Extended until March 17
I’d rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess
at the Ellinikon Experience Centre
A video art programme on the notions of climate disruption,
technology and gender
Due to high attendance PCAI’s video art programme I’d rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess at The Ellinikon Experience Centre has been extended until March 17. The programme brings together video works from the PCAI Collection of women artists reflecting on the notions of climate disruption, consumerism, space waste, technology and gender: contemporary narratives that span from the earthly reality to dystopias and science fiction.
The programme’s title derives from Donna Haraway’s 1985 seminal essay on cyborgian manifestations and relativities. The selected PCAI works weave altogether a storytelling paradigm relating to primary science fiction penned by women writers. Works that often seem to echo Octavia Butler’s and Ursula K. Le Guin’s concerns about the Other. Videos that reflect on areas and concepts pertinent to Mary Shelley’s and Rhoda Broughton’s Victorian texts, two of the first women to write sci-fi novels and short stories.
Afroditi Psarra’s commission Ventriloquist Ontology (2022), created on the occasion of the Sheltered Gardens exhibition, explores the limits of control and hybridization between human and machine through the relationship of a performer and a wearable entity.
Eva Papamargariti’s work Factitious Imprints (2016), part of her former New Museum solo show, focuses on the idea of constructed nature and how it can be documented and defined through a palimpsest of imprints that simultaneous human and natural processes fabricate on different surfaces and terrains.
Almagul Menlibayeva’s work Ulugh Beg. New Silk Road in Space (2020) was created in partnership with artists Inna Artemova and German Popov in the context of the second Lahore Biennial. The video unravels Menlibayeva’s research upon the life of important astronomer and ruler of Samarkand Sultan Mirzo Ulugh Beg, a further reflection on space debris and the industrial contamination of modernity, as well as on ancestral, patriarchal norms related to ruling and prevailing.
Ariana Papademetropoulos’ work Voyage to Venus (2019), shot on the Greek island of Milos, builds its narrative around Louvre’s Venus de Milo sculpture and nature’s predominant force. The artist, as a Victorian Nereid, in lieu of ordinary domestic settings, floats in awe among coastal landscapes and the dark, abyssal caves of the Aegean.
The programme curated by Kika Kyriakakou, PCAI Artistic Director, is inspired by the architectural legacy and futuristic vision of pioneering architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), who designed the main building of the former East Terminal of the Athens International Airport, which operated within Elliniko until 2000. It also aligns with the aim of The Ellinikon to become not only an architectural landmark, but also a smart city that drastically reduces the carbon footprint of its inhabitants. The programme intends to elaborate further on the radicality, as well as the ecological and gender connotations of landmarks of today and has been accompanied by a series of educational workshops.
Click here to download the digital booklet.
Visiting hours:
Daily from 9am – 9pm, until March 17, 2024*
*The exhibition will remain closed on 22-25/1, 30-31/1, 1/2, 05-10/2, 15/2, 21/2, 6/3,12/3
Free entrance upon booking at tickets.experiencecentre.theellinikon.com.gr
The Ellinikon Experience Centre
Access:
Ellinikon metro station (line 2), exit: El.Venizelou, and 15min walk to The Ellinikon Experience Centre Map
Spread the word and use the hashtags #cyborggoddess #theellinikon #pcai #pcaiartcollection
Image: Installation shot, I’d rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess.
In partnership with
Activity aligned with Goals 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 16, 17
