Friday, May 29, 2015
The impressive flourish of commercial galleries of the previous decade has been followed by a flight of artists towards non-profit public spaces or artist-run collectives in order to showcase artworks emphasizing the need for social change through creativity.
"Athens today reminds me of London in the 1980s, when there was no art market," Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick says to the Guardian. "Back then, if you couldn’t get a show at the ICA, you’d make your own. That's what they’re doing in Athens – creating their own platforms for a new generation." Blazwick has curated the group show Terrapolis which brings together Athenian artists and an assembly of international heavyweights, all in the shadow of both ancient and modern ruins of Athens.
Public Space Art
- Terrapolis exhibition @Athens French School
See also Greek News Agenda: Discovering the National Garden Project
- Depression Era Collective
It also organizes educational initiatives and calls upon young artists to create an artistic archive of the crisis, contributing to the understanding of the social, economical and historical transformation currently taking place in Greece. The collective brings together 36 artists, photographers, writers, curators, designers and researchers.
See also: Nomadic Architecture Network
- Mural Movement
A generation of politically-minded artists have turned public spaces into canvas, including artists like Manolis Anastasakos, whose artwork “is a metaphor for all the financially devastated countries all over the world,” INO’s haunting murals, Stelios Faitakis’ byzantine influenced political allegories, and many more anonymous graffiti artists.
See also The Guardian: Contemporary graffiti art on the walls of Athens – in pictures, Athens Street Art Festival
- Galleries
See also: Afterall on-line: Beyond the Crisis: On Greece’s Burgeoning Art Scene