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Commissioned by ASFA BBQ: The Garden of Dystopian Pleasures, presented live at the ASFA Theatre Lobby, Athens.
Athanasios Thanatos: Prolegomena
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 photo: Vasso Wasso
Kangela Tromokratisch: A very good morning to everyone! Welcome to another Breakfast with Kangela, your favourite tv hostess. Today we have with us several guests with whom we will speak about burning issues. The surprise today is that we are hosted by the Athens School of Fine Arts where we have found shelter. Thus, our first guest will speak about art – art in Greece and art in general. Please welcome Mr…Athanasios Thanatos¹! Athanasios Thanatos: Hello hello, good morning, how are you? K: Good morning, Thanatos? A: Thanatos, yes. I know death is a difficult topic. K: Yes, I understand… A: However, where we currently are, death is a common topic. K: Indeed. A: I want to say I am very happy you invited me to come here, to this place, the ASFA – Athens School of Fine Arts, thank you very much! K: Thank you for coming. A: This School is a special place, it is the Kazantzakean² beacon of Eastern Orthodox art! K: You mean...uh, please, tell us about your art. A: My work promotes the Reformation of Eastern Orthodox Art –I see here you have a wonderful 19th century painting that I cannot resist paying my orthodox tribute to, if you’d allow me. [ed.: Thanatos venerates Kangelas portrait like a typical orthodox icon]. So, as I mentioned, working towards the Reformation of Eastern Orthodox Art in Greece and beyond practically means I mainly work with video and performance art and engage with conceptual projects. By the way, I don’t know if you have noticed that the official name of ASFA is “Superior School of Fine Arts”. K: Yes of course. We all know ASFA is a major institution here in Greece and has produced some exceptional artists. A: As in "superior" artists. K: Superior? Well, what kind of art exactly are you making if not paintings? A: I work with video and performances. I have basically stopped painting since I was a child. I do yoga instead though, mainly the Pina Bausch method, the one also Dimitris Papaioannou practises. K: Nice. I have to admit I appreciate greek art a lot, I love our painters. What did you say your paintings are about? A: I do not paint, however I love, what is her name again... Ms Plaka! She is the most respectable painting enthusiast in Greece. I see her every Friday at the open-air food market in my neighborhood, behind Syggros hospital. You know how busy it gets there! She buys bamjas [ed.: okra]. K: Who is this woman!? A: She is the director of the National Gallery, Ms Plaka. You should know that you appear to be aesthetically inspired by Ms Plaka, stylistically I mean. Maybe it is not a conscious choice of yours but still. She looks very similar to you when I see her at the food market - wherever she might be she always looks like a Christie's buyer no matter what. K: Oh you are flattering me, I take this as a compliment, thank you! A: Of course. Like your rings, can you show me? Exactly, very similar heirloom rings indeed! I'll tell you this, you will see Plaka styling similar rings while diving wrists-deep into the bamjas – with the construction site of her new National Gallery filling the background. [ed.: the food market is a block away from the construction site in Athens] K: So wait, I’m confused, is she also making art? A: She makes the Art of Curation, which is in itself a superior kind of art too. K: Right, I see. A: And in general, we have a lot of similar celebrities like her in Greece, however Ms Plaka is a plaka³! A rather addictive disposition. [ed.: greek πλάκα • (pláka) f : mean. plaque, joke, tectonic plate; anc. Πλάκᾰ] K: What is your opinion about art in greece nowadays? Modern greek art has brilliant artists in its league, like Tsoklis or Engonopoulos for example – so many beautiful, wonderful artists. What is happening in greek art now? Would you like to tell us about it? A: Yes, one second. [ed.: reaches his phone] K: In the meantime would you like some tea? Here you are, this cup is for you. It is greek mountain tea. A: Oh thank you! Cheers, happy Orthodoxy! K: Likewise, thank you. A: So, I have conducted a quite thorough research for my Phd on the topic. My research was conducted on a large sample of some thousands of certified greek citizens. What we observe is that in the fantasy of the greek population, on an imaginary level if you like, various art institutions in Greece are associated with various Orthodox institutions and vice versa. More specifically, we provided some names of institutions to see how they tend to be associated with others, for example the question was “Archbishopric of Athens and All Greece; with which institution is it associated in your mind?” to which the reply was “Onassis Foundation Stegi” K: Oh I see, I actually wanted to ask you about Onassis Stegi. A: Yes, Onassis Stegi is an institution with class, with upgraded higher status, thus the respective association. So gradually it all started making sense to us and me personally. Next was: “Petraki Monastery: what does this bring to your mind?” K: Oh yes, Moni Petraki! A: Go on. K: Petraki Monastery is our Orthodoxy, it is...it is the cornerstone, the rock of our Orthodoxy! A: Exactly, and it is located on the foot of the rock of Lycabettus hill, a wonderful area of Athens! I am just wondering when this area is going to be gentrified too. [ed.: Petraki Monastery is located in Kolonaki, the richest area of the centre of Athens.] K: What do you mean by “gentrified”? A: It is when various curators, who practice the Art of Curation, go to certain urban areas and open their art spaces, like Ms Marina Fokidis for example. [ed.: Marina Fokides is contemporary art celebrity, publisher of SOUTH magazine, documenta14 ambassador and founder of Kunsthalle Athens.] K: Who is she? I don’t know her. A: She actually has a very similar hair styling to yours. K: Really? I hope not the same colour too! A: Well, yeah similar colour too. You are both very much in vogue honey! K: Oh, thank you! A: So, back to our study results. About Petraki Monastery, which is next to Kolonaki – cheek to cheek – what was the public’s association? The SNFCC - Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre! Why though? You must know, Petraki Monastery, unlike the Archdiocese of Athens, has a lot of capital and real estate, many square meters, and you know it has production value! Thus the association is with the Niarchos Foundation. Let’s quickly move on to our next entry as our viewers usually dislike statistics. Our next institution is the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which I believe you know very well, they do elaborate drag there. K: Excuse me? What is “drag”? A: I’ll tell you backstage. So the Ecumenical Patriarchate is associated with EMST museum. K: The Museum of Art you mean? A: National! The National Museum of Contemporary Art I mean! K: Right. A: The EMST is first and foremost National! This E is internationally innovative I have to say!⁴ [ed.: Greece, South Korea, Romania and Portugal have the only 4 National Museums of Contemporary Art worldwide, with National being an otherwise uncommon adjective for naming contemporary art museums.] K: Of course! A: We now move on with more simple entries, like the church of Kapnikarea in downtown Athens, which dates back to the middle ages. Kapnikarea is located on Ermou street. K: Yes of course, I know Kapnikarea very well, each time I’m in Ermou street for shopping I pop by to light a candle. A: Exactly. In a similar way, Kapnikarea is very dear to the public – it is afterall located in the centralmost shopping district of Athens. So it is associated with Kappatos Gallery in nearby Monastiraki – and less frequently with Kunsthalle Athena too. K: Yes I’ve visited an exhibition there at Kappatos, I believe. A: Which one was it? I assume you must have been to the exhibition Rooms by Kappatos Gallery at the Lycabettus Hotel, cause you are more classy! K: Hm, I can’t remember. A: You wouldn’t go to Monastiraki, it’s an area that wouldn’t match your standards. Regardless, I have to say that Kapnikarea is usually associated with Kappatos Gallery or even with the long gone Kunsthalle, may it rest in peace. You must know I had once conducted a blessing ritual for Kunsthalle, now it has turned into another type of space. Anyway, as I was saying – and I mildly apply psychoanalytic tools here – this association is due to the fact that all of these spaces, Kapnikarea, Kappatos and Kunsthalle, each in its own way combines the old with the new. I believe this to be relatively clear to everyone. And last but definitely not least, which entry do you think it is? K: Well, I can’t really tell anymore. A: Our last entry for this study is Agion Oros⁵, also known as Mount Athos, the all-time autonomous Orthodox polity of monasteries. (Thanatos makes a quick blessing gesture) K: Mount Athos is truly the Holy Mountain. A: Yes, Agion Oros of course honorarily corresponds to which associated institution? ASFA, the Superior School of Fine Arts! Let’s give a round of applause! K: Yes, yes, the Superior School of Fine Arts! A: And why is that so? Because the Superior School produces superior aesthetics. Also, both Agion Oros and the ASFA are radical and also...autonomous institutions. ASFA has the spiritual character, teaching methods and resistance to institutional structures that makes it comparable only to the Mount Athos polity. K: Now could you tell us a little bit about the greek identity in art? In what ways is the Greek spirit expressed in contemporary art? A: Look, I have one question regarding this; who seems, in this sense of the greek spirit, nowadays to be the most superior artist of all? K: In what aspect? A: In all aspects. K: I don’t know. A: It is Dimitris Papaioannou. K: But of course! Since he created the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games I have been following his work closely. A: And as I see, you also follow his aesthetic; do you know whom did Papaioannou invite to the Olympics? K: I can’t remember. A: A big personality indeed – Björk! K: Oh yes, this girl, where is she from...that place where the glaciers are... A: From Iceland. K: Yes! A: She has this very distinctive accent that Greeks tend to like a lot. Also, you know, documenta 14 organised events with some tribes from the deep North and brought them together with tribes of Vlachs from around here. Anyway, back to Papaioannou, he has studied and presented work in important places like at the dance school of Pina Bausch, the Wuppertal Theatre and so on. Also guess under whom did he study. You know him, he’s of your generation. K: Oh, I don’t know, whom? A: The painter Teacher Tsarouchis. And we need to note here that commonly, as you may know, all professors of the ASFA are referred to as Teachers; in this sacred grotto of Fine Arts, this Superior spiritual grotto of the Finest of Arts, we have Teachers and not just professors! K: Please tell us more about this. A: As said, Mount Athos! This idea of the Teacher is an age-old statutory custom going back to 6th century AD, as does the monastic autonomous polity of Mount Athos. K: Wonderful! A: As we know, in Greece, the field between art and orthodoxy is the most radical and vibrant one. K: I am glad you support the oeuvre of Greek orthodoxy. I want to thank you for being here with us today. It was a pleasure! A: Thank you very much for inviting me. 
photo: Kangela
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¹ Thanatos or Θάνατος, m : mod. greek mean. death/ ancient greek: god of Death, son of Nyx and Erebus along with Hypnos, Nemesis, Eris, Keres, Oneiroi, et all.
² see Nikos Kazantzakis, modern Greek writer, nine-times nominee for the literature Nobel Prize. ³ greek πλάκα • (pláka) f : mean. plaque, joke, tectonic plate; anc. Πλάκᾰ ⁴ in EMST, E stands for Εθνικό mean. National; Greece, South Korea, Romania and Portugal have the only 4 National Museums of Contemporary Art worldwide, with National being an otherwise uncommon adjective of choice for contemporary art museums. ⁵ Mt Athos is also known as Àgion Òros; greek mean.: holy mountain. |
