Gateway to freedom
Greece is situated in a propitious geographical area of the Mediterranean between the Middle East and Europe making it a viable place where immigrants of all ethnic groups both from the south, north, and the east enter. Historically, Piraeus was the point where many refugees entered Greece. Anatolians came by boat during the Asia Minor genocides, but, most recently, Greece has been overrun from its northern borders to the Balkans, and by boats from Africa and the Middle East. A year after they entered Greece, with the intent of continuing to other major EU Member states, the EU resettlement plan has been declared a failure, and refugees are still in Greece. The latter country has been undergoing economic duress in trying to pay off its mounting debt to the E.U. and is nearly bankrupt, so that, the approximately 150,000 refugees it has had to absorb into its fabric, has posed undue economic and physical stress to its infrastructures.
Furthermore, the situation has been made worse by the most recent asylum-seeking military officers who sought to overthrow President Tayyip Ertegun’s government and took refuge in Greece after their coup’s failure. How does an impoverished country barely out of third world status like Greece, deal with these burning issues? Where does it fund the strength and resources to be at odds both with its own side in the E.U. and with Turkey a sworn enemy since 1453 when as part of the Byzantine Empire it lost Asia Minor to the Turks. The Greek government is situated between a rock and a hard place facing the difficult decision as to the resolution to this problem. Greece is bound by International law and Human Rights Article 3 not to extradite the Turkish officers knowing that they would be going back to torture or the death sentence. On the other hand, if Greece does not return them to Turkey, it adds to its own already strained political relationship with the latter.
Art is capable of bringing about political change, and has social dimensions while dealing with creative thought. Artists through images have often been the first to point to the problems in their society, by revealing deeper truths and confronting them pictorially. Thus with the art in this show it behooves us to ask the following question: How do global artists see both the refugee problem and global politics?
Participating artists: Yiannis Christakos, Aggelos Antonopoulos, Joan Giordano, Despo Magoni, Yiannis Lasithiotakis, Babis Venetopoulos, Maria Karametou, Michalis Kallimopoulos, Artemis Alcalay, Dina Koumpouli, Rachel Harpaz, Andrew Ellis Johnson.
Curated by: Thalia Vrachopoulos
Supported by the Faculty Scholarship Grant from the Office for the Advancement of Research at John Jay College.
Opening: Thursday, June 8, 2017
Duration: June 8 – June 30, 2017
Hours: Thursday June 8 – Sunday June 18, 2017, 18:00 – 21:00 daily
June 21 – 30, 2017, Wednesday – Friday 18:00 – 21:00, Saturday 13:00 – 16:00
CHEAPART
25 A.Metaxa Str.
10681 Exarchia, Athens
"Gateway to freedom" exhibition is part of the Back to Athens 5 International Arts Festival. The 5th edition of Back to Athens International Arts Festival opens for the second time in the historical Exarchia district, hosted in buildings, local shops and businesses. From June 8 - 18, 2017, Greek and international and artists revive public and private spaces with exhibitions, installations, performances, music performances and screenings.
Back to Athens 5 is curated by: Georg Georgakopoulos, Dimitris Georgakopoulos and Fotini Kapiris, the performance series is curated by Thanos Vovolis. Back to Athens 5 is organised by CHEAPART with the participation of the Artwall Project Space and Offspring Young Artists Program, the support of the Faculty Scholarship Grant from the Office for the Advancement of Research, John Jay College and communication sponsors Ta Nea tis Technis (The Greek Art Newspaper), AAF All About Festivals, inexarchia.gr.
Back to Athens was initiated 2012, its concept roots on the idea that cultural activity can bring on an entirely new outlook on the Athens City Center. Greek and international artists, art groups and curators are invited to perceive the city as an open field of action, but also as a setting in constant and rapid transformation. Back to Athens is an idea platform, a public showcase of contemporary art and expression, a meeting point for the art community in the heart of the city where creative potential is unleashed and ideas are realised.
