Potential Space (Athens) is the fourth iteration in the series. Previous city-specific projects have been executed and exhibited in Hamburg, Brussels and London. Potential Space (London) was included in the group exhibition ‘Maybe your lens is scratched?’ curated by Bianca Baroni and Alex Meurice at the Averard Hotel in June 2016. The Hamburg and Brussels exhibitions were curated by Âme Nue, Hamburg.
The work comprises slide documentation, framed photographs, monochrome pigment reliefs, found objects and performative sculpture, re-presenting in the gallery thirty-six ‘potential spaces’ found throughout Athens.
We focus on empty, hidden or forgotten spaces, as well as visible and invisible boundaries. By analysing these ambiguous non-places, partially revealed and systematically ignored, we visualise the link between demographic problems and urban incoherence. The status of ‘potential spaces’ as either public or private remains contested, their awkward geometries are clues to the invisible economic, political, and cultural forces shaping the contours of the city. We create spatial interventions in the gallery to open up debate about subcultural, collective and alternative forms of living as ‘informal-urban-development’ or ‘DIY urbanism’ in the context of fragmenting and homogenising urban spaces.
The exhibition is located the basement of an old music hall, in a historic townhouse in the Koukaki neighbourhood of Athens. The space is a short walk from EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, host institution for documenta 14 in Athens, and adjacent to Syngrou-Fix metro station.
We are grateful for the invaluable support from our friends at the Trii Art Hub. (text – slateprojects)
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