It is more than obvious that during the three years of the pandemic, the contemporary art scene in Athens was anything but idle. New proposals, new projects, new exhibition spaces, and large-scale exhibitions that activate abandoned city buildings, compose a fresh and at the same time dynamic reality. Behind and in front of that there are new faces who either returned from their curator duties abroad with suitcases full of experience and optimism or dared to present their own dreams with stubbornness and above all vision and expertise. We give the floor to five of them with the wish that they continue to dream.
Dr. Kostas Prapoglou is an archaeologistarchitect, contemporary art critic, and curator. Rushing from London, he founds Artefact Athens through which he manages to organize two of the most interesting while at the same time popular exhibitions of the last decade. Using as a protagonist Attica’s abandoned Psychiatric Hospital in Dafni, “Reality Check” and “Reality Check, chapter II: inner sanctum” will talk about atopic time and timeless place (topos) and we will be awakened.
Dr. Kostas Prapoglou says:
“During the two editions of the ‘reality check’ exhibition that I curated in two consecutive years (2021-2022) at the Psychiatric Hospital of Dafni in Athens, I came to terms with not only the meaning of spaceless time and timeless space but also the deeper understanding of our esoteric cosmos. Collaborating with
70 artists and receiving more than 58,000 visitors has been an outstanding experience. It gave me the opportunity to engage with a great deal of contemporary art practices and explore endless possibilities of expression. Designing two different concepts in such a massive, abandoned space, made me realise the degree of openness of our psyche and its paramount effects on the conscious and unconscious self.
The diversity of the audience feedback fulfilled my visions for these two shows on multiple levels; it gave to myself and the artists joy and a profound sense of personal catharsis. Speaking to the soul of so many people from all walks of life was for me the biggest achievement and something that I would like to continue pursuing in my future exhibitions. Giving life to muted buildings is fascinating and challenging as I am
constantly dealing with layers of memory, identity and historicity through the prism of visual language. It leads to an emotional equilibrium and the better understanding of the human existence. Dreams and wishes merge together, unfolding a landscape of new ideas and aspirations“.
Read the new issue 132 of Ozon Magazine here: https://issuu.com/ozon/docs/ozon_2022_final_lr_issuu2
