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 Press release - Programme
MAIN PROGRAMME
"A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE"
 
Curators:
Paolo Colombo
CV 
Mahita El Bacha Urieta
CV 
Marina Fokidi
CV 
 
Venues
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Museum of Byzantine Culture, State Museum of Contemporary Art (Moni Lazariston), Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Teloglion Foundation of Art-AUTh, Alatza Imaret, Yeni Djami, Casa Bianca, Bazaar Hamam, Bey Hamam, Eptapyrgio
 
In terms of the Moni Lazariston, following a proposal of the three curators of the main programme, in the two central exhibition halls, works from the Costakis Collection will be set in an indirect dialogue, in terms of theme and aesthetics, with contemporary works of art. The works from the Costakis Collection that have been selected by the artist Kostis Velonis concern the part of the interaction with his works of art, and the ones selected by the chief-curator of the SMCA, Maria Tsantsanoglou, regard the interaction with the work of the rest of the artists.
 
The curators of the main programmeme -Paolo Colombo, Mahita El Bacha Urieta and Marina Fokidis- responding to the current social and political circumstances in the Mediterranean region and not only, indicate in their main ideological text that: ” In the current climate of gathering instability that holds great promise as well as danger, the title, A Rock and a Hard Place, resonates powerfully. It captures the sense of fragility and jeopardy that looms over the wider politics of the Mediterranean and the psychology of the individual. Affected by a sense of impending danger and ‘Hamletic’ doubt, contemporary artists produce work that is often characterised by a defensive, ironic stance. More on the attached document.

Assistant curators: Domna Gounari, Anna Mykoniati

Curator's text 
 
The architectural design of the museological concept in the exhibition halls of the main programme has been undertaken by Andreas Angelidakis.
 
The artists (in alphabetical order): Mounira Al Solh, Archive (Francesca Boenzi, Paolo Caffoni, Chiara Figone, Ignas Petronis), Francis Alys, Arab Image Foundation, Rasheed Araeen, Athanasios Argianas, Katerina Athanasopoulou, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Manfredi Beninati, Christoph Büchel, Pierpaolo Campanini, Vlassis Caniaris, Spartacus Chetwynd, Cinemathèque de Tanger, Keren Cytter, Christina Dimitriadis, Thomas Dworzak, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh (in collaboration with Arab Image Foundation), e-flux projects (Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle), Andreas Embirikos, Mounir Fatmi, Emmanuel Finkiel, Penelope Georgiou, Steven C.Harvey, IKONOTV, Mahmoud Kaabour, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Ali Kazma, William Kentridge, Khatt Foundation, Alexander Kluge, Panos Koutroubousis, Nikolaj B.S. Larsen, Solon Lekkas, Sifis Likakis, Katariina Lillqvist, Zeina Maasri, Margherita Manzelli, Irini Miga, Moataz Nasr, Bruce Nauman, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Olaf Nikolai, 98 Weeks, Jockum Nordström, Pantelis Pantelopoulos, Alessandro Pessoli, Michail Pirgelis, Angelo Plessas, PRISM TV (Nikos Katsaounis & Nina Paschalidou), Imran Qureshi, Jean-Marc Rochette, Marwan Sahmarani, Yiorgos Sapountzis, Hrair Sarkissian, Yehudit Sasportas, Alberto Savinio, Tayfun Serttas, Ahlam Shibli, Slavs and Tatars, Socratis Socratous, Christiana Soulou, Naoko Takahashi, Ryan Trecartin, Kostas Tsioukas, Andreas Vais, Nanos Valaoritis, Kostis Velonis, Pae White, Constantinos Xenakis.
 
The archive of George Lykidis and selected archives of ‘The Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive’ will also be shown.
 
A sequence of artistic events will adjoin the main programme and will soon be announced, such as the presentation of the dOCUMENTA (13) Notebook series "100 Notes – 100 Thoughts". Chus Martínez, dOCUMENTA (13) Head of Department, and Member of Core Agent Group, will present the first 17 Notebooks from the series "100 Notes – 100 Thoughts" and a conversation with the curator Marina Fokidis will follow.
 
Coordination of the main programme by the curators of SMCA: Domna Gounari, Areti Leopoulou, Katerina Mavromichali, John Bolis, Anna Mykoniati, Eirini Papakonstantinou, Maria Tsantsanoglou, Syrago Tsiara.
 
 
  
 
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