3rd ATHENS BIENNALE 2011 MONODROME

The 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME opened to the public on 23 October and will last through 11 December. The international contemporary art festival of Athens takes place at Diplareios School (Theatre Square) and at the Arts Center and the Eleftherios Venizelos Museum (Eleftherias Park). More than 100 artists, art groups, curators and theorists participate in the exhibition and the events programme of MONODROME. Furthermore, a series of exhibitions and events organized by cultural institutions, museums and galleries in Athens are included in MONODROME Parallel Events.

The 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME is considered the final part of a trilogy which started with DESTROY ATHENS 2007 and continued with HEAVEN 2009. Drawing upon the life and work of Walter Benjamin and inspired by his book by the same title (One way Street, 1928), MONODROME is curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and X&Y (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou and Poka-Yio, co-founders of the Athens Biennale). It is a narrative broadcasting from historical venues in the centre of Athens and articulating an imaginary dialogue between The Little Prince and Walter Benjamin. As the intellectual retreats defeated in the face of the escalated distress, the Little Prince keeps questioning this condition with the disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child.

MONODROME is being realized despite the Crisis that affects Greece heavily. Produced in a state of emergency, and through the synergy of all participants and a large group of volunteers, MONODROME assembles the diverse pieces of an exploratory puzzle, addressing the "here and now". At the same time the exhibition attempts to question historical narratives that have functioned as dictums of the Greek sociopolitical and aesthetic identity and resulted in the country's perennial suspension between a ‘before' (tradition) and an ‘after' (modernization). Being usually perceived and promoted as an emblematic city, Athens today is the epicentre of the Greek upheaval, a place of massive demonstrations and public discussions.

MONODROME addresses and emphasizes various structures (national, historical, political, cultural, educational etc.) as well as the notion of the "sociology of institutions", primarily highlighted by the selection of the exhibition venues. The buildings that host the 3rd Athens Biennale take centre stage in MONODROME: Diplareios School at Plateia Theatrou is a seminal Arts & Crafts School that operated for the largest part of the 20th century. Located in a ghostly, degraded block in the heart of the city that had fallen into oblivion, the building is opening up to the public for the first time in its history. The 3rd Athens Biennale transforms Diplareios School into an international hub that hosts the largest part of the MONODROME exhibition, as well as a diverse programme of live events, performances, workshops and lectures creating rather than illustrating a political moment.

The exhibition continues in a complex of venues and museums at Eleftherias Park (Park of Liberty), including the Arts Centre and the Eleftherios Venizelos Museum, focal site of Modern Greek history. Artworks are put side by side with historical archives, documents artifacts and ‘ruins' mapping Greece and the 3rd Athens Biennale as a derelict museum that transmits and resists the predetermined downfall. At a time when History is unfolding at accelerated pace art cannot but defy the reproduction of teleological pronouncements and the One-Way-Street is questioning the lust for self-flagellation and catastrophology.
The 3rd Athens Biennale 2011 MONODROME is a collective discourse of artists, art groups, curators and theorists, reflecting on the complex relations between the global and the local, in an attempt to explore new modes of cultural action that open up dialogue and debate, comment on cultural production and revisit relations between (art) histories and subjectivities. It consists of three intertwined modes: the MONODROME exhibition & projects, the MONODROME Debate, the MONODROME online Channel.

The MONODROME Debate is an ongoing body of lectures, video interviews, texts, discussions and performative presentations that will take place in the auditorium of Diplareios School. Participants include: Charles Esche, Anne Dezeuze, Kostis Stafylakis & Thanos Lipovats, Antonis Liakos, Effie Gazi, Dimitra Labropoulou, Alexis Fragiadakis, Manuel Ramos, Makis Malafekas and others.

The MONODROME Channel is an online platform that will be transmitting two parallel projects: The ongoing documentation of the MONODROME exhibitions and time based events (performances, lectures, workshops etc) and the MONODROME Debate programme. Finally, a series of exhibitions and events organized by cultural institutions, museums and galleries in Athens are included in the MONODROME Parallel Programme.

Participants: Bas Jan Ader, David Adler, The Angelo Foundation, Archisearch, Aristide Antonas
Badlands Unlimited, Vassili Balatsos, Kostas Bassanos, Hans op de Beeck, Filanthi Bogea, Pierre Bonnard, Yannis Bournias, Andrea Bowers, Vlassis Caniaris, Freddie Carabott, Paul Chan, Pantelis Chandris, Nikos Charalambidis, Marcus Coates, Ida-Marie Corell, Cultural Center of Olympic Airways Employees' (POLKEOA), Josef Dabernig, Daily Lazy, Mark Dion & Robert Williams, Jimmy Durham, Shannon Ebner, Sean Edwards, Elmgreen & Dragset, Matias Faldbakken, Floater, Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapić, Sam Forsythe & New Forms of Life, Dimitrios Galanis, Liam Gillick, Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville , Katerina Gogou, Vangelis Gokas, Jens Haaning, Vasileios Hatzis, Imagine the City, Yota Ioannidou & Teresa Maria Diaz Nerio, Georgina Kakoudaki & 4Frontal, Stelios Karamanolis & Toula Ploumi, Agni Katzouraki, Michalis Katzourakis, Kavecs Projects, Janice Kerbel, Kernel, Jakob Kolding, Nikos Koundouros, Panayiotis Lambrou, Julien Langendorff, "Leaking" Intervention, Esther Lemi, Lucas Lenglet, Norman Leto, Andreas Lolis, Tonis Lykouressis, Lucky PDF, Makis Malafekas, Caroline May, Vassilis Mazomenos, Metahaven, Tracey Moffat, "Neos Aristophanes", Periodical circa 1889-1894, Yannis Oikonomides, Henrik Olesen, Orizontas Gegonoton, Jean Painlevé, Rallou Panagiotou, Maria Papadimitriou, Rena Papaspyrou, Christos Papoulias, Vicky Pericleous, Paris Petridis, Phrixos, Julien Prévieux, The Public School, Józef Robakowski, Tom Sachs, San Francisco Actor's Workshop / Herbert Blau, Kostas Sfikas, Dionysis Sotovikis, Spyros Staveris, Studio Karamanolis, Fiona Tan, TANK TV, Yannis Theodoropoulos, Theophilos Hatzimichael, Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter, Jalal Toufic, Under Construction, Yorgos Vakirtzis, Ino Varvariti, Vangelis Vlahos, We Never Closed, Uygur Yilmaz

Under The Aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Municipality of Athens

With the support of: The Friends of the Athens Biennale, Cultural Organization of Municipality of Athens, Athens Tourism & Economic Development Company, Goethe Institut, Institut Français d'Athènes

Sponsor: Netsmart

Creative Partners: Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, The Syndicate, Top Cut, Basement Productions, Carteco, Remap 3, Greek Film Centre, Net Studio, Filanthy Bogea

Supporter: Athenian Brewery S.A.

Major Media Sponsors: ΕRΤ, KOSMOS 93.6, NET 105.8, Trito Programma 90.9

Media Sponsors: Athens Every Week, Athens Voice, Αthens 9,84 fm, breathtakingathens.com,
Notos Galleries, Notos Home, City Contact, Athens Walking Tours, Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos, Best 92.6, En Lefko 87.7, MAD, MAD radio 106.2, Metropolis, City press, Free Sunday, tvxs.gr, OZON, athensmagazine.gr, archisearch.gr, mindradio.gr, yatzer, clickatlife.gr, The Book's Journal, e-artnow, culturenow.gr, artAZ, forfree.gr, Ypovrixio

Major Hospitality Sponsor: Athens - Attica Hotel Association

Hospitality Sponsors: ALEXANDROS, APPIA, ATHENAEUM, INTERCONTINENTAL, ATHENS CENTER SQUARE, ATHENS GATE, ATTALOS, BEST WESTERN MUSEUM, BEST WESTERN, PYTHAGORION, CANDIA, CHIC, DORIAN INN, ELECTRA HOTEL, ELECTRA PALACE, EVRIPIDES,
HERMES, HOTEL MARINA-ATHENS, KING JASON, LOTUS, MARINA, MISTRAL, N.J.V.ATHENS, PLAZA, NEW HOTEL, NOVOTEL ATHENS, OSCAR, OSCAR II, PAN, PARTHENON, PERISCOPE, PLAKA, STRATOS VASSILIKOS

Hospitality Supporters: ADRIAN, ATHENS HILTON, ATHENS ODEON, ATHENS PARK HOTEL,
AVA, CROWNE PLAZA ATHENS CITY CENTRE, GOLDEN SUN, JASON, MELIA ATHENS, PARNON, S.G.LYCABETTUS, STALIS, THE ATHENIAN CALLIRHOE

23 October - 11 December 2011
PRIVATE VIEW: 22 October 2011

VENUES:
Diplareios School
Theatre Square 3, Psyrri | Metro: Monastiraki / Omonia

Arts Centre - Eleftherios Venizelos Museum
Eleftherias Park, Vasilissis Sofias Avenue | Metro: Megaro Moussikis

For more information, please visit the offcial site 3rd ATHENS BIENNALE 2011 MONODROME