6th Athens Biennale 2018

6th Athens Biennale 'ANTI'
26.10.2018 - 09.12.2018

Venues:
TTT building
Esperia Palace
Benakeios Library
Kolokotroni 4

Athens Biennale launches its 6th edition on October 26, 2018, under the title ANTI.

The 6th Athens Biennale flirts with the term, the attitude, the (im)possibility of ANTI, asking: How does opposition play out today? What kind of identities does it forge? ANTI deals with phenomena of normalization of opposition and non-conformity, from politics to web culture, from videogames to Netflix, from Žižek to Rihanna.

Fall 2018 will mark a decade of crisis in which Athens has been an incubator of revolt, opposition, reaction and regression. In 2017, the Athens Biennale organized a series of performative events under the title Waiting for the Barbarians, and declared a strategic postponing of AB6 in a year of “Active Waiting.” “Active Waiting” was intended as a playful exercise on the political imagination of large-scale periodic exhibitions, and functioned as a prelude to ANTI.

ANTI, curated by Stefanie Hessler, Kostis Stafylakis and Poka-Yio, considers attitudes of opposition, non-conformity and marginality. Instead of assuming a position of critical detachment, ANTI introduces us to the pleasure and discomfort embodied in both revolt and reaction. It does not seek to merely outline such fantasies; we cannot fight reactionary culture and politics in the “post-truth” era with yet another ANTI. To deal with ANTI means to oscillate between power and revolt by internalizing, reenacting or cannibalizing both. As such, AB6 is designed as a distilled, intensified reality—a constellation of functional spaces that invites visitors to indulge in ANTI. These devices assume forms of actual domains shaping our lives today: the gym, the office, the tattoo studio, the dating website, the migration office, the shopping mall, the nightclub, the church, the dark room. The Athens Biennale aims to instigate the experience of ambiguity, polarity and contrariness inherent in ANTI by lubricating the absurd personification of such currents. The exhibition, here, becomes a purgatory without a purge.

More than 100 international artists, media creators and theorists will participate in ANTI. The exhibition venues and full participants’ list will be announced soon.

Cabaret Negatif is programmed by FYTA with Nayia Yiakoumaki and will be running throughout the duration of ANTI.

Two limited-edition Crypto Certificates by Ed Fornieles Studios will be sold to help fund the production of a large-scale LARP The Group as well as the Athens Biennale itself. Collectors of these limited edition prints will be able to share future profits generated by the sale of work developed through The Group performance.

Participating artists:
Spyros Aggelopoulos, Monira Al Qadiri, Loukia Alavanou, Korakrit Arunanondchai & Alex Gvojic, Ivana Bašić, Tianzhuo Chen, Chim Pom, Sarawut Chutiwongpeti, Brody Condon, Celia Daskopoulou, Ted Davis, Danielle Dean, JP Downer, Nina Runa Essendrop, Georgia Fambris, Cao Fei, Ed Fornieles, Angelos Frentzos, Sarah Friend, Front Deutscher Äpfel, Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, Eva Giannakopoulou, Gigas, Joey Holder, Carsten Höller, Callum Leo Hughes, Actually Huizenga (of Patriarchy), Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman & Daniel Keller, Binelde Hyrcan, Maryam Jafri, Sascha Jahn & TheBoundCollective, Jakub Jansa, Geumhyung Jeong, Kahlil Joseph, Florence Jung, Raja'a Khalid, Joy Kolaitis, Peter V. Kritikos, Laboratory for Microclimates, Euripides Laskaridis / Osmosis, Delaine Le Bas, Candice Lin, Fei Liu, Rachel Maclean, Basim Magdy, Miltos Manetas, Marianne Maric, Eva and Franco Mattes, Metahaven, Quenton Miller, Molleindustria, Shana Moulton, Sirous Namazi, Narcissister, New Models, Pinar Öğrenci, Marisa Olson, Uģis Olte & Morten Traavik, Omsk Social Club, Ilias Papailiakis, Eva Papamargariti, Yuri Pattison, Heather Phillipson, Signe Pierce, AnnaMaria Pinaka, Wong Ping, Michail Pirgelis, Agnieszka Polska, Lykourgos Porfyris, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Johannes Paul Raether, Jon Rafman, Kosta Rapadopoulos / Jasin Challah, Tabita Rezaire, Roee Rosen, Iepe Rubingh, Saeborg, Tai Shani, Heji Shin, Aliza Shvarts, Helle Siljeholm, Marianna Simnett, Linnéa Sjöberg, Panos Sklavenitis, Marilia Stagkouraki, Jenna Sutela, The Agency, The Domestic Godless, The Peng! Collective, Ryan Trecartin, Theo Triantafyllidis, Anna Uddenberg, Nicole Wermers, Tori Wrånes, Lauren Wy, Lu Yang, Young Boy Dancing Group, Costas Zapas, Zhala

Curated by Stefanie Hessler, Kostis Stafylakis, Poka-Yio