The Silence of the Sirenes
The Sirens were female mythical deities associated with water, love and death. Homer's Sirens seduced mortals with their song to attack them and devour them. Homer's Odysseus wants to enjoy the song of the sirens without being seduced by its charm, so he asks to be tied to the mast. Kafka's Odysseus devises another way to avoid seduction through a seemingly unequal battle, to trick and defeat the Sirens. Kafka has Odysseus plug his ears with wax and chain himself in an attempt not to hear the seductive song. But the Sirens remained silent, only grimacing. Odysseus thought they were singing, he believed he had defeated them, but the Sirens also believed they defeated the clever mortal.
No one lost, Odysseus believed that the Sirens were singing and the Sirens thought they had tricked him. Later, however, Kafka's Odysseus must have turned his head to look at the rocks silently pounding away and the demons with the female head and body of a bird of prey, thinking, "whatever you have done, I have escaped you!" The participating artists from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Greece focus on the inversion of the myth, where the deceived ones are now the deceivers instead of the Sirens.
Artists: Chloe Akrithaki, Matina Alexiou, Alina Grabovsky, Antonín Jirát, Mariana Jirátová, Ragna Jürgensen, Christina Koutsilioutsou, Bety Krnanska, Miriam Laussegger, Sylvia Schultes, Sascha Alexandra Zaitseva.
Screening of the short film: “DOUBLE TRIAL” (1962, 16', Czechoslovakia), director Zdenek Kopac
Screening: Tasos Sagris, “The Metamorphosis” (Franz Kafka)
Performance: Athanasia Tsopanargia, “Fountain”
Curated by: Georg Georgakopoulos
1924-2024 Year of Kafka, 100 years since his death
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
