Critical Convergence: Greek contemporary artists in dialogue with the (recent) past

Abstract

Description / Rationale: Through the technological evolution of the past two decades, there has been an identification of technological mediums so that today, functions such as the recording, processing and reproduction of sound, image and text for communication, entertainment and information purposes are realised through the use of similar digital tools. The “digital convergence”, as is the established term within theoretical discourse about technology, art and the media, merely constitutes the most recent name given to define the advanced form of the integration and hybridization tendency already inherent in audiovisual media. Nevertheless, a critical glance at this concept will reveal that no medium is ever totally identified with another and that, although some parts of information survive such a transmigration, some elements equally get lost in the process. Consequently, the false perception of absolute identification opens the path for the distortion of the sensorial and sociological reality and of history overall. Whist watching the works of the present screening programme, the above-mentioned concerns have greatly informed and enhanced our understanding of this condition and final selection. They have as a common denominator the combination of manual, analogue and digital techniques in order to create implicitly or explicitly political narratives. Through the changing lens of successive technologies, often in line with the respective implications of their adoption, the artists in the programme examine recent and historical crises in Europe and the Middle East; crises on a political, moral, and technological level. This is often achieved with the creative use of original archival material and its integration within the momentum of each respective work. Through this practice, the works operate on multiple levels: in terms of the social and political aspect of their subject-matter, they function both as historical evidence and as its interpretation. At the same time, due to the coexistence of multiple media, the aforementioned historical evidence highlights, evaluates and transcends the limits and capacities of each individual medium