To trace the human experience of urban experience, the exhibition combines fine arts – painting, sculpture, prints, installations, photography, drawings and posters – with selections from popular Greek cinema, critical realist films and eccentric narratives.

Representing 75 creators, 200 visual works and 21 films, ASTIGRAPHY tries to capture the full scope of the concept of “urban experience”, depicting the social subject in the city with all its charm, but also with all its limitations. or the exceptions that accompany it, “with the narrative of the exhibition constantly moving from large to small, panoramic to close-up,” explains EPMAS director and exhibition curator Sirago Ciara.

“Artists interpret the city not only as a built environment that contains them, but also as an everyday experience, a context that they encounter either in terms of recognition, security and acceptance, or in terms of discovery, negotiation and conflict,” says Mr. To Ciara for this historical as well as current introduction to a changing, living world that constantly offers its members – each of us – challenges that invite them to confront new facts and shape attitudes and identities.

According to the curatorial rationale, after the Second World War, urbanization, reconstruction and immigration – internal and external – decisively determine the context of the rapid changes taking place in Greek society. The urban landscape is changing radically with the replacement and gradual disappearance of mansions. Daily life is changing with the spread of urban culture, the emergence of a society of entertainment and consumption, and new experiences that the city offers.

The city is becoming a pre-eminent identity construction field for internal and external migrants, while the scale, skyline and atmosphere are changing dramatically with the construction of high-rise buildings and modern shops, the opening of roads, the creation of squares, and the densification of the movement of people and vehicles. New relations are being formed between the capital’s center, district, suburbs, refugee quarters, and unplanned unauthorized construction. While the average standard of living is improving, at the same time new social divisions and exclusions are emerging.

Artists interpret the changes taking place in the urban landscape, human geography and the relationship between the material and living environment, past and present. Initially dominated by nostalgia, a stereotypical or idealized narrative of a certain urban identity that changes with neoclassical houses being swallowed up by buildings, while art tries to save the vanishing city. As artistic representations of urban transformation reflect a mental palimpsest of experiences and emotions in an imaginary coexistence of different eras, the work of art takes on a scenographic dimension.

The city was invented as a decoration, the creators choose a point of view and compose a shot based on references from reality, memory and desire. In the 1960s, some writers had a realistic intention to critically illuminate the problems and contrasts of daily life in the big city. Toward the end of the historical period covered by the exhibition, materiality takes on a new meaning in the work of artists who conceptually explore the dimension of the urban experience.

Exhibition “ASTIGRAPHY/URBANOGRAPHY. City life in the 1950s-1970s” will be held from June 21, 2023 to March 3, 2024 in the Periodic Exhibition Hall of the Central Building of the National Gallery. It includes 200 works of art, half of which belong to the collection of the National Gallery, and the rest are on loan from public and private collections. The exhibition presents 21 films (excerpts from 17 feature films and 4 full-length short films). It is divided into 7 sections with titles: “Scenography”, “Nostalgia”, “Yapy”, “Close-Up”, “View”, “Dreams and Conflicts”, “Materials”.

Creators: Christos Avramidis, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Theodoros Adamopoulos, Alekos Alexandrakis, Achilleas Apergis, Minos Argyrakis, Michalis Arfaras, Agenor Asteriadis, Georgios Vakirtzis, Spyros Vassiliou, George Velissaridis, Lucas Venetoulias, Nikolaos Ventouras, Andreas Vourloomis, Giannis s Gaitis, Daniel Gunaridis, Grigoris Grigoriou, Daniel (Panagopoulos), Dinos Dimopoulos, Diamantis Diamantopoulos, Cleopatra Digka, Nikos Eggonopoulos, George Ioannou, Michalis Kakoyannis, Lefteris Kanakakis, Vlasis Kaniaris, Christos Kapralos, Niki Karagatsi, Stelios Kasimatis, Takis Katsoulidis, Nikos Ke Senlis, Clearchos Konitsiotis, Dimosthenis Kokkinidis, Alekos Kontopoulos, Alexandros Koroyannakis, Nikos Koundouros, Panos Koutrombusis, Aristea Kritsotakis, George Lazougas, Giulika Lakeridou, Konstantinos Malamos, Robiros Mantoulis, George Manousakis, Tonia Marketakis, Dimitris Megalidis, Giannis Migas, namely, Giannis Mihas, Giannis Moralis, Chronis Botsoglu, Eva Bulgouras, Dimitris Mitaras, Nikos Nikolaidis, Ira Oikonomidou, Kleanthis Pantias, Rena Papaspirou, George Paralis, Maria Plate, Chrissa Romanou, Alekos Sakellarios, George Skalenakis, Dimos (Demosthenis) Skoulakis, Vassilis Sperantzas, Giannis Spyropoulos, Aspa Stasinopoulou, Dimitris Stavrakas, Pavlos Tassios, Tassos (Alevizos Anastasios), Panagiotis Thetsis, George Tsavellas, George Tougias, Giannis Tsaruchis, Alekos Fassianos, Kostas Ferris, Dimitris Charisiadis, Nikos Chatzikiriakos-Ghikas, Maria Chrousakis, Giannis Psychopadis.

Concept – Editing: Sirago Ciara
Research contributions: Efi Agafonikou, Elpiniki Meidani, Katerina Tavanzi, Artemis Zervou, Maria Komnenou, Julia Mermiga
Museographic research: Maria Manet
Production Coordination: Irini Sapkas
Contact person: Maria Ioannou

In collaboration with the Film Archive of Greece
Supported by Hellenic Film Center

National Gallery – Museum of Alexandros Soutsos (St. Konstantinou 50, Athens)
Main building – Hall of periodic exhibitions
June 21, 2023 – March 3, 2024