Exhibitions which refer to the idea of heterotopias inside a museum constitute by definition an interesting project. The notion of heterotopia is set in mise en abyme as the actual framework itself, i.e. the museum which according to Foucault forms a heterotopia, includes exhibitions which present the idea as defined by each curator. Thus the exhibitions which are set in juxtaposition create a heterotopia between the two, as well as each one with every viewer by creating a separate symbolic lieu.


A place without a place
Curator: Hercules Papaioannou
Lynne Cohen’s and Lucinda Devlin’s interiors lend themselves to an examination of the concept of heterotopia, as defined by Michel Foucault 40 years ago, because although they depict spaces the exact position of which can be pinpointed in the real world, they seem strangely cut off from the thread of daily life.
Lucinda Devlin is contributing works from three series. In the Pleasure Ground series, she examines spaces that bear the promise of pleasure, often motel rooms designed for specific fantasies. The Corporal Arenas series examines environments (medical labs, operating rooms, morgues) in which various procedures on the human body are carried out. Finally, Omega Suites depicts execution chambers, rooms in which the final, ultimate action is taken against the human body.
The spaces Lynne Cohen has chosen to photograph in the last twenty years have an institutional nature, and are essentially places to which access is controlled (military and science laboratories, police ranges, surveillance rooms). Continuing her long term examination of the relationship between the real and the made-up, art and reality, Cohen creates images that are captivatingly indeterminate, that give rise to feelings of alienation and anxiety, and allow the viewer to discover unexpected relationships and contrasts.
The photographs that depict these spaces present a place without place, to go back to Foucault. Spaces that are not inhabited, but designed to be used as fields of action on human existence.
Supported by the Embassy of Canada

Secret Gardens
Curated by Vangelis Ioakimidis.

Yiannis Theodoropoulos with works from his series “Green Houses” (1999, 2001) and with works from a new series (2007) focuses on three main axes: on the notion of protection, of control and on the relationship between public and private.
Inside the greenhouses’ dome there is a world where life is created according to conventional time - as defined by man - even if the seasons’ change and the natural time flow occurs at the same time outside the protected green room.
Besides the heterotopia is adjacent to reality but functions based on its own rhythms or those that the viewer perceives as such.

This is why the gardens are secret. Because they reveal themselves in a different mode to every viewer every time one enters them.

Dimitra Lazaridou with works from the series “Sacred Shadows” (2003) manages to overcome the boundaries of public space, to appropriate it and to transform public space into private either by projecting one single element or by insinuating its presence with the use of a trace or a shadow. In the works presented here, we are closer to the limits of the garden - near a fence, a wall or near its dark corners. The secret garden lies beyond what we see or is exactly this: the words become things and the garden begins and ends inside the frame, as long as it reveals itself to the viewer.