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. 

--

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.

On Saturday, June 3, at 15:00, we are pleased to invite you to the presentation of the publication After the explosion you still hear the light at the Hellenic Centre in London. Audiovisual material by Diohandi – from the personal archive of the artist – will be screened for the first time to an international audience.

The three founders of 3 137 (Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Kosmas Nikolaou, Paky Vlassopoulou) will talk about the research work they developed over the past seven years, and about the publication that is the outcome of this year-long study on artistic practices and works of the ’70s in Greece. A public discussion with the Serpentine Galleries, Curator, Live Programmes, Kostas Stasinopoulos, will follow, on the occasion of the various questions formulated in the publication. 

At the same time, audiovisual material filmed by Diohandi at the group exhibition GRIEKS FESTIVAL – Greek Contemporary Art that was presented in 1981 at De Nieuwe Kerk church in Amsterdam, and curated by Beatrice Spiliadis, will be screened in the Centre’s library. 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.

The publication is presented at the Hellenic Centre following an invitation by the curator and director of the Centre, Nayia Yiakoumaki.

Reserve your spot:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/after-the-explosion-you-still-hear-the-light-a-book-film-and-conversation-tickets-579316269557

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

It is with great pleasure that 3 137 invites you to the launch of the publication After the explosion you still hear the light (Paraguay, Paris, 2023) taking place at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, at 18.00.

On the occasion of the publication’s launch and drawing on issues that the book highlights – the relationship of Greek artists who live (or lived) in Athens with the city of Paris from 1970 to this day, the concept of communication and exchange of ideas through the written word, but also the creation of an artistic language influenced by two different artistic scenes – we present the exhibitionla poste.

Through works that fit in mail envelopes and travel by post, works that lie in an intermediate space between art, poetry, and prose, works that capture orality through material means, works that transport entire places through travel memories, we create an exhibition that unfolds like a diary of a route from one city to the other. We take this journey mentally, over and over again, at different times and periods, in order to discover connections between artists, works, and events. On the one hand, the exhibition deals with existing relationships, while on the other it raises questions about the ways in which history and the experience of an object is transferred from one place to another. The exhibition la poste comprises works by artists who create a bridge between the two countries. Greek artists who have spent time of their lives in Paris, international visual artists related to Greece; works that indicate this relationship, projects that create channels of communication.

The exhibition features works by artists Daniel Gustav Cramer, Diohandi, Mario García Torres, Alexia Karavela, Karolina Krasouli, Nefeli Papadimouli, Aris Prodromidis, Theo Prodromidis, and Constantin Xenakis.

In 2016, in the context of his participation in the exhibition After the explosion… you hear the light, Theo Prodromidis creates a conversation piece together with his father, Aris Prodromidis. The project takes the form of a correspondence, with Theo sending postcards from Paris, where he stayed as a visiting artist at the Cité internationale des arts, and Aris, who was the first video artist to represent the country in Biennale de Paris in 1982, responding from his place in Greece. Their exchange of personal messages takes the shape of an artwork that comes to public view during the exhibition, creating a dialogue in which proximity alternates with distance. In 2017, artist Mario García Torres created a correspondence project for his participation in Phenomenon Anafi. The artist has discovered an ancient Greek sculpture that was made in Anafi, and today is exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He therefore requests the repatriation of the sculpture through a postcard he made and distributed in the shops of Anafi, a projection-installation set at the School of Anafi, featuring a photographic slide that depicts the sculpture in Louvre, but also through a letter he left to visitors of the island. Daniel Gustav Cramer writes to his friend Javier about the passing of time, their increasingly scarce communication, and their fading friendship. With this work, the artist took part in the exhibition entitled “...”, held at the premises of 3 137 in 2013, and curated by Galini Notti. Karolina Krasouli creates a game of chance with mail envelopes she paints and places in a row. Constantin Xenakis creates compositions with symbols, building his own cryptic yet universal language. Nefeli Papadimouli captures performative gestures on paper, while giving guidelines to invite us to imagine bodies moving in space. Alexia Karavela uses pencil to render on paper a snapshot of François Mitterrand’s visit to Greece in 1982. Diohandi, who visits the FIAC 85 international exhibition in Paris in 1985, films on Super 8 film the participation of the Athens based Dracos Art Center featuring works by four Greek and four international artists.

The audiovisual material by Diohandi belonging to the personal archive of the artist, is central to the exhibition. It will be presented for the first time to an international audience. The material that will be shown is only a part of the artist’s rich and important collection of recordings on Super 8 film that she has made 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.

3 137 would like to thank Iordanis Kerenidis and Piergiorgio Peppe for their support.  

The exhibition was made possible with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development

3 137 is thrilled to announce the launch of an edited volume it has curated, under the title After the explosion you still hear the light (Paraguay, Paris, 2023). The publication is the fruit of a long-term research 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 sixty years.

In recent years, 3 137 has been developing the research and artistic program After the explosion you... hear the light, with the aim of studying and showcasing artistic narratives, practices, and works from 1970s Greece. 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. In the spring of 2017, 3 137 hosted an exhibition featuring archive material. Parallel to this, the entire research project was presented to the public at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), within the context of the public program of documenta 14 and through a discussion with Thomas Boutoux, one of the members of the French publishing collective Paraguay, Paris. Lastly, between 2018 and 2019, 3 137 organized a series of educational workshops for children, drawing inspiration from the work of Pantelis Xagoraris and contributing to the digital cataloging and digitization of a part of Constantin Xenakis’s archive, in collaboration with the Contemporary Greek Art Institute (ISET).

This publication compiles the material gathered through a long process of collective research. In the last seven years, 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 research axis that has unraveled most recently, concerning questions of institutional criticism and gender, but also the identity of 3 137, rounds up the project, and at the same time presents an “archaeology” of artistic initiative. The book comprises an “auto-historiographical project exploring the relationship between artistic initiative and artistic work,” turning its gaze to the past in order to understand its influence and contribution to the contemporary cultural and institutional landscape in Greece.

In the near future, the publication will be presented in three different European capitals: in Paris on May 31, 2023, at Cité internationale des arts; in London on June 3, 2023 at the premises of the Hellenic Centre; as well as in Athens, in the fall of 2023, at the EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. Each launch is framed by a special event, designed specifically for each location and highlighting different facets of the publication. In Paris, the book launch will be accompanied by the opening of the group exhibition la poste. In London, audiovisual material from the personal archive of the artist Diohandi – depicting group exhibitions of Greek and international artists – will be screened in world premiere, while the book presentation by the founding members of 3 137 will be followed by a discussion between them and Kostas Stasinopoulos, Curator, Live Programmes, at Serpentine Galleries, who has contributed a text to the publication. More information will follow about the event to be organized in Athens, in collaboration with EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art. 

The publication was made possible thanks to the financial support by the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation and Gerasimos Giannopoulos.

3 137 warmly thanks Thomas Boutoux for his trust, Kyriakos Tsiflakos for his support, as well as everyone who has worked for and participated in the project for their invaluable contribution.