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Art on Foucault’s heterotopias September 26, 2007

The newly established Thessaloniki Biennale includes numerous exhibitions and projects

Libraries, gardens, cemeteries, jails or fairgrounds are places that do not seem to share much in common. Yet, for the French philosopher Michel Foucault they are all heterotopias, a special category of sites that differ from both utopias and ordinary real spaces. In the relevant essay written in the late 1960s, Foucault writes of heterotopias as «counter-sites,» places in which «all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested and inverted.» In heterotopias, our behavior is regulated and is usually different from our ordinary, everyday way of acting.

The concept of heterotopias stem from Foucault’s occupation with interpreting space as ideology. They also express a new non-linear sense, which, according to Foucault, is inherent in modern societies. «The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity…our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points…» he writes.

At a time when the World Wide Web, travel and the rapid flow of information has changed our perception of time, perhaps Foucault’s emphasis on space seems more relevant than ever. At least it does for the three curators of the newly established Thessaloniki Biennale which was opened in early summer by the city’s State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA). A sprawling, ambitious event that comprises numerous exhibitions and projects and spreads through some of the most important venues of the city, the Thessaloniki Biennale is closing at the end of the month. A series of events, including a performance by artist Leda Papaconstantinou and a conference, were held a few days ago to mark the occasion.

The curators in question, Maria Tsantsanoglou, SMCA Director, together with Catherine David, the French independent, distinguished curator of contemporary art, and Jan-Erik Lundstrom, director of the Swedish BildMuseet of contemporary art, have used Foucault’s text as a basis for exploring, each in a different way and in distinct curatorial projects, their own version of contemporary «heterotopias,» the biennale’s title.

For the most part, heterotopias are meant as places strange and unfamiliar to us, in many cases places in non-Western countries, danger zones or contested territories or as places inhabited by marginalized parts of the population.

A political content prevails in most of the biennale’s exhibitions, particularly those curated by Catherine David, who is known for her interest in non-Western art and the political message of art.

Heterotopias are also seen as networks joining different sites or time periods. Examples include Alexander Schellow’s installation of ink drawings and video projections that show successive images taken from urban life or Anna Boghiguian’s drawings of Cairo as a real city but also as seen through literature.

As often happens with exhibitions of the magnitude of the biennale, a general concept provides a theoretical umbrella that encompasses a broad range of notions, even if those differ from the original point of reference, in this case Foucault’s heterotopia. When a philosophical notion translates into images and art, this gap is perhaps unavoidable.

In her curatorial projects Maria Tsantsanoglou claims to have mainly focused on the idea of art as a heterotopia. An example is an installation by the Russian artist Yuri Albert. On a series of plates that look like paintings the artist has used the Braille script to inscribe the descriptions that Vincent van Gogh made of his works in the letters he wrote to his brother Theo. The intention of the artist is to create an art addressed to different audiences, both the blind and those that can appreciate it visually but cannot read its written text.

Another interesting and visually pleasing work included in that same part of the biennale, is an installation by Portuguese artist Luis Nobre. The artist uses souvenirs and mementos from all over the world to create fantasy landscapes in which different places and time periods converge. The work evokes the concept of non-linearity and of sites as networks, both aspects that are typical of heterotopias.

Catherine David’s statement is more political and her emphasis is on the work of non-European, non-Western artists. Examples include Hicham Benohoud’s photographs of Moroccan school classrooms or Lukas Einsele’s photographic project on the subject of land mines and land-mine survivors.

Jan Erik Lundstrom has kept close to Foucault’s text and has attempted to find the analogies of the French philosopher’s heterotopias in art. Foucault wrote that the ship is the heterotopia par excellence, an idea reflected in «The Boat» which is the title of Jean-Francois Bocle’s installation shown at the French Institute.

Although the curatorial positions differ slightly from one another, seen together they produce a single, overall impression. Most of the works draw attention to political and social issues and paint a dark, rather pessimistic view of the world. Judging from both the Athens and Thessaloniki biennales and other international events, this is a trend in contemporary art. Many will agree that trends of this type, no matter how intellectually stimulating, may ultimately discourage the public from visiting exhibitions, as the language of contemporary art becomes even more obtuse.

«Heterotopias» will be open to September 30. For more information visit >  www.thessalonikibiennale.gr