State of Concept Athens
For the Exilius Mind, 2021

Inspired by the seminal writings of Edward Said on exile, State of Concept Athens looked through the powerful histories of exile inspired by the island of Anafi, a locus so closely connected through its histories to this concept. From the place of exile that the island became during the first dictatorship in Greece in the 1930’s, to the self-exiled Anafiots that moved to the mainland or other continents, the idea of exile resonates today not only for this specific location, but for locations the world over. In the “cosmopolitan” mindset of contemporary turbo-capitalism, where histories are placed in the shadows for the sake of the sun shining on touristic development, what can the idea of exile teach us in terms of care-fully interacting with a place, and how can it connect us with other places, imaginary or real?

A set of interventions curated by State of Concept Athens, with the new commission, Her Name, by Maria Sideri.