The Adhocracy exhibition at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens is the continuation of the research started for the 1st Istanbul Design Biennial in 2012, curated by Joseph Grima and associate curators Ethel Baraona Pohl, Elian Stefa, and Pelin Tan. The Adhocracy that has also been presented in New York (New Museum, 2013) and London (LimeWharf, 2013) focuses on the relation of design and society within a global approach, while highlighting the dynamics of the local art, architecture and design scene. The economic and political context of Greece during the current period of deep economic and social crisis provides the appropriate framework in order to reveal universal and trans-local conditions of our current time and future. This is an opportunity to objectively evaluate the actual critical circumstances and their effects on city and society that concern all of us whatever our geographic location.
Going beyond the notion of Do it yourself and the trendiness of Tactical Urbanism, Adhocracy highlights achievements by makers who are guided by the will to change the system by changing the way they make things themselves. It includes examples of makers whose work embraces open source design, and particularly emphasizes the idea of the commons in relation to production. The place for production has been extended from the workshop to the street and the city. The process of design and the way that we define a product is affected not only by labor conditions but also by the development of new alternative pedagogies. While focusing on the process rather than on the final object, it is possible to subvert the economic system based on consumerism. The Adhocracy exhibition in Athens will not only reveal the current alternative ways of production process and the social-economic realities of design but aims to share concrete results and methodologies, realms of thinking and critical understanding of labor, product, and education.
The display runs from April 29 through to July 9. Open daily from noon to 9 p.m. with free admission. Stegi Grammaton kai Tehnon at the Onassis Cultural Foundation is on 107-109 Syngrou Avenue. Telephone 213 017 8000.
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