3137

As 2016 is coming to an end, 3 137 artist-run-space, with great pleasure, anticipation and curiosity, attempts to approach art practices from the recent past, beginning with personalities and questions that prevailed in the 1970s. The series of meetings, speeches, projections, artworks and exhibitions of archival material entitled After the explosion…you hear the light will take place on 9-11 and 16-17 December 2016.

In the first part of this series (9 -11 December), we invite you to an exhibition of works by artists that were active during the 1970s and a new work designed specifically for the exhibition by Aris and Theo Prodromidis, to a dinner at Taverna Lefka, a number of meetings between older and younger researchers and artists, and also to projections of archival material from this era.

In the second part (16-17 December), the exhibition withdraws and a small archival collection takes its place. Presentations and thematic meetings will examine the artistic actions and writings of this period, while an orchestrated roundtable discussion will explore the idea of the museum and the role of institutions, beginning with the work Hypothesis for a Museum of Contemporary Art by sculptor Theodoros. This two-day event concludes with a performance by Yorgos Sapountzis, which will be the end-result of a workshop inspired by the sculpture of Stathis Logothetis.

In the aftermath of May ’68 and the ideological and political debates that defined “Metapolitefsi”, the art of the 1970s addressed major historical and social events of its time, but also posed questions regarding the form of art, institutional critique and art’s perception by the public.

After the explosion…you hear the light constitutes an attempt to understand the events and imperatives of an era which stimulated artistic explorations and actions, but also to reflect on the particular identity of artists from this period and the issues they raised for the first time in our country through their works; to consider their affinities with the present and examine their perspectives and the answers they gave to questions and hypotheses that, half a century large, remain unsettled, relevant to artistic practices and motivate younger artists.

We are not interested in historicization but, to the contrary, we rather aim to create an interactive condition through which, by exploring the issue of continuity and discontinuity of artistic tradition, we will reflect on the following questions: What happened from then till now? How is that era reflected in the present? How is contemporary production related to that of previous generations’? How do we read earlier artworks stimulated by today’s events? Doubt and liberation, politics and expression, turmoil and refutation of conventional typologies, artistic creation and discourse interweave in a broadened discussion, which discloses the rupture that occurred in the traditional interpretations of artworks and ideas in Europe during the 70s.

In the following months, the project will continue with the creation of a scrapbook: an imprint of the research carried out during its meetings, discussions and actions, aspiring to a re-interpretation of their findings.

Research Collaborator: Klea Charitou

Research and coordination of the conversation Hypothesis : Mare Spanoudaki

Participants:

Yannis Bouteas, Christopher Brellis, Martha Christofoglou, Diochanti, Nikos Daskalothanasis, Alkisti Efthimiou, Yannis Gaitis, Charis Kanellopoulou, Valerios Kaloutsis, Elpida Karaba, Alexia Karavela, Iris Lykourioti, Kostas Machairas, Christopher Marinos, Emmanouil Mavromatis, Tina Pandi, Rena Papaspyrou, Niki Papaspyrou, Nausika Pastra, Elli-Anna Peristeraki, Laura Preston, Theo Prodromidis, Aris Prodromidis, Kostas Sahpazis, Yorgos Sapountzis, Kyrillos Sarris, Stamatis Schizakis, Vasilis Vafeas, Theodoros, Kelly Tsipni-Kolaza, Daphne Vitali and more to be announced. 

Read the full program here!

Photos: Ilias Seferlis- Frantzis