Does contemporary art presuppose particular codes of communication and access? Does it constitute an heterotopia which is limited to the restricted space of museums and galleries? Is it possible for a creative dialogue to emerge between the work of art that is presented in a public screen and the resident/visitor/wayfarer of a modern metropolis to be produced? The project Public Screen which is part of the Parallel Programme of the 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, is attempting to give an answer to these questions in September.

In the need to address the concept of “heterotopias” under today’s terms within contemporary societies, the Public Screen project attempts to redefine the relationship between contemporary art and the public-urban space.

In the text titled “Des Espaces Autres-Heterotopies” of 1967, Michel Foucault identifies heterotopias as real places as opposed to utopias that constitute locations without an actual place, an ideal version of society or a reversal of actual places.

The heterotopias are functional places, within the societies, with explicit, established principles as well as rules for access and transit. As examples of such spaces, the author uses cemeteries, psychiatric institutions, prisons, nursing homes, gardens, museums, libraries, record offices, as well as festivals, Turkish baths, cinemas, brothels, colonies and ships; according to the author, the later ones are considered as the major aspects of heterotopias.

Heterotopias are associated with the concept of time in complicated ways. In certain cases, such as in museums and libraries, time is accumulated endlessly, while in festivals, time has a recursive appearance.

In the modern globalized market, the manner in which works of art are produced and distributed has certainly changed, nevertheless, it has never stopped being a process of an economic nature in which the artists and the consumers have diverse potentials of access.

The purpose of this project is to bring together and expose works of art, screened in selected sites of the city, which utilize the medium of photography or video.

Curated by: Syrago Tsiara

 

Screenings:

Airport 24 hours a day

Thessaloniki Museum of Photography 20:00-02:00

The screening of the project will continue on 11/10 untill 11/11 at the Centre of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki, Warehouse B1