Back to Athens
(2021)

Back to Athens 8
International Arts Festival, 2021
Isaiah Mansion
65 Patission & Ioulianou, Athens

Profiles of the Future: An inquiry into the limits of the possible
Back to Athens 8 Curatorial team: Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp

"The most notable achievements of the last decade may pass unnoticed, mainly because we focus on those possibilities most unlikely to succeed, and less on what can be realized in the near future. That which has changed, was the least expected – and it is without doubt, our perspectives on the future…"
(excerpt from the prologue of Sir Arthur Clarke’s book, 1961)

Back to Athens 2021 International Art Festival entitled "Profiles of the Future: An inquiry into the limits of the possible" (borrowed from the homonymous title of Sir Arthur Clarke's book, 1962), manifests the ideas and proposals of the art community in response to a critical 12-month period of ambiguity and conflict, as experienced both individually and collectively. As post-pandemic societies will face the ‘new normal’, it not expected that we will recover to pre-crisis conditions. Though we stand before rapid transformations, little is certain. What will change and to what extent? Certainly, our perspectives on the future. The festival declares the artist as an “wondrous, autonomous machine", privileged to imagine and develop through personal practice and experimentation, the most unordinary and unique artwork that may interpret the present issues and conditions, and share these findings with the public.

It is not by chance that Back to Athens emerged at the beginning of the crisis in 2012, providing vital insight on the issues and concerns of the art community, while leaving conclusions to rest on interpretation.

Back to Athens 2021 opens to the art audience from July 1 – 4, at the iconic “Isaiah” Mansion, a historical landmark and listed monument of Athens. 16 curatorial exhibitions and proposals are presented, with the participation of 150+ artists, curators, independent art spaces and initiatives from Greece and abroad. Back to Athens 8 is curated by Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris and Christian Rupp.

Back to Athens 8 / 2021 is organized by APART Art Research and Applications, under the Auspices of the City of Athens, with the support of the Austrian Embassy in Athens and the Ministry of Culture of Austria, Zoia, Athens intersection Cultural Program, CHEAPART, and the Offspring Young Artists Program.

Back to Athens International Arts Festival has been active within the wider area of Kotzia Square in Athens (2012-2014), at the historic square of Exarchia district (2016 – 2017), the Athens Commercial Triangle in 2018, and in 2021 in the emblematic “Isaiah” Mansion in Patission.
The event considers all public health protection measures, in the context of avoiding the spread of coronavirus (Sars-CoV-19).

1st Floor
CC | Cinematic Cabinets
Group exhibition

Artists: Alexis Fidetzis, Panagiotis Lezes, Thanos Makris, Campus Novel, Vangelis Patsialos, Maria Tsagkari, Giorgos Tserionis Vassilis Vlastaras.
Curated by: Konstantinos Argianas

The artistic endeavor CC | Cinematic Cabinets aims to address emerging issues around the intertextuality between both the history of cinema and the filmic medium itself and the contemporary artistic practice. Eight visual artists activate the mezzanines of the first floor of the Isaiah mansion, transforming them into a peculiar exhibition topology. As heterotopias inside the building, these small and claustrophobic cabinets convey memories of the former help, which interwove with the contemporary artistic interventions. In a two-way communication between new media and traditional art mediums, such as painting and sculpture, the participating artists explore personal and collective narratives, in which the past intersects with the present and the future as well: nostalgia, unfamiliarity, love, ambiguity, playfulness as well as the abnormal and the monstrous are at the epicenter of the exhibition, which ultimately raises questions about the fluidity not only of the boundaries of artistic genres, but also of human memories and emotions.
Konstantinos Argianas

Photos by: Vaggelis Patsialos