Address: Mavromichali 123, Athens, Greece
Contact: Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Kosmas Nikolaou, Paky Vlassopoulou
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.3137.gr
Phone: +30 2130 261436
How is the project operated?
Non-profit, artist-run
How long has it been in existence?
7 years. In public, since February 2012.
What was your motivation?
Explore the exhibition making, connect with and co-create an artistic and non-artistic community, understand the city and its needs concerning artistic production.
“After the explosion… you hear the light,” Yorgos Sapountzis performance, 2016. Image by Ilias Seferlis-Frantzis.
Number of organizers/responsible persons of the project?
3
How are programs funded?
Until now with donations and private institutions in a project based format. In Greece public funding doesn’t really exist. For the years to come we are willing to establish a membership.
Who is responsible for the programming?
The 3 members of the space decide together what will happen. We consider the unfolding of the program as a collective piece.
Number and average duration of exhibitions/events per year
Depends on the year. The duration is always short because the space functions also as our artists studio.
What kind of events are usually organized?
We started with a focus on exhibitions and gradually initiated more collaborative projects including many participants. We do one-off events but we also work in long-term projects. Since 2016, we are developing a research, together with the art historian and curator Klea Charitou, regarding the greek art scene of the 70s. For this project we have organized public talks, lectures, screenings, an exhibition, an archive display, educational workshops and during the following year a publication is going to be released. At the same time, we are working on a new project, titled Gabriela. Gabriela is a fictional immaterial institution and it is inspired by the first intern who worked at 3 137. It questions, among other, labor issues in the art world and operational/organizational structures. This project will appear in different ways and will take place in unexpected spaces.
Kids workshop by James Edmonds and Petra Graf in collaboration with Kid A, 2017. Image by Gabriela Cruz.
How is your programming determined?
By our interests, our encounters, our worries and of course intuitions. Almost similar to how a piece is constructed and then conducted. Of course limitations of time or funding are always part of this process.
Do you accept proposals/submissions?
Very rarely, almost never. We like to work with people from scratch. We did once an open call, for submissions, during the period of Documenta 14 in Athens. It was the only moment that we thought it was important to offer our space to someone else to exhibit a preconceived project.
What is your artistic/curatorial approach?
Anything that questions the role of an artist initiative in a city, suggests another way of doing or experiencing art and take account off the micro-climate of the city and the mega structure of global networking, drive us to what we do.
What’s working? What’s not working?
Time management is the most difficult task, as it is of course to all of us. Fulfilling our expectations in a very demanding art world and a very precarious world is almost impossible. What works is togetherness and inspiring networking.
Lenio Kaklea, “Arranged by Date” performance, 2016. Image by Fanis Kafantaris.
What kind of role do you hope to play in your local art scene or community?
Our aim is to add to the polyphony some ideas about artists organizations in a process of rethinking the institutions and at the same time to be a spot where different groups of people can meet and exchange.
What idea are you most excited about for the future?
Future itself. This is already too much.
Images courtesy of 3 317. This profile has been published in partnership with Temporary Art Review.
