Maria Papadimitriou' Free Hotels by Postmedia Books

FREE HOTELS Maria Papadimitriou Με την ευγενική υποστήριξη

ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ Φ. ΚΩΣΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ With the kind support of

THE J. F. COSTOPOULOS FOUNDATION © 2014 Postmedia Srl, Milano Traduzioni: Tony Mozer, Thalia Istikopoulou Design: Alessandra Mancini Cover: Maria Papadimitriou Editing Supervisor: Alexios Papazacharias, Vassiliki-Maria Plavou www.postmediabooks.it ISBN 978-88-7490-126-5

Maria Papadimitriou

FREE HOTELS

To my family and to my beloved friend Catherine Cafopoulos.

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maria papadimitriou free hotels

Reflective Places of Hospitality in The Age of Precarity A discussion between Maria Papadimitriou and Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

COSMOTEL The Managers is Myself Maria Papadimitriou

HOTEL GRANDE Common Ground Maria - Thalia Carras

HOTEL INTERNATIONAL Maria Halkias

HOTEL ISOLA Jennifer Allen

HOTEL PLUG-INN Maria Halkias

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HOTEL BALKAN Maria Halkias

OTEL NOKUL

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Maria Halkias

Like an epilogue. Travellers, dwelling, xenia, hospitality, community, time, alien, identity, participation…

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Emanuela De Cecco

Αναστοχαστικοί τόποι φιλοξενίας στην εποχή της επισφάλειας

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Μια συζήτηση ανάμεσα στη Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου και το Γιώργο Τζιρτζιλάκη

Σαν πολυφωνικός επίλογος: Ταξιδιώτες, διαμονή, ξενία, φιλοξενία, κοινότητα, χρόνος, ξένος, συμμετοχή, ταυτότητα …

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Emanuela De Cecco

Luoghi di Ospitalita’ Deputati alla Riflessione, nell’Era della Precarieta’

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Una discussione fra Maria Papadimitriou e Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

Come un epilogo a più voci: Viaggiatori, dimorare, xenia, ospitalità, comunità, tempo, straniero, partecipazione, identità… Emanuela De Cecco

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Reflexive Places of Hospitality in the Age of Precarity A discussion between Maria Padimitriou and Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

It’s well before nightfall That the one who has greeted darkness comes by your house. And well before daybreak that he wakes And brings to life a dream before he goes, A dream resonating with steps: You hear him crossing distances with long strides And down there you cast your soul Paul Celan, “Der Gast”

YORGOS TZIRTZILAKIS: How did your obsession with hotels, with the diffusion of hotel hospitality, begin?

MARIA PAPADIMITRIOU: My obsession with hotels is clearly associated with a family tradition; my grandfather and my parents were hoteliers. Grandfather came to Athens from Samos at the age of fifteen, and within a few years he had managed to acquire six small hotels in the city centre. Then he left for the Asia Minor campaign. When he returned he found nothing, and he almost came to hate the idea of ownership. He continued in the same line of work, but this time as businessman rather than owner. Two of grandfather’s hotels remain prominent in my memory: one for its beauty and the other for its peculiarity. The Emborikon Hotel was one of the first buildings to incorporate art-nouveau principles in downtown Athens, on Aghias Irinis Square. It had four floors, externally decorated with large Atlas sculptures and with painted ceilings everywhere. I liked visiting there and looking at the paintings on the ceilings or climbing the stairs all the

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way from the basement to the top and then sliding down the banister. The Hermeion Hotel had a different kind of charm. It was also four storied, but the top floor hosted the family home and my grandmother’s little cottage industry. Life and work were inextricable. I remember the large hall with a long table in the middle, doors leading to rooms right and left, the kitchen and bathrooms at the back, and a large balcony with a view of the Acropolis at the other end. The things that took place there are beyond description. My aunt played the piano; grandmother had turned the large room into a workshop for making luxury ties and bowties, with five or six young women working there. The hotel chambermaids kept running about and cooking in the kitchen for the family, the staff and the guests. People kept coming and going all the time. Only Sundays were quiet, and grandfather took painting lessons at the large hall table. This mixture of home and work thrilled me – there was always something interesting going on for you to watch. And then I spent my teenage summers at my parents’ hotels. More modern, certainly, a little bigger but never exceeding 50 or 60 rooms. They were tourist hotels of a family character. So you see, hotels have always been an extension of my home. Y.TZ.: We could say, then, that this obsession came as a need for you to process this aspect of childhood, the memories and experiences of that time and the feeling from those gatherings? M.P.: In the late 1990s I thought I should change my lifestyle and set up a permanent home for the first time, abandoning mobility and the nomadic life and concentrate more on myself. I chose to stay in the suburbs, away from the centre of Athens, at a house provided by my parents close to nature so as to facilitate contemplation. Yet this state of “common life” was missing, in a way. So I started to invite people on Sundays – some 10 to 15 or even 20 friends, artists, critics, writers and others who made up an interesting group for talking and hanging out, accompanied, of course, by the necessary food and drink. The pleasure of looking after my friends as a host is certainly something I learned from my family and its line of work. Our Sunday meetings became increasingly interesting as the “team” became more cohesive and our talks about art were intense and tempestuous. We were trying to understand the peculiarities of Greek culture but also the reason why this country has almost no provision for supporting and promoting contemporary art by either the public or the private sector. Why does our cultural time seem to have stopped at the Byzantium? Why can’t we escape the shackles of the

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Papadimitriou family hotels. All photos courtesy of Maria Papadimitriou archive.

Strumica, Macedonia 1994 -1996

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The manager is myself Maria Papadimitriou

Cosmotel was a project that revolved around the idea of an autonomous migrating artistic community, that used a hotel as its creative base. The collective work was exhibited in peripheral artistic centers such as Thessaloniki and Ioannina in an attempt to decentralize artistic production in Greece. Cosmotel is essentially an art motel for artists inhabiting related ideas and motivations. The basic promise is to provide facilities for artists working in the context of an environment which fuses individuality and collective activities. In this sense the Cosmotel is specific but also open ended: no one can predict what the resulting picture will be, for all the good reasons. The Cosmotel consists of 11 resident artists, 9 resident architects and includes advisors for anthropological, philosophical and psychological issues. In keeping with the rigorous diversity of its cosmopolitan members the Cosmotel includes, Cosmogallery, Cosmo-theater, Cosmo-cinema, Cosmo-bar, Cosmo-restaurant as well as conference and communications features. The building featuring the Cosmotel logo is in the town of Strumica â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a 1.30 hour drive from Thessaloniki and 1 hour from Skopia â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which would have been the location for a meeting planned to take place in the future. The reality is that as the daughter of hotel owners I had always the obsession of

creating my own hotel. All the artists, architects and the rest of the people are my friends whom I gave hospitality every weekend during 1994-1996 satisfying in that way my enthusiasm for communication and collaboration. The hotel in Strumica (a typical architectural style from the period of Tito) belonged to a friend of mine, the owner of the biggest tobacco company in Greece, who used it as a guest house for the buyers and some employees. My relations with him however broke down and unfortunately I cannot now use this hotel in this particular location to serve my purposes anymore. I am still looking for a new location as Cosmotel will always be the ideal house for the artists.

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Larissa, Greece Going Public 2005

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Common Ground Maria-Thalia Carras

Exhausted after a long day’s trek you walk into the Hotel Grande. Whether you are a part of the world’s traveling art community, a hippy, beatnik, Roma gypsy, an immigrant from one of the four corners of the world looking for a brighter future or just a good old tourist, the Hotel’s simple lobby welcomes you. It offers a bed to rest your weary limbs and “A New Atlas of the City” to guide you around your new temporary home, Larissa. Maria Papadimitriou’s project Common Ground focuses on finding exactly that: a space where all travelers’ wishes and desires can converge. She coordinates the actions of communities such as the Roma gypsies of the region or students from the University of Larissa. She channels their creativity towards a common cause. This cause may be the naming of the Hotel Grande by the gypsies themselves – a comical take on the simplicity and the minimal comforts offered by this establishment in the heart of Larissa – or the “New Atlas,” made up of thousands of photographs taken by students and compiled as a visual tour of the city to be leafed through in the hotel’s reception area. To the left of the reception desk in the lobby of the Hotel Grande hangs a painting purchased by Papadimitriou from a Nigerian salesman; a picturesque landscape, the embodiment of that permanent image lodged in many a traveler’s mind, either from a still unfound

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paradise or from some memory of home which the passage of time has blurred into utopian perfection. Underlying Papadimitriou’s project is an attempt to understand what pushes travelers forward. Is there a common identity or strain of thought? The characteristic reply by one of the Roma gypsies interviewed by Papadimitriou was that gypsies travel for commercial reasons: if they stayed too long in one place, their selling pitches would slowly fall on deaf ears. Are these travelers then in search of nothing more than a good hard sell? Might it be perhaps that they are their own masters – that they are free? In the black and white 1960’s film “Mehri to Ploio” (Until the Ship) by the film director Alexis Damianos we follow a man as he leaves a village in the mountains and makes his way to the Port of Piraeus hoping to move to Australia like so many other Greek immigrants. Papadimitriou rearranged a shed-like space connected to a service station and transformed it into a makeshift cinema where the film will be shown every night throughout the duration of the exhibition. Modern day travelers speeding down the highway can stop and take a look at a slower pace of travel at a time when moves from place to place could be both emotionally tormenting and alienating. Papadimitriou’s project Common Ground creates environments which may be makeshift but which embody permanent hopes and dreams, a resting place for travelers where they can commune in new territories and which for a while they can call their own.

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City plan according to neighborhoodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; characters.

Entertainment Cultural Sites Education Religion

City plan according to cultural activities.

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Andros, Greece The Garden of Epicurus 2006

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Hotel International Maria Halkias

During the summer of 2006 the artist attended the First Andros International, “a formal counter event” bringing together eight invited artists from Athens, New York and Berlin. Acting upon this notion of a chance cohabitation and creativity, she produced a unique hotel within the larger series of Free Hotels. Challenging one of the harshest wind affected areas of the Cycladic Island of Andros, Papadimitriou pitched up the temporary structure of “Hotel International.” The rural landscape of Hotel International did not provide with an in situ framework. To this effect, the artist resorted to an alternative form of ready-made structure, of both a transportable and temporary nature – a tent with two independent spaces: a small entrance space, symbolizing the hotel reception area, followed immediately by a single sleeping quarter. The concern with regard to the extra-ordinary position of the tent given its newness vis-à-vis the host terrain was quickly forgotten as the tent quicly aged battling and flapping day in and day out against the souring winds. The very nature of the tent, pitched up directly against he ground engendered an immediate physical form of co-habitation between hotel and host territory. The chance summer travelers were invited to rest and experience the very forces of nature upon them continuously reminded of their unbeatable presence, whether it was the constant beating of the Mediterranean sun or the wind and the barren soil seeping through every opening.

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Milan, Italy Isola Art Center 2006

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Hotel Isola Jennifer Allen

Hotel Isola consists of a reception desk and a room with a bed. The project is part of a chain of hotels that the artist has installed in unlikely places, offering people a chance to rethink, to take stock and to rest. Other hotels include the Cosmotel in Macedonia and the Hotel Grande in Larissa. Her work uses these homes away from home not only as places for quiet reflection but also as sites where another community is grouped together around new relationships and ideas. The hotel is open to everyone around the clock: the world’s traveling art community, the Milanese passer-by, the squatter, the tourist, the city dweller and anyone interested in reflecting on public space from a semiprivate perspective. Ultimately, Hotel Isola is also the result of the surrounding community’s conflict with the local urban planners and the Garibaldi-Repubblica building project. While the Isola residents would like to transform the abandoned factory into a community center, the planners would like to tear down the old structure to make way for high-rise commercial towers. Papadimitriou’s hotel – as a transient space – provides a home for the Isola residents’ reflections as well as a monument to their history. Apart from one bed, Hotel Isola is filled with objects that the artist collected from the factory and from the locals. Here, visitors can rest with the past and contemplate the future.

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< Patrizia Bortolini - Unâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Isola di cultura contro i palazzinari - Liberazione - 03.02.07.

Armando Besio - Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Isola del futuro - La Repubblica 04.02.2004.

Lanzarote, Canary Islands Bienal de Arquitectura, Arte y Paisaje 2006 - 2007

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Hotel Plug-Inn Maria Halkias

Far off the coasts of the Mediterranean into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Hotel Plug-Inn was on the occasion of the First Bienal de Arquitectura, Arte y Paisaje de las Islas Canarias in 2006. This hotel materialised inside one of the most important examples of military architecture within the Canary Islands: Castillo San Gabriel. Located right off the coast of the Arrecife city limits on the tiny island Islote de los Ingleses overlooking the coast of Africa, San Gabriel was stone-built in the sixteenth century as a military outpost defending local interests and keeping pirates and invaders at bay. One recurrent and pressing phenomenon that inspired the artist to create was the repeated clandestine arrival of undocumented immigrants in local beaches. Hotel Plug-Inn was created as a welcoming service for the unreported immigrants. This deliberate conversion of the old fort from its historical seat was not intended as a form of subversive transformation but rather operated as an updating process of the ready-made, a symbol of â&#x20AC;&#x153;restorationâ&#x20AC;? in view of present yet absent local narratives and itineraries. The non-presence of these world taravelers from Hotel Plug-Inn was suggestive of their continued clandestine existence. Their presence was hinted all through Hotel Plug-Inn as the hotel was dressed and furnished with abandoned clothes, blankets and cayucos, wooden boats used by undocumented travellers that cross over from Africa, transformed into furniture.

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Haifa, Israel Haifa Mediterranean Biennal 2010

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Hotel Balkan Maria Halkias

The first Haifa Mediterranean Biennale was held within a shipping container complex next to the city port. The artist appropriated this ready-made spatial framework to host a sparsely furnished hotel that would include a reception room and a bedroom seperated by a fragmented cinder-block wall built at the foot of the single bed. A large rug solely decorated the otherwise empty reception area. In comparison, the bedroom seemed richly furnished as it included a bed, a lit nightstand, a desk and a chair. From an undisclosed place music seeped through the container with old recordings of Balkan radio broadcasts. The remarkable element however was the abundance of decorative objects placed on each of the surfaces: a tapestry portrait of General Tito at the head of the bed, two hanging framed sketches of political figures atop the night stand and various mini-bronze busts of Balkan political figures against a reclining vanity mirror. The artist provided an explanation for the presence of these objects in a comissioned novel from Vassilis Constantinou, available in poster form for all visitors and guests to read and keep if desired. The story told of the migration path taken by a small businessman and dockworkers from the Balkan area and nothern Greece for the Port of Haifa, throughout the first half of the twentieth century, thus unveilling a small yet significant historical link between the Balkan themed hotel platform and the host terrain.

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Sinop, Turkey Sinopale 3, International Sinop Biennale 2010

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Otel Nokul Maria Halkias

In 2010 the artist was invited to build yet another hotel on the occasion of the 3rd Sinop Biennal in Turkey, the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most remote city of the Black Sea region. The conceptual framework of the exhibition relied heavily on identifying and rebuilding local histories and identities in order to reveal hidden and unrecorded memories and alliances with the present. Free Hotel projects fell directly in line with such provocation towards local exploration and revelation of the Genious Loci of the terittory. For this hotel the artist chose to pick up threads with Sinopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notorious prison, famous in Turkey for holding prisoners some of the nations most important intellectuals. She soon found an ex-prison bus in disuse and turned this well-known public utility of incarceration and confinement into a resting and welcoming public platform: Otel Nokul. The traditional sweet Sinopian specialty after which the hotel was named, proved to be the only common ground on which any communication between the artist and the Sinopian locals could be established during the Ramadan. In an attempt to establish further creative dialogue with her public, Papadimitriou used her Greek identity to provoke these mnemonic frontiers and used Greek magazines to cover the hotel walls. This paper collage was soon torn apart by locals, bringing the original walls of the bus back into the visitorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; full view.

This act proved to be most symbolic with regard to the notion of the collective mnemonic makeup of the city, for although memories of the past can ellapse and be forgotten, their traces in history cannot be effaced, they remain alive in the abandoned objects, in the walls of the city, partaking of the uniqueness of the city and its history.

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Like a polyphonic epilogue. Travellers, dwelling, xenia, hospitality, community, time, alien, identity, participation… Emanuela De Cecco

Travellers

Who are them? Who are we? We organize ourselves, we book everything on time, we plan one month for the next, one season for the next season, one year for the next year. Through friends pass the word, information acquired on the web, on newspapers and on travel guide we get transports and hotels: when we are leaving we plan everything so not to waste time, to avoid unforeseen inconvenience or to get lost. Best hotels are those in which we feel at home, same thing for the coffee. But this is not the hotel idea that attracts Maria Papadimitriou. Her hotel, as we can read in the description of the first hotel of the chain Cosmotel (1994-1996), are the resultant of many concentrated desires: to find the way of keeping the contact with a community of architects and artists first, then to stimulate the convergence of subjects belonging to separate worlds who would not otherwise get in contact with each others, and again, to concretize an ancient family desire. To this I would add a last one, which belongs to this work but is present in all the artist’s production, that is the desire of developing/performing relational forms which work persistently against the social discipline, which always tries to create an order everywhere. In the next passages, the consolidating trait is the openness. An openness which refers to welcoming, to the configuration flexibility of each and single hotel, shown in every details, also the material ones. They are welcoming neighbours as well as long distance travellers, open to travellers who want to leave the luggage or want to rest for a while. In many cases they don’t give touristic information about monuments and sites, but the results of the artist’s personal researches or sometimes researches developed with the aid of students on what is happening in that place: pictures composing visual atlas (New Atlas) and information depicting interesting aspects otherwise

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not traceable, contradictions and/or wounds which determine the social coexistence, where openness includes also those that instinctively pushes us to look away, pretending not to see. Those are devices embedded in the reality artist declines each time in relation to contexts: encounter devices which call our attention on the present, on the here and now, antithetical places compared to any imaginary elsewhere that we dreamt reaching.

Dwelling The Italian verb dimorare (dwelling) comes from the Latin demorari which means “delay, postpone.” To put this kind of accent on a verb which usually is used as a synonymous of to inhabit, concretize the traveller typology of Maria Papadimitriou’s hotels. We are not ourselves until we think the travel as an attempt to tame time and space, we are not ourselves until we are willing to accept the unforeseen, something that doesn’t fit in the sphere of what we thing we can control. In these places/dwellings postponing refers to a particular staying condition: a subtle tension between the desire to go on and the one to stay a little bit more, postpone the leave pushed by the desire to investigate open horizons and the sense they carry.

Xenia In botany, the word xenìa derives from the Greek term ξενία (hospitality) and it refers to the phenomenon that occurs when the completed hybridization of two variations of a species it is already shown in the seed produced by the mother plant. This description does not concern the human species, but it works symptomatically to remind us that in order to be hospitable we should not only welcome friends in our houses, but we should take two more steps forward: get in a profound contact with ourselves first, and with whom don’t look like us then.

Hospitality L’hospitalité, c’est la culture même et n’est pas une éthique parmi d’autres. Jacques Derrida An act of hospitality can only be poetic. Jacques Derrida

Community The sense of community offers the possibility to widen one’s mentality… Beauty teaches us to love without interests…sociability is the true origin – and not the end – of humanity. Hannah Arendt

Time A characterising trait of the places where these hotels are settled, is the non neutrality. None of them was erected in a place without the signs of time, or without traces of previous story/stories. In many cases they are abandoned places, to which the artist temporally gives another intended use. Reception is the device collecting this change, or better, is the place where Maria Papadimitriou disseminates traces leading to other stories, referring to events connected to elsewhere, in time (past) and in space (outside, around the hotel), traces that once decoded, open the way to other encounters, with other guests, with the history of the place… The internal furniture are minimal and organically composed by waste material, being signs again, other traces of stratified stories. In Lanzarote, where Maria Papadimitriou built the Hotel Plug-Inn (2006) all the furniture is realized using the remains of boats landed on the island, immigrants’ boats which tried to reach Europe from Africa, many left but got to the island without travellers and into pieces. The hotel becomes (also) a memorial through the pieces it contains. We can feel in it the tragic faith of those people who have no face or name for us, and who lost their lives leaving their country to come in our country, searching for a possible future. Ghosts. This, as well as all others, is not a place for whom travel dwelling in places where the outside world is kept outside, where signs are recurrent and help to consciously emphasise the distance from the reality where they are immersed.

Alien

I would prefer to talk of an origin as it were disoriginating, that continuously consume itself in order to reconstruct, to set up again, recreate itself in a new, different, innovative, uncontrolled form, as an answer also to external, others, stimuli. An origin which is never a native land, a fixed home, which thus delegitimize each nationalist attempt to trace boundaries, barriers, states.

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There is no out nor in, which create inclusion and exclusion, marginalization and discriminations. That is, if we can refer to boundaries, those boundaries are immediately extra territorial, open to otherness and to diversity because the origin is always elsewhere. In this sense, we are in exile, because origin is in exile, always visitor, always at the mercy of the kindness and others’ hospitality. Silvia Benso

Identity I Make space, work to, being the instrument for, let the desire and the intentionality of the other grow. Take and give time to let this thing really happening.

Identity II Identity-relation a homeland is not represented as a territory from where we project into other territories, but as a place where we “share” instead of “understand.” Edouard Glissant

Participation The spectator’s role is one of the great issue of art practice and critical reflections from the 90’s onwards. I refer to the way artists involve the spectator in, the adopted strategies, the very sharing space, the power roles, the confrontation with other social practices and other disciplines, anthropology first. In the 70’s the social, cultural and political context favoured participation which was then a widespread practice and artists themselves were engaged in bringing their work outside art spaces, searching a non mediated interaction with public: twenty years after, participation is coming back. The set-back of time in the resurgence of the private and the consequent detachment from public life, the so called reflux period, gives space to the will of recovering forms of relations (with people, with places). The ways and the action strategies artists used have different characters, in which we depict a less direct system objection, a stronger attempt to bring their own action into reality, changing it, a stronger attempt to change behaviours of spectators in museums, transforming it in a place where to stay, encounter, do. It is well known how the phenomenon was not geographically restricted

and institutional networks were born to stimulate artists in developing their interventions in particular contexts, often related to other social actors. This form will develop in a more systematic way in the United States and in North Europe. In Italy – with some exceptions – and in the rest of the Mediterranean countries, the same phenomenon has been more temporary, starting from the energies artists personally and informally bring into play. The paradox, which does not seem a paradox anymore at a closer look, is that although informality is hard to keep and to manage, is anyway what keeps the work effective and alive. Autonomy is greater, objectives remain related to the project, the work of the artist is not inscribed in a logic directed to other goals. Since the end of the 80’s Maria Papadimitriou chose this direction. The reasons of this choice are given by herself in an interview to Hou Hanru: “I have always been interested in observing people, exploring the human condition and trying to render social justice.” These aspects are present in all of her work and also in free hotels, obviously. They are far distant from the self-referentiality which characterise those operations developing inside world and spaces of art, as well as they are far from social scopes understood as utility, also because the common sense use of the definition of “social scope” and “social utility” implies the idea of the taming of the other, his progressive conformation to dominant norms. They are not thought as to obtain institutional legitimization, to resist the order intervention, they are and they become places where we give the encounter experience: Maria starts from herself to relate with others, the starting point is an internal space, not visible, from where her projects acquire shape and strength. A place activated by the desire of letting the encounter happen and to transform it not only into possible conditions but also in material constructions.

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Αναστοχαστικοί τόποι φιλοξενίας στην εποχή της επισφάλειας Μια συζήτηση ανάμεσα στη Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου και το Γιώργο Τζιρτζιλάκη

«Πολύ πριν το βράδυ Σταματά στο σπίτι σου αυτός που χαιρετήθηκε με το σκοτάδι. Πολύ πριν απ’ το πρωί Προτού να φύγει, ξυπνά και ζωντανεύει ένα όνειρο, Ένα όνειρο που το διατρέχουν βήματα: Άκουσέ τον να μετρά τις αποστάσεις Και ρίξε εκεί την ψυχή σου» Paul Celan, «Der Gast», Von Schwelle zu Schwelle

Γιώργος Τζιρτζιλάκης: Πώς ξεκίνησε αυτή η ιδιαίτερη εμμονή σου με τα ξενοδοχεία, αυτή η διαρκής διασπορά της ξενοδόχευσης;

Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου: Η εμμονή με τα ξενοδοχεία έχει προφανώς να κάνει με μια οικογενιακή παράδοση. Ο παππούς και οι γονείς μου ήταν ξενοδόχοι. Ο παππούς ήρθε στην Αθήνα από τη Σάμο σε ηλικία 15 ετών και μέσα σε λίγα χρόνια κατάφερε να αποκτήσει 6 μικρά ξενοδοχεία στο κέντρο της πόλης. Μετά έφυγε στον πόλεμο της Μικράς Ασίας. Όταν επέστρεψε δεν βρήκε τίποτα και έτσι, σχεδόν μίσησε την ιδιοκτησία. Όμως συνέχισε το ίδιο επάγγελμα, αυτή τη φορά όχι ως ιδιοκτήτης αλλά ως επιχειρηματίας. Δύο χαρακτηριστικά ξενοδοχεία του παππού έχουν καταγραφεί έντονα στη μνήμη μου. Το ένα για την ομορφιά του και το άλλο για την ιδιαιτερότητά του. Το Ξενοδοχείο «Εμπορικόν» ήταν από τα πρώτα κτήρια που υιοθέτησαν αρχές της art nouveau στην καρδιά της Αθήνας, στην πλατεία Αγίας Ειρήνης. Τετραώροφο, εξωτερική διακόσμηση με άτλαντες, μεγάλα γλυπτά, εσωτερικές οροφογραφίες παντού. Ήθελα να το επισκέπτομαι γιατί μου άρεσε να χαζεύω τις ζωγραφιές στα ταβάνια, να ανεβαίνω την τεράστια στρογγυλή σκάλα από το υπόγειο στο δώμα και μετά να την κατεβαίνω

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κάνονοντας τσουλήθρα στο κάγκελο. To Ξενοδοχείο «Ερμείον» είχε άλλη γοητεία. Κι αυτό τετραόροφο αλλά ο τελευταίος όροφος στέγαζε το σπίτι της οικογένειας και τη μικρή βιοτεχνία της γιαγιάς. Η δουλειά και η ζωή ήταν αξεδιάλυτα μπλεγμένα. Θυμάμαι το μεγάλο χωλ με ένα μεγάλο τραπέζι στη μέση. Αριστερά και δεξιά είχε δωμάτια, στο βάθος ήταν η κουζίνα και οι τουαλέτες, από την άλλη πλευρά μία μεγάλη βεράντα με θέα την Ακρόπολη. Το τι γινόταν μέσα σ’ αυτό το σπίτι είναι απερίγραπτο. Η θεία έπαιζε πιάνο, η γιαγιά είχε μετατρέψει το μεγάλο δωμάτιο σε εργαστήριο γραβατών και παπιγιόν πολυτελείας και σε αυτό δούλευαν πέντε με έξι κοπέλες. Οι καμαριέρες του ξενοδοχείου πηγαινοέρχονταν και συνεχώς κάτι μαγείρευαν στην κουζίνα για την οικογένεια, τους υπαλλήλους και τους πελάτες. Κόσμος έμπαινε κι έβγαινε συνεχώς. Μόνο τις Κυριακές υπήρχε ησυχία και ο παππούς έπαιρνε μαθήματα ζωγραφικής στο μεγάλο τραπέζι του χωλ. Το δίπτυχο σπίτι–εργασία με ενθουσίαζε, πάντα έβρισκες κάποιο ενδιαφέρον επεισόδιο να παρακουλουθήσεις. Στη συνέχεια έζησα τα εφηβικά μου καλοκαίρια στα ξενοδοχεία των γονιών μου. Ασφαλώς πιο μοντέρνα, λίγο μεγαλύτερα, ποτέ όμως δεν ξεπερνούσαν τα 50-60 δωμάτια. Ήταν σαν να λέμε τουριστικά με ένα οικογενειακό χαρακτήρα. Όπως αντιλαμβάνεσαι, λοιπόν, το ξενοδοχείο ήταν πάντα προέκταση του σπιτιού μου. Γ.ΤΖ.: Θα μπορούσαμε να πούμε, δηλαδή, ότι αυτή η εμμονή σου καλλιεργήθηκε σαν μια ανάγκη να επεξεργαστείς αυτή τη σχέση σου με την παιδική ηλικία, με τις εμπειρίες και τις αναμνήσεις αυτής της εποχής αλλά και την αίσθηση αυτών των συναθροίσεων, εν πάση περιπτώσει; Μ.Π.: Στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1990 σκέφτηκα να αλλάξω τον τρόπο ζωής μου, να οργανώσω για πρώτη φορά μία σταθερή κατοικία, να παρατήσω την έντονη κινητικότητα και το νομαδισμό και να συγκεντρωθώ περισσότερο στον εαυτό μου. Επέλεξα να μείνω στα προάστια, μακρυά από το κέντρο της Αθήνας, σε ένα σπίτι που μου παραχώρησαν οι γονείς μου κοντά στη φύση, για διευκόλυνση της περισυλλογής. Όμως, κατά κάποιο τρόπο, η κατάσταση της «κοινής ζωής» μας έλειπε. Για το λόγο αυτό άρχισα να καλώ τις Κυριακές περίπου 10 με 15, καμιά φορά και 20 φίλους καλλιτέχνες, κριτικούς, συγγραφείς και άλλους γνωστούς μου, που δημιουργούσαν μια ενδιαφέρουσα παρέα για συζήτηση και συναναστροφή, η οποία συνοδευόταν, βέβαια, από το απαραίτητο φαγητό και ποτό. Η ευχαρίστηση να περιποιούμαι τους φίλους μου και η φιλοξενία είναι κάτι που έμαθα από την οικογένεια μου σίγουρα και τη συνάφειά της με αυτό το είδος της εργασίας. Οι κυριακάτικες συναντήσεις μας γίνονταν κάθε φορά και πιο ενδιαφέρουσες, η «ομάδα» έδενε και οι

συζητήσεις για θέματα τέχνης έντονες και τρικυμιώδεις. Προσπαθούσαμε να καταλάβουμε τις ιδιαιτερότητες της ελληνικής κουλτούρας αλλά και για ποιο λόγο δεν υπάρχει στη χώρα μας σχεδόν καμία μέριμνα για την προώθηση και τη στήριξη της σύγχρονης τέχνης από δημόσιους αλλά και ιδιωτικούς φορείς. Γιατί ο πολιτισμικός μας χρόνος έμοιαζε να έχει σταματήσει στο Βυζάντιο; Γιατί δεν μπορούμε να ξεφύγουμε από τα δεσμά της τοπικότητας, ακόμη κι εμείς που πιστεύαμε ότι μπορούμε να είμαστε ισάξιοι συνομιλητές με τους υπόλοιπους ευρωπαίους συναδέλφους μας; Γιατί διατηρείται αυτή η απομόνωση, πως προκύπτει, ποιον συμφέρει και, εντέλει, ποιος επωφελείται; Τι πρέπει να κάνουμε; Πως θα αντιδράσουμε, με ποιους τρόπους θα αυτοσχεδιάσουμε για να προχωρήσουμε; Γ.ΤΖ.: Απ’ότι θυμάμαι, το Cosmotel (1998) στη Στρούμνιτσα, ήταν το πρώτο σε αυτή τη σειρά των οραματικών και εφήμερων ξενοδοχεύσεων που ακολούθησαν. Μ.Π.: Είναι αυτό που αυθόρμητα προήλθε από τις κυριακάτικες παρατεταμένες συζητήσεις μας. Ένα φαντασιακό ξενοδοχείο που επιχειρούσε να απαντήσει σε ορισμένα από αυτά τα θέματα.

Γ.ΤΖ.: Παρατηρούμε, δηλαδή, ότι η έναρξη αυτού του free hotel έχει το χαρακτήρα μιας ανοιχτής πλατφόρμας διαλόγου, ή ενός χώρου λογοθετικής ανταλλαγής. Κατά κάποιο τρόπο, συνεχίζει, σε άλλη μορφή, τις κυριακάτικες συναντήσεις στο προαύλιο του σπιτιού σου. Θέλω να πω ότι επιχειρεί να ενεργοποιήσει μια λογοθετική πρακτική όπου εγκαθίστατα, δια-τρέχει προς και από (dis-cursus) στην κυριολεξία. Ωστόσο, αρχίζει να αναπτύσσεται εκείνη την εποχή μια ισχυρή ξενοδοχειακή συνιστώσα στην εμπειρία της σύγχρονης τέχνης, αν σκεφτούμε τον πολλαπλασιασμό των διεθνών καλλιτεχνικών διοργανώσεων, τους επιμελητές που ταξιδεύουν όλο και περισσότερο, ή τους καλλιτέχνες που μετακινούνται σε εκθέσεις παντού. Ακόμη και η ιδέα του residency καλλιεργεί μια παρόμοια ιδέα της φιλοξενίας και, ταυτόχρονα, ανάθεσης ενός έργου τέχνης που παράγεται σε μια συγκεκριμένη τοπικότητα. Είναι αλήθεια ότι η σύγχρονη τέχνη, τουλάχιστον τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες, ερείδεται σ’ αυτήν την ιδέα της διαρκούς κινητικότητας και της φιλοξενίας. Η κινητικότητα, που εύκολα και επιπόλαια αποκαλούμε νομαδισμό, μοιάζει να αναδεικνύεται σε ένα είδος κυρίαρχης μεταγλώσσας η οποία τοποθετεί ένα ευρύτερο πλαίσιο στη συζήτησή μας. Σε εσένα, όμως, έχει να κάνει με ένα επιπρόσθετο, αλλά και κρίσιμο, προγενέστερο βίωμα και κατά συνέπεια, αποκτά αυξημένο προσωπικό χαρακτήρα.

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Σαν πολυφωνικός επίλογος: Ταξιδιώτες, διαμονή, ξενία, φιλοξενία, κοινότητα, χρόνος, ξένος, συμμετοχή, ταυτότητα … Emanuela De Cecco

Ταξιδιώτες

Ποιοι είναι; Ποιοι είμαστε; Οργανωνόμαστε, κλείνουμε θέσεις εγκαίρως προγραμματίζουμε από μήνα σε μήνα, από εποχή σε εποχή, από χρόνο σε χρόνο. Κλείνουμε εισιτήρια για τα μέσα μεταφοράς και τα ξενοδοχεία βασιζόμενοι σε πληροφορίες από φίλους «στόμα με στόμα», σε αυτές που ανακαλύψαμε σε περιοδικά ή στο διαδίκτυο, και σε άλλες που βρήκαμε στους ταξιδιωτικούς οδηγούς: πάμε ταξίδι και κάνουμε οτιδήποτε για να αποφύγουμε απρόοπτα, χάσιμο χρόνου, και βέβαια να χαθούμε εμείς οι ίδιοι. Τα ξενοδοχεία που προτιμάμε είναι εκείνα που μας κάνουν να αισθανόμαστε σαν στο σπίτι μας, το ίδιο ισχύει και για τον καφέ. Δεν είναι αυτή η ιδέα ξενοδοχείου που ενδιαφέρει τη Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου. Τα δικά της ξενοδοχεία, όπως διαβάζουμε στην περιγραφή του Cosmotel (1994-1996), που είναι το πρώτο της σειράς, είναι το καταστάλαγμα συμπύκνωσης πολλών επιθυμιών. Καταρχάς, να βρει έναν τρόπο για να συνεχιστεί η επαφή με μία κοινότητα αποτελούμενη από καλλιτέχνες και αρχιτέκτονες, κατόπιν να ανοιχτεί ώστε να αποτελέσει πόλο έλξης ατόμων που ανήκουν σε διαφορετικούς κόσμους, και που δύσκολα θα είχαν την δυνατότητα να βρεθούν στον ίδιο χώρο, και ακόμη, να πραγματοποιήσει μία παλιά επιθυμία ριζωμένη στην οικογενειακή παράδοση. Την επιθυμία να καλλιεργήσει σχέσεις, που προσπαθούν να αντισταθούν στην κοινωνική πειθαρχεία, που προσπαθεί να βάλει τα πάντα σε μια τάξη. Στη πορεία, παγιώνεται το θέμα του ανοίγματος. ΄Ανοιγμα, με την έννοια της υποδοχής, της ευελιξίας στην διαμόρφωση του κάθε ξενοδοχείου, γεγονός που διακρίνουμε και μέσα από τις λεπτομέρειες των στοιχείων που το χαρακτηρίζουν. Τα ξενοδοχεία είναι ανοιχτά, τόσο για όποιον ζει εκεί κοντά, όσο για όποιον έρχεται από μακρυά, είναι ανοιχτά για τον ταξιδιώτη που θέλει

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να αποθέσει την αποσκευή του, ή απλώς για να ξεκουραστεί για λίγη ώρα. Σε πολλές περιπτώσεις προσφέρονται πληροφορίες που δεν αφορούν μνημεία και οτιδήποτε σχετικό με τουρισμό, αλλά που είναι αποτέλεσμα ερευνών που έγιναν μόνο από την ίδια, ή και με την συνεργασία φοιτητών, και που αφορούν σε κάποιο γεγονός σχετικό με εκείνον τον τόπο: φωτογραφίες που συνθέτουν εποπτικούς χάρτες και πληροφορίες που φέρνουν στο φως ενδιαφέρουσες πλευρές του τόπου, αντιφάσεις και/ή πληγές που σημαδεύουν την κοινωνική συμβίωση. `Ανοιγμα ως και σε αυτό που ενστικτωδώς αποφεύγουμε, που κάνουμε σαν να μην το βλέπουμε. Πρόκειται για καταστάσεις που απορρέουν από πραγματικότητες που η καλλιτέχνης διαχειρίζεται ανάλογα με το περιβάλλον, καταστάσεις συνεύρεσης που μας ανακαλούν στο παρόν στο «είμαστε εδώ και τώρα», είναι τόποι αντιθετικοί σε οποιοδήποτε φανταστικό «αλλού» που μπορεί να είχαμε ονειρευτεί.

Διαμένω (dimorare) Το ρήμα dimorare (διαμένω) προέρχεται από το λατινικό demorari που πάει να πει «καθυστερώ, γυροφέρνω». Το να τονίσουμε αυτή τη σημασία σε ένα ρήμα που κανονικά είναι συνώνυμο του abitare (κατοικώ), είναι για να δώσουμε μορφή στο είδος του ταξιδιώτη για τον οποίο έχουν επινοηθεί τα ξενοδοχεία της Μαρίας. Δεν λειτουργούμε φυσιολογικά όταν σκεφτόμαστε το ταξίδι σαν μια απόπειρα να δαμάσουμε το χώρο και το χρόνο, δεν είναι φυσικό να μην είμαστε ανοιχτοί στο απρόβλεπτο, σε κάτι που δε βρίσκεται μέσα στην ακτίνα αυτού που έχουμε την ψευδαίσθηση ότι μπορούμε να ελέγχουμε. Σε αυτούς τους τόπους διαμονής, το «γυροφέρνω» μας παραπέμπει σε μια ιδιαίτερη κατάσταση του «βρίσκομαι»: μια ανεπαίσθητη ένταση μεταξύ της επιθυμίας να συνεχίσουμε το ταξίδι ή να μείνουμε ακόμα για λίγο, να αναβάλλουμε την αναχώρηση για να εξερευνήσουμε τους ανοιχτούς ορίζοντες και τις αξίες, όπου αυτοί οι τόποι μας οδηγούν.

Ξενία Στη βοτανολογία, ο όρος xenìa προέρχεται από την ελληνική λέξη ξενία (φιλοξενία) και αναφέρεται στο φαινόμενο κατά το οποίο η υβριδοποίηση δύο ποικιλιών του ίδιου είδους είναι εμφανής ήδη στον σπόρο που παράγει το μητρικό φυτό. Αυτή η προδιαγραφή δεν αφορά το ανθρώπινο είδος, αλλά συμπτωματολογικά μας παραπέμπει στο να θυμόμαστε ότι για να θεωρούμαστε φιλόξενοι δεν αρκεί να φιλοξενούμε στο σπίτι μας μόνο τους αγαπημένους μας φίλους, αλλά πως είναι αναγκαίο ένα βήμα παραπέρα:

πρώτα, να επικοινωνήσουμε με τον εαυτό μας, και μετά με αυτούς που δε μας μοιάζουν.

Φιλοξενία L’hospitalité, c’est la culture même et n’est pas une éthique parmi d’autres. Jacques Derrida Μία χειρονομία φιλοξενίας δεν μπορεί παρά να είναι ποιητική. Jacques Derrida

Κοινότητα The sense of community offers the possibility to widen one’s mentality... Beauty teaches us to love without intererests...sociability is the true origin – and not the end – of humanity.  Hannah Arendt

Χρόνος

Το κύριο χαρακτηριστικό που διακρίνει τους συγκεκριμένους τόπους όπου εγκαθίστανται τα ξενοδοχεία αυτής της αλυσίδας, είναι η έλλειψη ουδετεροφιλίας. Κανένα από αυτά δεν ιδρύθηκε σε τόπο χωρίς σημάδια του χρόνου, χωρίς τα ίχνη από ένα ή πολλά προηγούμενα γεγονότα. Σε πολλές περιπτώσεις πρόκειται για εγκαταλελειμμένους τόπους όπου προσωρινά, η καλλιτέχνης αποδίδει διαφορετικό προορισμό. Η «ρεσεψιόν» είναι το σημείο όπου επιτελείται αυτή η διαδικασία, δηλαδή, εκεί όπου η Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου αραδιάζει ενδείξεις που οδηγούν σε νέες ιστορίες, κάπου αλλού, στο χρόνο (παρελθόντα), στο χώρο (εξωτερικά, γύρω από το ξενοδοχείο), ενδείξεις που όταν τις αποκωδικοποιήσεις σε οδηγούν προς απώτερα συναπαντήματα με τους άλλους φιλοξενούμενους, με την ιστορία του τόπου... Η εσωτερική επίπλωση είναι απέριττη, ένας οργανικός συνδυασμός από κάθε είδους «άχρηστα» υλικά: και άλλα σημάδια και άλλα ντοκουμέντα από ιστορίες η μια πάνω στην άλλη. Στο Λανθαρότε, όπου η Μαρία Παπαδημητρίου δημιούργησε το Hotel Plug-Inn (2006), όλος ο εσωτερικός εξοπλισμός κατασκευάστηκε από τα κατάλοιπα των βαρκών που κατέληξαν στο νησί, βάρκες που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν από τους φυγάδες, όταν από την Αφρική προσπάθησαν να φτάσουν στην Ευρώπη. Πολλές ξεκίνησαν, αλλά έφτασαν

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Luoghi di Ospitalita’ Deputati alla Riflessione, nell’Era della Precarieta’ Una discussione fra Maria Papadimitriou e Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

YORGOS TZIRTZILAKIS: Come e` partita questa tua fissazione per gli alberghi, si direbbe questa continua diaspora dell’atto di ospitalità?

MARIA PAPADIMITRIOU: La mia fissazione per gli alberghi, evidentemente è questione di tradizione familiare. Mio nonno, ed i miei genitori erano degli albergatori. Mio nonno nato a Samos è arrivato ad Atene all’età di 15 anni ed in pocchi anni è riuscito a diventare proprietario di 6 piccoli alberghi nel centro della città. Dopo è partito per la guerra in Asia Minore. Quando è ritornato non ha più trovato niente e così, gli è nata una certa avversione per la proprietà. Ciò nonostante ha continuato ad esercitare questo mestiere, questa volta non più come proprietario, bensì da imprenditore. Degli alberghi del nonno, ce ne sono due che sono impressi intensamente nella mia memoria. Il primo per la sua bellezza, e l’altro per la sua particolarità. L’ albergo “Emborikòn“ era uno dei primi edifici in stile art nouveau nel cuore di Atene , in piazza Santa Irene: Quattro piani, decorato esternamente con delle grandi sculture raffiguranti degli atlanti, ed internamente, con degli

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Maria Papadimitriou was born in Athens in 1957. She lives and works in Athens and Volos, Greece. She studied visual arts at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA). In 2003 she won the DESTE prize for contemporary Greek art. In 2002 she represented Greece for the 25th edition of the São Paulo Biennial with the project T.A.M.A. (Temporary Autonomous Museum for All), an ongoing project still central to her artistic practice. Since 2001 she is teaching visual arts at the Department of Architecture of University of Thessaly in Volos. Issues of identity, social integration and exclusion are the recurring issues in her work. Her work has been presented in numerous shows internationally. Selected solo shows include: T.A.M.A. Overflow, Museum Alex Mylonas – Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (GR), 2014, SOUZY TROS, ongoing project since 2012, Over! Leftover, Batycki Factory, Gdansk (PL), 2012, T.A.M.A. The Roma Coat, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens (GR), 2011, Infinito fa Rumore Eternità fa Silenzio, Mercato Coperto, Regio Emillia (IT) and The T.A.M.A. Party, Aliveri, Volos (GR) in 2009, CORBU, Zina Athnasiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki (GR), in 2008, SA MA KHOL TRUCK - a City Tour, Public event, Teseco Foundation, Pisa and Novocomum on Wheels - Direct Architecture, Politics and Space, Borgovico33, Como (IT) in 2007, Two or three things I know about him, Riflemaker Gallery, London (UK) in 2005, We’ll meet again, Espacio Uno, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES) and Temporary Office, Olivetti Foundation, Rome (IT), 2004 and What do we really remember, Ex Convento Domenicani, Sternatia (IT) in 2003. Selected group shows include: DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8, Benaki Museum, Pireos St. Annexe Building, Athens (GR), No Country for Young Men. Contemporary Greek Art in Times of Crisis, BOZAR, Brussels (BE), The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945: Beyond Boundaries, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR) in 2014, INSPIRE 2013: Metamorphosis, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR), The System Of Objects, DESTE Foundation, Athens (GR), Everywhere but Now, 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Pavilion 6, Thessaloniki (GR), HELL AS Pavilion, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR) in 2013, The Mediterranean Approach, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo (BR), The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945, German Historical Museum, Berlin (DE), Public Speach, Koroška Art Gallery, Slovenj Gradec (SI) in 2012, The Mediterranean Approach, Palazzo Zenobio, 54th Biennale di Venezia (IT), LIVING- Frontiers of Architecture III, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (DK), Le Paris Bar à Paris, Suzanne Tarasieve, Loft 19, Paris (FR), Monodrome, 3rd Athens

Biennial, Athens (GR), in 2011, Aware - art fashion identity, Royal Academy of Arts, London (UK), The Ark-old seeds for new Cultures, 12th Biennale di Venezia, participation at the Greek Pavilion, Venice (IT) in 2010, T.A.M.A. side effects, collaboration with Gabi Scardi and Lucy Orta, 10th Lyon Biennial, Lyon (FR), La Première Image, Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Langeudoc-Roussillon, Sète (FR), in 2009, Luv car, A Dialogue Between Greek and Chinese Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (CN), Ideal Homes, Casa del Lago, Mexico City (MX), Women only, Beltsios Collection, Margaris Foundation, Amfilohia (GR) in 2008, Volksgarten: Politics of Belonging, Kunsthaus, Graz (AT), Heterotopias, 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary, Thessaloniki (GR), TAMAhouse, Sueño de casa propia, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (ES) and 7th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (KR), TOPOI, Benaki Museum, Pireos St. Annexe Building, Athens (GR), Habitation Variation, BAC - Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (CH), Topos: Engonopoulos, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR) in 2007, What Remains is Future, Old Arsakeion School, European Cultural Capital 2006, Patras (GR), EuroPart, Aktuelle Kunst Aus Europa, Vienna (AT), Check-In Europe: Reflecting Identities in Contemporary Art, European Patent Office, Munich (DE) in 2006, Biennial on the Mediterranean Landscape, Pescara (IT) in 2005, 9th Biennale di Venezia, participation at the Greek Pavilion, Venice (IT), BODYWORKS, Center of Arts, Nicosia (CY), Breakthrough Greece 2004, Contemporary Perspective in the Visual Arts, Madrid (ES) in 2004, Outlook, ASFA Factory, Athens (GR), DESTE PRIZE, DESTE Foundation, Athens (GR), The Pioneers, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR) in 2003, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt (DE), Fusion Cuisine, DESTE Foundation, Athens (GR), Balkania 2002, Neue Galerie, Graz (AT), 4th Biennial, Cetinje (MT) in 2002, 1st Biennial, Tirana (AL), Overexcited body, SESC, Sao Paulo (BR), P+P=D, New Art Desmos, Rethymnon Center for Contemporary Art, Crete (GR) in 2001 and Kiss from Greece [3], Wohnmaschine, Berlin (DE), Europa Edition, Saeulenhalle des Parlaments, Vienna (AT), Playgrounds and Toys for Refugee Children, Art For The World, Musée International de la Croix-Rouge, Geneva (CH), 51th Premio Michetti, Europe-Different Perpectives on Painting, MuMi, Museo Michetti, Francavilla al Mare (IT) in 2000. email address: mariapaps@gmail.com site: www.mariapapadimitriou.com

blog: http://souzytros.wordpress.com/

FREE HOTELS an artist book by Maria Papadimitriou with an essay by Emanuela De Cecco and a discussion between Maria Papadimitriou and Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

Με την ευγενική υποστήριξη

ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ Φ. ΚΩΣΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ With the kind support of

THE J. F. COSTOPOULOS FOUNDATION

postmedia books 2014 128 pp. 99 illustrations isbn 978-88-7490-126-5

Postmedia Srl Milano www.postmediabooks.it

“This notion of hospitality is one of the great constituent myths of Greek culture. It may often become a stereotype, but it is above all a distinct way of life. Hospitality is one of the strong archetypes of contemporary Greek culture. We kept hearing as kids that guests are sacred, guests come first, and it is true that most of us grew up with the echoes of this approach in our homes. The greatest changes in these views on hospitality came after the post-war tourism boom. Hospitality gradually turned into an entrepreneurial cliché that reflects the anxiety of turning it into a consumable national symbol of authenticity. Of course, this did not stop the occasional survival of idiosyncratic behaviours of ‘resistance’, particularly in regions of arrested development. In your case, however, the hotel acquires another dimension in addition to those of exchange and solidarity; it becomes a format through which the art is produced. I would say that the hotel is the work. In other words, hospitality here appears not only as a humanistic priority but also as a work-producing format: the framework in which the work is created.” “Αυτή η έννοια της φιλοξενίας ανήκει στους μεγάλους συστατικούς μύθους της ελληνικής κουλτούρας. Μπορεί συχνά να μετατρέπεται σε στερεότυπο, αλλά προπάντων πρόκειται για ένα διακριτό τρόπο ζωής. Η ιδέα της φιλοξενίας είναι ένα από τα ισχυρά αρχέτυπα της σύγχρονης ελληνικής κουλτούρας. Από μικροί ακούγαμε ότι ο ξένος είναι κάτι το ιερό, ότι ο ξένος έχει προτεραιότητα και είναι αλήθεια ότι οι περισσότεροι μεγαλώσαμε με τις αντηχήσεις αυτού του τρόπου στα σπίτια μας. Τα χρόνια που ακολούθησαν τη μεταπολεμική έκρηξη του τουρισμού εκδηλώθηκαν οι μεγαλύτερες μεταβολές σ’ αυτές τις αντιλήψεις της φιλοξενίας. Σταδιακά η φιλοξενία αρχίζει να γίνεται επιχειρηματικό κλισέ, το οποίο συμπυκνώνει το άγχος ανάδειξης της σε αναλώσιμο εθνικό σύμβολο αυθεντικότητας. Φυσικά δεν έπαψαν να λειτουργούν διάσπαρτα επιβιώματα και ιδιοσυγκρασιακές συμπεριφορές άτυπης «αντίστασης», ιδίως σε περιοχές που χαρακτηρίζονται από ανεσταλμένη ανάπτυξη. Στη δική σου περίπτωση, όμως, η μορφή του ξενοδοχείου εκτός από μια μορφή ανταλλαξιμότητας και αλληλεγγύης διαθέτει και μια άλλη διάσταση. Το ξενοδοχείο γίνεται ένα σχήμα, ένα format μέσα από το οποίο παράγεται το καλλιτεχνικό έργο. Θα έλεγα ότι το ξενοδοχείο είναι το έργο. Αναδεικνύεται, δηλαδή, η φιλοξενία όχι μόνο ως μια ανθρωπιστική προτεραιότητα αλλά σαν ένα μορφότυπο, ένα format παραγωγής έργου. Το πλαίσιο μέσα από το οποίο παράγεται το ίδιο το έργο.” Yorgos Tzirtzilakis