Where is the art?

“Where is the art? Athens” brings together 47 artists from different ethnic backgrounds, working in a variety of media, all of whom live or work in downtown Athens.
Duration: 11-25 September 2007
What is the artist’s studio? Is it just another space amongst many different spaces? Is it a fetish? A social space? An autonomous zone or spectacle in its own right?
These are not new questions, but in defining them, we hope to re-position and clarify the role of the artist and his/her artistic production within the broader framework of the contemporary world. This is the starting point and concept behind “Where is the Art?”– an artistic adventure occuring parallel with the 2007 Athens Biennial - “Destroy Athens”. This interactive artistic experiment focuses on changing the viewer’s preconceptions about contemporary art. Through a series of innovative artistic practices, approaches and theoretical reflections, we are called to redefine our relationship with art and reinterpret its codes. In the course of the past year, the group of artists participating in “where is the art?” held regular meetings at their studios and engaged in an open dialogue on art. They attempted to answer related questions through understanding each other’s work and forging channels of communication. At the heart of this experiment lies a concern with the way in which the product of the creative process (the work of art) is usually presented in the environment of the ‘white cube’ museum or gallery. This fixed space is designed to present art to be viewed as a finished product and this is often responsible for alienating the viewer. By contrast, what this experiment aims at, is an all-inclusive presentation of the creative process, one that reveals all its individual stages and the structures that determine it. All the artist’s tools (sketches, preliminary work and materials) will be exposed to public view, offering the viewer a new angle from which to experience their relationship with art. To this end, the artists participating in the project will open their studios to the public and give viewers the chance to explore the spaces in which creative work takes place and art is ultimately born. At the same time, artworks will be installed in public spaces which will inject the element of surprise into the relationship between art and its viewers or passers-by. This combination juxtaposes a private space (the studio) that is “open to the viewer” and a public space that is “individualized” through the artist’s intervention. The ultimate goal is that the viewer should discover and understand art through the people who create it. If it succeeds, a dialogue will be created: one that will provide answers that minimize the distance between the non-expert observer and contemporary artistic expression, by helping the viewer see that art - as an expressive possibility - may be incorporated within everyday life. ‘Where is the Art?’ explores art’s adaptation within society, highlighting the fact that art and freethinking go hand-in-hand and are contained in every working model of society.