Now what?

Modeled on the ancient agora, a place of assembly, conciliation and a collaborative production of political and social work, the 4th Athens Biennale aspires to be a breeding ground for discourse at the same time that it tackles an array of common concerns and probes both the possibilities and limitations of participation and collectivity.

The curatorial team of AGORA welcomes in this experiment the participating artists, professionals of different disciplines, collaborative initiatives and civic groups and invites the public to meet them and join them at the 4th Athens Biennale 2013 AGORA.

Participants and Projects:

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 Guell, 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 Partegas, 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 Sjolie Sveen, Petros Touloudis, Nikos Tranos, Kostas Tsolis, Loukas Tsoukalis, Value, Vital Space, Vassilis Vlastaras, Peter Watkins, Wooloo, Zafos Xagoraris, Mi You & Lisa Bensel.

Participants in the events of the first week of AGORA:

For a detailed program of the first week of the 4th Athens Biennale AGORA, please visit our Calendar page.

FYTA

FYTA: Bianella
Series of performances

FYTA is a metaphor for the naturalizing enterprises of quotidian Greek identity. Their intention is a psychoanalytic disruption of dominant narratives, including those of gender and mainstream social radicalism. Their 'messthetics' combine scattered references to Dada poetry, post–punk edge, pseudo–traditional echoes, anti–Greek claims and the use of overt dyslexia. In AGORA, they present a 7–day Situationist burlesque in collaboration with various visual artists, musicians of the local sub–scene, performers, pranksters etc. fytabianella.wordpress.com/

Sunday October 29 – Sunday October 6
Sofokleous 8–10

FERNANDO GARCIA–DORY

Department of Islands
Roundtable discussion

Drawing on his studies of art, sociology and agroecology, Garcia–Dory rethinks the role of the artist as cultural producer addressing the intersection of culture and nature within related contexts: landscape, the rural, identity, crisis and utopia. In AGORA, Fernando Garcia–Dory presents recent progress in the Department of Islands, a project which he began working in 2009 in an ongoing collaboration with members of A Whale's Architects and Valentina Karga. This ongoing intervention project focuses on Pacific, Carribean and Mediterranean islands as semi–enclosed ecosystems that become the setting of the classic neo–liberal drama in which local economies succumb to the promissory spectacle of a worldly paradise.

Panel Participants:
Tania Bruguera (Artist)
Efstratios Charchalakis (President of the Domestic Property Committee of the Greek islands Kythera and Antikythera)
Valentina Karga (Architect and Artist, fellow of the Graduate School of the Univesity of the Arts, Berlin)
Iris Lykourioti (Co–founder of A Whale's architects Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly)
Tzanos Mavrikos (Student of the Department of Physics, University of Athens, Owner of a livestock unit of Agrotourism in Skyros Island)
Thanos Michalis (Student of the Department of Architecture, University of Athens)

September 29, 2013
3:30pm – 5:00pm
Sofokleous 8–10

HITO STEYERL

Is the museum a battlefield?
Series of performances

Hito Steyerl's films and essays take the digital image as a point of departure for entering a world in which a politics of dazzle manifests as collective desire. The lecture performance "Is the museum a battlefield?" is part of "The non–serious lectures" platform trying to find answers to questions such as: How is the art field connected to other economies such as the military, design and the production of retina displays? Is there anything like a post–genocidal art–boom?

September 29, 2013
5:30pm – 7:00pm
Sofokleous 8–10

TANIA BRUGUERA

Immigrant Movement International
Roundtable discussion

Tania Bruguera is equally known for her provocative and intense performances, and for long–running, collaborative projects aimed at unsettling standard approaches to both art and political activism. By initiating the social movement Immigrant Movement International, Bruguera examines immigration as central element of contemporary existence. She is also building a strong conceptual and practical framework for such projects, which she terms Arte Util (Useful Art).

September 29, 2013
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm,
Sofokleous 8–10

TELEMACHOS PATERIS

Art as a Change Maker
Series of performances

Art as a change maker is a multi-disciplinary workshop where artists, thinkers, private individuals and state representatives work together on figuring out ways to respond to the social and cultural challenges of today's constantly shifting world. The scope of the knowledge is to bring together intellectual knowledge gained through the practice of art and entrepreunerial activity to promote social innovation and citizen participation. The workshop is organized in collaboration with Mara Maglione and Anja Puntari.

October 1, 2013
1:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Sofokleous 8–10

Value

The workshop proposes a two months' collaboration of visual artists, social scientists and theorists from different disciplines, who will take the anthropological perspective on 'exchange' as a point of reference, while attempting to comprehend and comment on the ways 'value' is created and experienced in everyday life. Visitors to the 2013 Athens Biennale are invited to participate in the weekly meetings, in the discussions and production of artistic work by the workshop's curatorial team, as well as by invited artists and theorists. The workshop's program can be found online at valueab4.wordpress.com.

Coordination: Elpida Rikou (social anthropology / visual arts).
Curatorial team: Eleana Yalouri (social anthropology / archaeology), Sofia Grigoriadou (visual arts), Alkistis Kondopoulou (theory and history of art), Apostolos Lambropoulos (literary and cultural theory), Eva Marathakaki (visual arts), Fani Bitou (visual arts / civil engineering), Eliza Neofytou (architecture / museology), Marilena Synodinou (architecture / visual arts), Io Chaviara (visual arts / graphic design), Sofia Chrysafopoulou (theory and history of art / social anthropology).

October 5, 2013
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Sofokleous 8–10

DIMITRIS ANTONIOU

Despina: a social study
Lecture

The lecture of Dimitris Antoniou, entitled Despina: a social study, presents his encounters with Despina Papadopoulos and features a series of framed images of Angelos Papadimitriou. In particular the lecture explores the discursive management of the recent dictatorial past and asks to what extent the economic crisis facilitates different remembrances of the junta and gives voice to those living in the margins of official history.

October 5, 2013
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Sofokleous 8–10

The program of the first week of AGORA is as follows:

SATURDAY 28/9

SUNDAY 29/9

TUESDAY 1/10

WEDNESDAY 2/10

THURSDAY 3/10

FRIDAY 4/10

SATURDAY 5/10

SUNDAY 6/10

4TH ATHENS BIENNALE 2013 AGORA

OPENING HOURS

ADMISSION