CULTURESCAPES: The Decline of Heroes
19 October – 21 Januar 2018
Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig
The Decline of Heroes, curated by CULTURESCAPES co-curator Kateryna Botanova, is a group show overlapping contemporary artistic visions on the roles of heroes with the ancient ones. Intervening into the part of permanent collection of Anikenmuseum, called “The Greeks and Their World: Identity and Ideals”, this exhibition shows ideals and identities shaken and shocked by multiple crises that hit the country and made it yet again face its history. The exhibition asks uneasy questions: Should there be a hero at all? Where does this urge to find someone to put on the burden and the responsibilities of changing this inadequate world come from? What if we are entering a whole new different world now — the world without the heroes, the world, where no one can save anyone anymore?
Giorgos Zamboulakis and the Experimental Theatre of Thrace show video documentation of their landscape action performances “TeaTime Europe” and “EatTime Europe”, where the idyllic landscapes and much praised hospitality of eastern Greece are challenged with the inflow of people, who are trying to take refuge. Adonis Volanakis’ installation “The Holly Bachelorette in the Wedding Cave” is a careful look into the position of women, torn between the burden of traditions and their own aspirations. Alexandros Vasmoulakis’ “Heroes” mural, created specifically for the museum, is a sensual experience of the entanglement of the violence and beauty, pertinent to the past as well as to the present. While “The Tourists” by artists collective Depression Era is an inverted story of an non-existing touristic campaign for visiting Athens with the slogan “You’ve Got a Great Future Behind You”. It takes the visitor on a journey through museum rooms, showing Greece one might not want to see, and providing a mirror on oneself that might turn very challenging.
Entrance fee:
Before Oct 29th: CHF 10/5
From Oct 29th: CHF 20/5
www.culturescapes.ch
