRYSA ROMANOS 80 HANS ROSENSTRÖM 84 GEORGES SALAMEH 88 NESTORI SYRJÄLÄ 92 THU VAN TRAN 96 DIMITRIS TSOUMPLEKAS 100 BRAM VAN MEERVELDE 104

EDUCATION PROGRAMME 108 ABOUT THE SCHWARZ FOUNDATION ABOUT THE ATHENS CONSERVATOIRE 110 COLOPHON 112 Katerina Gregos / Curator ANATOMY OF POLITICAL MELANCHOLY

“Change happens when we decide - what we want, rather than what we think we might get.”1 1 — George Monbiot

What has happened to the state of contemporary politics? Wasn’t there once a time when politicians were driven primarily by unselfish - motives or altruistic intentions and entered politics to serve the public good — a time when politicians - were well-educated people, bound by moral integrity and high ideals? True, politics has always been - prone to corruption and the abuse of power, but in recent years it seems that self-serving private interests — or the interests of industry and business — have come to take precedence over the interests of the wider electorate. - Citizens, it seems, exist only to be 2 managed, manipulated and - exploited, rather than served. - Political campaigns deliver mes- - sages of fear, rather than of hope or vision; scandals abound and mis- creants offer apologies without sin- - cerity and then quickly return to - ‘business as usual’. Voting is no longer about positive choice, but about accepting the lesser of two evils. No wonder that fewer and fewer people are turning out to - vote, while many of those who still do are disaffected. Moreover, many voters have been abandoning traditional mainstream parties while an ever-increasing group of people don’t identify with a specific party. As sociologist Stephanie L. Mudge - points out, “electorally, the ‘losers’ of ‘globalisation’ — that is, a whole 2 lot of people, including whole communities — ended up with no party that spoke for them2. In her excel- lent interview Neoliberalism from the Left she also discusses the current shift to the Right and how - these parties pretend to be repre- - sentatives of the disempowered and the disenfranchised; the most telling example of this of course, being Trump’s electoral victory in - 2016. However, she goes yet further to critique the Left for creating a political vacuum. She talks about one of the failures of the Left as being the espousal of “Third Way” - politics from the 1990s onwards; - i.e. embracing the politics of the free market, privatization and finan- - cialization more and more, while increasingly relinquishing the idea of the welfare state (one obvious example of this would be Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’). “Culturally”, she suggests, “criticism of the neo-liberal order was marginalized 3 and hived off as a province of the - ‘radical’ left, rather than being the stuff of mainstream political discourse — where it should have been all along”.3 - To make matters worst, we are increasingly witnesses to 3 the debasement of political lan-

1. George Monbiot, Our democracy is broken, debased and distrusted — but there are ways to fix it, The Guardian, 25th January 2017. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/ jan/25/democracy-broken-distrusted-trump-brexit-political-system?CMP=fb_gu&fbclid=IwAR2RMtUgC6MYhmUU- TygcMrAUGHRVIwg576w1ar-p-HVp_zrLr7fAV1Lh7DA

2. Neoliberalism From the Left: An Interview with Stephanie L. Mudge https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/left-political-party-economists-neoliberalims-keynesianism 3. Ibid EN GR guage; the infantilisation and polar- - isation of political debate; the growth of a simplified discourse that panders to collective fears rather than addressing the real, pressing questions; the lack of accountability from politicians, and of course, ‘fake truth’ and ‘alterna- - tive facts’. Welcome then to the heyday of ‘psychopolitics’ — the interaction between politics or - political phenomena and human psychology. With Trump in the White House, Putin in the Kremlin, and Bolsonaro in the Brazilian National Congress psychopolitics has taken on a new, frightening, - meaning. No wonder so many of us - feel disillusioned. Philosopher 4 Lieven de Cauter calls this sense of disillusionment ‘political melan- - choly’: a sinking feeling borne from frustration, anger, despair, mistrust, sadness and hopelessness. This - exhibition is inspired by his text Small Anatomy of Political Melancholy.4 The disillusionment - with politics, government, state institutions and political parties is at an all-time high. For the first time - since World War II (which was preceded by similar political crises - of the 1920s and 1930s), we have reason to fear the disintegration of peace and the rise of aggressive nationalism. Clearly there is something profoundly wrong with contemporary - politics: it is not only a case of the moral and intellectual inadequacy - of politicians, but also the gaping - chasm between the aims of politicians and the needs of citizens. The foundations of democracy itself are at risk, not only from the rise of 4 demagogic populism in Europe, but also from the grip of financial institutions, mega-corporations and - special interest groups which have the power to influence the political agenda. Politics, it seems, has become - hostage either to opportunists or to - people of power and special inter- - est groups. The education, culture, motives, capabilities and moral - standing of politicians don’t appear to bear much weight today. Greece, - of course, exemplifies the loss of sovereignty due to debt, where ordinary citizens have been forced to bail out a country driven to financial collapse by government mis- - management and corruption of the political system (this is also due to the age-old clientelist relationship between state and citizens in the country). The longstanding eco- - nomic and political crisis in Greece has led to political disillusionment, - mistrust of institutions, a sense of collective powerlessness, and a post-ideological phase character- ised by apathy, individualism, and - resignation. According to sociologist of law Ioannis Kampourakis: “This defeatism fits into a longer - trend in Greece, tracing back to the defeat of the communist left after - the post-WWII Civil War, of nostal- gia and glorification of a ‘struggle - fought, even if lost’, which has aes- theticised the contemporary apathy - as a form of political pessimism and melancholy”.5 In the case of Greece, and other European countries bound by aus- terity politics, political melancholy is also inextricably tied to what has been called ‘financial melancholy’. In a recent study by the Goldsmiths - College Political Economy - Research Centre, entitled Financial Melancholia: Mental Health and Indebtedness, Professors Dr. William Davies, Dr. Johnna Montgomerie and Sara Wallin point - out that, “the rise of mental health problems such as depression cannot be understood in narrowly med- - 5 ical terms, but instead needs to be understood in its political-economic context. An economy driven - by debt (and prone to problem debt

4. Lieven de Cauter, Small Anatomy of Political Melancholy http://crisiscritique.org/special09/cauter.pdf

5. Ioannis Kampourakis, Political disillusionment in Greece: toward a post-political state? https://www.opendemocracy. net/can-europe-make-it/ioannis-kampourakis/political-disillusionment-in-greece-toward-post-political-state EN GR at the level of households) will have a predisposition towards rising rates of depression”6. Their study 8- on ‘financial melancholia’ demon- strates “the influence of inequality - on rising levels of household debt and depression”7 and “foregrounds the narratives of the indebted to interpret how being trapped by past - debts through present-day repay- - ment obligations manifests as psy- - chological and sociological problems of indebtedness”.8 In many - European households it is now - widely acknowledged that, “house- - hold debt overhang cultivated during the boom years generates a persistent drag on economic renewal”9. To highlight the scale of - the problem of indebtedness, they cite figures, which show that there is now three times more debt in the UK and the US since the 1990s. - They also point out how “individual obligations to creditors rise as - state obligations to citizens fall”10 - and how the “combination of 11 finance-led growth with withdrawal of services and income support from central and local governments - to low-income households has led to households at the lower end of - the income distribution relying - most heavily on private debt to - replace public welfare”11. Their research shows, how credit does 12 not offer a way of getting ahead in - life but traps people in a vicious cycle of debt and how the ‘capillary power’ of debt, “that is, its capacity 13 to invade intimate relationships in - the family, community and one’s - own body” has devastating - effects.12 Finally, it points out how “collective and individual agency - 6 are constrained, suggesting that the logic of debt is as political as it is economic.”13 The artists in the exhibition Anatomy of Political Melancholy probe the human experience of this phenomenon and reveal its com- plexities, as well as reactions to it, translating it into resonant images. Looking at it from a personal per- - spective, to a national and even a global one, exploring its effect on - the older and the younger generation and its presence in different parts of the world, they point at different aspects of our current political discontent and allude to the very real but also elusive feeling of melancholy produced on an individual and collective level. How did we get where we are? How does this disillusionment with our pres- - ent condition manifest itself in our - everyday life? What responsibilities - do we also have as citizens? Can we imagine a way out? Is it possi- - ble that solutions exist closer to us than we think? Is it time to start - believing in the existence of alter- - native futures? A social praxis, for example, which goes against inwardness, ‘atomisation’ or individualism and re-thinks politics, social relationality and participa- tory ways of being a citizen. Anatomy of Political Melancholy probes and condenses the present - condition — often mistaken as one that is also the product of the consumerist ‘politics of content’. Studies suggest the exact oppo- - site: a politics of disillusionment due to the status quo. The exhibition comes at a timely moment: both in Greece, with elections coming up in the country in October - this year; but also in Europe, with the continuing Brexit impasse as - well as European Parliamentary elections in May. The latter are - expected to change the EU’s politi- -

6. Dr. William Davies, Dr. Johnna Montgomerie and Sara Wallin, Goldsmiths College Political Economy Research Centre, Financial Melancholia: Mental Health and Indebtedness, London, 2015, p. 5

7. Ibid

8. Ibid

9. Ibid

10. Ibid, p. 10

11. Ibid, p. 37

12. Ibid, p. 36

13. Ibid, p. 11 EN GR cal dynamic, due to the rising number of disillusioned voters and - those who are angry at what they - perceive as the loss of national sovereignty and the disempower- ment of national governments in a globalized world. In addition to this, - the major financial and economic - crisis that has created a first tier and second tier class of EU member states, and the migration crisis has led larger number of voters to - opt for the populist and anti-estab- lishment parties, creating an - increasingly polarized landscape in - Europe. - At a time when ideologies tend to divide people instead of uniting them; that condemn instead of bringing about understanding and respect, the exhibition attempts to map a contemporary pathology of politics. It aspires to encourage us to re-consider our political and civil responsibilities, to reject political - apathy and instead restore our con- fidence in the power of both our - individual as well as collective agency; if we want things to change we all need to start thinking of how we can become more socially and - politically active — even on a small, local scale. The exhibition highlights the dangers of political apa- - thy and points to the fact that — contrary to what neoliberal discourse says — there are still such 14 things as society and community, particularly in countries like Greece. It is too easy to become - resigned to the present malaise, to - become merely cynical. However, as writer and activist George - Monbiot argues, the stirrings of a new sociocracy are in the making.14 8 And there are alternatives. Some of the things Monbiot suggests — the - radical reform of political campaign finance and limitations on the power of corporations to buy political space; assistance to enable voters make better-informed - choices — already exist. In - Germany, for example, the federal - agency for civic education publishes authoritative and accessible guides to the key political issues, - and tries to engage with groups that usually shun democratic politics. Another example is - Switzerland, with its Smartvote system, which presents a list of policy choices with which one can agree or disagree, then compares one’s - answers with the policies of the parties and candidates contesting the election.15 Monbiot suggests - that a new method, ‘sociocracy’, - could enhance democracy. This is a system designed to produce inclu- sive but unanimous decisions, by encouraging members of a group to continue objecting to a proposal until, between them, they produce an answer all of them can live with. It is clear that political practice has - to be rethought, not in representing pre-constituted identities, but rather in constituting those identities. This requires new ways of unorthodox political thinking, a new sense of urgency about democracy’s strengths and weak- nesses, and an open discussion about the pros and cons of liberal democracy. And lets not forget, as writer Mark Kernan has pointed out in his article In praise of melancholia, that melancholy can “also act as a creative spur, building a hard won modicum of self-knowledge to - build on”.16 Anatomy of Political Melancholy thus attempts the diffi- - cult task of both capturing the complexity of the moment and asks us to imagine a better future.

9 14. George Monbiot, Our democracy is broken, debased and distrusted – but there are ways to fix it https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/25/democracy-broken-distrusted-trump-brexit-political-system

15. These are, of course, mature European societies, which is a prerequisite for the application of such new models. It requires creating the conditions for a new political education and a new political culture.

16. Mark Kernan, In Praise of Melancholia https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/mark-kernan/ in-praise-of-melancholia EN GR Afterthought: The political lethargy of citizens — a consequence of politicians’ disinterest in real and urgent - socio-political and cultural prob- - lems — is indeed obvious. But plau- sible solutions are far less obvious. - Our present pessimism, resignation and apathy could instead provide a - strong and positive incentive to - think again about certain deeply felt - injustices in society. The current state of affairs is precisely the reason we should try to square the cir- cle of practical possibility and ideal imaginary, of pessimism and hope. It is high time that we stopped banging our heads against the wall - and made a serious attempt at rig- orous analysis and the explication - of the possible roads out of our - predicament. This exhibition is both relevant and urgent. It picks up on a debate that witnessed all around us, every day, in Greece, in Europe, and globally. (K.G.)

Katerina Gregos is a curator, lecturer and writer based in Brus- sels since 2006. She has curated numerous large-scale international exhibitions and biennials. Most recently she was chief curator of the 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA1): Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, which she also helped to set up. Since 2016 she is curator of the non-profit, Munich-based Schwarz Foundation. Currently she is also curator of the Croatian Pavilion at the forthcoming 58th Ven- ice Biennale. Selected projects include: The State is Not a Work of Art, Tallinn Art Hall, the Art Hall Gallery and the City Gallery — on the occasion of the centenary of Estonian Independence and part of the official programme Estonia 100 (2018); A World Not Ours, Kunsthalle Mulhouse — co-production with the Schwarz Foundation (2017); Uncertain States: Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2016); Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will, the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (2015); The Politics of Play for the Göte- — borg Biennial and Liquid Assets: In the Aftermath of the Trans- formation of Capital, for the Steirischer Herbst, Graz (2013). In 2012 Gregos was co-curator of Manifesta 9, In the Deep of the Modern, Genk. She has also previously curated two national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, Personne et les Autres: Vincent Meessen & guests, for the Belgian Pavilion — featuring 11 international artists (2015) and Speech Matters, for the Danish Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennial, featuring 18 international artists. In terms of institutional positions, Katerina Gregos has previously served as director and curator of the Deste Foundation, Athens; artistic director of Argos — Centre for Art & Media, Brus- sels; and artistic director of Art Brussels. Gregos also regularly publishes on art and artists in exhibition catalogues, journals and books, and is a visiting lecturer at HISK: the Higher Institute of Arts in Ghent, and the Jan Van Eyck Academy, in Maastricht. ARTISTS

EN GR Born in Athens, where WEBSITE: she lives and works. www.apostolidou.com KATERINA APOSTOLIDOU

In If You Will Only Keep Your Eyes Open… (2017), Katerina - Apostolidou’s poetic, evocative - three-channel black-and-white video installation, images from a - stadium in a suburban park of Athens are juxtaposed with Rosa Luxemburg’s Letters from Prison. - These are letters sent by the Polish Marxist theorist, philosopher, econ- - omist, anti-war activist, and revolu- - tionary socialist Luxemburg (R.L.), who was murdered in Berlin, to her friend Sophie Liebknecht, wife of her comrade-in-arms Karl Liebknecht, while R.L. was impris- oned in Breslau from July 1916 to October 1918. In these letters, R.L. describes in the most sensitive and detailed way - everything she is able to observe in the nature around the prison garden. She gives passionate and min- - 12 ute accounts of the singing of birds, a trapped insect, the trees, the clouds — or ‘simply life.’ The texts at the beginning and conclusion of the video, and the concur- rent projection of images constitute a metaphor of the crisis we are experiencing today. In one of her letters (24 March 1918), R.L. asks Sophie to visit the Botanical Gardens and describe for her what she can hear, saying that - this would be the most important - thing in the world, over and above - even the Battle of Cambrai. When she says that a garden’s transition from winter to spring matters more than such a historic event, R.L. is urging us to look before seeking to change it. It is this statement about the precedence of life as a key commitment that If You Will Only Keep Your Eyes Open… seeks to verify through meticulous observation. In the course of a calendar year, it …- attempts to record elements of life - and signs of change that are not - immediately apparent as the seasons change in the neglected park, and thus reveal it as a place of transmutation where everything can change. -

Luxemburg, R., Paul, E., Luxemburg, R., Paul, E., Paul, Paul, C. (2009). Letters from C. (2009). Letters from Prison: Prison: with a Portrait and a with a Portrait and a Facsimile. Facsimile. Charleston, SC, BiblioLife. First published: Letters from Prison: Letters from Prison: by Rosa by Rosa Luxemburg: with a Luxemburg: with a Portrait and Portrait and a Facsimile, Young a Facsimile, Young Interna- International at Schönberg in tional at Schönberg in Berlin, Berlin, 1921–1923. 1921–1923.

http://www.firstworldwar. com/battles/cambrai.htm This WWI battle between the Allied and German forces took place in November 1917, entail- ing great losses for both camps. 13

EN GR Katerina www.apostolidou.com Apostolidou studied - at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In her practice, she works mainly in video and drawing, sometimes in combination. In - her videos, space and time take on qualities at once magical and demys- tifying. She employs - guage to examine issues around isola- - - ment, interrogating how we understand self-determination and normality in a society that has lost its memory. Recent participations: [un] - known destinations - 15th High School, - Athens (2018); Nikos - Kessanlis Hall, ASFA, Athens (2018). 15 She teaches at the - undergraduate and postgraduate pro- - gramme of Middlesex University, London, - in collaboration with where she has been - the director of the Visual Arts & New Media programme 14 since 2008. - If you will only remember to keep your eyes open... 2017 (still) Courtesy of the artist

If you will only remember to keep your eyes open... 2017 (still) Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Geneva, Switzerland; WEBSITE: lives and works in Zurich www.marcbauer.net and Berlin. MARC BAUER

Marc Bauer works mainly with drawing, which is a way for him and by extension the viewer to compre- - hend reality, in all its complexity — subjectively, politically, symboli- cally. It also allows him to show how history, memory, and shifting power structures weigh on the - present moment. Bringing together an eclectic collection of images coming from different contexts — art history, current events, popular culture, family albums, personal memories — his work expresses the dynamics between one’s personal history and history writ large, and how these two parallel narratives articulate, drawing installation, Prologue, Last - days of February 2019, Athens - (2019) and the set of drawings on 16 paper he presents in the exhibition, capture the current political and - psychological zeitgeist: between anxiety, resignation and incompre- hension, through allusion and sug- - gestion rather than linear narrative. The wall drawing is based on an movie Metropolis (1927), by Fritz Lang. It depicts an anonymous group of workers going to work, signaling their submission to the power of industrialization, at the end of the 1920s. Today we read the image differently, as the symbol of - oppression and victimization in the great tragedies of the 20th century; but here also, in the current con- - text, as the anonymous “99%”. This re-use of images from the - text, and projected into the present — is a recurrent process in Bauer’s work. It is both a reactiva- - tion of the image itself, but also an exercise on how images are read in and through history, and how the - present circumstances shape our understanding of them. The set of drawings in Prologue, Last days of February 2019, Athens - (2019) unfold as a fragmented narrative. The drawings are often - blurry and partially erased; they are sensations. The display format also - adopts cinematic editing effects, - requiring spectators to piece together the disjointed narrative in their own minds. The way in which ‘instincts’ of their collective mem- - ory. The elderly man in the hospital - bed illustrates the text, quoting the last sentence of the book The order of things (1966), by Michel - Foucault: “… that man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the sea.” The ‘order of things’ in this case is a dark, omi- nous and brooding one — which can be read as a metaphor for the situation in Europe right now; a situation wherein dark clouds seem to be gathering around the continent, 17 a gloominess which is at the heart - of Bauer’s practice. - -

EN GR Bauer studied at the www.marcbauer.net Ecole supérieure d’art visuel Genève (now HEAD) and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. History and memory are central themes in Bauer’s work, that consist, for a major part, of black and white - drawings, but extends to animation paint and sculpture. Recent group Untitled (Group of people 4), 2018 exhibitions include: Pencil on paper, 30 × 42 cm 10 Years Guerlain - Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich Drawing Prize, Centre Pompidou, (2017); SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement, Biennale of Sydney (2018); A Needle - Walks into a Haystack, Liverpool Biennial (2014); Sacré 101 — An Exhibition Based on the Rite of Spring, Migros Museum Zurich (2014); the Bottom Line, S.M.A.K. Ghent (2015); Drawing Now, Albertina Vienna (2015). Solo exhibitions include: Todtstell- 18 Kunstmuseum St. - Gallen (2011); Le Collectionneur, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (2013); and Cinerama, FRAC Auvergne (Le Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Auvergne), Alsace (2014) and Marseille (2015). Collections: Kunsthaus Zurich, Centre Pompidou, Hauser and Wirth Collection, National Collection of Switzerland, Museum Folkwang, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Collection Guerlain. Upcoming exhibitions in 2019 are at: The Drawing Room, London (solo) and Fly me to the Moon, Kunsthaus Zurich (group). Bauer is a permanent lecturer in painting/drawing at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He is represented by Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich.

Der Sammler — Nachbilder, 2014 Wall drawing, charcoal, variable size Installation: Museum Folkwang, Essen Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich EN GR Born in Busan, South Korea; WEBSITE: lives and work in Brussels www.sarasejinchang.com and Amsterdam. www.mothermountaininstitute.org SARA SEJIN CHANG [SARA VAN DER HEIDE]

Sara Sejin Chang’s Brussels 2016, is filmed through an ostensibly personal lens, framed as a letter to her unknown mother in South Korea. - Set in the months following the - Brussels bombings of March 2016, and prior to the referendum in which British voters were to decide - on their future within the European Union, Chang captures the city at a vulnerable moment. Chang, who had just moved to - Belgium from the Netherlands, made the film while participating in an artists residency program at the contemporary art centre WIELS. As both an insider and an outsider within the institution and the - Netherlands, Chang takes special interest in the uncertain status of the gallery’s unofficial residents — a community of displaced Roma and Syrian refugees living on the 20 grounds of WIELS. Through pre- senting their makeshift home and - reflecting on the antagonisms that she has witnessed towards immi- grants from former colonies and Belgian people of color, Chang - invites viewers to consider broader political narratives. In her poetic - rendering, she exposes the “foun- dational fictions” that underlie the Chang employs filmmaking, installation, drawing, performance, collabora- - tions, and interven- - tions to draw attention to the narratives that structure our thinking and order our institutions. Her work sets - out to unmake and remake these narratives in order to - expose underlying hierarchies of gen- - der, race, and nationalism. Through this process, she challenges us to recognize the - injurious effects that - Western imperialist ideas of world-making have historically - had on our interactions. Her work also highlights the con- - tinuing presence of such ideologies in - our social, public, and civic lives, and asks us to consider - what we, as a society, might lose by failing to recognize - or challenge this - situation. - Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) - recent shows, projects and perfor- mances took place at/include: Coltan as Cotton, Contour 21 Biennale 9, Mechelen (2019); 6th Kuandu Biennial, Taipei (2018); Sharjah Biennial 13, - Beirut (2018); Dutch Cabinet, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2012); Freedom of EN GR Movement, Stedelijk www.sarasejinchang.com www.mothermountaininstitute.org Museum, Amsterdam (2018- 2019); the 19th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2014); Transform the local, - poetry must be - made by all, Mu.Zee, Oostende (2018). Sara Sejin Chang’s work is in - the following public collections: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Van Abbemuseum, - Eindhoven; De Vleeshal/M HKA, - Middleburg & Antwerp; Mu.ZEE Ostend, and the Walker Art Center, Mineappolis, USA. Artist residencies include: De Ateliers, Amsterdam (1999- 2001); ISCP, New York (2007); WIELS, Brussels (2016).

22 city of Brussels, and the united Europe it purports to stand for. Functioning as a portrait of the city, the film captures Brussels’ European institutions, lush parks, as well as the various communities that intersect in Chang’s life: her fellow artists, her queer friendship - group, the neighbors who come to - learn, play, and labor in the WIELS gardens. Brussels appears as a - series of parallel realities, brought - together by Chang’s gaze. The artist poignantly captures - the current zeitgeist and intimates the widespread political disillusion- - ment and sense of disorientation, with subtlety and a wise lack of - rhetoricism. He film is deeply personal while at the same time being - political but, thankfully, not didac- tic. Despite the melancholic tone - and hints of social disenfranchise- ment, that one gets glimpses of, it is also profoundly human and points the way to the things that matter most: healing society from historical racial inequalities, social solidarity, human friendship and close-knit social relations — the inti- - mate interactions that are neces- - sary for us to collectively repair our - society and imagine how things could be. These are the values, she - seems to suggest, that might make - us overcome the current social - impasse and sense of political melancholy. - 23

Brussels 2016, 2017 Single-channel experimental film, colour, sound, 33’ Thanks to AFK, Mondriaan Fonds Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Nicosia, Cyprus; she WEBSITE: lives and works in Berlin, Ger- many. MARIANNA CHRISTOFIDES

What happens when one follows - over a period of time a process of - decay in reverse? What velocities and temporalities are then at stake and how does this counter-collapse manifest itself? How - quickly can foreign money and investments, complex dynamics and shifts in power trigger anew the loop of uncertainty? IT EXHAUSTS MY ELBOW (2018 — ongoing) is an investiga- - tion into the entanglements and - subjugations within the discourse - of uncertainty and the domestica- tion of fear. The sites I have been observing in the context of this project enshroud multiple layers - of condensed narratives and have been undergoing officially unreg- - istered changes. The first chapter of the project, a long-term obser- - vation that began in 2008 and to - 24 which I’ve been continually returning since 2014, looks at sev- - eral large-scale failed building projects in Attica, that were either - condemned to ruination before completion or were abandoned after some years of business; the project traces the current new and - unexpected uses and appropria- - tions of these sites. An incom- - plete housing scheme, an unfin- ished hotel complex from the - Junta-time, a derelict factory site by the port of Piraeus and a defunct drive-in cinema along the high-way to Athens, they are all re-animated by people who live, everyone in his/her way, in a state of temporariness, on hold. Micro- - urban tactics demonstrate how languished buildings can reclaim - realism by ad-hoc, non-authorised - interventions that spark off the idea of a collectively authored - city. In the installation IT EXHAUSTS MY ELBOW I have been employing 16mm film, slides and risograph print constella- tions. In the image sequences on - display I observe the way certain sites might generate the idea of - resilience and endurance by unearthing counter-forces. A “film-strip” on the wall made of over 400 stills from the 16mm footage shot between 2015-2017 is here blown-up into 35mm posi- - tives. It is a six-channel montage of part of the extensive material - collected in these last years and a first attempt to give it a form and a visual “voice”. The locations and stories delved into vary socio-geographically and the viewer is called to actively take part in the creation of the narrative by using a magnifying lens and selectively focussing on individual frames. The view of a “whole” is revoked - as the multiple parts dissipate into an abstracted form of light rectan- gles before a dark background reminiscent of a film negative. On closer observation these light fields reveal their actual compo- - 25 nents, albeit in parts. - VE-IN CINEMA, on the other hand, references a shot depicting part of the back side of the drive-in cinema’s screen. Vein as a trace, line, way, rift, tinge also - lends form to and constitutes the - framework of the other compo- - nents of the installation. (Marianna Christofides) EN GR In her practice, www.mariannachristofides.com Marianna Christofides deals with the entanglements intrinsic to multi-authored - places. Imprints of slow violence on the spatial fabric and subtle manifesta- tions of precarity are - negotiated in long- term observations and a physical engagement with the spaces under study.

It exhausts my elbow, 2018 Recent exhibi- Installation (risograph prints, linoleum boards, slides transferred tions include: - from 16mm film, LED panels, ring folders, transluscent window Remembering lettering) Courtesy of the artist Landscape, Museum Photo Daniel Jarosch / Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen of Contemporary Art, © Marianna Christofides / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019 Siegen, Germany (2018); A part that is missing never breaks, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria (2018); Black Disguises, Museum of Modern and - Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia (2017); Studies, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany (solo, 2017); Uncertain States: Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany (2016). - Forthcoming exhibitions in 2019: Days 26 In Between, National - Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania (solo); Refracted Realities, Videonale.17, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (group). I woke with this marble head in my hands; it exhausts my elbow and I don’t know where to put it - down. George Seferis: Mythistorema, in: Collected Poems, Princeton University Press, 1995

Artist residencies include: Villa - Kamogawa, Goethe- Institute, Kyoto, Japan (2018); - Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture, San - Sebastian, Spain (2018); Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria (2017); La Box, ENSA Bourges, France (2017). Christofides has received among others the following awards: IfA / Institute for Foreign Relations, Germany (2019); Federal State of Berlin, Germany - (2019); Goethe- Institute, Kyoto, Japan (2018); Cyprus International Short Film Festival, Limassol, Cyprus, best director 27 (2017).

EN GR WEBSITE: www.depressionera.gr DEPRESSION ERA

The Tourists A campaign The Tourists is a collective project «» for those who cross Southern Europe and for those who reach out to or watch them go by. Devised and run by Depression Era, the project operates as a sub- versive tourism campaign. Starting in 2015 in Athens as a collective research and open discussion platform, The Tourists evolved into a public space, poster and digital campaign in Spring 2017 (tag: “Make Yourselves at Home”); a publication; and a series of exhibitions. The image, text and video works of The Tourists were shown in the 2017 “Decline of Heroes” exhibition at Basel’s Antikenmuseum in dialogue with ancient works of art from the Mediterranean and as street post- 28 ers. In 2018 the project was installed as pieces of a house or tourist pavilion at the Unseen Festival in Amesterdam. The Tourists respond to History- in-the-making: the wave of refugee and mass migrations from Asia and Africa to Europe and the simultane- ous increase of global tourism in the Mediterranean. These are parallel, converging global events pro- ducing states of emergency, dis- - tress investment, collateral conflicts and cultural patronage, at the same place, at the same time. - The Tourist lives in a divided, - burned-out, hyper-mediated public sphere. Her identity and citizen- ship are in flux; she is lost in transit, perpetually anxious, alienated, resigned or resisting; he is a simu- - lator of social involvement, impo- tent to frame History in anything - more than a postcard, slogan or tweet. Among the narratives of power, - encounter, arrival and departure featured in Global Media and con- - temporary art, the images and slo- gans of The Tourists expose seem- ingly idyllic landscapes containing the debris of unspeakable violence; - frame portraits of women and men in alien places, strangers in their land, visitors among ruins, state- - less, networked, indolent and con- flicted; and document a generation of fearless children. It is not clear whether these belong to tourism ads or disaster news streams. Petros Babasikas - - - - - - 29

EN GR www.depressionera.gr

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Depression Era The Tourists — a campaign (#make yourselves at home), 2015–ongoing Posters, vinyl lettering Courtesy of the artists EN GR Born in Athens, where WEBSITE: she lives and works. www.eireneefstathiou.com EIRENE EFSTATHIOU

Eirene Efstathiou’s work mines past and present to look for histori- - cal differences and similarities as - well as pinpoint the importance of historical memory, the dangers of amnesia, and the power of association of media images beyond their initial moment of short-term expo- - sure. Her layering and overlapping - of images, and texts drawn from - printed media — using serigraphy and lithography — transcends the literality of the documentary and the newsworthy, operating in ways - that are suggestive and prompting - the viewer to connect the clues and find the missing links. - These works intend to remind us - of How things are made with a - series of unique prints made up of various layers. Beginning with handmade composites of newspa- per clippings from the period 2012– - 2013, primarily of incidental events, - but also addressing the political - 32 conflict and financial stakes of that period, the work proceeds to images of terraced landscapes used for agriculture in arid, hilly - places in the previous century and schematic drawings of mechanical looms. These works are medita- tions on the labor and economy of making; of making both consent and resistance, of making topos - and goods, and the attending tech- - nologies of this making. The work, Artifacts (for the - Revolution) negotiates a future- - past of revolutionary time. The - archive assembles and documents a series of suggestive objects set against domestic backdrops of a previous time. The narrative of the work considers the ‘usefulness’ of various objects and processes for the revolution while simultaneously - considering them as artifacts from the revolution — revolution seen here as a driving force of radical - change.

Working in a variety of media — from - printmaking and painting to small- - scale installations and performance — Efstathiou’s studio practice - engages in an archaeology of the present and recent - past, through the critical reworking of - archival source material as well as deliberate wander- ings in the urban landscape. Recent solo shows: Regarding the Continuity of Disrupted Images, Irene Laub Gallery, 33 Brussels (2017) and I Draw, I Learn Greece, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, - Athens (2016). Recent group exhibitions: ANTIDORON. Works from the EMST Collection, Documenta 14, EN GR Fridericianum, www.eireneefstathiou.com Kassel (2017); DESTE Prize: An Anniversary, 1999– 2015, DESTE Foundation at the Museum of Cycladic - Art, Athens (2017). - Efstathiou’s work is - included in public and private collections in Europe and the United States, - including the National Museum of - Contemporary Art, Athens. She is currently a PhD candi- - date at the Athens School of Fine Arts and a Lecturer in - Visual and Critical Studies at the Arcadia Centre for Hellenic, Mediterranean, and Balkan Studies and Research, Athens.

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From the series How Things Are Made, 2017 Serigraph and paper matrix lithograph on paper mounted on aluminum, 35.5 × 55 cm Courtesy of the Artist, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens and Irene Laub Gallery, Brussels EN GR Born in Athens, where WEBSITE: she lives and works. www.marinagioti.net MARINA GIOTI

The Invisible Hands The Invisible Hands (2017), weaves (2017) a narrative that conjoins art and - unrest. Maverick underground American/ Lebanese musician and - (Sun City Girls, Sublime Bishop (Sun City Girls, Sublime Frequencies Frequencies) Cairo, soon after the 2011 uprisings and teams up with three young - - into a band, The Invisible Hands. The Invisible Hands. - absurd cameos, and poetic diary - - tions, that marked the post-‘Arab - - periphery with the transition from - 36 Rodney Perkins of ScreenAnarchy, ScreenAnarchy: ' - - The Invisible Hands- The Invisible Hands - strange — and — art.' Marina Gioti is a filmmaker/visual artist born and based in Athens, Greece. Her work has been screened and exhib- - ited worldwide at museums and film festivals, including Berlinale and - Toronto. She has - participated in exhibitions and biennials - including, most recently, Documenta - 14 (2017), where her The Invisible debut feature film, Hands The Invisible Hands, was screened. The film will also pre- miere on Samos (at Rex Cinema, 4 August). Gioti stud- - ied chemical engi- - neering, environmental management, filmmaking, and media and communication in Greece, the U.K., and Belgium. Cinema being at the core of her interdis- - ciplinary practice, Gioti explores cine- - matic narrative tech- niques and aesthetics across media through her videos, - installations, and media art works. She has a keen interest in found objects, stories, and histories, often forgotten or parallel to official 37 accounts. An important part of her interests, expressed largely through her media art practice, is situated at the inter- - section of art, sci- ence, and the - environment. - EN GR Gioti has partici- Donau Festival, www.marinagioti.net pated in exhibitions Krems An Der Donau, The Invisible Hands, Documentary | Greece/ Egypt | 97’ and festivals includ- A film by Marina Gioti, co-directed by Georges Salameh, with: Alan ing: Donau Festival, Bishop, Aya Hemeda, Cherif El Masri, and Adham Zidan. A Vertiginous Production, co-produced with Haos Film Krems An Der Supported by Documenta 14 and the Greek Film Centre. Donau, Austria Forum Expanded, (2018); Berlinale — Berlin International Film Festival, Forum Expanded, Berlin,

The film will be screened extra muros. For venue details please Germany (2018); A check the Schwarz Foundation’s website. 1st Anren Biennale, World Not Ours, Crossroads Exhibition, Anren (2017); Chengdu, - China (2017); Documenta 14, Between the Athens, Greece, and Pessimism of the Kassel, Germany Intellect and the (2017); A World Not Optimism of the Will Ours, Schwarz Foundation, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece (2016); 5th Thessaloniki Biennial, Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the - Optimism of the Will The Invisible (main exhibition), Hands- Thessaloniki, Greece (2015); Wroclaw - The Invisible Hands Media Art Biennial A film by Marina Gioti, co-directed by Georges Salameh (WRO), Wroclaw, With Alan Bishop, Aya Hemeda, Cherif El Masri, and Adham Zidan A Vertiginous Production, co-produced with Haos Film Poland (2015). Supported by Documenta 14 and the Greek Film Centre She was awarded the 10th Giuseppe The Invisible Hands Becce Prize for Music for The Invisible Hands by an independent jury at the Berlinale Film Festival 2018. 38 Director’s Note: : It was out of a string of coinci- dences and the free time that our - recessing country, Greece, abun- dantly offered us that we found ourselves in Cairo in 2012. In a way, we - immediately felt at home: demon- didn’t know much about the Invisible Invisible Hands Hands Alan through music; so did his separately at two different stops of soon realised that we are witness- - ing a music experiment — actually, the most ambitious in which this - unconventional musician/ethnomu- sicologist has ever been involved: to produce his most accessible album to date in a language he - doesn’t speak — Arabic. Repurposing songs for different markets and languages is not a new concept in music. However, a - poetic content treating creeping globalism, gun fantasies, waterboarding, torture, and military mad- ness — outré even for English — was quite unusual for the translation language chosen; yet, - eerily relevant to the post-‘Arab waterboarding Spring’ disillusionment — especially considering that some of these songs were 30 years old. Alan Bishop speaks of an epiphany when asked why some forgotten - songs resurfaced at this particular time zone, era, and language. - Epiphanies cannot be explained or - dissected. The observation of their - outcome became the material for - related to music, politics, inspira- - 39 tion, language, depression, and uncertainty eventually came - together. - EN GR Born in Kirchheim unter Teck, WEBSITE: Germany; lives and work in www.jphammer.de Berlin, Germany. JAN PETER HAMMER

The Jungle Book (2013–15) is short video loosely inspired by the chil- - dren’s television series Sesame Street. Together with a number of other children’s programmes with - an educational curriculum, Sesame Street, has been running in the - United States and Europe since the late 60’s. A product of public broadcasting, children’s television series are mostly meant to be educational - shows, with a strong emphasis, on socialization and pedagogy. - Sesame Street for instance, regu- - larly teaches preschoolers the - value of sharing, friendship, kind- ness towards the disadvantaged or - the socially vulnerable, and the - importance of helping the elderly — in short, the values and beliefs of Social Democracy. Though these children series are - still regularly aired, the future of 40 public broadcasting is by no means bright. In most southern European countries for instance, public chan- nels have been privatized. Under - the weight of the sovereign debt crisis the welfare state is crum- bling, and, together with it, the shared belief in universal education, access to health care or unemployment assistance. Social democracy might soon be but a faint memory, with economically and socially disenfranchised citizens left to fend for themselves. The Jungle Book is a children’s - program for the neo-liberal era. - Instead of community minded, socially cohesive and affectionate, Jan Peter Hammer’s characters aim to teach children self-actualisation through entrepreneurial, corporate - values and a set of free market beliefs that will lead them to thrive - in this new social environment, from busting state pensions while blaming the elderly to experiment- ing with privatized currencies and - - nisms. In the words of the immortal William Temple “there is no reason why a four year old cannot earn a - decent living”. The video, while bit- terly funny, strikes a rather serious note that echoes Margaret Thatcher’s (in)famous dictum “there is no society”.

EN GR When Jan Peter www.jphammer.de Hammer started his - artistic career he had a strong interest in film theory and literature. After the - financial crisis in - 2008, however, he felt a greater urgency to engage with political - discourse. He found it essential to focus on the experience of an individual as a - means to make sense of the vast - social puzzle around him. Recent - exhibitions include: Klassenverhältnisse — Phantoms of Perception, Kunstverein in Hamburg, (2018); 69. Berlinale — Forum Expanded (2018); Tito´s Bunker, Württembergischer Kunstverein (2017); The Beast and the Sovereign, MACBA – Barcelona (2015); Saltwater –14. Istanbul Biennale (2015); Toys Redux—On Play and Critique, Migros Museum, Zürich (2015). Forthcoming exhibitions: Circular Flow. Conditions of Growth, 42 Kunstmuseum Basel, (2019); final exhibition of the PhD project The Art of - War at KHiO — Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway, 2019. In 2018, he participated in the - Davidoff Art Foundation residency at Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic. In 2016, he was selected as artistic research fellow and in 2018, as PhD fellow at KHiO — Oslo National Academy of - the Arts, Norway.

The Jungle Book, 2013–15 (still) Single-channel video installation, colour, stereo, 12’ Courtesy of the artist and Labor gallery, Mexico City EN GR Born in Bergen auf Rügen, WEBSITE: Germany; lives and works www.svenjohne.de in Berlin. SVEN JOHNE

In Sven Johne’s video (2017), retired engineer Peter (2017),- Bittel (played by well-known East- German actor Gottfried Richter) - prepares for his great performance: a speech addressed to Vladimir Putin. In his clumsy, rusty Russian, he is seen rehearsing his address to the Russian president in the form of an interior monologue. - As a former (a worker on the gas pipeline project in the former USSR) in Ukraine and Siberia, Trassnik he remembers the friendship, loyalty, solidarity, and mutual support among the workers, and - the heart-warming zest for life of the people. He voices his disappointment in Western democracy and the false promises of capitalism. He fears the EU and NATO as ‘corrupt con- 44 structions,’ only serving the interests of an elite, and he is worried - about the future of his grandchil- dren. He accuses the Western powers of geopolitical expansionism and blames them for the destabili- - sation of Libya, Iraq, and Syria. He - yearns for ‘peace, justice and order,’ as well as for ‘vision, soli- - darity and dependability.’ He asks Putin’s help to straighten things out. Surrendering oneself to a total- itarian, autocratic strongman is less absurd than it may seem: Love for authoritarian regimes remains a powerful force in former East Germany and is recurring also in other countries in Europe. Bittel’s - analysis should not, therefore, be dismissed too quickly. Suffering from an unprocessed trauma inher- - ited from his immediate ancestors, - he is unable to adjust to the socio-cultural and political - changes — and resulting disap- - pointment — brought about by a younger generation. Bittel even goes so far as to suggest to Putin - that he make Saxony a province of the Russian Federation, like the Kaliningrad Oblast. Bittel’s disillusionment parallels sentiments expressed by members - of Pegida, the nationalist, anti-Is- lam, anti-American and pro-Rus- sian right-wing political movement founded in Dresden in 2014. The - electoral success of the right-wing, - anti-EU, and anti-Islam party - Alternative für Deutschland in 2017 is a sign of the current dissatisfac- tion of the German people with the Alternative für political status quo. Dear Vladimir Deutschland Putin asks some uncomfortable questions from the ‘other,’ illiberal - side, and prompts us to reconsider our political beliefs in the light of - faltering national policies and reac- tionary beliefs, such as those har- boured by Peter Bittel — a ‘Westerner’ who has lost his faith in Western values. 45

EN GR Sven Johne’s videos - www.svenjohne.de and photographic works playfully act on the accustomed manner of represen- - tation and readabil- ity. By combining images with sober, report-like narratives, he introduces - in his works, taking their meaning beyond the purely documentary. His works generate - space for associa- - tions, creating metaphors for being, and conceiving alterna- - tive myths, in times when global change impacts the life of every individual. Sven Johne has been awarded several scholarships and stipends, including: DAAD; Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung; Karl- Schmidt-Rottluff; ISCP, New York; and the Prize of the - Academy of Fine Arts Berlin.

46 Recent exhibitions: 1st Riga : 1 Biennial, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, Riga (2018); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2017); Farewell Photography, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg (2017); Natural Histories, MUMOK, Vienna (2017); Window of the World, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art (solo exhibition, 2016); Reset. Outskirts/Randlagen, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2016); History Is a Warm Gun, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin; Welcome to the Jungle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2015)

2017 (still) Courtesy of the artist and KLEMM’S, Berlin © VG-Bild Kunst, Bonn 2018 EN GR Born in Athens, Greece; lives WEBSITE: and works in Athens, Greece, www.yorgoskarailias.net and Cáceres, Spain. YORGOS KARAILIAS

Mass migrations have taken place since antiquity, and they are still occurring today. In Europe, the issue is currently one of the most - highly charged and contested ones. From the media, we get a general, often abstracted idea of the plight of migrants, usually portrayed as a faceless, nameless mass; yet, what does this mean to the individual migrant? The Greek artist Yorgos Karailias voluntarily migrated from Greece to Spain, where he stayed for four years. His work EstrangeR (2010 — 2014) is a visualisation of his disorienting experience as a stranger in exile, as well as of the EstrangeR feeling of physical as well as psychological fragility and instability it - on the present critical situation in - Europe, which must come to terms - with the consequences of mass migration and its effects on society, - creating political polarisation and a disturbing rhetoric of xenophobia, racism, and hate. Geographically, - 48 Greece and Spain are situated at either end of the Mediterranean Sea, like bookends embracing the European continent. In between are different countries, all struggling or refugees (to a greater or lesser - countries, or from faltering or col- lapsed economies. Yorgos Karailias’ - photographic practice investigates the role of social documentary photogra- - phy as a motiva- (documentary tional tool of social photography) awareness, and questioning the gen- - eral disbelief about the veracity of the image. His work has been shown at interna- 49 tional festivals and exhibitions, includ- - ing: Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens (2018); Whitelight Showcase, Shed,

Untitled#2 from the photo series EstrangeR, 2013 Untitled#2EstrangeR, 2013 Pigment print, 32 × 24 cm Courtesy of the artist EN GR London (2017); www.yorgoskarailias.net MedPhoto Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rethymnon, Crete (2016); Visions - Festival, La Coruña (2016); Paris Photo, Paris (2015); Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma, MACRO — Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, (2015). - book, EstrangeR, - was published by EstrangeR Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, in 2015. In 2010, he was awarded the Second Cedefop Photomuseum Award in - Thessaloniki - Photobiennale. Karailias has been involved in various - cultural and educational projects as - organiser, instructor, - and curator, and has collaborated with various cultural enti- - ties and institutions, including Athens and Cáceres Schools of Fine Arts, MedPhoto Festival, - and Cáceres 2016 committee for the city´s application for nomination as the European Capital of 50 Culture 2016. Karailias’ photographic assemblage - EstrangeR is a combination of dia- - ristic and social commentary. It is divided in three parts, each representing a distinct visual approach EstrangeR - - logical trait. Karailias associates these photographs with three basic - human attitudes or emotions: - Angst, Crisis, and Sublimation, - Reason’, ‘a net for Shadow,’ and ‘a frame upon Simulacra.’ The photos under the heading Angst generally show a kind of divide, a ‘here’ and a ‘there’ separated by some mental or » physical barrier, and perhaps by - fear to cross the divide. The heading Crisis shows dark, blurred, or - confusing images, hinting at an unstable and precarious situation, threatening the status quo, while Sublimation shows circumstances - that are distorted and, in some cases, seem to be the result of some (failed) action. In the artist’s - words, ‘EstrangeR encapsulates a migrant’s experience of not belong- ing… but, more than this, it is a Images can be more direct or asso- ciative, but they overall capture the EstrangeR continent’s particular moment of crux, disquiet, degradation, desper- ation, loss of hope, and deteriora- tion — whether personal or political.

EN GR Born in Athens, Greece, WEBSITE: where he lives and works. www.cargocollective.com/ noneofyoucanspell SPIROS KOKKONIS

Müdigkeitsgesellschaft (2017) is the Müdigkeitsgesellschaft title of a short and enigmatic video - made by the Greek artist Spiros Kokkonis. The title — which roughly translates as ‘fatigue society’ or ‘society of tiredness’ — is borrowed from the eponymous book by the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han, who has attained - rock-star status in Germany, especially with the younger generation. Translated into English as The The Burnout Society (2012), the book Burnout Society contains a critique of our hyperac- - tive achievement society, which extends itself even to our leisure time. Han characterises today’s society as a pathological landscape - of neurological disorders, including - - activity disorder, borderline person- ality, and burnout. Kokkonis’ video - 52 attempts to visualise this pathol- - ogy; it shows young people in a - domestic setting, going about their daily activities, such as discussing love, art, and politics, making music, and watching and listening to videoclips of grime and dubstep artists, such as Stormzy, Skepta, and Sech, the latter name appear- - in the video, we hear ‘Forgive’ by - - - however not entirely devoid of - - - - - a bit apathetic and cynical; on the - - - - - there are at the end of the video, which - 53

EN GR Spiros Kokkonis is a www.cargocollective.com/ noneofyoucanspell multidisciplinary artist whose work is - grounded in present-day reality and - our surrounding world. The artist - notes: ‘Surrounded - ronment and politi- - cal, social, and cultural conditions, I create - enced by and con- - nected to it. While - the subject and the - reason of my prac- - tice, it is also seen as an inexhaustible source of material: From steel and con- appropriation, a - range of ready- spaces, images, - sounds and objects) are being mixed, - recast, and translated into sculptures, installations, - to make a personal statement — a personal appraisal of - oscillating between - feelings of inclusion and hope to enmity - and despair.’ Recent exhibitions: Whitelight Showcase, SHED, London (2017); On 54 Walls Group Show, - Athens, Greece Whitelight (2016); Hello Future! Showcase Talents Archive, On Onassis Cultural Walls Group Show Centre, Athens (2015) Hello Future! Talents Archive- - 55

Müdigkeitsgesellschaft, 2017 (still) Müdigkeitsgesellschaft, Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Brussels, Belgium, WEBSITE: where she lives and works. www.arianeloze.com ARIANE LOZE

Impotence (2017) Impotence ( - - - - - - - 56 - - MÔWN - (Movies on my Own - - MÔWN (Movies on my Own — - on all aspects of production: She - plays all the roles, but she is also the director, camerawoman, script- - writer, art director, costume - designer, photographer, and editor. Through the editing, a relationship - is constructed between two or more different characters and the architecture or space that sur- - - ing to a minimum — actress, one - camera- ing become more visible. But more than a self-portrait, the MÔWN - series uses the artist’s body as the simplest of tools to reveal - the mechanisms of plot unfolding, editing, and our perception of (dra- matic) space. More importantly, MÔWN however, as in Impotence, - our time and the challenges facing - the younger generation in a rapidly - changing, unstable world. Impotence- - -

Through a methodi- - cal deconstruction of cinematic norms, Ariane Loze strips her video perfor- mances down to their most basic, structural inner workings. Her make- - shift aesthetic brings together con- - 57 ceptual expression and homemade exe- cution in a kind of degree zero of repre- - sentation that is underpinned by an immediately - recognisable narra- - tive made up of static shots of a EN GR straightforward www.arianeloze.com action or event. Loze produces her videos in a wholly autono- mous fashion: Not only does she take on the roles of director, screenwriter, editor, costume designer, and sound and lighting techni- cian, but she also plays all of the characters. Absurd slices - of social life or alle- - gories of inner, psy- - chic experience, play out in dystopian worlds that often appear deserted, - where the protago- - nists work through - states of crisis, interrogating and another, or search- - ing for a way out. She studied theatre direction at the - RITCS, Brussels, and participated in - a.pass (Advanced - Performance and Scenography Studies) in Brussels. In 2016–17, she attended the HISK post-academic pro- - gramme in Ghent, Belgium. Loze’s videos were selected for the Movimenta Award in Nice - (2017), the Côté 58 Court Festival in Pantin (2017), and the Prix Médiatine in Brussels (2016). In 2015, she received the Art Contest Award in Belgium. Recent exhibi- - tions: 1st Riga - Biennial, Riga, - Latvia; Salon de Montrouge, Paris Salon de (both 2018); Montrouge Gemischte Gefühle, Gemischte Tempelhof, Berlin Gefühle (2017); Watch this Space #9, ISELP, Watch Brussels (2017); this Space #9 Anthology Film Archives, New York (2017); You're such a Curator!, De You're such a Appel, Amsterdam Curator! (2016); Etcetera IV, S.M.A.K., Ghent Etcetera IV (2016); Traverse Vidéo, FRAC Traverse Vidéo Midi — Pyrénées, Toulouse (2015)

Impotence, 2017 (still) Impotence, Courtesy of the artist Born in Havana, Cuba; lives WEBSITE: and works in Barcelona, Spain. www.adrianmelis.com ADRIAN MELIS

Ovation (2013–ongoing) is an on-going video loop, which assembles footage of the Spanish Parliament since the spring of democracy in the 1970s, and particularly from 1982, when the first elections were held following the end of Franco’s military dictator- - ship, until 2013 as well as footage of the Italian, French, German, Belgian, UK and Greek parliaments, which were added after 2014. Every time the procedure of approving - and disapproving laws and its same counter-laws within parlia- - ment is concluded, a ceremony of - clapping follows. This instance is singled out in Melis’ work and transforms into an endless loop of self-applause. Every screen features images of deputies applaud- ing, in a kind of self-congratulatory clapping symphony. This work alle- 60 gorizes a system that seems to be - distant from social reality: it eluci- - dates a ritual of celebrating the - passing of laws that are to be dero- gated upon an eventual change of - government, in an everlasting pro- - cedure that has nothing to do with - the needs of the people represented by politicians. The endless clapping seems to function as a Drawing from issues of unemployment, bureaucratic ineffi- ciency, corporate as - well as political corruption Melis creates mechanisms in which third parties’ - experiences are inte- grated in the execu- - tion of his work. His - methodology instills - within the works ironic and absurd - qualities, meanwhile allowing for elements of absence, either formal or sym- bolic to become - manifest. Recent solo exhibitions include: - Selective memories, - adn galeria, Barcelona (2018); - Land of Plenty, El Apartamento, Havana (2018); Selective works, - High Line, New York (2018) and Absolute silence does not exist, Fundación Cerezales León (2017). His works have been included in the following group exhibitions: Art Souterrain festival, Montreal (2018); Interims, La Panaceé, Montpellier (2017); Post-Peace, Würtembergischer 61 Kunstverein Stuttgart (2017); Hors Pistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Bread and - Roses, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2016)

EN GR and Atopolis, Manège de Sury (organised by WIELS), Mons, Belgium (2015). His forthcoming - solo exhibition will take place at Pori Art Museum, Finland - (2019). Melis is a former resident at the Rijksakademie van Beldeende Kunsten, - Amsterdam (2014– 15) and recently concluded a residency at Times Museum, Guangzhou (2018). - His work is in the following collec- - tions: MAS Santander, MACBA Barcelona, Spain; MOMA Warsaw, - Poland; Collection - Alain Servais, Belgium; Collection Lemaître, France; Collection Teixeiras da Freitas, Portugal. He received the GAC (Galeries d'Art de Catalunya) Award by MACBA, Barcelona (2012). - - -

Ovation, 2013-2018 (still) Seven Channel video installation, colour, sound, various lengths Courtesy of the artist and adn galeria, Barcelona metaphor for how politicians have - become out of touch with real pub- - lic life, but also hints at their exclu- sive space as a privileged elite, in which an ever-increasing number of citizens no longer have confi- - dence. This repetition of clapping, in the end, appears as an absurd gesture; a gesture performed on autopilot, performed in a protected space cut off from the outside - world of real, tangible problems. - What questions does this raise about the European democratic processes? To what extent are politicians nowadays — who seem to be cut-off from real-life problems of - citizens — able to represent us effectively during a period of major transformations when significant changes and drastic decisions - seem to be the only way forward to deal with increasingly challenging times, politically, socially and environmentally?

EN GR Born in Waterford, Ireland; lives and works in Rouen, France. TOM MOLLOY

In 1940, the Vichy government - replaced the national motto of - France (which originated in the - French Revolution of 1789) with the motto “Travail, Famille, Patrie”. In - the video slide show Motto (2016), Tom Molloy has used all the different combinations of the six words to create new mottos for France. In France, as in much of the western world, it seems that people almost nostalgically embrace Republican - ideals and symbols while at the same time actively embracing more Nationalistic right wing codes for - living, as evident by the popularity of the Front Nationale (recently - renamed Rassemblement - National) in France. The artist sees this work as a challenge to the viewer to decide how committed they are to the ideals expressed by - the mottos, and calls for them to - 64 consider which ones they most identify with. At the same time, the ubiquity of a motto like “Liberté, Eg alité, Fraternité” almost becomes an empty proclamation, preventing - us from reflecting on its true - meaning. - Molloy’s work Poster (2016) is a woodblock, which could be used to print the 1938 poster for the -

As contemporary - people, we obvi- ously live in very troubling times and - as a contemporary artist I believe that - troubling times - demand a troubling - response. I attempt, as an artist, through - ambiguity and prov- ocation coupled with apparent simplicity - and naivety, to posi- - tion my work at the center of big issues, be they historical, - political, social or violent. I willingly embrace Martin Luther King’s invita- tion to engage with “the fierce urgency of the now”. (T.M.) Recent solo exhibitions: Black and White, Lora Reynolds Gallery, - Austin, Texas (2018); Celebration, Garter Lane Arts Center, Waterford, Ireland (2017); Wait, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2016). Recent group exhibitions: The Times, The Flag Art Foundation, New - York (2017); Mood Swings, frei-raum, Q21, Vienna (2017); The City, Kube Kunstmuseet, Alesund, Norway 66 (2016); 5th Thessaloniki Biennial, Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will (2015). - Forthcoming exhi- - bition: Parted Veil, Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland, (2019). Tom Molloy is repre- - sented by Lora Reynolds Gallery, Texas.

Degenerate Art exhibition, organ- - ized by Hitler in Munich’s Haus der Kunst to discredit and ridicule the modernist avant-garde. In today’s context of rising populism and nationalism throughout Europe, - one can read it as a warning to how close we seem to be to 1930’s - Europe, one of the darkest moments on the European continent in the 20th. Candidate (2012) consists of 47 photographs of Marine Le Pen’s election posters from around Rouen, which were defaced by the people of Rouen prior to the 2012 presidential election. These posters and peoples’ reaction to them in - public space trace a strange conflu- ence between nationalism, misog- yny, iconoclasm and political - division in a landscape, which has become increasingly polarized, - not only in France, but also in the whole of Europe. - - -

Candidate, 2012 (detail) 47 colour photographs, 18 × 750 cm Courtesy of the artist and Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, Texas EN GR Born in Athens, Greece where WEBSITE: he currently lives and works. www.dimitrismytas.com DIMITRIS MYTAS

Mauve (2015-2019) is the title of a - series of photographic images shot - over the last four years. It functions - allegorically, as signifier of a series of psychological attributes that - characterise the gaze during this - photographic work in progress. - A gaze that expresses a stance, a reaction to the current social reality. - I copy from the dictionary: “... Mauve* is more than yet another hue in the palette. It is registered as mysterious, exuding superiority, - passion, romanticism, nostalgic - attraction...” - The Mauve series does not attempt to describe or illustrate sit- - uations but rather to convey the - vibe captured by the images from reality to the realm of communication. (D.M) - 68 Untitled, 2014 (From the series Mauve, 2015–2019) Inkjet print on aluminum, 40 × 60 cm Courtesy of the artist

Untitled, 2015 (From the series Mauve, 2015–2019) Inkjet print on aluminum, 40 × 60 cm Courtesy of the artist EN GR Dimitris Mytas is a www.dimitrismytas.com photographer. He has presented his work in five solo exhibitions in Athens, more - recently at Eikastikos Kyklos (2016). He has also taken part in many group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including: New Athens RAW Streetphoto gallery, Rotterdam (2018); Unveil’d Photobook #01, Borough Road gallery, London (2018); I Book Show, Photobook Exhibition, St. Petersburg and Brighton (2017); 15th FELIFA — FoLa- Fototeca Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires (2016); Athens Photo Festival (2016); Give - a Gift, Eikastikos Kyklos, Athens (2015); Logos VIII, Thessaloniki - Photobiennale (2014). Mytas is a League without - Borders). He has published four pho- - tographic collections Faces, Photohoros editions (1998); Insight, 70 Photohoros editions (2003); Zero Ten, Metaixmio edition (2011); and HOSPITAL, Metaixmio editions (2016). Portfolios of his work have been - published in several photographic magazines and websites. * Editor’s note: Mauve, is in fact a very modern colour. Its origins go back to 1856, when an 18-year-old chemist - named William Henry Perkin tried to invent a cure for malaria, but inadvertently generated an interest- ing mauve-colored residue. It turned out to be the first synthetic dye ever created. The dye was nick- - named mauveine or Perkin’s mauve, and Perkin marketed it to the dye industry in 1859 with huge - success. Violet, once a hue reserved for royalty, was now a mass-market sensation. From the - ribbons tying back the hair on - every fashionable head in London - in the nineteenth century, to the laboratories in which scientists first - scrutinized the human chromo- some under the microscope, lead- - ing all the way to the development - of modern vaccines against cancer and malaria, mauve bridged a gap between pure chemistry and industry. It is thus credited by historians as the color that changed the world.

EN GR Born in Lima, Pennsylvania, US. Lives and works in Athens, Greece. JENNIFER NELSON

Untitled (Mesogheia) 2016 — in progress The individualized patterns of a - traditional bridal dress of Eastern Attica highlights a family’s wealth and property, while embedding their deepest wishes for fertility and plentitude within its highly - crafted embroideries. Inverted ome- - gas form ovaries, wombs, and the hearth. And within its accumulative labor are hidden possible children, - images of seeds and the harvest, - and erect representations of gener- ative manhood. Much of it is - stitched in gold. - Against this on-going human wish, we find ourselves instead mired within absurd systems of debt–its logic and laws constantly changing to our detriment. We carry on, somehow, depleting any remaining pockets of storage for - 72 the future. Property, previously a resource with real value for food and shelter, is now only a noose - slowly tightening. It cannot be sold, and back payments for taxes now owed freeze all mobility to make a change or a new start. This dead end has been experienced individu- - ally, in secret and in shame, within each small family unit. Working with the materials that are - currently abundant, a new dress is slowly being crafted. In discussion - and collaboration with grandmoth- ers and other crafters of Paiania, and advice from the local vestiary (Imatiothiki) for traditional cos- tumes, a dress, faithful to its ori- - gins is lovingly crafted. Through - the alchemy of process and con- frontation, bank bills are repur- - posed and lose their psychic power. The psychology of logos, the interior design of bank enve- - lopes, the subtle use or withdrawal of color on credit card statements– depending on the status of our - debt–these are observed and - inverted. We sit together, joining our heavy materials in quiet soli- - darity. We recuperate the energy of - paper and suffering. We use its matter to reaffirm our dignity and desire for renewal. Democracy is a party, 2018 To celebrate my life under aus- terity practices in Greece, I turn to the house party music of the Bronx during the 1970s that emerged resiliently when the borough was in riot and crisis. This early hip-hop reduced melody in favor of repeat- ing samples from a music’s break- - out beat. My breakout beat is formed from a speech by Alexis Tsipras made during the ‘no’ referendum, in which he proclaimed that democracy is a party. Visually structured with embroi- dered patterns from Eastern Attica - that showcase a family’s wealth, - the video accumulates images like an embroidery over this acoustic, traumatic repetition. It offers the 73 qualities and failures of a structure based only on growth–similar to unrealistic economic models that demand only growth and ignore finite resources. In the end, the visual contents must come up against the limits of the frame. I note a similar character - between editing (and the creative industries generally) and the EN GR resources, natural - and human, and the - global sculptural Informed by lived - flow of power and world events, with a - matter. These global dancer’s perspec- flows must be linked tive, Jennifer - and translated to a Nelson’s cross-dis- bodily scale for ethi- ciplinary work cal action to begin. probes the potential - Nelson danced of social and ecolog- - with the Feld Ballet - ical choreography. in New York and the Her works consider - Ballet du Grand inter-system rela- Théatre in Geneva, tionships as a holis- Switzerland, and tic, collective, sculp- - studied New Genres tural practice. She is - at the San Francisco committed to the Art Institute and at playful realignment - the University of of social spaces California, Los through collective - Angeles, where she initiative, and to the received her MFA. transformative pos- - She has exhibited sibilities of the indi- in museums and fes- vidual act. Her deep- tivals in the rooted interest in Americas, Europe co-creation, and its and Asia. Recent political, aesthetic projects have been and social possibili- - on the streets of ties, extends Athens and in throughout her prac- Nestor, 1st - tice as artist and Psychgeriatric teacher. - Boarding House with Among many the Guerrilla influences, her work Optimists. She has has been signifi- also worked in col- cantly shaped by her - laboration with men - direct personal from the Second - experience with dis- Chance School in ruptive or transi- Korydallos prison tional world chore- - with the program of ographies like the EMST without 1989 San Francisco Borders. Nelson cur- earthquake, the fall rently teaches time- of the Berlin Wall, - based art and politi- the74 media aftermath cal theatre at the of September 11th, American College of and currently, the Greece. on-going economic - hardship in Athens, Greece. Having lived and worked in multiple countries, she has a lived understanding of fragile domestic work that produces such embroideries. Both are vulnerable, invisible and often unpaid forms of labor. Video montage, usually - understood as a sequence of changing images in time, might also be considered an audiovisual - field that does not change scenes but rather creates different qualities - of perception as it continues in - time. The performed repetitions parallel the repetitions of exposure - therapy as a strategy to overcome - trauma. Perhaps over time, the structure has a healing aspect, or - perhaps it expresses a celebratory resilience in the face of the absurd. Today democracy is celebrat- - ing… because democracy is a house party. Keep the breakout - beat, repeat. - - - -

Untitled (Mesogheia), 2016 — in progress Bank bills, home-made glue, gold paint (from Germany) Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Athens, Greece, WEBSITE: where he lives and works. www.yorgosprinos.com YORGOS PRINOS

In 2009, at the time of the devastat- - - - - - - - - - - 76 - - - - Yorgos Prinos’ work - in photography - explores issues of - power and violence at the intersection of human psychology - and politics. His photos often feature - urban space, while - devising suggestive - and elliptical narratives using found footage from media - or the internet. His work has recently been shown at the Athens Photo - Festival, Benaki Museum (2018); - Culturescapes Festival, Antikenmuseum, Basel (2017); Gini Building, National - Technical University of Athens (2017); 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2015); Lishui - Photography Festival (2015); Greek Film Archive - (2015). His photographs are held in private and public collections, including The Robert B. Haas Family Arts - Library at Yale University and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photo- graphy. 77 Prinos holds an - MFA from the Yale University School of Art and has served

05.13.2013–3.01 P.M, 2014 05.13.2013–3.01 P.M, 2014 from the photo series Prosaic, 2009–ongoing , 2009– Pigment print Courtesy of the artist EN GR as instructor, visit- University, School of www.yorgosprinos.com ing critic, or lecturer Visual Arts, at Yale University, International Center of School of Visual Photography, Arts; International Wesleyan University, Center of County College of Photography, Morris, The City Wesleyan University; College of New York County College of Morris; City College of New York; and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. He has co-edited several books and catalogues, and has curated exhibitions and projects in Greece and other countries. tography is an expression of his commitment to human plight. It has an ethical dimension, which grants ‘the other’ the right to be recognised and acknowledged as a fellow human being, without suc- cumbing to pathos or victimisation. Hence, his subjects always main- - tain an elusive quality. With an acute eye, he captures moments that subsist only for an instant, yet reveal a hidden story suggested by the micro-gestures in these pic- tures. They remind one of Walker Evans’ iconic 1946 series Labour - Anonymous (taken as each subject - walked from right to left in the photographer’s view), a typology of the Labour Anonymous,- American worker, which was, tell- ingly, an assignment for Fortune magazine. Although Prinos’ photographs could technically come - under the category of street photo- - graph, which very often gives the , or the Fortune uncomposed, they paradoxically give the impression of being metic- ulously composed and choreo- graphed, capturing a moment when - a gesture becomes particularly telling, suggestive, or even iconic. Every detail of the picture suggests a story; its meaning, however, must be inferred from the conjunction of - the different elements that make up the photograph. The use of empathic elements provides his work with an affective quality that - juxtaposes or alleviates the occa- sionally blunt roughness of these images.

Man with Hood, 2014 Man with Hood, 2014 from the photo series Prosaic, 2009–ongoing 2009– Pigment print Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Athens, Greece where she died in 2006. CHRYSA ROMANOS

Chrysa Romanos’s work in the - exhibition provides a historical per- spective into the widespread mel- ancholies produced by socio-politi- - cal upheavals. The exhibition features a selection of seminal col- lages from 1965, from the series Luna Park International. These mixed clippings from magazines and newspapers of key current events of the time (from the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement to the famine in Africa - and colonial struggles) and cutout adverts of popular consumer prod- ucts of the time, provide a telling - portrait of the 1960s. Through delib- - erate image over-load, the images also point to the consumerist trends at the time of capitalism’s - apogee of the promotion of the culture of desire and consumer manip- - ulation. What is striking in this 80 body of work is the fact that we can see — with the benefit of hindsight — that history, political impasse and economic evolution do not take place in a vacuum (as it - often appears in our amnesiac culture of presentism) but constitute inter-related events in a historical - continuum. At the same time, Chrysa reminds us that, on one - hand, radical change is always the - result of a collective struggle and that today’s dominant individualism, has also led to political melancholy; at least for those who have a - hard time accepting apathy and - egoism. We can blame politicians for their incapacity but we can also blame ourselves for our acceptance of the unacceptable and for inac- tion. In addition, Chrysa pinpoints capitalism’s abundance of variety (and its illusion of ‘choice’) — a strategy that has been fine tuned since the prosperous post-war era, now ever-more aided and abetted by digital technology and image-editing apparatus (if we compare and contrast images of then with images of today), pitting it as a - smoke-screen against more critical - and fundamental issues. Her work, - created more than 50 years ago, remains cutting edge, current and relevant half a century on. - Interestingly enough, it is worth noting that this body of work was produced before its more famous - art-historical counterpart: Martha Rosler’s now iconic photo-collage - series House Beautiful: Bringing Home the War (1967–1972), the artist’s cry against the Vietnam War. (K.G.) -

Chrysa Romanos (1931–2006) was an important proponent - of the expatriate - Greek post-war - avant-garde, a number of whom settled 81 in Paris in the 1960s and 1970s. Romanos lived in France from 1961–1981 and this afforded her with the opportunity to dialogue with the cur- - rent artistic trends of the time, and more specifically with the EN GR Nouveaux Realistes, who were very influ- ential for some of - the generation of Greek artists born in - the 1930s. Yet - Chrysa developed her own style, and the content of her work very often went before the primarily formal concerns of the movement, also - engaging in a strin- - gent socio-political critique of the crises of the day. Chrysa’s oeuvre - spanned several media, including: painting, monotype collage & décol- lage, sculpture, and silkscreen. Selected exhibitions include: Zygos, Athens (1958); Desmos, Athens (1981); - Budapest Galeria (with Nikos Kessanlis), Budapest (1996); Engraving Biennale, Ljubljana (1961); Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris (1965); Sao Paolo Biennale (1965, 1994); Museum of Modern Art, Lund, Sweden (1967); Bonino, New York (1972); Salon de Mai, Paris (1973, 1974, 1976); Maison de la 82 Culture, St Étienne (1977); Europalia, (1982); Memories- Recreations-Quests, National Gallery, - Athens (1985); - Transformations of Modern Art, National Gallery, Athens - (1992); Women Beyond Borders, Antikenmuseum, Basel (1997); Chartographers, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (1997); - Istanbul Biennial (1997); The Years of the ’70s in Greece, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2005-2006). -

From the series Luna Park International, 1965 Collage on canvas, 134 × 164 cm Private collection EN GR Born in Lohja, Finland; lives WEBSITE: and works in Stockholm, Swe- www.hansrosenström.net den. HANS ROSENSTRÖM

Shells Within Shells (2012/2019) is a sound installation that consists of - two situations — experienced from headphones — set in a defined space. The work has been config- ured especially for the idiosyncratic architecture of the Athens Conservatoire. Through a short narrative and using a specific bin- aural recording technique (a - recording that mimics the human - hearing) the soundscape creates an - encounter that positions the viewer within the artwork and makes the viewer’s presence — and his/her body — an integral part of the work - itself. Balancing between a private, - intimate experience and a shared, - inter-subjective situation, the work reflects on questions regarding the self and its relation to others. We are not solely fixed isolated - entities, but a myriad of - 84 things — experiences, encounters, - knowledge — are continuously formed and in a constant affiliation and negotiation with the outside. - Language is our tool to share complex thoughts between each other; we use it for creating dialogue or stating an opinion. It makes the forming of any community possible. However, the language that we - Hans Rosenström’s practice centres around installations - that deal with the viewers psychologi- - cal and physical relationship within a - place. To create these situations/ - experiences he uses - a wide variety of media and material; from the ephemeral yet tactile qualities of sound to architec- - tural interventions. The presence of the viewer is integral in the work which remains incomplete - until it has been - activated. Rosenström has participated in group exhibitions both in - Finland and abroad including: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Riga (2018); The Garden — End of Times, Beginning of Time, Aros Triennial, Århus, Denmark (2017); The Vanishing Point of History, L’Été Photographique de Lectoure, France (2015), and solo 85 exhibitions at a u g u s t, Helsinki Contemporary (2017) and Off Seasons, in collaboration with Stormglas at EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2017). - Forthcoming projects include a col- EN GR laboration with www.hansrosenström.net Zuecca Project Space in Venice, Italy and a solo exhibition at Kuntsi Museum in Vaasa, - Finland (2019). In 2011, - Rosenström was awarded the Ducat Prize and in 2015 he was nominated for the Ars Fennica Prize.

Shells Within Shells, 2019 (digital sketch) Sound installation for 2 headphones, 4’ 30’’ (each story) Courtesy of the artist are exposed to goes further than mere communication, it also forms our thinking. It influences our perception and understanding of the world around us. The text, though not overtly political, raises larger questions concerning the self, how we position ourselves in relation to others, how we take on different - roles in different situations — and how language determines belief systems. It intimates at how we - form ourselves in relation to the socio-cultural climate we are sub- jected to. The language and words - that we are exposed to — hence also political discourse — influence our thinking, our way of perceiving and interpreting the world. Simultaneously we also influence all that surrounds us, which entails a responsibility towards the other. Shells Within Shells discreetly hints at the processes that determine social/political thought and action as well as the interaction between - citizens. In addition, Rosenström is show- ing BBC 29.03, 2017, a C-print dip- tych, in the exhibition. The photos were taken from the live BBC - broadcast of the moment when Article 50 was triggered in the UK House of Commons. The picture was accidentally distorted because of renovations to the neighbours’ apartment; so the image became this sort of digital malformation and - perversion that can be read as a metaphor for the unfortunate moment Brexit became a reality, but also alludes to the state of democracy in the time of digital interference. 87

EN GR Born in Beirut, Lebanon; lives WEBSITE: and works in Athens, Greece. georgessalameh.blogspot.com GEORGES SALAMEH

Peripatetics (the act of walking - from place to place) revolves around experiential, direct, - non-conceptual photography, the quiet side of urban or landscape - photography, during which attention is given primarily to the state of mind. This internalisation of attention brings a sober and poetic - reading of reality — a detached way of making more intimate images open to interpretations. Years ago, - I began to embrace Athens, not for - what I wanted it to be but for what it was. This endeavour turned into - learning about freedom and of resistance. Walking is the mother of all migrations. Before even beginning - to combine action and word, - humans start on their feet. In the effort of walking, one 88 escapes the very idea of identity, the temptation to be someone, to have a name and a history. - The quest for an unattainable - pleasure and an impossible har- mony motivates the walker. Walking asserts that life begins as a human home and expeditions to the Himalayas, there is a major one step. A lonely form of resistance, walking is always a step towards the ‘other’. It requires an effort. It’s therapy. - Cavafy (1999) by Georges Salameh is part of Hear You, Athens (1998–2006), a series of photographs and short narrations, Athens produced over a period of eight - years, observing the urban space. - By walking and sinking in Athens’ chaos, we abolish it. Only by adopting confusion, contradic- tion, and bad taste can one overcome them. To perceive urban space, one must love cities; otherwise, one’s effort will remain on the surface and fall off of the city’s body. Chaos resists us because we resist it. - Athens echoes one’s intimate space and aspirations as a citizen. (G.S.) -

Georges Salameh is a Greek-Lebanese artist whose work is - predominantly lens- based. He studied cinema and history of art at University of - Paris 8 Saint-Denis in France (1991– - 1994), and has worked in Greek and international cine- - matographic and audiovisual produc- - tions (1995–2004). - Since 1999, he has directed shorts, doc- 89 umentaries, experi- - and video installations. His work has - been exhibited in - museums, galleries, Athens, London, - Paris, and Beijing. In Palermo, Sicily, he - EN GR co-founded georgessalameh.blogspot.com MeMSéA, an audio- - visual production company, where he worked as a pro- ducer and director - (2009–2014). have received prizes in Tokyo, Ljubljana, Tehran, Thessaloniki, - and Milan. Since 2011, he has been a co-founding member - of the Depression Era project. Since 2015, he has also been working as a curator of the Greek section of The Urbanautica Institute, a platform - for contemporary photography. Apart from his - - tographic work he - has been doing intermittently since 2009 looks into mainly urban landscapes that have witnessed the tur- - moil or crisis in Greece, Italy, Egypt, - Lebanon, and else- where, and is based on the notion of sed- imentation. He explores the city through the eyes of - an urban geologist. - He studies and - observes different aspects of the city, - 90 often wandering the flâneur looking for hints of simple human gestures, reconstructing - their story by study- - ing their layout. He reconsiders them for new narrative elements, such as the - latest social and political changes, - ancient and contem- - porary history, and the poetics of realism and light. The - evolution of Athens and other cities is projected from these new ‘geological for- mations’ through - research extending over time, but also as an insight into radical changes to come. - - 91

Cavafy, 1999 Cavafy, 1999

Photography print, 35 × 53 cm × Courtesy of the artist EN GR Born in Eura, Finland; lives WEBSITE: and works in Helsinki, Finland. www.nestorisyrjala.com NESTORI SYRJÄLÄ

In 1798, the English scholar and cleric Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) published ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population,’ in which he explained that an increase in a nation’s food production only temporarily improves the well-being of the people, because it leads - to population growth, which rein- states the original level of produc- - tion per capita. In 1972, almost two centuries later, a group of research- ers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute - of Technology) in Cambridge, U.S.A., published ‘The Limits to Growth,’ a study into the global implications of continued worldwide growth. It reached the grim conclusion that humankind cannot - survive if it continues to exhaust the planet’s resources. Mankind can only create a sustainable world when it imposes limits on its pro- 92 duction of material goods and establishes a balance between population and production. - Some 40 years later, the Finnish Secretary of State Raimo Sailas - proposed an increase of productiv- - ity as a requirement to save the - Finnish welfare state. The Finnish artist Nestori Syrjälä, whose work - is concerned with the problematic - relation of mankind with its environment, uses Sailas as a token for - the conviction that growth is an indispensable tool to establish welfare. His video Raimo S (2014) is Raimo S based on the character of the former secretary of state. In it, he con- fronts us with the now retired and ailing aging statesman who melan- cholically contemplates his poor childhood in an underdeveloped and barren Finland. He proudly recalls how he helped the country - to grow into the present model welfare state. Yet, looking back, he also begins to doubt his achieve- - ments, thinking of the amounts of coal and oil that were burnt, the deforestation in favour of enlarging agricultural land, the melting ice- - caps, and he wonders if it is still possible to prevent the global catastrophe we are heading towards. He attempts to come to - terms with the confusing reality of the aggravating environmental cri- - sis, for which he is complicitly responsible. He starts to distrust his motives and intentions, which in hindsight, all of a sudden, seem Apart from constituting a critique on incessant growth, this piece is also a metaphor for political impotence, impasse, and disillusionment. These are all symptoms of the current pathology facing politics in an era when many people no - longer believe that politicians represent their interests and when the power of corporations surpasses - that of lawmakers. - 93

EN GR Nestori Syrjälä www.nestorisyrjala.com works with sculpture, installation, and video. For the past ten years, he - has been obsessed with the crisis in our relationship with the - environment: The ground under our feet, the air we breathe, and the oceans that sur- - round us are all being altered. In the so-called Anthropocene era, - the more we know, the stranger things - Stele, 2016 (detail) appear. Series of sculptures (car side windows, rocks, plaster, engraved Recently, texts), variable dimensions Courtesy of the artist Syrjälä´s work has - Stele been shown at Kiasma — Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki and the Helsinki Art Museum (both 2016); and Max Estrella Gallery (Madrid, 2017). In 2018, Syrjälä will take part in the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. In 2016, Syrjälä was awarded the Ducat Prize by the Finnish - Art Society and also - shared the First Prize in Kiasma - Public Art Competition.

94 Stele (2016) consists of a sculptural - installation made from car side win- - dows resting on natural rocks, engraved with quotes from seem- - ingly unassociated people, includ- - ing: Dante Alighieri, a World War I veteran, and leading climate scientists. The quotes are from different - time periods, from people with dif- fering life experiences, but they all relate to trauma of some kind. They are attempts to articulate things — or situations — that perhaps cannot - be put into words, efforts to find expressions for something utterly beyond what language can convey. For Dante it is the Christian late medieval idea of Hell, for the veteran of World War I it is the horrors of mechanized warfare, and for the climate scientists it is the fore- - shadow of climate breakdown esca- lating into apocalyptic dimensions. The quotes, however, are not to be - taken literally rather they function - as metaphors for a wide variety of - contemporary afflictions — political, 95 social and economic — and how human being experience them. - -

RAIMO S, 2014 (still) RAIMO S, 2014 () Courtesy of the artist and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland EN GR Born in Ho Chi Minh City, WEBSITE: Vietnam. Lives and work in www.thuvantran.fr Paris, France THU VAN TRAN

Instant Happiness (2009/2018) is an Instant Happiness adaptation of an earlier work by Thu-Van Tran, especially for the exhibition Anatomy of Political - Melancholy. The multimedia installation, presented here as a maquette, originally went on display in the artist’s solo exhibition Homme Livre — Homme Libre (The Homme Livre — Homme LibreThe Book People) at Bétonsalon — Book People Centre for Art & Research in Paris. The project was a visual adaptation and artistic interpretation of Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451. The book is about a future Fahrenheit 451 society where reading is forbidden, where books are burnt, once dis- covered, and where people who want to save books must learn them off by heart. The book’s political content projects a world without freedom or free will, evoking historical events, such as book burnings, 96 as well as the increasing illiberal- ism and control in the democratic, so-called free world. The artwork is a collection of objects and images whose iconography suggests things of promise — everything that a society considers ideal, or holds in high esteem — that are in danger of collapsing, or have already col- lapsed. The maquette includes a Instant Happiness, 2009/2018 (detail) Instant Happiness Installation, mixed media, dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Meessen Declercq, Brussels Working across a www.thuvantran.fr range of forms and materials, Tran uses her own experience as a cultural out- - sider — a Vietnamese woman living in - France — to explore - physical and cultural - displacement and the history of coloni- - alism, subjects that have become poign- - antly relevant in - today’s climate. - Her work has recently been shown at Moderna Museet - in Stockholm, at the 57th Venice Biennale, and at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin. In 2018 she was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Price 2018 at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Thu-Van Tran’s works are included in public and private collections, such as - Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, Kadist Fondation, Paris/San Francisco, MAC VAL (FR), Lidice Memorial (CZ), Josée and Marc Gensollen collection (FR), and Vehbi Koç - Fondation, Istanbul. In 2019, she will be - 98 part of a residency programme at the Times Museum of - Guangzhou in China. - She has been a sen- ior instructor for - Bachelor’s level students at PCA — Paris - College of Art since 2012. bas-relief of a megalomaniac - social-housing project in Paris that failed; the photo of a falling statue of Stalin, dismantled after the collapse of communism; a dying bam- - boo plant covered with earth, and a - silicone Anti-form sculpture, which suggests collapse. The maquette - alludes to a ‘theatre of the world,’ which amplifies an embellished reality that hides oppression and disillusionment. Referencing the social, the political, and the environmental, the installation suggests, in ways both metaphorical and straightforward, the current climate of gloominess, pessimism, and low spirits in all these domains. - It points to the existential and iden- - tity crisis that Europe is currently facing as well as to the fact that the world of liberal democracies should not be taken for granted, especially - at a moment when nationalism and exclusionary identity politics are rekindling on the continent. -

Instant Happiness, 2009 (Installation view: Beton Salon, Paris), Instant Happiness Installation, mixed media, dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Meessen Declercq, Brussels EN GR Born in Athens, Greece, WEBSITE: where he lives and works. www.tsoumplekas.com DIMITRIS TSOUMPLEKAS

‘Texas’ is a tavern in north-western - Greece. Originally called ‘Paradise,’ - it was renamed ‘Texas’ in the 1970s, when a man took out his gun and shot two patrons: his wife and her lover. The name of the place inevitably implies violence, the South, and desolation. ‘Precisely because there is loss, one can understand and interpret the world.’ - ‘Texas’ is a battleground of repa- triation. Coming back to Greece in - 2010, I felt confused. I had to process this uncanny spectacle of people and places, and, because I failed constantly, I resorted to an observation of details large and small of a disor- dered life. Everything I noticed - seemed to result from a battle with time, a battle with battle. The evi- - dence of a desire for freedom verg- 100 ing on destruction. - ‘Texas’ is a work of mourning. ‘Being at the mercy of the past so completely is unbearable, and so, if the work of mourning is to take place, certain precise details must be selected, conferring on them an elective power: They become symbols, representing - other chains of thoughts and feelings, standing in for them or taking - their place. This indicates a change of levels: It's the difference - between being haunted by every - aspect of reality and having found ways of representing that reality, - emptying it out, transforming it: turning it, as it were, into a representation.’ ‘Texas’ is a sort of farewell. The designation of the border. And the border, as perceived by Heidegger, ‘Is not where something ends, but as recognised - by the Greeks, the border is where something begins to unfold its - essence.’ (D.T.) - - Yorgos Tzirtzilakis (2013). 'Sub-Modernity and the Aes- thetics of Joy-Making Mourn- ing: The Crisis Effect in Con- temporary Greek Culture' In: Nadja Argyropoulou and Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, (eds.), Hell as Pavilion: A Contempo- rary Greek Peripeteia, exh. cat., Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013. Kastaniotis Editions. Darian Leader (2008). The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression. Hamish Hamilton 1.

Dimitris Tsoumplekas is a visual artist working in lens-based media. His work deals mainly with the interaction between the - private and the public, and the ways in 101 which our environment — personal as - well as collective — shapes both - individual and social - experience. Landscape, literally - as well as metaphor- ically, dominates his practice. EN GR Tsoumplekas has www.tsoumplekas.com participated in - numerous exhibitions in Greece and - other countries. - Alongside his solo exhibitions, his work - has more recently been included in: Photography in cri- Photography in crisis, sis, Slought, Philadelphia, US (2019); , Thessaloniki Mus- - eum of Photography The (2018); The Decline Decline of Heroes, of Heroes, Antiken- museum Basel (2017); , Athens Biennale (2015–2017). - His work is also included in various - private and public art collections, such as EMST — the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, DESTE Foundation - Collection, D. Daskalopoulos Collection, and the Macedonian - Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki. Tsoumplekas is a - member of the Depression Era collective; he has co-curated their par- ticipation in the 5th Thessaloniki Biennale (2015) and 102 in the Culturescapes Festival in Basel (2017). His latest curatorial - project was the exhibition Amour — Amour — An - Interpretation of Nikos Kessanlis’ Photographic Archive at the House of Cyprus, Athens, 2017. His latest publication is the photo — book Texas — The Problem with Our Current Situation. He teaches photography at the Athens School of 103 Fine Arts.

TEXAS — The Problem With Our Current Situation — 2010–2013 (detail) 2010– Photo book and double 35mm slide projection Courtesy of the artist EN GR Bram Van Meervelde was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he lives and works. BRAM VAN MEERVELDE

Bram Van Meervelde works in different media from painting and drawing to photography, installa- - tion and ceramics. His work com- - ments both on daily life and the everyday environment around him, - but is also socio-politically oriented. Since several years he has - been spending long periods of time in Athens, documenting changes in - the city due to the crisis, translat- - ing this economic, social and political crisis into resonant images, and capturing the general impasse that - contemporary Greek society is experiencing. But Van Meervelde is not only interested in the material consequences of crises, but also - the psychological and existential - ones, which are less easily put into words. His work is thus steeped in metaphors, drawn both from the Ancient Greek world as well as the - 104 contemporary one. Unlike many artists who have travelled to Greece in search of ‘poornography’ due to the fact that — in a twisted way Greece has become exotic because of its debt-fuelled poverty — Van Meervelde’s research stems from a genuine interest and long-term engagement with the country and its insurmountable issues. The ceramic and metal plates (2014–19) presented in the exhibition consist of a series of human-centric sce- - narios which reveal problematic social relations while Union of - Individualists (2016), a sculpture encased in a vitrine, hints at the atomisation and lack of collective political drive that has also led to - 105 the current deadlock; this in addi- - tion to the general feeling that collective or ‘people’ power is no longer as effective as it once was and often overridden by the powers that be.

Untitled, 2015 Beewax and acrylic on metal plate, 22 × 29.5 × 1 cm Private collection Antwerp, Belgium Courtesy of the artist and Transit Gallery, Mechelen, Belgium EN GR Van Meervelde stud- - ied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp where he - also received his Master’s degree in 2014. Van Meervelde - prefers to work in - and with the specifi- - cations of a certain place, indoors and - outdoors, legal and illegal. During his studies he followed an Erasmus exchange program in Athens - for six months and became interested in the city, which he has been observing keenly since. His intensive absorption and observation of the Greek life and - culture resulted in a rich variety of art- works. Following this experience, Van - Meervelde regularly returns to the “warm and chaotic European center of aesthetics”, as the artist himself says. Van Meervelde’s - recent group exhibitions include: New - Masters, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (2014); Séries, CAPS, Antwerp (2014); Traces of the present, Serifos Greece - 106 (2015); Now Belgium Now, LLS387, Antwerp (2016); J-M-B, 2015 Terra Quadrata, Beewax and acrylic on butcher’s plate, 40.5 × 50.4 × 2 cm KEIV, Athens (2017); Private collection Heverlee, Belgium Courtesy of the artist and Transit Gallery, Mechelen, Belgium Expo 2018, Antwerp (2018); Het Voorstel, CC De Steiger Menen (2018). The artist’s first solo gallery exhibition will open in October - 2019 in Transit Gallery, Mechelen. Van Meervelde has also made several limited edition publi- cations and has col- - laborated with other artists in a wide - range of projects, - including street art. -

EN GR Education Programme Curator: Katerina Zacharopoulou

Education through culture is one of the key aims of the Schwarz Foundation. Every exhibition features a specially designed education programme. The one designed for Anatomy of Political Melancholy - provides basic tools for reflection and activates the basic human - need of expressing ones opinions on current events and the key issues of our times. The idea of ‘political melancholy’ - is conveyed by the works in the exhibition in various ways and with different media, bringing to the fore this increasingly widespread — and often repressed — sentiment of - political malaise, which is evidently recognised as a key problem in many contemporary societies, whether in Europe, the Americas or the Global South. The education - programme has been structured - bearing in mind art’s capacity to activate narratives, to tell stories, and to stimulate critical thought - and debate. An almost obsolete, - analogue medium of communica- - tion, the postcard, forms an integral part of the exchange with the audi- ence who are invited to write on it and express their thoughts on the issue of ‘political melancholy’ based on their interpretation of the works in the exhibition, expanding their meaning. The postcards are then sent to their recipients — poli- - ticians, public figures, officials, friends or family, by ‘snail mail’, at a time when 215 post offices are closing throughout Greece, leaving 2,000 people out of work. 108 Through this interaction — and the dialogue created between visi- - tors and mediators in the process — the language of contemporary art is harnessed to encourage peo- - ple to convey and share their socio-political concerns — and - often-conflicting opinions. The works of art function here as a potent medium of knowledge pro- - duction, and of stimulating dialogue around critical — and very often contested — issue This exchange takes place in the specially designed “Complaints - Desk” within the exhibition space, which the curator of education runs - as a kind of civil servant assigned to serve the needs of the exhibition’s visitors. The Education Programme takes - place every Friday, 18:00–20:00 throughout the duration of the exhibition; also every Sunday 12:00– 14:00 from the 17th March onwards. A tour will precede the start of the programme. Entrance is free to the public. At all other times and for the entire - duration of the exhibition there are experienced Mediators who are available to the public for guided tours and assistance. Special artist's tours are also planned. Please check the Foundation website for details.

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EN GR About the Schwarz Foundation

The Schwarz Foundation is a non-profit - organization that supports contemporary cultural production. While based in Munich Germany, the Foundation operates an exhibition space, Art Space Pythagorion, on the island of Samos, where it also organizes an - annual international, transcultural music - festival, Samos Young Artists Festival. In light of the fact that Europe is experiencing significant transformations which - call for new ways of thinking, the - Foundation’s activities aim to contribute to - this process of re-evaluation and re-thinking the continent, and particularly South- East Europe and its relation to its surrounds within a global context. The - Foundation supports projects that relate to - this geo-political space, including artistic productions, residencies for artists and - musicians on Samos, a curatorial fellow- ship, symposiums, exhibitions and publi- - cations, in Greece as well as abroad. Since 2016 Brussels-based Greek curator Katerina Gregos is head of the Foundation’s visual arts programme. Her programme has featured a series of socio-politically oriented exhibitions that touch upon some of the most urgent issues of today. Starting with the exhibition A World Not Ours (2016), which examined - the politics of representation of the refugee crisis (which travelled to the Kunsthalle - Mulhouse [FR] in 2017) to the current exhibition Anatomy of Political Melancholy, which looks at this pivotal moment for - Europe.

110 About the Athens Conservatoire

The Athens Conservatoire is the oldest - educational institution for the performing arts in modern Greece, founded in 1871.The - the advancement of music and drama studies in Greece with many renowned artists - and personalities being graduates or teach- ers of the institution, including Dimitiris Mitropoulos, Maria Callas, Gina Bachauer, Emilios Veakis, Kostas Mousouris. - The Conservatoire offers the full range of theoretical and practical training in music performance extending from early music - and classical music up to jazz and contemporary electronic music. Its Drama School is included among the select few top drama - schools in Greece, with leading artists among its teaching staff, and cooperates - with prominent institutions like the Russian Academy of Theatrical Studies (GITIS), the World Theatre Education Association (WTEA) and others. The new and already successful Dance - School complements the performing arts disciplines, covering the full range of - dance studies. The unique material held at the Athens Conservatoire Research Centre, recently - made available to students and research- ers, helps reconstruct the history of 150 years of performing arts in Greece. - The building is designed by the famous (1903–1992), who holds a prominent position within the modernist architectural movement of the 1930s and the Bauhaus movement in which he actively participated - (Despotopoulos himself was the only Greek architect to have studied under Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius). - His work for the Athens Conservatoire is the only completed part of an ambitious large-scale cultural complex commis- 111sioned in 1959 by the then government for Athens, for which he earned the top architectural prize of its time. The Athens Conservatoire’s prime loca- tion at the heart of Athens, and its iconic Bauhaus building, make it a unique cultural hub for various cultural events. In 2017, for example, it was one of the main venues of the Athens part of Documenta 14.

EN GR SCHWARZ FOUNDATION CATALOGUE ATHENS CONSERVATOIRE ATHENS CONSERVATOIRE Vasileos Georgiou B17–19, Editors: Athens 10675, Greece ANATOMY OF Katerina Gregos POLITICAL Ioli Tzanetaki Opening Hours: MELANCHOLY Tuesday–Sunday 12:00–20:00, 28.02–13.04.19 Art Direction: Friday 12:00–22:00 bus.group The exhibition is organised Free entrance by the Schwarz Foundation. Graphic Design: Daniel Schnitterbaum Schwarz Foundation gGmbH Enno Pötschke Metzstr. 36 Paul Zech 81667 Munich SCHWARZ FOUNDATION Germany Printing: Executive Director: Medialis Offsetdruck GmbH, Tel.: +49 (0) 8944 2499 05 Chiona Xanthopoulou-Schwarz Berlin Fax: +49 (0) 8944 2499 04 [email protected] Management & administration: Texts: www.schwarzfoundation.com Adelheid von Soden (Munich) Katerina Gregos Pierre Noire Curator: The artists Katerina Gregos Operations Manager: Tony Moser Sergio Zalmas Copy editing: Dimitris Saltabassis

EXHIBITION Proofreading: Ioli Tzanetaki Concept-Curator: Sergio Zalmas Katerina Gregos Special thanks to Athens Exhibition consultant: Conservatoire and its Dimitris Tsoumplekas Chairman, Nikos Tsouchlos

Assistant Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Exhibition designer: Danae Giamalaki Irene Laub, Bert de Leenheer, Peter Kilchmann, Dirk Art transport & installation: Vanhecke, Ivi Nanopoulou, MoveArt Nikos Navridis, Ioanna Papaggeli, Michalis Insurance: Tsiougranas, Olga Mitsi, Karavias art insurance Spyros Maroudas (Lloyd’s) Marianna Christofides wishes Construction: to thank the following Nikos Stathopoulos institutions for their support in the development of the Audiovisual Equipment: ongoing project It exhausts my Yiannis Malatantis elbow: Institute for Cultural Makis Faros Relations (IfA), Germany; Ministry of Culture of North- Signalisation: Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; Sideris Signs Academy of the Arts of the Athanasios & World, Cologne, Germany; La Stefanos Sideris Box, ENSA Bourges, France; Tabakalera International Centre Media Relations: for Contemporary Culture, San Zuma Communications, Sebastian, Spain; Künstlerhaus Fotini Barka Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria. Education programme: Katerina Zacharopoulou Jennifer Nelson wishes to thank for their support in the Graphic Designer development of her work (education programme): Untitled (Mesogheia): Zozi Frangou Imatothiki Paianias, Katerina Apostolou, Anna Antoniou, Mediators: Eleni Stamati, Anna Stamati, Iro Akrivou Eleftheria Stamati, Areti Yiannis Drakopoulos Skavatzou, Afroditi Andreou, Dora Vasilakou Rosina Ivanova, Natalia Faidra Vasileiadou Papadopoulou bus.group

Berlin

It exhausts my elbow

Untitled (Mesogheia) SCHWARZ FOUNDATION