EXHIBITIONS

PUBLIC SCREEN Project

Dates happen: 17/09/2007 ... 11/11/2007 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki: “Heterotopias”
Parallel Programme
Project: Public Screen
September 17th

Does contemporary art constitute a heterotopia restricted to the closed spaces of museums and galleries? Can a creative dialogue evolve between an artistic piece shown on a public screen and the inhabitants-visitors-passers-by of the modern city? The Public Screen project attempts to answer precisely these questions this September, as part of the parallel programme of the 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, with the support of the Ministry of Culture (incorporated within the operational program “Culture” – co-funded by the EU (ERDF 80% and Min.Cult. 20%)).
The Public Screen program aims to redetermine the relationship between contemporary art and the communication of messages by examining the notion of heterotopias inside contemporary societies in an era where the image is the main means of getting messages across. Through the Public Screen program, 96 artists will have the chance to present their work –video and photography- to a non-conventional, uncategorizable and unpredictable audience which may or may not have had the chance to become familiarized with contemporary art. The artists who come from Greece, Great Britain, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, USA, Spain, Israel and Cyprus received a call for expression of interest through the internet which was also posted on the Museum’s site as well as the 1st Thessaloniki Biennale’s (www.thessalonikibiennale.gr) which had an application expiration date on June 10th. Please note that there is no strict thematic framework for the works on display, as the spaces defined by Foucault as heterotopias can act as a thematic starting point, and also without excluding each artist’s personal expression – opinion του on the notion of heterotopias.
According to Syrago Tsiara, the director of the Center of Contemporary Art, “the proliferation of visual communication in the public as well as in the private sphere, remains without a doubt an ascertainment. Nowadays, an extensive emission and reception of messages is conducted throughout images to the extent where the ‘virtual’ factor nearly replaces the ‘reality’ factor. Through computer screens, people tend to satisfy many of their daily and specific needs, while some of them live a ‘second life’ which is in illusion substantiated mainly in cyberspace. While discussing the question of heterotopias inside modern societies in today’s terms, the Public Screen project aims to redefine the relationship between contemporary art and public-urban space as well as to explore the potential of public communication within this framework. It penetrates into spaces where passengers travel, aiming to detach a few moments of a different perception and style from that of the standard nature of advertisement. The Public Screen project also seeks to bring some particular forms of contemporary art in touch with different ‘public’ groups which apparently wouldn’t have had the potential to schedule a planned visit into a space such as a museum, a pinacoteque or even a center of contemporary art.”
Mrs Tsiara also added that: “96 out of the 165 proposed works of art were selected for display. All of the works are displayed together, sorted alphabetically by the artists’ names, in accordance to international practices. There is no thematic categorization or grouping, as we are not attempting to present a museum-type exhibition. Public screening imposes its own rules, from which segmentation and the inability to determine the time of the work’s observation are notions that must deeply concern the curator-collector of the material. As it is impossible for anyone to devote an indefinite amount of time to observing an image, the visual event which alternates swiftly is the new urban venture which we are called forth to respond to with respect to the quality, the goal, the content and the aesthetics of the image's message. The Public Screen program is introduced by the Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki in the framework of the First Biennale, is an alternative proposal whose effectiveness and dynamic remains to be assessed”.
The screens will be installed at the Thessaloniki International Airport (4 screens), at the Port (outside of the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography) and at the Action Field Kodra. In a second phase, we are going to examine the possibility of presenting the project in various squares of the city’s municipalities, neighboring with the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The Public Screen project is part of the “Culture and the City” programme sponsored by the Ministry of Culture.

SCHEDULE OF SCREENINGS “PUBLIC SCREEN”

The screenings of the Public Screen project will take place from Monday 17/09 until Sunday 30/09 at the following sites:
1. Thessaloniki International Airport “Macedonia”
• 4 screens (2 screens in the Arrivals area and 2 screens in the Departures area)
• 24 hour projection

2. Port of Thessaloniki, Pier 1, Warehouse A, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (outside)
• 1 screen
• time of projection 09:00-12:30 pm

3. Action Field Kodra, Municipality of Kalamaria
• 1 screen
• one special screening on September 14th (20:30-24:30).

4. For the sites of KTEL (Greek public bus services) and the Aristotelous Square
the dates and the precise time of projection have not yet been decided but will soon be announced.

The works are going to be presented and projected in succession, one after the other, in alphabetical order by the artists’ surname and according to international practices. All the works are going to be projected in all of the venues.

MEDIA SPONSORS: ΕRΤ / KATHIMERINI / Κ-Sunday KATHIMERINI / FOTOGRAFOS / Republic Radio 100,3
Production: Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki
Curator: Syrago Tsiara
INFO

MINISTRY OF CULTURE
STATE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
1st BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF THESSALONIKI – www.thessalonikibiennale.gr
CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER OF THESSALONIKI

PARALLEL PROGRAMME

Exhibition-Project: Public Screen

Venue: selected sites in the city
Duration: September 2007

Information for the public
CACT: Τ:2310546 683, 2310 593 270, F:2310 593271- info@cact.gr

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EXHIBITIONS

PUBLIC SCREEN Project

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