ReMap 4
Various venues, Athens, 8–30 September
By Kimberly Bradley
IIn 2007, a time before the global financial markets crashed and when
the world still seemed whole, Berlin-based gallerist Javier Peres asked
his Athenian friend Iasson Tsakonas an interesting question. Would it be
possible for Tsakonas (a real-estate developer, art collector, and
architecture aficionado) to hook Peres up with a temporary gallery space
in Athens for Peres Projects, his gallery? Tsakonas – who owns multiple
buildings in the inner-city Athens districts of Kerameikos/Metaxourgeio
(KM) as well as a company, Oliaros, dedicated to developing them –
certainly could. But the idea quickly grew into something much bigger:
an urban art project called ReMap, in which local and international
galleries and independent art projects occupy (for lack of a better
word) some of the vacant spaces in this troubled district with art
exhibitions for a few weeks.
ReMap’s first edition coincided with the first Athens Biennale, but now
it’s evolved into an event of its own – and just keeps getting better,
despite the fact that Greece is in its sixth year of deep recession.
ReMap 4 launched on September 8 and runs until September 30; amid the
brothels and ruins (nearly 50 per cent of the neighborhood is vacant)
are nearly 60 exhibitions tucked into storefronts, apartment buildings,
1970s housing projects, basements, courtyards, empty lots, even an
unused bar. International blue-chippers like Eva Presenhuber from
Zurich, Modern Institute from Glasgow, Maccarone from New York and
Lorcan O’Neill from Rome have mounted shows alongside local galleries
Melas/Papadopoulos, Rebecca Camhi, The Breeder, Eleni Koroneou, CAN
Christina Androulidaki, and others. A scad of independent projects from
around the world are showing. The Deste Foundation is taking part this
year for the first time, more than 30 photography students from the
Vienna Academy of Fine Arts produced some remarkable on-site work, and
Gagosian will even be mounting a James Turrell piece in the district on
September 19. The anchor of it all might be the local Kunsthalle Athena
(run by Greek curator-about-town Marina Fokidis in a neoclassical
building owned by Tsakonas), which invited the Greek artist collective
Daily Lazy to curate an expansive group show called In the Studio –
which I expected to be a sprawling mishmash but worked beautifully,
weaving works by Mathieu Mercier, Yudi Noor, Georgia Sagri, Angelo
Plessas and a long list of others into the Kunsthalle’s “permanent”
collection.
I’d been to ReMap 3 two years ago, but this edition (again spearheaded
by Effie Komninou) seemed even more cohesive. Was it because I knew my
way around – this time I managed to completely avoid the sight of
junkies shooting up, perhaps pure luck – or that there’s more good work
to see? There’s Swiss artist Kilian Rüthemann’s brilliant columnar
plaster sculptures standing in a landscape atop a crumbling narrow
building, Hanna Liden’s blobby hanging heads at Maccarone, showing in an
empty apartment, and intriguing image manipulations by young British
artist Alex Dordoy at Modern Institute. John Bock’s installation at
Eleni Koroneou integrates elements from a 2009 performance on an Athens
bus. Melas/Papadopoulos shows Caitlin Keogh’s delicate painted
renderings of needlepoint in a courtyard hall, and Rebecca Camhi has
Paul Desborough’s sweeping “paint-skin” works in her own space a block
away. At Italian gallery T293 are intriguing manipulated towels by young
Norwegian artist Henrik Olai Kaarstein. Always a sucker for textile
work, I was blown away by the webs and columns of knotted yarn created
by visually impaired artist Blind Adam at The Breeder (even if the show
itself was a bit, well, decorative).
The numerous group shows are a bit overwhelming, but standouts are Sensual Abstraction,
a tightly edited show highlighting both Greek and foreign artists and
curated by Deste Prize 2013 nominee Alexandros Tzannis. Metaphoria II (curated
by Lab’Bel) juxtaposes disparate pieces by Ceal Floyer, Karin Sander,
Lawrence Wiener and other big-name visual artists with poetry by Rui
Costa in a vertiginous top-floor indoor/outdoor space. A true jewel-box
of a show is The Cabinet/From Darkness to Light,
an oversize hollow cube filled with tiny works by a very large group of
mostly Greek artists, visible only through holes and slits. A cabinet
of curiosities.
ReMap 4 has far more to offer than this (one project even highlights
the art of immigrant children in Athens, and events continue until ReMap
closes with a silent auction in late September; oh, and even the
event’s info point is a relaxing courtyard that new architecture firm
Mark Office transformed into a kind of 1980s Athenian commons), but I
risk turning this post into a mere list. After considering the art, one
can only think of the larger issues brought up by this unusual
biennale/fair-in-the-ghetto model. Does culture always lead the way to
urban renewal? Can it here, under these circumstances? Does ReMap, which
turns this derelict district into a vibrant street party on opening
night and beyond, affect long-term change even after it closes every two
years? Athens mayor Giorgos Kaminis even showed up (the first time a
mayor attended a ReMap opening), apparently stunned at the streets’
transformation and inspired to make good on his recently announced
commitment to supporting the area. KM has incredible potential, but such
a long way to go, and Tsakonas’ efforts – tenacious and very smart,
even though, as he’s said to me in the past, it’s “sometimes like
swimming up a waterfall” – are often seen as controversial in a city
where private initiative and investment is suspicious at best. While
those of us in central and northern Europe grumble about gentrification
and corporatization changing the nature of art production, it’s
intriguing to witness pre-gentrification and culture’s first steps into
it, which in Athens often comes down to improvisation – and even
survival.
http://artreview.com/opinion/remap_4/ |
