Join us for the opening on October 25th at 19:00

To Be—Named

Acts of naming are not merely descriptive or representative—they have creative capacity and actively take part in shaping our worlds.

As a multi-site international exhibition, To Be—Named reflects upon how names are created and used to shape, reshape, and sometimes mis-shape our worlds and identities. The artists exhibited here contend with and complicate naming practices, revealing how names colonize and decolonize, as well as how personal experiences intersect with collective ones to create our political, cultural, and ecological realities.

Each iteration of the exhibition (Germany, United States, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Palestine, Republic of Sakha) is designed around a core series of digitally based artworks* that are positioned in conversation with regional artists and artworks. The resulting diversity of perspectives both troubles and provides meaningful insights into how the politics of naming play out in different contexts—not just as theoretical concepts—but as lived experiences.

The Athens iteration of To Be—Named chooses to incorporate all the original selections of digital works that travel and are reframed, to bring them into dialogue with local artists who develop visual works on common themes. Thus, among other things, they refer to politics of naming related to movements of individuals or populations happening on diverse migratory terms/conditions, family hierarchies and traditions, ties to the land, and different versions of history (memory).

In collaboration with the 11th laboratory of the Athens School of Fine Arts