For the 9th edition of the Back to Athens Festival 2022 taking place in Athens (GR) from 24.6.-3.7.22, we invited students and alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna to be part of this year‘s contribution.
As Athens – precisely the harbour of Piraeus – has been a center of trade since centuries, this years contribution to the festival will thematically circle around the subject of global trade routes. Transnational supply chains are the lifelines of globalized capitalism. They are central instruments of colonial exploitation and connect countries with wares and cultural goods across state and ideological borders.
In addition to global megaprojects such as China‘s New Silk Road or the Nordstream II pipeline, that were supposed to supply all of Central Europe with gas, there are equally formative experiences of collapsed supply chains, with images of a blocked Suez Canal and rising prices due to the Russian war on Ukraine,, that characterize the all-too-near past.
Being the european Bridgehead of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Athens will be a crucially fitting location for this reflection in the form of an exhibition.