Initiative on the occasion of the Italian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, promoted by Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.
The team in charge of the Italian Pavilion “History of Night and Destiny of Comets”, a work by the artist Gian Maria Tosatti and curated by Eugenio Viola, invited ΕΜΣΤ (the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Athens) together with 15 more cultural institutions from all over the world, to participate in its public programme. The aim of the public programme of the Italian Pavilion, coordinated by Adriana Rispoli, is to discuss our uncertain future in this state of enduring and multidimensional crisis. The invitation states that “experts, scientists, activists, ecological theorists and professionals will propose alternative patterns of education, consumption, production, and leisure related to ecology and sustainable development models”.
ΕΜΣΤ accepted the invitation and, in turn, invited Dr. Angelos Varvarousis, professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and researcher and political ecology activist, to discuss the idea of “De-tourism” at the museum. Artist Dimitra Kondylatou has also been invited to present her video “In the shade of the season”.
At present, the Aegean islands are caught in a transformation process in which economy, architecture, intra-community relationships and rituals –which have always been intrinsically linked to “insularity”– recede against an unregulated onslaught of emerging forms of economy, habitation and movement. This assault, which is attributed to tourism and the real estate market, leads to the depletion of natural resources and exhausts or even displaces the inhabitants of these islands. “De-tourism” investigates how degrowth methods and models that are closely linked to Mediterranean insularity could be applied to the productive economy of tourism.
A conversation on the subject will take place between Angelos Varvarousis, Daphne Vitali and Theophilos Tramboulis, followed by a screening of Dimitra Kondylatou’s video “In the shade of the season”.
PANEL
Angelos Varvarousis is an urban planner who is a senior researcher and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where he is the director of the Master’s programme Degrowth: Ecology, Economics, Policy
Dimitra Kondylatou is an artist based in Athens. She is interested in the limits of art and its entanglements with tourism and everyday life, through video, editing and writing
Daphne Vitali is curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (ΕΜΣΤ), where she has curated a number of exhibitions including more recently jaune, geel, gelb, yellow: Acts of modernism with Antonis Pittas and Theo van Doesburg
Theophilos Tramboulis is a writer, book editor and occasionally independent curator. He is currently Publications Advisor at ΕΜΣΤ.
ACCESS - LIVE STREAMING
The event will be screened via live streaming at the Italian Pavilion, at the ΕΜΣΤ website and the page of the Museum on facebook @EMST Athens
Entrance is free with admission tickets that will be distributed on a first come first served basis half an hour before the event.