The 4th Athens Biennale 2013 AGORA opened its doors to the public on the 29th of September.

For 55 days AGORA will welcome both participants and the public to its premises; the building of the National Bank of Greece at 8-10 Sofokleous str. and CAMP at Kotzia square.

AGORA explores creative alternatives as answers to the question Now what?. Functioning as a living organism, AGORA is formed through a succession of objects and collaborative events, performances, roundtable discussions, video installations, workshops, guided tours and educational programs. The 4th Athens Biennale is a social event. In AGORA works of art and events are in a constant dialogue with everyday life, in a potential public space.

The program of the second week of the 4th Athens Biennale includes discussions, performances and the "Now What?" AGORA Economic Forum.

Participants in the events of the 2nd week of AGORA:

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

YOTA IOANNIDOU

The Storyteller, The Knife and The "Machine"
Lecture Performance

Yota Ioannidou's work combines visual documentation, discussions and interviews that act to question and cross-examine phenomena triggered and maintained by various hierarchical structures for political, cultural or social reasons.
The Storyteller , The Knife and The "Machine" lecture performance has as its starting point a historical event, a riot against Othon (1862) and more specifically, the riot in Kapnikarea by Greek and Italian libertarians. The narrative also introduces another event – the assault with a knife perpetrated on November 3, 1896 by Dimitris Matsalis against two prominent citizens of Patras, a banker and a sultana merchant, on Gerokostopoulou St. (formerly Anexartissias St.). The research focuses on how the libertarian movement developed in Greece through printed material that circulated in the 19th c. and other documents of that time.

Tuesday, 8/10 , 19:00 – 21:00, Sofokleous 8-10 (machine room)
Thursday, 10/10, 19:00 – 21:00, Sofokleous 8-10 (machine room)
Saturday, 11/10, 17:00 – 19:00, CAMP
Sunday, 13/10, 17:00, Kapnikarea Square

THE NEW PARTHENON (beta)

Workshop

The New Parthenon (beta) will try to introduce the public to the next praxis, which will embed -from a critical point of view- both the monument as cultural heritage and the permanent demand of its iconoclastic destruction. On the other hand, it will try to familiarize with the possibility of alternative references the monument might have today as a means of collective memory.

Speakers:
Aristides Baltas
Christos Chrissopoulos
Despina Katapoti
Dimitris Lallas
Coordinator:
Ilias Paraskevopoulos

Wendesday, 9/10
19:00-20:30
Sofokleous 8–10

LEDA PAPACONSTANTINOU & SALLY POTTER

Time Structured – Time Shared
Discussion/Performance

Though short lived (they were only active for four years), The Spetses Players left their mark on the cultural physiognomy of Spetses island, their legacy a paradigm of resistance and intervention through creative activity. In AGORA, the issues originally foregrounded by The Spetses Players re-emerge in many ways: Papaconstantinou presents archival material documenting production of the plays, invites famous director Sally Potter to join her in a discussion/performance, and organizes an event with former members of the Players.

Friday, 11/10
18:00-19:00
Sofokleous 8–10

DAVE BEECH

Commodification Without Commodification
Lecture

A member of the art collective Freee, writer and lecturer at the Chelsea College of Art, regular contributor to Art Monthly and other periodicals such as Untitled, Mute and The First Condition, Dave Beech has examined the legacies of the avant-garde in essays such as "Art's Detractors", "Shock vs Awe" and "The Politics of Beauty". In this lecture Beech examines the "abnormal" relationship between the art world and the capitalistic methods of production and commodities.

Saturday, 12/10
13:00-14:30
Sofokleous 8–10

"Now What?" AGORA Economic Forum

Forum

The "Now What?" AGORA Economic Forum –an international economics conference in the context of the 4th Athens Biennale, which will make an effort to contribute to the disentanglement and clarification of contemporary concepts that often hide behind euphemisms. Where does today's conventional wisdom come from and where is tomorrow's going? How could we return the global economy to a "corridor of stability" (to use an economics term)? This remains the focus of post-crisis economics, and AGORA is providing the forum for this most contemporary and urgent of debates.

Saturday, 12/10
17:00 – 21:00
Sofokleous 8–10

Participating:
Paolo Manasse Professor of Macroeconomics and International Economic Policy at the University of Bologna.
Vito Polito,lecturer on economics at the University of Bath.
Professor Frances Ruane, Director of ESRI, Ireland.
Heiner Flassbeck, Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and former chief macroeconomist in the German Institute for Economic Research.
Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor of Economic History,Gothenburg University, Sweden. (by video link)
Loukas Tsoukalis, Jean Monnet Professor of European Organisation at the University of Athens and President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP.
Nicholas Economides, (Stanford/NYU), an internationally recognized academic authority on network economics, electronic commerce and public policy. (by video link)
Elias Papaioannou, Associate Professor of Economics at London Business School. He is a research affiliate of the CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research) and the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research).

Coordinator: David Adler

Value

Workshop

Towards an anthropology of value?
Discussion: A. Angelidou, K. Mantzos, I. Rakopoulos

Alternative Networks, New Value
Research project: : A. Kontopoulou, S. Chrysafopolou

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).

Saturday, 11/10
17:00-20:00
Sofokleous 8–10 (machine room)

AGORA – KYKLOS

Talks

In order to fulfill the essential purpose of the AGORA, the main hall of the exhibition, the ground floor of the Athens Stock Exchange, where the stock transactions used to take place, will remain free of exhibits for the most part so that it can host varying events: workshops, projections, discourses, performances, speeches, fora, concerts etc. A series of loosely structured pluralistic approaches on crucial discourses concerning city life, human rights, cooperation, ecology, politics, the web and narratives that will take place every Sunday afternoon. Each participant will have 10'–15' in order to propose substantial answers to the question Now what?
The first thematic unit of Kyklos will focus on the City.

Participants: AREA, Alternative tours of Αthens (ATA), Atenistas, Architecture for humanity Athens, Beforelight, City of errors, Nomadic Architecture Network, Imagine the city, Syn Athina.

Sunday, 13/10
18:00-20:00
Sofokleous 8–10

The program of the 2nd week of AGORA is as follows:

TUESDAY 8/10

WEDNSDAY 9/10

THURSDAY 10/10

FRIDAY 11/10

SATURDAY 12/10

SUNDAY 13/10

4TH ATHENS BIENNALE 2013 AGORA

OPENING HOURS

ADMISSION