After this unusual hot summer in greece – in some areas it had beyond 1000°C – nothing is like before, except the government. A wide area of the countryside is burned, so three curators (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka-Yio und Augustine Zenakos) decided to finaly destroy athens too and organized athens first biennial “destroy athens“. They choosed the best place for such an event – the Technopolis, in gazi. the place used to be a old factory, a gaswork and has very special athmosphere… not only because i love old factories. It doesn´t have this very nice fucked up style like arsenale in venice anymore, but for the biennial they importet italian style – the area has been transfigured by the italian architect group called Gruppo A 12.
lets start with the entrance !!! ahhh, poli orea !
the venue is seperated in 6 parts/buildings – called days – two german artists start day 1 with destruction ! On seven screens you can see the videoinstallation “Detonation Deutschland” – blasting buildings after 2nd world war in germany. whatelse happens on day 1 – ahh, chaos of course – that´s at least the propagated common sense about graffiti sprayers and left wing groups… sorry, we mixed something up, wasn´t that all before day 1 ?! anyway, it´s not about building something – maybe they wana destroy athens in 6 days ! that´s also why there is no day 7 !? or what happens if u leave the exhibition ?! Ok, so in day 1 there was a chaotic room installation with loads of pictures on 3 screens – 6 hours loop, and psytrance and other partyflyers on the wall – Total Freedom !! is what they want. void network
Outside marc bijl (NL) claims “back to the fundamentals of power vs force” while the sun is still shinning.
On day 2 you find a lot about greek culture. artists and philosophers reflections…. democracy – demos kai kratia – people and power !? aja, what i said in beginning – the government is still the same and even the king is back ! thank god only in an installation of edward lipski (UK), called “the king” The most impressed i was by Stelios Faitakis, a young greek artist, who is master of painting contemporary orthodox icon
check them out together with some more pictures & impressions…
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