CHRISTOS CHRISSOPOULOS: INTERVIEW on 'THE PARTHENON BOMBER'

A novel at once metaphorical and iconoclastic, The Parthenon Bomber exposes the painful and maddening paradox of contemporary Greece.

“Blow up the Acropolis” was the 1944 call to action by the surrealist circle the Harbingers of Chaos. Sixty years later, a young man obliges. The Parthenon has been destroyed, the city orphaned. Is it still Athens?

All eyes are on the empty hill, now smoky and ashen. Cries of distress, indifference, and fanaticism fill the air. What were his reasons? How will he be punished for this unspeakable act of violence? What does it mean for Greece, now deprived of its greatest symbol?

This provocative tale reveals the unique dilemma of a country still searching for an identity beyond its past as the birthplace of Western civilization.

An English translation of 'The Parthenon Bomber' is due to be released by Other Press on the 20th June, 2017.

Christos Chrissopoulos (1968) has published 14 books and has engaged with different kinds of literature (fiction, essay, chronicle), with theory and photography. He has been awarded with an Athens Academy Award (2008) and the French awards Prix Laure Bataillon (2014) and Prix Ravachol (2013). He is a member of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP) and the European Society of Authors (SEUA), as well as an Iowa Writer’s Program fellow (IWP). In 2014, the French-German channel ARTE did a featurette on him. He has collaborated with many performers and artists in Greece and especially abroad. He has also given lectures and participated in many of festivals across Europe and the US. His books have been translated into twelve languages.

Chrissopoulos’ recent book “Wanderer Consciousness” (Okto Publications) is a collection of texts and images  approaching the questions of how human subjects associate with their deregulated contemporary reality, what kind of consciousness is the city wanderer developing, and how can the artist himself reflect upon his own perception.

PARIS LEGAKIS' MANIFESTO: CLAIM YOUR ANGER, ON POLITICS & POLITICAL ART

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Paris Legakis is a multidisciplinary artist, activist and theorist, born in 1981, Athens. 

In his work, Paris researches how art can be beneficial for the society and influential to politics.

Paris has written the manifesto ‘Claim your Anger, on politics and political art‘ and he has created his own methodology ‘Irregular Temporary Interactions‘ (I.T.I) to implement his performances-actions. 

SLAVOJ ZIZEK - AGAINST THE DOUBLE BLACKMAIL

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Today, hundreds of thousands of people, desperate to escape war, violence and poverty, are crossing the Mediterranean to seek refuge in Europe. Our response from our protected European standpoint, argues Slavoj Zizek, offers two versions of ideological blackmail: either we open our doors as widely as possible; or we try to pull up the drawbridge. Both solutions are bad, states Zizek. They merely prolong the problem, rather than tackling it. 
The refugee crisis also presents an opportunity, a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself: but, if we are to do so, we have to start raising unpleasant and difficult questions. We must also acknowledge that large migrations are our future: only then can we commit to a carefully prepared process of change, one founded not on a community that see the excluded as a threat, but one that takes as its basis the shared substance of our social being. 
The only way, in other words, to get to the heart of one of the greatest issues confronting Europe today is to insist on the global solidarity of the exploited and oppressed. Maybe such solidarity is a utopia. But, warns Zizek, if we don't engage in it, then we are really lost. And we will deserve to be lost.

MADE IN ATHENS: Reader I

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MADE IN ATHENS: READER I is an ‘messy’ accumulation of papers, articles and re- ports that set to function both as an informative docu- ment for – and as a question towards the current socio-political and cultural nar- ratives produced in Athens (and in Greece in general). 

Spanning from 2013 till now, the texts aim to build a back- drop for Kuvataideakatamia’s visit to Athens (late February 2017). 

They address issues of media representation, the persecution on ‘ anomie’, of cur- rent artistic production and the implication of Documenta 14 – along with matters of migration, the refugee crisis and the rise of fascism. 

They are further examined through a series of audiovisual links (lectures, documentaries) listed on the side. 

Their reference to names, events and locations are meant to be investigated by the group and spark discus- sion on how to approach our visit to the Greek capital. 

Enjoy.... 

GREEK BREAKFAST: MADE IN ATHENS Preliminary Session

GREEK BREAKFAST – Made in Athens was a late breakfast seminar that highlighted and critically questioned the narratives that made/make Athens a focal location within the socio-political and cultural landscape of Europe. 

The seminar was an one-way ticket in the selection process of a group of 10 KuvA students that will be embarking on a long term trajectory to the city of Athens in connection to Documenta 14. The program includes a first visit+workshop in Athens in late February 2017, lecture series in spring in Helsinki and a follow up visit + workshop in late spring in the midst of the Documenta 14 exhibition.

Territories of socio-political turbulences have always been of interest to art, for they are the loci where the potentiality of change appears more evident. And certainly Athens is not exception to that. During 2017 KuvA organizes an educational trajectory created in an unconstrained relation involving multiple artists, artist run spaces and institutions in the city of Athens. This trajectory wishes to take a rather subtle approach in relation to the current cultural invasion in the Greek capital. At the same time it aims to produce both the theoretical and concrete understanding about the economic, political, social, and cultural conditions in contemporary Europe. It aims to also function as a platform of sharing the personal narratives and practical experiences of the possibilities and obstacles for creative thinking and artistic work in certain territory.  

Through a series of screenings (documentaries, films, public talks), collective cooking, a reading corner and open discussions, Nikos Doulos set the backdrop for KuvA’s upcoming workshops in the Greek capital.