3137

3 137 is thrilled to announce the launch of an edited volume it has curated, under the title After the explosion you still hear the light (Paraguay, Paris, 2023). The publication is the fruit of a long-term research on artistic practices and artworks of 1970s Greece, and comprises the most extensive research project run by 3 137 to date. It aspires to highlight the eclectic affinities with contemporary artistic production in the country, as well as to document the intergenerational encounters and conversations between artists, historians, art critics and theoreticians, cultural producers, and other agents who have played a pivotal role in the local artistic creation over the last sixty years.

In recent years, 3 137 has been developing the research and artistic program After the explosion you... hear the light, with the aim of studying and showcasing artistic narratives, practices, and works from 1970s Greece. The research set off in December 2016, when a series of exhibitions, encounters, screenings, and lectures took place at the premises of 3 137, in collaboration with the art historian and curator Klea Charitou. In the spring of 2017, 3 137 hosted an exhibition featuring archive material. Parallel to this, the entire research project was presented to the public at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), within the context of the public program of documenta 14 and through a discussion with Thomas Boutoux, one of the members of the French publishing collective Paraguay, Paris. Lastly, between 2018 and 2019, 3 137 organized a series of educational workshops for children, drawing inspiration from the work of Pantelis Xagoraris and contributing to the digital cataloging and digitization of a part of Constantin Xenakis’s archive, in collaboration with the Contemporary Greek Art Institute (ISET).

This publication compiles the material gathered through a long process of collective research. In the last seven years, 3 137 has brought together an informal working group (whose research activity continues to this day), focusing on the mapping of the Greek artistic scene in the 1970s, with an emphasis on the study of its influence on contemporary local artistic production. The research axis that has unraveled most recently, concerning questions of institutional criticism and gender, but also the identity of 3 137, rounds up the project, and at the same time presents an “archaeology” of artistic initiative. The book comprises an “auto-historiographical project exploring the relationship between artistic initiative and artistic work,” turning its gaze to the past in order to understand its influence and contribution to the contemporary cultural and institutional landscape in Greece.

In the near future, the publication will be presented in three different European capitals: in Paris on May 31, 2023, at Cité internationale des arts; in London on June 3, 2023 at the premises of the Hellenic Centre; as well as in Athens, in the fall of 2023, at the EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. Each launch is framed by a special event, designed specifically for each location and highlighting different facets of the publication. In Paris, the book launch will be accompanied by the opening of the group exhibition la poste. In London, audiovisual material from the personal archive of the artist Diohandi – depicting group exhibitions of Greek and international artists – will be screened in world premiere, while the book presentation by the founding members of 3 137 will be followed by a discussion between them and Kostas Stasinopoulos, Curator, Live Programmes, at Serpentine Galleries, who has contributed a text to the publication. More information will follow about the event to be organized in Athens, in collaboration with EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art. 

The publication was made possible thanks to the financial support by the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation and Gerasimos Giannopoulos.

3 137 warmly thanks Thomas Boutoux for his trust, Kyriakos Tsiflakos for his support, as well as everyone who has worked for and participated in the project for their invaluable contribution.