4. Athens Biennale 2013
AGORA
29 Sep - 01 Dec 2013
The 4th Athens Biennale (AB4) AGORA is being curated, produced and realized by the following diverse group of artists, curators, theorists and practitioners in the creative industries.
David Adler
Polina Agapaki
Madeleine Amsler
Annita Apostolaki
Marilena Batali
Viviana Checchia
Kostas Christopoulos
Christos Dimolikas
Thanos Eleftherakos
Alkisti Efthimiou
Charles Esche
Thalia Geladaki
Zoë Gray
Brian Holmes
Dossy Iordanidou
Ilektra Kalaitzaki
Xenia Kalpaktsoglou
Elpida Karaba
Zafeiris Karampasis
Myrto Katsimicha
Fey Koutzoukou
Melina Legaki
Antonis Lyras
Christopher Marinos
Sheila Mathioudaki
Katerina Nikou
Galini Notti
Alexandros Nousias
Christian Oxenius
Mary Palmoutsou
Themis Papadimopoulos
George Papanagiotou
Panos Papanagiotou
Ilias Paraskevopoulos
Eleanna Pontikaki
Stephanie Smith
Nicky Sotiropoulou
Kostis Stafylakis
Glykeria Stathopoulou
Katerina Stavroula
Katerina Tselou
Nicky Tsianti
Evita Tsokanta
Poka-Yio
Despina Zefkili
Given that 2011 was the year of protesting and dreaming dangerously, 2013 prompts us to think responsively and come up with useful ideas and suggestions. At a time when the financial crisis in Greece and elsewhere is reaching a highpoint, the 4th Athens Biennale (AB4) cannot but respond to this bleak situation through a pertinent question: Now what?
While Monodrome (AB3) attempted to reflect upon Modern Greek history and the origins of the crisis, this year the Biennale will set out to explore creative alternatives to a state of bankruptcy.
Pondering this turning point, AB4 puts into play the collaborative process in producing an exhibition. Titled AGORA, it reflects on the way a biennale has to operate under the current socio-economic circumstances. Using the empty building of the former Athens Stock Exchange as its main venue, AB4 proposes AGORA not only as a place of exchange and interaction, but also as an ideal setting for critique. Contrary to an idealized image of the ancient agora, this new AGORA points to a radical re-orientation in thinking – one that entails judgment, ruptures and conflict. As a contested space where multiple theses and doctrines emerge, this AGORA cannot be taken for granted: it aims for pleasure and purpose; it opts for the carnivalesque and the ambiguous, for the significant as much as the insignificant.
AGORA draws on the notions of the assembly and the assemblage. Conceived both as a living organism and an exquisite corpse, it is formulated through a succession of objects, collaborative events, performances, roundtable discussions, film screenings, workshops and educational programs. In AGORA works and theses evoke that which is urgently needed at this particular moment: an engaged subjectivity, an unearthing of timely attitudes, a reevaluation of artistic strategies, a deconstruction of mystifying narratives.
AB4 will be realized by a nameless and ephemeral group of artists, curators, theorists and practitioners in the creative industries. AGORA is thus a collective experiment, the result of a process of fermentation between professionals from different backgrounds. What matters most to those who participate in such an experiment is a shared sense of responsibility and an urge to co-produce meaning.
The AB4 AGORA artists, projects and other participants. This page will be soon updated with more details:
A Whale’s Architects, Abbas Akhavan, ABROAD, Activist group of the Theatre of the Oppressed, David Adler, AGORA Kyklos, Ianna Andreadis, Dimitris Antoniou, Arbit City Group, Art & Economics Group (Tanja Ostojic, Dimitri Kleiner, David Rych), Art as a Change Maker, Artbank, Anestis Azas, Manolis Baboussis, Bertille Bak, Erica Baum, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Dave Beech, Matei Bejenaru, Blitz, Iain Boal, Irina Botea, Tania Bruguera, Campus Novel, Charley Case, Center for Research and Dissemination of Music Scheming, Giuseppe Chico & Barbara Matijević, Katerina Christidi, Creative alternatives to the state of bankruptcy, Neil Cummings, Dashndem, Anthony Davies, Design 99, Dimitris Dokatzis, Sam Durant, Economic Forum, Erect like a Country, Charles Esche, Event as Process, Fallen Fruit, Heiner Flessbeck, FYTA, Rainer Ganahl, Nikolaus Gansterer & Emma Cocker, Fernando Garcia-Dory, Bruce Gilbert and BAW, Fotini Gouseti & Taxideftes Politismou, Grupo Etcetera, Nuria Güell, Severin Guelpa, Jan Peter Hammer, Paul Handley, George Harvalias, David Harvey, Constantinos Hadzinikolaou, Yota Ioannidou, It Takes Two to Tango, Nazima Kadir, Yannis Kalaitzis, Valentina Karga & Pieterjan Grandry, Gareth Kennedy & Sarah Browne, Soo-Young Kim, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Anna Kleberg, Ika Knezevic, Maria Konti, Zissis Kotionis, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Gabriel Kuri, Kyklos Ensemble, Mara Maglione, Gosalyn Mallard, Paolo Manasse, Jenny Marketou, Gabriel Mascaro, Konstantinos Mihos, Never the Same, The New Parthenon, Vladimir Nikolic, Nomadic Kitchen / Shedia, The Non-Serious Lectures, Navid Nuur, OKK Actiongroup, Boris Ondreicka, Geof Oppenheimer, Georgia Paizi, Leda Papaconstantinou, Yorgos Papadakis, Panos Papadopoulos, Elias Papaioannou, Ester Partegàs, The ‘peculiarity’ of the Greek case vis-a-vis European ‘normality’, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Adrian Piper, Antonis Pittas, Vito Polito, Sally Potter, Thomas Poulsen/FOS, Pre-Institutional Critique Workshop, Theo Prodromidis, Anja Puntari, Qualia, Radio Materiality, Gene Ray, Raymondos, Lucrezia Reichlin, Steve Reinke, Oliver Ressler, Juan Carlos Romero, Romvos, Frances Ruane, Salinas / Bergman, Salon de Vortex, Marinella Senatore, Roman Signer, Laurie Simmons, Deb Sokolow, Aspa Stassinopoulou, Yannis Stavrakakis, Hito Steyerl, Subversive affirmation and overidentification, Superstudio, Amund Sjølie Sveen, Petros Touloudis, Nikos Tranos, Kostas Tsolis, Loukas Tsoukalis, Value, Vital Space, Vassilis Vlastaras, Peter Watkins, Wooloo, Zafos Xagoraris, Mi You & Lisa Bensel.
David Adler
Polina Agapaki
Madeleine Amsler
Annita Apostolaki
Marilena Batali
Viviana Checchia
Kostas Christopoulos
Christos Dimolikas
Thanos Eleftherakos
Alkisti Efthimiou
Charles Esche
Thalia Geladaki
Zoë Gray
Brian Holmes
Dossy Iordanidou
Ilektra Kalaitzaki
Xenia Kalpaktsoglou
Elpida Karaba
Zafeiris Karampasis
Myrto Katsimicha
Fey Koutzoukou
Melina Legaki
Antonis Lyras
Christopher Marinos
Sheila Mathioudaki
Katerina Nikou
Galini Notti
Alexandros Nousias
Christian Oxenius
Mary Palmoutsou
Themis Papadimopoulos
George Papanagiotou
Panos Papanagiotou
Ilias Paraskevopoulos
Eleanna Pontikaki
Stephanie Smith
Nicky Sotiropoulou
Kostis Stafylakis
Glykeria Stathopoulou
Katerina Stavroula
Katerina Tselou
Nicky Tsianti
Evita Tsokanta
Poka-Yio
Despina Zefkili
Given that 2011 was the year of protesting and dreaming dangerously, 2013 prompts us to think responsively and come up with useful ideas and suggestions. At a time when the financial crisis in Greece and elsewhere is reaching a highpoint, the 4th Athens Biennale (AB4) cannot but respond to this bleak situation through a pertinent question: Now what?
While Monodrome (AB3) attempted to reflect upon Modern Greek history and the origins of the crisis, this year the Biennale will set out to explore creative alternatives to a state of bankruptcy.
Pondering this turning point, AB4 puts into play the collaborative process in producing an exhibition. Titled AGORA, it reflects on the way a biennale has to operate under the current socio-economic circumstances. Using the empty building of the former Athens Stock Exchange as its main venue, AB4 proposes AGORA not only as a place of exchange and interaction, but also as an ideal setting for critique. Contrary to an idealized image of the ancient agora, this new AGORA points to a radical re-orientation in thinking – one that entails judgment, ruptures and conflict. As a contested space where multiple theses and doctrines emerge, this AGORA cannot be taken for granted: it aims for pleasure and purpose; it opts for the carnivalesque and the ambiguous, for the significant as much as the insignificant.
AGORA draws on the notions of the assembly and the assemblage. Conceived both as a living organism and an exquisite corpse, it is formulated through a succession of objects, collaborative events, performances, roundtable discussions, film screenings, workshops and educational programs. In AGORA works and theses evoke that which is urgently needed at this particular moment: an engaged subjectivity, an unearthing of timely attitudes, a reevaluation of artistic strategies, a deconstruction of mystifying narratives.
AB4 will be realized by a nameless and ephemeral group of artists, curators, theorists and practitioners in the creative industries. AGORA is thus a collective experiment, the result of a process of fermentation between professionals from different backgrounds. What matters most to those who participate in such an experiment is a shared sense of responsibility and an urge to co-produce meaning.
The AB4 AGORA artists, projects and other participants. This page will be soon updated with more details:
A Whale’s Architects, Abbas Akhavan, ABROAD, Activist group of the Theatre of the Oppressed, David Adler, AGORA Kyklos, Ianna Andreadis, Dimitris Antoniou, Arbit City Group, Art & Economics Group (Tanja Ostojic, Dimitri Kleiner, David Rych), Art as a Change Maker, Artbank, Anestis Azas, Manolis Baboussis, Bertille Bak, Erica Baum, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Dave Beech, Matei Bejenaru, Blitz, Iain Boal, Irina Botea, Tania Bruguera, Campus Novel, Charley Case, Center for Research and Dissemination of Music Scheming, Giuseppe Chico & Barbara Matijević, Katerina Christidi, Creative alternatives to the state of bankruptcy, Neil Cummings, Dashndem, Anthony Davies, Design 99, Dimitris Dokatzis, Sam Durant, Economic Forum, Erect like a Country, Charles Esche, Event as Process, Fallen Fruit, Heiner Flessbeck, FYTA, Rainer Ganahl, Nikolaus Gansterer & Emma Cocker, Fernando Garcia-Dory, Bruce Gilbert and BAW, Fotini Gouseti & Taxideftes Politismou, Grupo Etcetera, Nuria Güell, Severin Guelpa, Jan Peter Hammer, Paul Handley, George Harvalias, David Harvey, Constantinos Hadzinikolaou, Yota Ioannidou, It Takes Two to Tango, Nazima Kadir, Yannis Kalaitzis, Valentina Karga & Pieterjan Grandry, Gareth Kennedy & Sarah Browne, Soo-Young Kim, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Anna Kleberg, Ika Knezevic, Maria Konti, Zissis Kotionis, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Gabriel Kuri, Kyklos Ensemble, Mara Maglione, Gosalyn Mallard, Paolo Manasse, Jenny Marketou, Gabriel Mascaro, Konstantinos Mihos, Never the Same, The New Parthenon, Vladimir Nikolic, Nomadic Kitchen / Shedia, The Non-Serious Lectures, Navid Nuur, OKK Actiongroup, Boris Ondreicka, Geof Oppenheimer, Georgia Paizi, Leda Papaconstantinou, Yorgos Papadakis, Panos Papadopoulos, Elias Papaioannou, Ester Partegàs, The ‘peculiarity’ of the Greek case vis-a-vis European ‘normality’, Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Adrian Piper, Antonis Pittas, Vito Polito, Sally Potter, Thomas Poulsen/FOS, Pre-Institutional Critique Workshop, Theo Prodromidis, Anja Puntari, Qualia, Radio Materiality, Gene Ray, Raymondos, Lucrezia Reichlin, Steve Reinke, Oliver Ressler, Juan Carlos Romero, Romvos, Frances Ruane, Salinas / Bergman, Salon de Vortex, Marinella Senatore, Roman Signer, Laurie Simmons, Deb Sokolow, Aspa Stassinopoulou, Yannis Stavrakakis, Hito Steyerl, Subversive affirmation and overidentification, Superstudio, Amund Sjølie Sveen, Petros Touloudis, Nikos Tranos, Kostas Tsolis, Loukas Tsoukalis, Value, Vital Space, Vassilis Vlastaras, Peter Watkins, Wooloo, Zafos Xagoraris, Mi You & Lisa Bensel.