burn(all)e, 2009
utopia project, utopia and youth, rethymno, crete
in collaboration with Maria Glyka
we present fragments of images and spoken words that have been activated outside the range of the official and typical media.
this material, though inevitably fragmentary, seeks to highlight and record up to a point the dynamic and the composition of the facts, the conflict of generations and communication media and codes, the deep sense of discontent of a dead- end situation, the critique of the consumer society and the strong anti-systemic attitude.
we have created a folder including a variety of written and photographic evidence from slogans on the walls, stencils, and banners to group announcements, building takeovers as well as individual interventions – comments, usually pseudonymous, blogs and websites.
“…It’s very difficult to talk about what the leaders of the December riots in Athens in 2008 and in other big Greek cities, were thinking of and what they meant, when they were yelling and singing in the streets, painted on walls, wrote on blogs.
The scale and the variety of opinions and the contradiction of messages that have appeared make that description not that easy. Nevertheless we can point out their characteristics.
Many times, the messages were subtle, through the roar of conflict, they were unshaped, fragmented, ephemeral and lots of times they appeared contradictory and plural as the vocabulary used was that of the “underground” including bars, football stadiums etc.
If we tried to define those repeated thoughts, we would talk about confused ideas at the boundary of “disorder” formed into “insubordination”. We would talk about a “random thought” that has been presented as if it were promising the deepest rupture, the content of which, never describes with accuracy.
The rebellious attitude with the above characteristics operates as a riot. Not only because the messages were often violent but also because its meanings come from a romantic anti-capitalism, anarchism, situationalism, anti-globalization, blind hooliganism, and many more constantly escaping …
We present fragments of images and spoken words that have been activated outside the range of the official and typical media. This material, though inevitably fragmentary, seeks to highlight and record up to a point the dynamic and the composition of the facts, the conflict of generations and communication media and codes, the deep sense of discontent of a dead-end situation, the critique of the consumer society and the strong anti-systemic attitude…”