FORMS of LIFE-SURVIVAL KIT in the METROPOLIS | ATHENS 2012

About This Project

The current work is individually designed, participatory, and it’s the fruit, or, at least, the partial fruit of an artistic research, presented through a series of photos, discussions documented in videos, theory texts, poetic descriptions, and peculiar maps. It was created with a grant, commissioned from the National Museum of contemporary art, after an invitation by (director of the time) Anna Kafetsi, curated by Daphne Vitali, with the courtesy of Bombay Sapphire Gin, for the Project Room. It was exhibited from April to June of 2012 in the Museum space at the Athens Conservatory. On June 21st, the national day of open museums, it was presented to the public, along with some of the participants. In October 2015 it was presented as a “living book” for the Temporary Academy of Arts students PAT, within the framework of the “living library”. During the cooperation of the National Theatre and of EMST, a detail of the project is presented for the promotional campaign of the national theater season 2018-19, for the play Man who laughs (Victor Hugo). In the present, in 2019 [June-October], it is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete in Rethymnon, in the context of the exhibition Versions of artistic citizenship curated by Antonis Volanakis. Cordial thanks to the contributors and participants of the project: Alina Lefa & Nikos Alexopoulos (photography), Nikos Arvanitis & Charisios Tsiouras (technical support), Elias Diamesis & Panagiotis Kalamaras (theoretical support text editing and participation), Chrysoula Preoestaki, Eleana Garini, Tina Kotsi, Maria Papanikolaou, George Katsikatsos, John Plochoras, and the curator Daphne Vitali. Also cordial thanks to Dimitra Messini (editing), Despina Anastasopoulou (bookbinding), and George Katsiaficas (English texts editing) to produce a summary publication of the project presented in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete in Rethymnon.

Words & key terms: consciousness, society, city, postmodernism, oddities, collectively, forms of resistance, life, operation, schizoid subject, humanities, social and political anthropology, Social Psychology, Ark rescue, rescue device in time of crisis, various useful natural anti-constitutional, and administrative mechanisms and structures of knowledge and understanding, knowledge construction, process, agreements and disagreements, collective experience, systems, systems’ styles, mechanization and mobility, fracture and digitization, restoration of coordination

I borrow tools and take up practices from the fields of social anthropology, philosophy, and political science, so as to act as a sculptor. I record and, at the same time, reconstruct eight contemporary city-figures. My heroes are real life persons with multiple identities and facets. They are manifold and plural personalities. I choose them as my models for the purpose of setting up a reverse pantheon. I make use of the museum facilities as a vessel, or, a rescue ark to host this pantheon. Yet, my models equip the rest of us with a survival kit, ready for use in city emergencies. I heavily rest on a cooperation process in order to achieve my goal. I register how my models lead their daily lives. I draw together pieces of their personal histories, their memories and ideas, their political views, their tactics, and their individual style. We both make up the current work. My peculiar models resist, in their own way, to the prevailing ethics that has colonized everyday life in the city. As a result, each model, indeed uniqueness in her, produces its own alternative mode of living. I present them at specific pointed ends of every day human affairs: nutrition, housing, motion, information, leisure time for play and creation, caring oneself, and curing from diseases. At these pointed ends, the personal tempo and diverse daily activities of each model become apparent. We grasp quite a view of their consciousness landscape and their practical and operating talent. With my artistic tools, I set up an installation. My final aim is to unearth my heroes’ daily attitudes towards the city and society, and to bring out a collective social portrait.