An original conception that follows three decades of rapid transformation of post-war Greece and focuses its interest on urbanization and the way man participates or resists the new condition dictated by his ever-changing environment. To trace the human experience of the urban experience, the exhibition brings the visual arts – painting, sculpture, printmaking, installations, photography, drawings and posters – into conversation with excerpts from popular Greek cinema, critical realist films and eccentric narratives. Presenting 77 creators, 202 visual works and 21 films, “Astygrafia” attempts to map the entire scope of the concept of “urban experience” by sketching the social subject within the city, with all the charm it can exert but also with all the limitations or the exclusions that accompany it, “with the exhibition narrative constantly moving from the large to the small scale, from the panoramic shot to the close-up”, as the director of EPMAS and curator of the exhibition, Syrago Tsiara, explains. 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 occurring in Greek society. The urban landscape is changing radically with the replacement and gradual disappearance of the detached house. Daily life is changing with the spread of urban culture, the emergence of the entertainment and consumption society, the new experiences that the city offers. The city becomes the preeminent field of identity construction for internal and external migrants, while the scale, skyline and feel change dramatically with the construction of high-rises and modern shops, the opening of roads, the creation of squares, the densification of human and vehicular traffic. New relationships are formed between the metropolitan center, the district, the suburb, the refugee neighborhoods, the unplanned arbitrary construction. While the average standard of living is improving, at the same time new social divisions and exclusions are emerging. The artists interpret the changes occurring in the urban landscape, human geography and the interconnection of material and animate environment, past and present. Initially, nostalgia dominates, stereotypical or idealized narratives of a particular urban identity that is being altered along with neoclassical houses being swallowed up by buildings, while art tries to save the disappearing city. As artistic representations of urban transformation capture a mental palimpsest of experiences and emotions in an imagined coexistence of different eras, the artwork acquires a scenographic dimension. The city is invented as a setting, the creators choose the point of view and compose the frame by drawing references from reality, memory and desire. During the 1960s, the realistic intention of some creators to highlight the problems and contrasts of everyday life in the big city with a critical eye emerged. Towards the end of the historical period examined by the exhibition, materiality takes on a new meaning in the work of artists who conceptually examine the dimension of the urban experience. The exhibition includes 200 works of art, of which half come from the National Gallery Collection and the rest are included in the exhibition on loan from public and private collections. The exhibition features 21 films (excerpts from 17 feature films and 4 complete short films). It is divided into 7 sections with the titles: “Scenography”, “Nostalgia”, “Yapi”, “Close-up”, “View”, “Dreams and Conflicts”, “Materials”.
