How four Swedes see the Athens of the crisis; The exhibition "KRIS, an artistic test on the concept of crisis" presented by the Swedish Institute of Athens highlights the value of the city as a place of artistic inspiration but also the importance of cooperation between Greece and Sweden. Curated by Antonis Bogadakis - who has participated in organizing exhibitions in Sweden and Turkey, while working in Northern Sweden- the Swedish artists Cecilia Järdemar; (in collaboration with Loukia Alavanou), Jesper Nordahl, Carl Palm and Lisa Torell were invited to come into contact with the Greek reality and express their comments through art.

 The only Greek woman participating in the exhibition, Loukia Alavanou, which won the TIE IT award 2007 and lives between Athens and London, he tells vima.gr : "Athens has a great artistic interest at this time. The political situation of the country and the images one sees in the city are reminiscent of Berlin immediately after the fall of the wall. The moment is important to carry out such initiatives as the invitation of foreign artists and the exchange of artistic ideas and opinions. Unfortunately, Nevertheless, Greece is not familiar with the institution of residency as it is called. Too bad because even countries that are not in Europe, like Cairo, have tradition p’ these practices".

  According to what Loukia Alavanou reports, the initiative will also have a second part. What will this consist of?; In the visit of Greek artists to Sweden and the creation of Greek works _ always in relation to the crisis in our country _ which will be implemented within 2013.

 According to the people at the Swedish Institute of Athens, the invitation to four Swedish artists to capture through art the comments and impressions from their contact with the Greek reality in this difficult period becomes at the same time an occasion to explore the perspective of the trenches as they have been defined by the dividing lines that have been set and widely disseminated primarily by the mass media between the north and the south of Europe. The exhibition aspires to contribute to a debate that has been open for a long time not only about the reasons for the outbreak of the crisis but also about the role that the concept of the political plays in dealing with it.

 The report is complemented by two separate discussions, one with the participating artists on Saturday 2 February 2013 (time 18:00) and the other with Aris Fioretos as guests, author and professor of Theory of Aesthetics and Literature at the University College of Sentertern in Stockholm and Alexandra Deligiorgis, writer and professor of Philosophy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on Saturday 9 February 2013 (time 18:00). 

«KRIS – A visual experiment on the concept of crisis"

31.01 – 28.02. 2013

Space: Swedish Institute of Athens, Mitsai 9, Makrigianni

Tel: 210 92 32 102: swedinst@sia.gr http://www.sia.gr