ANNOUNCEMENT – Adjusted program for the central exhibition “Being as Communion” opening

The horrible accident in Tempi leaves us shocked and saddened at MOMus for all the people who tragically lost their lives, for the injured who are fighting for their lives, for their families and loved ones who are grieving or being in agony.

Under the heavy three-day national mourning and with great respect for the common feeling of pain, we are modifying our activity regarding the scheduled program for March 4 & 5, 2023 for the opening of the central exhibition of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art entitled “Being as Communion”.

In this context, the performance #the head | On becoming an animal is postponed, while the official opening ceremony on Saturday, 4 March is cancelled. All venues hosting central exhibition will be open to the public according to the following opening hours.

The new program is structured as follows.

Program Saturday 04 & Sunday 05 2023 

Saturday, March 04 2023, 18:00

Screening “Foragers” by Jumana Manna

Venue: Olympion cinema*

“Foragers” film by Jumana Manna depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it employs fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs.

Gleaning for wild edible plants in “Foragers” (66’) becomes a form of resistance. “Foragers” venture into the landscape of the Golan Heights, in Galilee and Jerusalem, where Israeli protection laws prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like akkoub and za’atar (thyme) and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds of people caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect nature. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrols, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy, and knowledge of these traditions, alongside their resilience to legal prohibitions. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct, and what getsto live on.

The screening is taking place in the frame of the “Being as Communion” main exhibition of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival

*Free admission by issuing zero-value ticket at the Festival’s box office.

Sunday, March 05 2023, 12:00

Presentation by Campus Novel “The Host, Operator and Initiator”

Venue: MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art (154 Egnatia Av. TIF-HELEXPO premises)

What structural elements that make up soil, allow a relationship between human and non-human? Artist collective Campus Novel with their on-site performative research of the city of Thessaloniki have created a multi-modal archive on soil and the semiotics of co-existence.

Campus Novel follow a ‘totemic’ exploration, from bottom up, moving from life processes in the underground upwards to the urban environment. The correlations discovered between subjects, communities, and a multitude of human and non-human elements and species, takes the form of an archive that includes idiosyncratic narratives of the city and reflects elements of urban cosmopolitanism as well as the imprint of multiple communities with different identities and histories. The materiality of Campus Novel’s research is presented in the form of a multi-layered installation, that includes the research process itself, as well as specially designed structures, imaginative recordings, kilos of fertile soil, and subterranean finds.

As a site for showcasing micro/macro fundamentals of coexistence, the ‘fluid’ territoriality of Thessaloniki is presented as both a case study as well as a fertile field from which one can ‘extract’ methodologies, new value standards, and re-framings of what it means to belong.

In a city where each person is entitled only 1,6 square meters of free ground, segregations collapse, the local can be interpreted also as planetary; tradition and modernity are homogenized; and each unit acts, inclusively, sometimes as a host, sometimes as an effector and sometimes as a mystic.

The event is taking place in the frame of the “Being as Communion” main exhibition of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. Their works are being presented in the MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art.

Saturday 04 & Sunday 05 March 2023

All venues of the central exhibition “Being as Communion” are open to the public during the following hours. The names of the artists per venue are listed below.

From Monday, 06 March all the venues will be open to the public during standard operating hours.

More information here: https://biennale8.gr/kentriki-ekthesi/

Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki

Artists: Gianfranco Baruchello, Phoebe Giannisi, COYOTE, Cevdet Erek

* 6 Manoli Andronikou Street

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 08:30-15:30. Until 31 March: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 08:30-15:30. From 1 April: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 08:00 – 20:00

Museum of Byzantine Culture

Artistis: COYOTE, Cevdet Erek, Jumana Manna, Ahmed Morsi, Angelo Plessas, Kostas Roussakis

* Stratou Avenue 2

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 08:30-15:30. Until 31 March: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 08:30-15:30. From 1 April: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 08:00 – 20:00

Glass Box “Sculptures’ Garden”

Artist: Zheng Bo

* seefront area

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 10:00-18:00

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12:00-18:00

Hamidie – Islahane Cultural Venue

Artists: COYOTE, Panos  Sklavenitis, Agnes Varda, Vessel (James Bridle & Navine G. Dossos)

* 2, Eleni Zogragou str.

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 11:00-18:00

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9.00-14.30 | Wednesday 9.00-20.00

Thessaloniki Concert Hall

Artist: Kostas Roussakis

* Martiou 25 & Paralia

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 10:00 – 18:00

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00 – 18:00

MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art

Artists: Jumana Emil Abboud, Campus Novel, COYOTE, Hira Nabi, Yiannis  Papadopoulos, Iva Radivojević, Corinne Silva

* Egnatia 154 (TIF-Helexpo premises)

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03, 10:00-22:00

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00-18:00, Thursday 10:00-22:00, Monday closed

Cultural Foundation of the National Bank

Artists: Aslı Çavuşoğlu, COYOTE, Piero Gilardi, Akira Ikezoe, Vasso Katraki, Abraham Onoriode Oghobase, Ana Vaz, Thanasis Chondros & Alexandra Katsiani

* 108 Vasilissis Olgas St.

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03, 10:00-21:00 & Sunday 05/03, 10:00-18:00

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 10:00-18:00

Eptapyrgio

Artists: Kostas Roussakis, Ana Vaz, Paky Vlassopoulou

* 130, Eptapyrgiou str.

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 & Sunday 05/03, 8:30-15:30.Until 31 March: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 8:30-15:30

Yeni Jami

Artisti: Alexandra Paperno

* 30, Archaeologikou mouseiou str.

Opening days & hours: Saturday 04/03 10:00-15:00 & Sunday 05/03 10:00-12:00

Friday and Saturday 10:00-15:00

Pasha’s Gardens

Artists: COYOTE

Open access