From 20th October to 12th November 2021, Victoria Square, Athens hosted ‘We Apologize’, an art installation by visual artist Adrian Paci.
Curated by Counterpoints Arts and Victoria Square Project, the work was the product of many months of research in collaboration with old and new residents from the Victoria Square neighbourhood.
This is an interview conducted with the project curators, Niovi Zarampouka-Chatzimanou, director of VSP and Almir Koldzic, director of Counterpoints Arts, originally for culturenow.gr, which we are publishing here for the first time.
How did your cooperation, as well as the joint curating of the artwork ‘We Apologize’ by the internationally acclaimed Adrian Paci, occur?
Our collaboration was initiated last year by Counterpoints Arts, who were embarking on a 3 year programme of public art commissions in Greece, Germany and the UK. In each of the 3 locations, CA was developing commissions in collaboration with local partners and in response to local context and histories.
CA approached VSP because of the many synergies between the 2 organisations, as well as the local context and history from within which the VSP emerged. Following our initial conversations, we realised that we were more than compatible as partners, sharing similar aspirations and values .
In terms of our co-curation, we have been working very closely and making joint decisions with Adrian about every aspect of the commission. The pandemic and related difficulty of travel, as well as the physical presence of VSP in the area, meant that VSP took on the lead role in terms of the implementation of the practical aspects of the project.
The final piece is the result of a long collaboration involving many people from different backgrounds and contexts. It was made by the artist, but also the people who worked hard for it, the people that supported it and those who will give meaning during its presence in Victoria Square.
The artwork seems to have an apologetic predisposition. Why would you say that this choice was made and which was the part that Victoria Square played on this stance?
The catalyst for the piece was a phrase that a translator used to preface a comment made by a local neighbour.
But that was only the starting point; the installation isn’t about a specific comment, group or community. Rather, Paci recognised the potential of this phrase to serve as a bigger mirror, addressing any actor or citizen with a connection to the square and local history. The We and You from the phrase could be interchangeable, as could be the cause of stress and discontent. The piece is then deliberately open ended – it provokes us to re-examine our collective and individual knowledge of the VS context; suggesting gently that perhaps there are experiences we could be re-examining and views that we should be discussing, acknowledging and adjusting.
Another aspect of this is that the work is apologetic about its own presence at the square, provoking a conversation about who has the right to make art in public spaces and how to balance the need for artistic freedom with the needs of local communities.
What kind of experience would you think and hope that the residents and the passers-by of the area develop with the installation?
We would hope that they would be intrigued, curious, surprised, but also that they would find their own ways of connecting and engaging with the piece. For us, and this is only one way of seeing the piece, it is an invitation to us all to rethink our own firm positions and ways of communicating with each other – suggesting that perhaps we could start with showing willingness to listen, understand and empathise with others.
What would your opinion be regarding the social dimension that contemporary art can have?
We hope that the arts can move and surprise us, but that it can also create a space for us to come together and explore how we can live better with each other; how we can connect better to those who might seem different or distant from us.
Who would you say that the contemporary citizen is? (In analogy to VSP’s inquiry “Who is the contemporary Athenian?”)
Under the curatorial research question “Who is the contemporary Athenian?” Victoria Square Project attempts to identify concretely the elements that define an inclusive Athenian society today beyond labels like “immigrant,” refugee, first or second generation, Greek etc., but under the common ground of the neighbors and co-citizens. Our aim is to have a concrete contribution in identifying this collective identity and putting in the public sphere more actively the questions of belonging, democracy, the crisis, fascism, while empowering our community with a special focus on the youth. We seek to be a social meeting point in which intercultural relations are developed, a creative platform that will enhance cultural exchanges and strengthen the region’s community.
