Philoxenia
Hospitality, the: [filoxenia], etymology< friend+stranger. The act of looking after and caring for one or more persons during their temporary stay in a foreign home. According to Homer, a stranger in need would find hospitality in any home and its refusal was considered a hubris. It was a moral obligation to offer hospitality to every passerby, regardless of their social status, financial status or political position. It is easily observed, now, that the present meaning of the word has been somewhat altered. How we perceive the flows of people from different backgrounds, how we socially relate with an immigrant and how we treat a tourist - and how we ultimately treat our homes - or what one defines as a "home" - based on this (or other) distinctions, gives a new meaning to the content of the word “hospitality”. Let us take the condition where a person leaves his home for a new place, with temporary residence, moving constantly from place to place carrying his necessary belongings, without knowing his intent or cause. What is it that would change the equation in order for this person to be accommodated or not? His origin, class and economic status? We have, on one hand, the one who will open his house to a persecuted person, and on the other, the one who will redeem his hospitality to a tourist. Similarly, on the other hand, there is the one who is forced to relocate and the one who chooses to stay in a new place temporarily. All possible combinations of the above can occur and produce a different social condition, shifting the concept of hospitality on a case-by-case basis. Through these combinations we try to draw a conclusion or at least a reflection on what all this shifting may carry, and how we ultimately stand either individually or collectively in societies where such conditions are so fluid.
Artists: Dimitris Chalatsis, Giannis Kardasis, Yorgos Lintzeris, Anna Maneta, Maria Tsimbourla, George Vaviloussakis, Anthi Paraskeva-Veloudogianni.
Performance by Dimitris Chalatsis, "Feeding": Thursday 27,6 21.00, duration 30'
Curated by: Yorgos Lintzeris
The exhibition is presented as part of Back to Athens 11 International Art Meeting | 2024: Crossroads - knowledge and worldly pleasures – a review
Back to Athens 11 International Art Meeting | 2024
Curated by: Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp.
Organised by: APART Art Research and Applications. Under the Auspices of the City of Athens. With the financial support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture [Silence of the Sirenes], Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport, Austrian Embassy Athens, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna akbild, ZOIA, Czech Centre Athens in the frame of “Franz Kafka's memorial year 2024”. Participation, athensintersection, ARTmART. Coordinated by CHEAPART.
Back to Athens 11 International Art Meeting | 2024: Crossroads - knowledge and worldly pleasures
Isaiah Megaron
65 Patision, Athens
Opening date: Wednesday, June 26
Duration: 26 - 30.06.2024
Hours: Wed. – Fri. 16:00 - 22:00, Sat. – Sun. 12:00 – 22:00
