Safe Mode: Amplified Realities

Curated by Foteini Vergidou in collaboration with TILT Platform

Exhibition Duration: 08 October – 05 November 2022 

Part One: The Project Gallery, 3 Normanou Str, Athens, GR 

Part Two: MISC Athens, 20 Tousa Botsari Str, Athens, GR 

Part Three: BHD Hub, 2-4 Zan Moreas, Athens, GR

What happens when people and societies turn into ‘safe mode’?

TILT Platform adopts the term ‘safe mode’ as it is used in technology, to describe the process proposed as the only possible solution when our computers and smart devices are unable to function normally after a major crisis. During this mode of operation, they provide their minimal features and maintain their contact with the user, in order for them to save valuable files and repair – where possible – the damage. During this mode of operation, there is a spatial restriction, since the user cannot move freely and a time restriction, as they are called to act immediately.

Safe mode is an interesting condition because it dictates the prioritisation of all these things that were taken for granted.

‘Safe mode’ by definition emphasises the need for security over freedom. Artists and artistic groups from Greece and abroad explore the particular conditions of contemporary life, the redefinition of public and private sphere, the increase in technological superiority and the rapid changes in the work field.

The unprecedented condition of instability intensifies the feeling of anxiety and insecurity, legitimises intrusive surveillance measures, while citizens are constantly ceding rights to the state. At the same time, the fragility of the countries operating in “safe mode”, allows for new services, products and businesses, that aim to profit out of their costumers’ fear and hope, to flourish.

The artists look also into the intensification of the ecological destruction and the feeling that the world as we know it, is collapsing. Setting their narrative in a future without humans, they expose our arrogant attitude towards the environment, natural resources and the planet, which is treated as a field of never-ending exploitation, and describe our inability to adapt quickly and effectively to new climate conditions, resulting into our extinction.

Participating Artists:

Nikos Arvanitis (GR), Aram Bartholl (DE), Browser Based (Zsolt Mesterhazy & Alex Zakkas) (NLD / GR), Sofia Caesar (BR), Paolo Cirio (IT), Manja Ebert (DE), Adrianos Efthymiadis (GR) & Iria Vrettou (GR), For Cancel (Makis Faros, Zoi Pirini, Takis Zerdevas) (GR), Elisa Giardina Papa (IT), Basim Magdy (EGY), Theophanis Melas (GR), Simon Menner (DE), Yorgos Papafigos (GR), Michalis Zacharias (GR), Apostolos Zerdevas (GR)

Collaborating Artistic Platforms: Miden Video Art Festival which is represented by curators Gioula Papadopoulou and Olga Papadopoulou and the artists Marcos Bonisson & Khalil Charif (BRA), Isabelle Nouzha (BEL / LBN), Cesare Saldicco (IT), Hana Yoo (DE) and Ana Čigon (SVN), M.A.M.A. contemporary which presents artists Yiannis Christidis (CY), Yioula Hatzigeorgiou (CY), Andreas Savva (CY) and Nicos Synnos (Cy), and lastly Museum of Forgetting which is represented by Konstantin Economou (GR / SWE) and Jasmin Rapti (GR).

Art Direction: Eleni Simantiraki

With support of the Flemish Government, Department of Culture, Youth & Media and the support of Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Printing Sponsor: Image Works