Thanks to Its Vitality the Art Scene in Athens

Much has been written most the fairly new Athens art scene, often suggesting that its current nail is a direct upshot of the economical crisis. ^ane What seems to be overlooked, however, are the developments leading upward to the electric current situation, and the underlying interdependency between Greek cultural politics, artistic activities and the broader social context, which stems from the mid-1990s when the Greek art earth saw a slow only substantial transformation. Information technology is the particular development of a diversity of art institutions – ranging from public museums to independent spaces, commercial galleries and critical journals – that has enabled the electric current resistance of the art scene to the crisis.

For case, in analysing the current situation, i first has to note that the Greek country started to support gimmicky civilisation relatively late. Until the mid-1990s at that place was no sustained public funding, autonomously from that going to large cultural institutions such as the National Fine art Gallery or the national theatres and orchestras in Athens and Thessaloniki. Over the last 2 decades, these institutions provided infinite for more contemporary and experimental presentations, but only hesitantly. Whereas the public theatres opened up more willingly to less established forms of performance, state support for the contemporary visual arts in Greece has been more bourgeois and gimmicky art has been widely dependent on individual initiatives and majuscule. Until today, public funding has been lacking in strategy and investment especially to support smaller, independent non-profit fine art institutions. Hence, the commercial art galleries have played a major function in shaping the local art scene as well as in defining contemporary aesthetics in Hellenic republic. Although it would be far-stretched to say the practices of Greek artists has been driven by the market, the predominance of object-based art works, traditional media and compliant topics testifies to its influence in recent artistic production. ²

At the same time, information technology is the activeness of the galleries that has enabled both the increasing participation of Greek artists in the international art circuit and the introduction of international artists to broader audiences in Greece. Before the mid-1990s, they served as barely the only public spaces for art discourse. The series of discussions 'Hypothesis for a Museum of Gimmicky Fine art', organised at Desmos gallery in 1977, is a proficient case of the active role private galleries accept played in Greece historically, likewise as of the spirit in the artistic community during that catamenia. While Greek artists synchronised with the sense of internationalism of the 1960s and 70s and partook in the redefinition of the artwork and artistic media, ⁱⁱⁱ they were also intensely engaged with the needs of the Greek art scene as a periphery to Western art centres. The longing for institutional support of contemporary art may exist considered antonymous to the spirit of Institutional Critique in other European countries and the U.s.a.. Until very recently, such lack of diversity of art institutions has been held responsible for the marginal significance Greek artistic activities take played in the international fine art organisation.

Installation view, 'Everything That'southward Interesting Is New', 1996. DESTE Foundation, Athens. Photograph: Fanis Vlastaras and Rebecca Konstantopoulou. Courtesy DESTE Foundation

Betwixt the belatedly 80s and the mid-90s a wave of gimmicky art galleries opened; a second i occurred in the early 2000s, more often than not focusing on the introduction of Greek artists to international collections. By 2005, nearly of them were doing extremely well, participating in important art fairs all over Europe and slowly budgeted the full general public besides as new groups of collectors within Greece. Another instrumental establishment in introducing contemporary art to broader audiences in Greece has been the private, not-profit DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, which held the influential exhibition 'Everything That's Interesting Is New' in Athens in 1996. ⁴ Subsequently securing its ain building, the DESTE Foundation was able to brandish cutting-edge international artists in Athens on a regular basis and started to support younger Greek artists by launching the DESTE Prize in 1999.

Institutions with a wider public responsibleness such as the National Museum of Contemporary Fine art (EMST) in Athens and the Country Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA) in Thessaloniki, both founded in 1997, were insufficiently tiresome in unfolding their activities and gaining the acceptance of local artists and fine art professionals. Although still facing serious difficulties apropos limited funding and space, their sustained and academically sound work has helped to innovate gimmicky and, more chiefly, disquisitional art and theory to a broader public. In 2007, a series of events appeared to justify the euphoria in the artistic customs: ^v from the successful relaunch of the local art fair Art Athina ⁶ to the increasing activities in the Kerameikos/Metaxourgeio area (KM) and the inauguration of two biennials of contemporary fine art (the Athens Bienniale, held by a private, non-turn a profit establishment founded by the curatorial collective XYZ, and the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Fine art, organised under the artistic direction of the SMCA). ⁷

Alongside a boom in the commercial sector and increasing institutional support, throughout the terminal decade at that place has been a proliferation of independently-led activities effectually contemporary art and critical discourse. This was influenced by a growing number of young art professionals educated away, mainly in Great Britain, and who were instrumental in the organization of group exhibitions in temporary spaces, the formation of creative person groups and the circulation of depression-budget cocky-published magazines such as Local Folk or later a, in connection with the Athens Bienniale. The artist collective Filopappou Group, for case, is a grass-roots, open collective producing more often than not research-based projects. Information technology held its first exhibition in 2001 at the Filopappou Hill in Athens, when it presented site-specific works by xix artists. The curatorial grouping Locus Athens, on the other hand, initiated in 2004, organised mainly event-based projects focusing on interdisciplinary, performative and experimental art practices, still underrepresented in an institutional context at the time.

Filopappou Group, affiche for the exhibition '37-58o B/23-43o A', 2001. Filopappou Colina, Athens. Courtesy Filopappou Grouping Motivated by the increasing attention contemporary art was able to get together at that point, not-profit spaces sprouted upwards past the end of the decade. ^viii Some were founded by experienced and well-connected individuals in the field of contemporary fine art, others past younger professionals seeking to become active in the broad cultural field. The work of these spaces has necessarily been based on a great deal of idealism, unpaid labour and private capital. Attempts to reduce expenditure and raise money for the artistic activities are various. For case, the Dynamo Project Infinite in Thessaloniki tries to reduce expenses by providing space for the trade of design products, renting out working spaces and charging fees to nourish organised workshops. Others are supported by private institutions and individuals. For example, the Kunsthalle Athena is not obliged to pay rent for its building in Athens Metaxourgeio district, which is endemic by Iasson Tsakonas, director of Oliaros, an architectural exercise and initiative intensely engaged in the cultural and architectural regeneration of the KM expanse.

Perhaps some of the nearly successful attempts at providing a permanent space for contemporary art on a self-financed footing are the spaces the Georgakopoulos brothers are involved in: the gallery cheapart launched in 1995; TAF – The Fine art Foundation in 2009; and the recently founded Campsite - Contemporary Art Meeting Point. Although cheapart is not taken seriously by many art professionals due to the occasionally decorative character of the work exhibited, it had a big share in opening the field of contemporary art to a broader public. While cheapart introduced a financial concept based on an annual commercial exhibition, enervating a fee from the participating artists in club to finance the rest of the programme, TAF is financially supported by the earnings of the café-bar located in the g of the building. ^nine

Of course, the hopes that some of these organisations might have had of receiving regime grants are unlikely to be fulfilled in the near hereafter. And like in well-nigh of the world, for the commercial galleries it became apparent a few years ago that the piece of cake times take passed. Near of them reduced their participations in international art fairs dramatically since 2008: galleries such equally The Breeder are at present taking part in LISTE 2012, while they had all the same been able to finance a booth at Fine art Basel two years agone. It is remarkable that the majority of them have not airtight yet, especially since also the local market place seems to have come near to a standstill.

Vangelis Vlahos, Images to influence the reading of Greece'southward interests in Eastern Europe and the Balkans today, 2008. Installation view, 'Selective Knowledge', ITYS Institute for Contemporary Fine art and Idea, Athens. Photograph: Vivianna Athanassopoulou. Courtesy the artist and ITYS

While the commercial galleries are adapting their activities to the inverse situation, ^x the not-turn a profit spaces unexpectedly seem to benefit from the crisis, at least on a short-term basis and in the intangible value of the art world'southward attention. The effort it took to build up the diverse Athens fine art scene in the final decade has been too arduous to just abandon the field at present. Under the local land of emergency – and with the consciousness that the international art world is turning its gaze to Athens – the move towards discursive, performative, research-based and anti-capitalist art practices becomes axiomatic, not only in the piece of work of the Greek artists but even in the programme of institutions such as the National Museum of Gimmicky Fine art. The shift in focus from exhibition-making to the organisation of discursive events seems especially interesting. The dialogue between art professionals and experts from unlike disciplines is aimed at a more comprehensive understanding of the current socio-economic issues, a consideration of possible solutions and a fence on the office of art in order. I of the virtually illustrative examples is the third Athens Biennial, held last twelvemonth, which presented the work of mainly local artists and, more importantly, focused on organising events that prompted argue and communication on fine art and the socio-political situation alike. ¹¹

Notwithstanding, the current assail on individual majuscule through the Greek economic and taxation policies is severely endangering the vitality of the art scene. When fine art workers' livelihood is deprived, sooner or later on they volition have to abandon their time-consuming dedication to the local art scene and maybe fifty-fifty immigrate to other countries with a steadier framework for working in the arts and meliorate economical prospects.

So far, no mass closings of fine art spaces accept taken place. Quite the contrary, new spaces, commercial and non-commercial alike, are opening and despite or precisely because of daily difficulties, in that location is all the same a desire for word and diversion. The emergence of a new spirit of cooperation and collective troubleshooting in order to overcome the challenging times is exciting, non only in the arts only in the order in general. How long this fragile solidarity will last and how resistant the local fine art scene turns out to be in a society with crumbling infrastructures, will presumably become apparent within the near future.

Installation view, XYZ, 'Operácia Luce', Hosted in Athens, 2012. Courtesy the artists and Daily Lazy Projects, Athens

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Source: https://afterall.org/article/beyond-the-crisis-on-greece-s-burgeoning-contemporary-art-scene

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