To The Future Public Exhibition in KMMN Kassel

From the point of view of Athens, TO THE FUTURE PUBLIC program, that began in April 2017, attempts to formulate a meeting point between local communities, artists, researchers, activists and initiatives with a focus on self-organization and cooperative economy, connecting various locations in an open, decentralized and evolving testing laboratory for the exploration of future curatorial and artistic practices.

Through interventions, performances, ephemeral installations, research-based projects, workshops and cartographies, the areas of the city center are responded to as field that is experienced and performed - an intricate web of inter-dependencies, conflicts, and radical syntheses. The program focuses on providing a collaborative platform for in-situ project develoment, as responses to specific sites or contexts in the public sphere of Athens. Our goal is to support hybrid forms of artistic and social practice; to highlight contradictions by mapping the multiplicity of discontinuous moments of enunciation and temporary glitches - brief instances of noise and interference rather than one spectacular disruption- with the understanding of public art as a participatory, emancipatory, counter-hegemonic, and thoroughly political act.

As agents working locally and engaged in global discourse, we stand in support of ground-up participation and art as a catalyst for organizing, reviving, rethinking, and remaking the everyday experience. We support the creation of new temporary spaces in the overlapping zones of art, political activism, and theory - spaces where the boundaries between artists and public are blurred, where the concept of "expertise" is fluid and new relations become possible. We envision a shift towards a new hierarchy of priorities based upon actual needs and sustainable practices, so as to carry out the urgent task of cultivating horizontal communication and exchanges between movements across social, geographical and institutional divides. We trace the points of intersection with the practices of others from around the world, who are also working from within and outside existing institutional framings, and whose locally focused work constitute de-facto deflections from the established paradigms of the art economy.

The curatorial format developed for the exhibition comprises of an interactive map of Athens, on which material is presented embedded in the city, together with information about the social framework surrounding the works, narratives behind many of the spaces and locations, and collaborating teams. A vehicle for multiple narratives and urban exploration, offering a guide to the "poetry and politics" of independent public art and participatory actions - the material presented is recorded interviews, documentation of public performances, documentation of workshops, talks, and text. We see the map as a collective artwork, and an activistic tool of engagement.

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KMMN
A platform for international encounters and exchanges during the documenta 14 in INTERIM from June 10th2017 to September 17th 2017.

KMMN is a project by students and teachers from the Kunsthochschule Kassel to create a platform during the 100 days of documenta. A place for international exchange, a modular meeting and access point for international students and lecturers who come to Kassel to visit d14. The name plays with the pronunciation and possible meanings of the English word COMMON (togetherness, public, expanse) and the German word KOMMEN (come), similar to AnKMMN (arrive, come in) and Will-KMMN (welcome).

Furthermore, KMMN offers visitors a constantly changing 100 day dialogue that includes lectures, presentations of images and videos, talks, workshops, performances, and exhibitions.