Future Climates - The School of Redistribution

Future Climates is a platform founded by Antonia Alampi and iLiana Fokianaki with the objective to shape the forecast of institutional climates by addressing the precarious conditions of individual workers and small-scale organizations of contemporary culture. At its core lies the urgency to imagine and implement new sustainable economies in response to the changing weather that affects labour rights, work ethics and funding methods.

Future Climates will launch at State of Concept in Athens with The School of Redistribution, a three-month long exhibition, research and public program: all dressed as a school. The project is conceived as a dialogue across contexts, methodologies and practices, aiming to investigate the economic conditions that determine and define the work of small-scale organizations and independent workers of contemporary culture in Athens, with a group of researchers/participants selected via an open call. It will revolve around one central question: how to transform the increasingly precarious existence of small-scale organizations and independent art workers into a more sustainable one, both in terms of economy and work ethics?

The research program includes visits to local institutions, lectures by international and Greek independent and institutionally affiliated art workers, workshops, writing and an ongoing public program.

The School of Redistribution opens to the public on April 5, with an ongoing action by Alexandra Pirici followed by presentations and discussions with Olav Velthuis, Prosorini Akadimia Tehnon Athens, Emily Pethick, Victoria Ivanova, Maria Lind, Mohammad Salemy, Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle.

The space of the School is designed by Studio Miessen with the title Heiter bis Wolkig (sunny with cloudy intervals): a commentary on the current, post-2008 conflicting relationships across Europe, which—at least partially—relate to linguistic misunderstandings cum spatial separation. Miessen’s intervention is a space of conversation based on the typology of a bar, positioning itself within a longstanding tradition of artist-run bars. Instead of formalized institutional conditions, the design claims popular spaces of conversation as a form of practice.

Within Miessen’s environment, seminal films by Martha Rosler such as Museums Will Eat Your Lunch, New Museum Change of State, which address the stressed relationships between institutions, cultural workers and audiences, will co-exist with sculptural interventions by Alexandros Tzannis. Navine Khan Dossos will realize a new wall painting inspired by flow charts, addressing their morphology and referencing environmental predictions of climate change, funding applications and cultural hierarchies. Alexandra Pirici will present a newly commissioned ongoing action entitled Parthenon Marbles, a work that tells a story that evolves around the controversial request of repatriation of the marbles to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, as a metaphor and an entry point into a larger discussion about capital, accumulation, circulation, redistribution and the role of the arts within today’s economies. This action includes a performed research into the financial and legal implications of the marbles’ situation: a speculative journey into a “what if” scenario of return developed in collaboration with writer and curator Victoria Ivanova. Screenings will take place throughout the three months, amongst them Moving Pictures: Artists’ Films from the Film London Jarman Award and Nicoline Van Harskamp's Englishes.

Head of research: Evita Tsokanta

Co-ordination: Maria-Adela Konomi

School participants: Denise Araouzou, Jane Fawcett, Ioli Kavakou, Laura Lovatel, Federica Menin, Giulia Palomba, Sol Prado, Rosana Sánchez Rufete and Aris Spentsas, Sara Santana, Dora Vasilakou and Maya Tounta as repondent.

School contributors: Victoria Ivanova, Sophie Goltz, Prosorini Akadimia Tehnon Athens, Polina Kosmadaki, Emily Pethick, Martha Rosler, Bik Van der Pol, Nora Sternfeld, Olav Velthuis, 3 137 Artist Run Space, Enterprise Projects, Jens Maier-Rothe, Jonas Staal, Green Park, Theo Prodromidis, Mohammad Salemy, Libia Castro and Olafur Olafsson, Stella Baraklianou, Katerina Nikou, Georgios Papadopoulos, Glykeria Stathopoulou, Locus Athens, and many others.

Design: Rana Karan

Future Climates—The School of Redistribution is made possible with the support of NEON Organisation for Culture and Development, British Council Athens, Mondriaan Fonds, TANDEM Europe, State of Concept and the voluntary labour of Antonia Alampi and iLiana Fokianaki.

Parthenon Marbles by Alexandra Pirici is commissioned and produced in collaboration with KADIST (Paris, San Francisco).