MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts, in collaboration with MOMus-Photography Museum of Thessaloniki in the framework of the exhibition HerStories. Photographic Practices, 1974-2024, and with the participation of invited researchers, curators and artists, presents Accelerating to the Future, a series of autonomous actions, dedicated to the investigation of feminist practices and their connection to contemporary visual creation. 

Through screenings, presentations, performances and discussions focusing on activist and alternative artistic practices as well as theoretical approaches, an attempt is made to promote and communicate to the public crucial issues and concerns which, more than ever before, express the need of contemporary society for visibility, inclusion, acceptance and diversity.

Parallel Events Programme 

MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts (Warehouse B1, Pier A’, Thessaloniki port)

1st action

Projection & discussion, Thursday, May 23 @ 20:00

Projection of film-documentary The Oleanders (2021) & discussion with Paola Revenioti, film-documentary’s director and script writer and Mario Chatziprokopiou, Assistant Professor in Performance Studies and Writing at the University of Thessaly. 

The film is projected in Greek with English subtitles

The film follows Betty Vakalidou, Eva Koumarianou and Paola Revenioti, three trans women who have known each other for more than forty years, during a night walk in Athens. Betty, Eva and Paola revisit the streets where they started sex work from a young age, the places where they enjoyed life, loved and were loved and those where they fought, lived and resisted. The discussion that follows aims to involve the public in a process of participation, intervention and exchange of opinions and points of view.

Paola Revenioti is a documentarian, photographer, publisher, and trans* sex worker based in Athens, Greece. Paola is a leading figure in Greek LGBTIQ+ movement and she has been active since the late 70’s; she does not self-identify as an activist. Paola began publishing KRAXIMO, a trans-anarchist zine of “revolutionary homosexual expression”, in 1981. Through the 90’s she organized in Athens some of the first Pride events in Greece. In the last decade Paola Revenioti has been active in the field of documentary films, dealing with historical, social, and political topics, often from the so-called margins of society. She works together with the team "Paola Team Documentaries" and she has been invited to present her work in festivals, squats, universities, and galleries in many countries in the world.

Marios Chatziprokopiou holds an MA in the Anthropology of Performance at École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris), funded by the French Government and the Michelis Foundation, and a PhD in Performance Studies (Aberystwyth University, Doctoral Career Development Scholarship. He has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Centre for the Humanities in Greece, and at the University of Thessaly. His research focuses on performances of migration and refugeeness, contemporary re-readings of ancient drama, performances of gender and sexuality, and ritual performances of lament. His articles appear in international edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals. He has presented performances and lecture performances internationally and he has worked as a dramaturge in several productions (Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Dimitria Festival, Philippi Festival etc). He translates Clarice Lispector into Modern Greek. His first poetry book Topical Tropics (Antipodes, 2019) explores issues of queer mourning and desire in connection to oral poetic traditions. It has been shortlisted by the State Literary Award for Best Poetry. In 2023 Marios was a writer-in-residence at Ulysses Shelter (Belgrade) and a Vakalo Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan.

2nd action: Talk-presentation & Performance

Thursday, June 13, 2024 @ 19:00 & 20:30

19:00-20:15

Glafki Gotsi: “Feminist narratives in Greek History of Art.”

The talk presents issues of women and gender that have been raised in the study of Greek History of Art of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially the period between 1850 and 1970. Aiming to show the importance of feminist approaches to history, topics such as the female gaze in the second half of the 19th century, artists' collectives in the Interwar and Early Post-war Years, the discourse of feminists on creation and the position of women in visual present and past are under study. We examine the opinions expressed by subjects such as Kallirroi Parren, Myrsini Kleanthous-Papadimitriou, Hariklia Alexandridou-Stefanopoulou and Diana Antonakatou, we follow the initiatives undertaken by groups such as the Women's Association of Letters and Arts and the Artistic Association of Greek Women, and we interpret texts that discuss the presence and contribution of women in art. In parallel, we attempt to analyze a number of women artists' works aiming to promote an alternative feminist reading.

Glafki Gotsi is Assistant Professor in History of Art at School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AuTh). Her research interests focus on issues of modern and contemporary art mainly from the perspective of the history of women and gender. She co-edited the volumes Gender in History: Historiographical Accounts and Case Studies (Athens: Asini, 2015) and Histories on sexuality (Athens: Themelio, 2020). Since 2013 she co-edits the annual online publication of the Greek Bibliography of Women’s and Gender Historiography, accessible at http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/6/6/7/metadata-1382700536-109398-18169.tkl. Her book Female Viewers of Art (1850-1900) was published in 2022 (Thessaloniki: Nissides).

20:30-21:00

COMOTIRIO

PEKTRIES / SAVOIR VIVRE EDITION

Performance

Rules of good conduct, an instructive audiovisual narrative. It is a performative act, in which rules of "good behavior" and savoir vivre are presented, as they are found in manuals adapted to the Greek society of the past decades. The selected excerpts satirize female stereotypes interspersed with contemporary references such as selfies, photo filters, retouching and duck faces.

PEKTRIES is a side-project by COMOTIRIO, an ongoing series of site-specific performative actions adjusted every time anew to the hosting space, its features and its idiosyncracies. The project reflects on the multiplicity of symbolism of hair in relation to cultural and mythological semiology. Πέκω (pek-e/o) > in Greek: to hackle, to comb hair. Πόκος (pokos) > sheep wool. Πέκτρια (pektria) > the woman who cards the sheep wool. A consonant to παίκτριες (paiktries) meaning “the female players”, a spelling error embracing the jesting, gambling and fun element.

COMOTIRIO, meaning "hair salon" in Greek, is the co-working scheme of visual artists Naira Stergiou & Eriphyli Veneri. The scheme being in a constant process of exchanging views and ideas presents collaborations on various levels around the thematics of staged experiencing, myth-making, Beauty and beautification processes. Their main practice is the organization of independent contemporary art exhibitions in places and spaces with historicity and semiology. Selected projects: Let's Supper, Mr. Iolas/Resurrection RE, Villa Iola, Athens (2019, supported by ΝΕΟΝ and Marni Films), Blablablack, Rebound Club, Athens (2019), The Love Boat, Athens Municipal Garbage Trucks’ Depot (2020, supported by the City of Athens’ Europe Direct), Flowers-Plants-Decorations, Syntagma Square Flower shops (2021), Iera Poli I/Eromeni, Salt Museum, Messolonghi (2021, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Hellenic Republic), PETDEMONIUM, The Creatures Pet Shop & Grooming, Cholargos (2021), BFFEAE: Best Friends Forever and Ever, Municipal Gallery of Kallithea Sofia Laskaridou (2022), SĒMAIOSTOLISTIKÉ, Flag production and retail store Simeostolistiki, Athens (2023).

www.comotirio.com 

3rd action

Feminist guided tour by the Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices, Saturday, 14 | time to be announced soon

Elpida Karampa, art theorist and curator, Ioanna Zouli, visual artist and curator and Valia Papastamou, researcher and architect, researchers of the Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices organize and present a feminist guided tour version of the artworks presented in the exhibition HerStories. Photographic Practices, 1974-2024. Based on recent articles, texts and publications expanding on contemporary feminist theory and practice the tour will provide the public with a radical reading of the artworks in order to provoke a broader discussion on the role and position of Greek women artists in contemporary art history.

Τhe Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices (CNMFPP) (https://www.centrefeministmedia.arch.uth.gr/) started as a postdoctoral program funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I) and the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation (GSRI) at the University of Thessaly, Department of Architecture (MAT). It has developed beyond an individualized research into an open, situated and multi-faceted prototype institution which is empowering for the local research and production, at the critical intersection of feminism, art and technology. After the completion of its funding in 2022, the CNMFPP, is located at the Department of Architecture, Uth. (TAM) and works as a spectral institution, with no permanent infrastructure, for fundraising, but supported by a strong net of collaborators and kins, undertaking small and medium scale projects. It is evolving into a model–for Greece-project that bridges academic research and theory, cultural, artistic practice and educational work, which are the three main axes of its action. Having so far contributed in various ways to the creation of new works of art and innovative theory and methodology, CNMFPP also focuses on providing expanded pedagogies on these issues, organizing different educational programs. Feminist guided tours are part of these practices.

Programme curated by: Domna Gounari