Written by Dimitra Kondylatou

A video essay that uses theory, fiction and art history, in order to refer to the relationship of art and tourism, by highlighting the artificiality of spaces, relations and behaviours in both fields. Although the artist, like the tourism worker can reconstruct the narrative of their workplace, they often end up being the dumb performers that sustain its stability and intactness. The paradox in the case of the artist is that according to the political economy of labour, in order to keep this stability, she is in constant movement and displacement. By introducing Manet’s last painting, Un Bar aux Folies – Bergères -a painting that is believed by Michel Foucault to have changed the dominant perception of painting and representation- it wishes to enter the contemporary discourses on the modes and the systems of cultural representation and mediation. Overall THE BOX problematises the position and the agency of the artist, in sites and situations where the institution of art is predicated on travel and displacement is being institutionalised. 

a video essay by Dimitra Kondylatou, 3D design & animation: Korina Kassianou, Extra sounds: George Moraitis, Performance: Martha Kapsoulaki, Voices: Mónica Lacerda, Wilfred Tomescu, Rabea Ridlhammer