GREECE IN USA is a New York City-based organization that promotes Greek culture in the U.S. Founded by Dr. Sozita Goudouna, one of America’s acclaimed Greek curators and adjunct professor at City University of New York (CUNY), GREECE IN USA makes an impressive launch amid the pandemic, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, with the group exhibition The Right to Silence? on the reform of criminal justice.
The first iteration is presented at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) until July 31, 2021, with the participation of 43 Greek and Cypriot artists, while the second parallel program “The Right to Breathe” will be launched May 14, 2021, at Seneca Village in Central Park and at UNDERCURRENT.NYC with the participation of 100 Greek artists. The exhibition venue was selected owing to its focus on U.S. and EU partnerships such as EUNIC and UN/MUTE.
Board of Directors
GREECE IN USA produces innovative programs in the field of arts and education, exploring the evolving diversity and richness of Greek culture. The Board of Directors consists of prominent personalities including Antonios Backos (corporate lawyer, non-profit consultant); Nicholas Karytinos (professor and architect); Yiannis Kaplanis, General Manager, Athens & Epidaurus Festival; Andreas Takis, President, MoMUS; Nektarios Antoniou, Head of Culture, St. Nicholas; Rachel Katwan, producer, Pomegranate Arts; and Tressa Berman, founder, Institute for Inter-Cultural Practice, among others.
Founding Director
Dr. Sozita Goudouna is the inspirer, founder and artistic director of GREECE IN USA, head of Raymond Pettibon Foundation, and adjunct professor at CUNY. She is the author of Beckett’s Breath: Anti-theatricality and the Visual Arts and researcher at the Organism for Poetic Research, supported by NYU and Brown University. Dr. Goudouna has had a distinguished 20-year career in the cultural sector, serving in many executive roles prior to becoming the director of “Greece in USA” in 2020. From 2015, she has taught at New York University as the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Curator at PERFORMA Biennial in NYC. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of London on art and respiration. Her internationally exhibited projects include participation at New Museum NYC, Performa Biennial and Institute in New York, Documenta, and Onassis Foundation New York, among others. She served as treasurer of the board of directors of AICA Hellas International Art Critics Association and as a member of the board of directors at ITI International Theatre Association, UNESCO.
Partnering Non-Profit: Out of the Box Intermedia
Out of the Box Intermedia was founded in 2008 in London and Athens and produces projects with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, the European Cultural Foundation, the British Council, the French Institute, NEON Foundation, Onassis Foundation, et al.
Exhibition Brief: The Right to Silence?
A constitutive element of the prison is silencing – the silencing of lives, often of justice, of suffering, and political expression. The exhibition attempts to uncover the profound and complex sense of silence that characterizes the prison industrial complex so as to examine whether art and aesthetics can break the silence about crucial political issues such as mass incarceration and criminal justice reform.
Participating Artists:
Maria Antelman, Stephen Antonakos, Klitsa Antoniou, Kenji Aoki, Margarita Athanassiou, Bill Balaskas, Margarita Bofiliou, Veronique Bourgoin, Nicos Charalampidis, Cleopatra Charitou, Gioula Chatzigeorgiou, Despina Chatzipavlidou & Anthi Mouriadou, Tim D’Agostino, Christina Dimitriadi, Giorgos Drivas, Nayia Frangouli, Karen Finley, Alexandros Georgiou, Andrea Geyer & Sharon Hayes, Klio Gizeli, Eva Giannakopoulou, Marion Inglessi, Dionysis Kavallieratos, Peggy Kliafa, Panos Kokkinias, Georgia Kotretsos, Aristeidis Lappas, Manolis Lemos-Daskalakis, Irini Linardaki, Aristeidis Logothetis, Olga Miliaresi – Foka & Despina Damaskou for SPAGHETTO , Giorgos Papafigos, Hara Piperidou, Vassilis Salpistis, Panos Sklavenitis, Efi Spyrou, Marilia Stagkouraki, Giorgos Stamatakis, Panos Tsagaris, Chrysanne Stathakos, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Steve C. Harvey, Ashley Hunt, Richard Kamler, Renee Magnati, Ilan Manouach, Daina Mattis, Juli Susin, Mischa Twitchin, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlachos, Antonis Volanakis, and Mary Zygouri.
Exhibition Brief: The Right to Breathe
In dialogue with The Right to Silence?, the second iteration of the project at UNDERCURRENT.NYC, takes as a starting point the “shortness of breath” derived from the experience of political pressure, social injustice, and economic austerity, exploring its connection with poetics, live art, and embodied politics. The concerns driving the “I Can’t Breathe” debates around race, discrimination, and violence have been left unconfronted for far too long. At the same time, the countless social injustices and the politics of disposability that the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare expose the delusions of a post-racial society, as well as the deprivation of the right to breathe (Mbembe). The topic of breathability that the exhibition identifies and aims to historicize also provides an insight into the ongoing revaluation of criminal justice reform.
Participating Artists:
Chloe Akrithaki, Tonia Andrioti, Elaine Angelopoulos, Antonakis (Christodoulou), Athanasios Argianas & Hughes Rowena, Yota Argyropoulou / Michalis Konstantatos (Blindspot Theater Group), Christos Athanasiadis, Manolis Baboussis, Evangelia Basdekis, Rania Bellou, Abdelkader Benchamma, Emmanuel Bitsakis, Angeliki Bozou, Christina Calbari, Rafika Chawishe, Thalia Chioti, Mat Chivers, Katerina Christidi, Dionysis Christofilogiannakis, Lydia Dambassina, Seeva Dawne, Martha Dimitropoulou, Chris Doulgeris, Dora Economou, Jessica Feldman, Karen Finley, Dimitris Foutris, Mona Gamil, Maria Georgoula, Eleni Glinou, Nella Golanda, Kyriaki Goni, Delia Gonzalez, Efi Haliori, Zoe Hounta, Ashley Hunt, Lakis & Aris Ionas: The Callas, Elias Kafouros, Lizzie Kalligas, Eleni Kamma, Athanassios Kanakis, Eirini Karagiannopoulou, Ismene Karyotaki, Zoe Keramea, Ilias Koen, Vana Kostayola, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Sia Kyriakakos, Aspassia Kouzoupi, Karolina Krasouli, Dimitris Lamprou, James Lane, Anna Laskari, Jenny Marketou, Maro Michalakakou, Yolanda Markopoulou, Eleanna Martinou, Despina Meimaroglou, Fryni Mouzakitou, Anna Muchin, Eleni Mylona, Margarita Myrogianni, Mariela Nestora, John Newsom, Alice Palaska, Malvina Panagiotidi, Maria Papadimitriou, Euripides Papadopetrakis, Nikos Papadopoulos, Helene Papadopoulou, Natasha Papadopoulou, Ilias Papailiakis, Aemilia Papafilippou, Elli Papakonstantinou (ODC Ensemble), Tereza Papamichali, Joo Yeon Park, Eftihis Patsourakis, Anastasia Pelias, Elena Penga, Antonis Pittas, Tula Ploumi, Artemis Potamianou, Marina Provatidou, Mantalina Psoma, Irene Ragusini, Duke Riley, Georgia Sagri, Nana Sahini, Ismini Samanidou, George Sampsonidis, Katerina Sarra, Erica Scourti, Martin Sexton, Christina Sgouromiti, Vouvoula Skoura, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Danae Stratou, Stephania Strouza, Vassiliea Stylianidou, Antonis Tsakiris, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Alexandros Tzannis, Brandon Woolf, Nana Varveropoulou, Alexis Vasilikos, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis), Nikolas Ventourakis, Eugenia Vereli, Vassilis Vlastaras, Maro Zacharogianni, Katerina Zacharopoulou, Theodoros Zafeiropoulos, Eleni Theodora Zaharopoulos, Lilia Ziamou, and Dimitris Zouroudis.
Performative Intervention @ Seneca Village Central Park on May 14, 2021, from 6-7 p.m.
Complementing the above exhibitions, curated by Dr. Sozita Goudouna, Invocations: Retracing Seneca is a participatory walk paying homage to Seneca Village, conceived by artists Kimiyo Bremer and Karen Finley. A majority of Seneca Village was composed of African American residents, many of which owned their own homes. From 1853-1857, the city used eminent domain and police force to destroy and brutally demolish Seneca Village for the development of Central Park. The Seneca residents were forced to disperse with little archives maintained by the city to preserve this remarkable hamlet from the pre-civil war era. The walk will invoke ritual, retrace steps while offering recognition of these historic New Yorkers.
Production Partners: Eva Kostopoulou, Odette Kouzou & Antigoni Papadopoulou.
