Casting Call: The Collector of Proverbs, The Animal, The Fool, The Selfie-Junkie, The Innocent, The Child, The Drunk, The…

Casting Call is conceived as an ongoing rehearsal that attempts to generate parrhesia and question its role in contemporary art and society within a performative framework. Kamma calls this process a “parrhesiastic theater parade”. The parade operates between a cultural allegory of contemporary Europe and an invocation of an old, comedic parrhesiastic community. It is an invented theatrical genre whereby events, actions, performances are staged and enacted by twenty-five distinct characters-types: The Fool, The Animal, The Drunk, The Angry, and so on. They test the possibility of courageously voicing their opinions through scenes of excess, absurdity and laughter, regarded both as tools of resistance and play/playfulness. In doing so, they use texts and sketches commissioned by the artist on contested issues: Democracy, Prosperity, Solidarity, Europe, Languages, Migration and Pluralism.

(Excerpt from Eleni Kamma’s text in the catalogue of the exhibition Statecraft (and beyond), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), 2022)


Statecraft 

17.06–20.11.2022
National Museum of Contemporary Art - EMST
Vas. Georgiou Β’ 17–19 and Rigillis street, Athens, Greece