Her(His)tory

THE EXHIBITION

The Museum of Cycladic art is delighted to announce Her(his)tory,
 the first ever video-art exhibition in its premises, examining the 
notion of the subjective development of the ‘historical condition’. It 
will be presented in a stunning installation which will extend both to 
the Stathatos Megaron, a neoclassical mansion designed by the 19th 
century architect Ernst Ziller, and the New Wing of the museum, at 4 
Neofytou Douka Street. Commissioned from the Museum of Cycladic Art for 
the independent curator and art critic Marina Fokidis, the exhibition is
 sponsored by the National Bank of Greece and Bombay Sapphire. Concentrating
 on themes drawn from personal stories of today’s human beings, the show
 will feature the works of leading artists including Bruce Nauman, Garry
 Hill, Rodney Graham, Doug Aitken, Aernout Mik, Douglas Gordon, The 
Atlas Group, Anri Sala, Tony Oursler and others, as well as younger 
members of the contemporary art scene such as Zineb Sedira, Adel 
Abdessemed, Seth Price, Cory Arcangel, Paul Chan, and others.

Her(his)tory addresses the major issues faced by 
society in the contemporary world. It will comprise of artworks which 
comment - with a poetic and in cases humoristic view - on questions such
 as the profile of contemporary woman and man, and on the vast 
geopolitical contemporary arena today. The idea is to present works that
 will intrigue the interest around human culture and will promote the 
diversity found in the synthesis of various personal stories, the 
intersection of ‘private’ and ‘public’, and the comprehension of the 
‘historical truth’ through everyday life experiences.

Through the coexistence of contemporary art video-works along with 
ancient objects from the permanent collections housed in the Museum of 
Cycladic Art, new questions are anticipated to arise in what concerns 
the provenance of human culture and its contemporary evolution. In 
particular, this applies to the exhibit's juxtaposition with the human 
representations (figurines) of the Early Cycladic culture, these elegant
 witnesses of the 3rd millennium BC which, though silent, reflect the 
anthropocentric spirit of an important prehistoric insular culture that 
flourished in the Aegean.

Amongst other media, video has been chosen to signify the diachronic notion of ‘movement’ and ‘time’ into the arts, and its representation in general. Hopefully, the exhibition will act as a platform for debate and that these video-works will prompt the viewers to attach to them, their private interpretations of life.