ODYSSEIA
Antoine D’Agata

Personal odyssey is the focus of this body of photographic and video works by Antoine D’Agata. The raw French photographer sought out migrants in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia in order to experience, document and understand the often harsh reality of their journeys. In a desperate quest to reach a better life in Europe, many migrants inhabit deteriorating urban landscapes, endure detention centres and slip past ports and borders undetected, fully aware of the danger and illegality of their situation, and nameless to the world. Includes striking photos and images from videos, statistical data and texts by Bruno Le Dantec and Rafael Garido. When I was on the ground, I constantly questioned the usefulness of my presence. I photographed people dying, to show them to those who let them die.

HOMESICK
Hrair Sarkissian

In “Homesick” (2014) Hrair Sarkissian recreated and destroyed an architecturally exact scaled model of the apartment building in Damascus where his parents are still living. Like many of their generation, they have until now refused to leave Syria. Sarkissian grew up in this building, and lived there until he left Syria in 2008. It represents more than just a house. In addition to providing shelter to his parents, it is the place where he belongs, a container for his memories, and a place for his family’s collective identity.
Through “Homesick” Sarkissian constructs a story that, considering the current political situation and the ongoing destruction in his home country, could very well take place in the near future. What would be the consequences? What is it to expect the worst? Can we fast-forward the present and acknowledge loss and begin reshaping a collapsed history before the event? At the same time, by taking fate into his own hands, he is trying to regain some control over the situation and to tear down an unreal imagination.

EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED, HAPPENED HERE FIRST, IN REHEARSAL
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin

The invasion of Beirut, the first and the second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal, the Battle of Falluja; almost each and every one of Israel’s major military tactics in the Middle East over the past three decades was performed in advance here in Chicago, an artificial but realistic Arab town built by the Israeli Defence Force for urban combat training.

ABBANDONI
Davide Monteleone / Francesco Zizola

In the work by Francesco Zizola, we see a monumental photograph from the tragic shipwreck of Lampedusa, while Davide Monteleone is photographing the personal belongings of the passengers of the ship that have been washed to the shore.

DEPRESSION ERA
group exhibition

Artists: Zoe Hatziyannaki, Kostas Kapsianis, Dimitris Michalakis, Dimitris Rapakousis, Spyros Staveris, Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Lukas Vasilikos, Pasqua Vorgia

Works from the archives of the artists collective Depression Era, will be presented in an attempt to record the speedy socio-political transformations in Greece the recent years.

LIFE NARRATIVES / screening
Nikos Markou

Nikos Markou, in a sequence of short videos, invites the audience to have a brief but penetrating look in the life of various people of the contemporary Greek reality.

KURDISH FIGHTERS IN THE CITY OF NUSAYBIN
Emilien Urbano

Diptych 2 (Turkey) – The city in war

They wait for the enemy. Before they start with the war they are rehearsing it, masked faces, vests tactically fit over their civilian clothes. In the abandoned streets, marked by previous combat, they reproduce the gestures and poses of the battles to come, guns pointing towards a perspective in void. Adolescents in partisan districts immerge in the images of televised wars, ancient revolutions, conflicts which went the other way, for which they’ve been hearing testimonies throughout their little lives.  Only the next martyr will bring their faces back. Vanished into their common hood, they won’t appear again but only through the offered death, images of glory posted on the city walls after the battle. The living have already abandoned it, leaving only blind windows behind. The movement of martyrs which rises, blossoms in streets where the war is installed imposing its geographical position over a lost reality. However, behind the barricades, on the destroyed cobbled roads and the forbidden streets, fresh drinks are still sold while expecting the disaster.

THE ZONE / screening
18ANO photographic team

The Museum hosts the screening of «The Zone», by the Photographic Team of the 18 ΑΝΟ rehabilitation centre.

Old Commercial Bank (Old Town)

Duration: 9 June – 15 July

Curators: Giorgos Moutafis, Pavlos Fysakis

CROSSINGS
group exhibition

Artists
Sokratis Baltagiannis, Alfredo D’Amato, Loulou D’Aki, Dimitris Michalakis, Giorgos Moutafis, Myrto Papadopoulou, Alessandro Penso, Giulio Piscitelli, Jerome Sessini, Aggelos Tzortzinis, Emilien Urbano, Achilleas Zavallis

The exhibition presents the routes of refugees towards and across Europe. It is hosted in the old Commercial Bank’s building, an aspect that marks the relationship between the recession and the displacement of populations. The photographs come from the shores of Lesbos, the port of Piraeus, the crossings of immigrants to Africa, the torn-apart Syria, the Calais Jungle, the settlements in Patra and Idomeni, the smugglers’ hotels in Smyrna.

Twin Building inside the Fortezza Castle

Duration: 10 June – 15 July

Curators: Yorgos Prinos, Pavlos Fysakis

ALIEN TERRITORY
group exhibition

Artists
George Awde, Konstantinos Doumpenidis, Antonis Damolis, Petros Efstathiadis, Giorgos Gavrilakis, Olga Gortsa, Yorgos Karailias, Giannis Karpouzis, Marily Konstantinopoulou, Charalampos Kydonakis, Randa Mirza, Marita Pappa, Georges Salameh, Orestis Seferoglou, Kosmas Stathopoulos, Eliza Tamo, Vaggelis Tatsis, Serkan Taycan, Antonis Theodoridis, Marinos Tsagkarakis, Nikolas Ventourakis

Working on a more symbolic subject, this exhibition (inside the town castle) is the effort to research our internal state, the state of everyone living from the inside of the border, regardless of their descent, trying to find meaning in an uncertain era, an era of insecurity, crisis and increasing inequality. Alien Territory is the uncharted area of our familiar environment, where our own self is the stranger.

Kara Moussa Pasha Mosque

Duration: 9 June – 20 July

Curators: Maria Maragkou, Pavlos Fysakis

STATE / screening
Apostolos Zerdevas

MY ARAB WORLD / screening
Giorgos Moutafis

9 DAYS – From my window in Aleppo / screening
Issa Touma

This is a video series, documenting important international affairs, like the war in Syria, the Arab Spring and the action of a terrorist group in Middle East. The artists have created a collage of experiences: Giorgos Moutafis in “My Arab World” works as an eye-witness, recording scenes that take place right in front of the press-photographer. Issa Touma, in his video “Nine Days” communicates the image as well as the experience of a person-potential victim: he sees -and at the same time records- trapped inside his own house, the happenings of a war that takes place right outside of his own window,. Finally, Apostolos Zerdevas in “State”, uses the video recordings of extremists and isolates snapshots with his own camera, trying to critically reflect on the news and the Media.