3137

On Saturday, November 18 ,we are pleased to invite you to the presentation of the publication After the explosion you still hear the light (ed. 3 137, Paraguay, Paris 2023) at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (ΕΜΣΤ). The publication is the outcome of a year-long study on artistic practices and artworks of 1970s Greece, and comprises the most extensive research project run by 3 137 to date. It aspires to highlight the eclectic affinities with contemporary artistic production in the country, as well as to document the intergenerational encounters and conversations between artists, historians, art critics and theoreticians, cultural producers, and other agents who have played a pivotal role in the local artistic creation over the last fifty years.

The research set off in December 2016, when a series of exhibitions, encounters, screenings, and lectures took place at the premises of 3 137, in collaboration with the art historian and curator Klea Charitou. Since then, 3 137 has brought together an informal working group (whose research activity continues to this day), focusing on the mapping of the Greek artistic scene in the 1970s, with an emphasis on the study of its influence on contemporary local artistic production. The book comprises an “auto-historiographical project,” turning its gaze to the past in order to understand its influence and contribution to the contemporary cultural and institutional landscape in Greece.

Parallel to the discussion, audiovisual material filmed by Diohandi will be screened in the Museum’s screening room. The material that will be shown is only a part of the artist’s rich and important collection of Super 8 films that she has shot documenting at exhibitions of Greek artists abroad, as well as exhibitions of Greek and international artists in Athens, from 1977 until 1986. The presentation of the material comes as a result of the long-term collaboration between 3 137 and the artist since 2016 to the present day: a conversation that evolves around her artistic work, as well as around the preservation and archiving of materials related to artists of her time, but also of the generation prior to hers.

We invite you to join us in a nostalgic reminiscence of the past, which, as Martha Christofoglou points out on the book’s cover, is not considered particularly healthy. 

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The films to be screened are:

GRIEKS FESTIVAL – Greek Contemporary Art that was presented in 1981 at De Nieuwe Kerk church in Amsterdam, curated by Beatrice Spiliadis, duration 32’50’’

Environment-Action, at Zappeion, Athens, in 1981, organised by the Association of Greek Art  Critics, duration: 18’13’’

* The films will run on a loop. 

About the book:

Contributors:

Eleni Bagaki, Klea Charitou, Martha Christofoglou, Diohandi, Alkisti Efthymiou, Martha Fosteri, Irene Gerogianni, Danai Giannoglou, Charis Kanellopoulou, Alexia Karavela, Stathis Logothetis, Christoforos Marinos, Emmanuel Mavrommatis, Thanasis Moutsopoulos, Tina Pandi, Bia Papadopoulou, Nicoleta Prepi, Aris Prodromidis, Theo Prodromidis, Yorgos Sapountzis, Stamatis Schizakis, Mare Spanoudaki, Beatrice Spiliadis, Kostas Stasinopoulos, Evita Tsokanta, 3 137

The book was designed by Panos Papanagiotou and published by Paraguay in Paris, in a bilingual edition (English | Greek). In summer 2023, it was first presented at Cité internationale des arts in Paris and in London at the Hellenic Centre. It is internationally distributed by Les Presses du Réel (Dijon) and IDEA Books (Amsterdam).

The publication was made possible thanks to the financial support of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation and Yerassimos Yannopoulos.