locus athens invites you to the launch of its new book "7 Performances & A Conversation" (Futura Editions) at Nixon in Keremeikos in Athens on Thursday the 27th of May 2006.

locus athens organized an exhibition called "7 Performances & A Conversation in which seven young Greek artists, Evangelia Basdeki, Aliki Panagiotopoulou, Poka-Yio, Georgia Sagri, Yorgos Sapountzis, Fani Sophologi and Mary Zygouri all of whom use the medium of Performance took part. Each artist presented their work individually at their place and time of choice over two weeks. This catalogue is the result of the exhibition providing the reader both with visual documentation but also some of the artists' preparatory studies for their respective projects as well as documentation from the conversation that took place following the completion of all the performances.

The performances took place both within public and private spaces which were treated by the artists as unexplored territories despite being in the centre of the city; abandoned car warehouses became small torturous hideaways, internet cafes were used to emphasize expectations invested in technology, mobile phones and the telecommunication highways made way for personal poetries etc. Interestingly in a city like Athens which lacks public contemporary art institutions (the Museum of Contemporary Art has yet to be housed) the appropriation of public space, commentaries on the public and private sphere as well as the expectations inherent in any given space took on an especially ironic turn.

This catalogue attempts, for the first time, to place this burgeoning group of young Greek artists within a broader context. This can be seen through the presentation of a discussion hosted by locus athens in May 2004 which gathered together unpublished documentation of performances by Greek artists of a previous generation as well as interventions which touched upon the use of performative tools beyond the field of contemporary art – within architecture, theatre and dance. This catalogue hopes to contribute to bridging the gap that is sometimes left in between generations, who often cover similar territories by using the body as a potent refuge when other means of expression seem insufficient.

In a medium which is constantly troubled by its tortured interdependent relationship with documentation this catalogue hopes to present a first foray into and fresh perspective of performance in Greece.

If you would like to order the book please contact us at locus@locusathens.com or else you can find the book at Eleftheroudakis or Futura bookstores in Athens.

7 Performances & A Conversation

7 Performances & A Conversation brings together seven performances by seven different young Greek artists who explore and propose a contemporary interpretation of a form of expression, performance, which fluctuates amongst "physical, mental, linguistic, solitary, collective acts, single moments or community exchanges, conceptual, corporeal, verbal, private or public, simple or complex".
(Between Water and Stone – Fluxus Performance: A Metaphysics of Acts, Kristine Stiles 1993)

The seven artists who in this exhibition use the city of Athens as their starting point, by positing their performances both within the private and public sphere of the city – transform Athens into an open ended exhibition space. Indeed Athens - its streets, squares, public monuments, museums and buildings – is often used as the raw material of the performances themselves. Each performance in its own right rewrites and remoulds the codes or(readings and experiences /codes – pre disposed codes of behaviour) that are inherent in the chosen spaces. These spaces take on new meanings, and can be re-experienced though these performative acts which often transgress pre-given behavioral norms. This interactive transformation of both public and private spheres toys with the perceptions that one has of a city.

Place in these performances is often interpreted through social processes. The performances redefine these processes by cutting into their very structures thus provoking questions concerning social systems and how they are inextricably linked to notions of specific spaces. Space itself is inadvertently formed by the communities that inhabit it – and which form part of these social practices. These very communities, by becoming part of the performances' processes are transformed from passive audiences to active witnesses which in turn can narrate their own take on each performance through word of mouth, with the potential to aurally delineate new urban "hi-stories".

New media, digital cameras, mobile phones and the internet not only ensure but promote the almost direct transferal of information from one location to an other adding to the viral effect of multiple narratives created by the witnesses of say, a performance. This web of dislocated images and narratives (mere representations which stand in sharp contrast to the gritty real time of the actual performances) form part of limitless possibilities of an antiseptic media filled world. Small scale performances/bodily interventions offer a perfect counterbalance to the omnipresent digital media – which in turn they not only use but also often comment on within the performances.

7 Performances & A Conversation weaves new threads of perception into the manic rush of the media infiltrated frenzy of our everyday (Athenian) realities.