PHOTO:Tolerance(s)

The exhibition “Tolerance(s)” aims to reflect and express a strong desire for an unbiased and free flow of artistic ideas and mutual understanding. Culture has the power to foster and fulfil the principle of tolerance. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity, not negligible at present, to compare the development of contemporary art at an international level. The range and number of participating artists gives a real insight into the spectrum of artistic activities.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Eleni Mouzakiti’s Archive

In light of the heated debates on globalization and multiculturalism in recent years, new, heterogeneous inter- and cross-cultural approaches to fluid, migrant, hybrid, transcultural worlds have emerged. In this respect, the question of Otherness is vital to the quests that arise as a result of their emergence: How do we approach these new intersubjective and dialogical perspectives of identity-seeking, self-definition, indeed, community cohesion in such a milieu? In a world increasingly global yet local, uniform yet diversified, how do these perspectives complicate relations to and understandings of others and Otherness? How is the relationship between dominant and peripheral cultures, self and other, reflexively re-negotiated? In the following articles we will consider a surprisingly vast array of topics: most recurrent being embodiment, representation, participation, différance, act and reflection, and also methods of approach: ranging from theoretical analysis to essay-manifesto and performance-as-research methodology. The group exhibition “Tolerance(s)” is part of the project “Art and Culture vs Xenophobia” that deals with the tools of arts and culture, the phenomena of xenophobia and hate speech, which develop in an environment of lack of inclusion and tolerance for the Other. The aim of the project is to support networking, promotion and empowerment of organizations dealing with combating racism and xenophobia in Greece and Norway through the promotion of Best Practices projects that have been implemented for this purpose with Art and the Culture as tools and raise general awareness against racism, intolerance and the promotion of equality and respect for diversity through Art and Culture. As, Kostas Ioannidis, one of the curators of the exhibition says “… How can a society develop mechanisms in order not to face otherness as a would-be pathogenic agent? Knowingly we phrased our questions in the hygienic jargon of our era, the unavoidable (?) lingua franca of the years to follow, in an effort to allude to the im-plications of such an unwitting use of words”.

Participating Artists: Nora Adwan, Socrates Balatagiannis, Pericles Boutos, Knut Bry, Stefanos Chronis, Sakis Dazanis, Christoforos Doulgeris, Antonis Elias, Elena Efeoglou, Kuesti Fraun, George Kanis, M’hammed Kilito, Panayiotis Lamprou, Claudia Lucacel, Audin Matlabi, Camille Mienievska, Marita Pappa, Lefteris Paraskevaidis, Maria Paschalidou, Christos Sotiropoulos, Hiro Tanaka, Sofia Tolis, Soti Tyrologou, Avior Yinon, Spyros Zervoudakis, Yiannis Zindrilis, Tasos Zoidis, Maria Zygomala.

Photo: Pericles Boutos, from the series: Reversible

Info: Curators: Kostas Ioannidis and Eleni Mouzakiti, Eos Gallery, 38 Cheiden Victoria Square, Athens, Greece, 2-7/9/2021, Days & Hours: Thu 18:00-21:30, Fri 16:30-20:00, Sat 12:00-15:30, Mon & Tue 16:30-20:00, www.artifactory.eu