About the exhibition
Sotiris Tsiganos and Ionian Bisai, the artists who make up Latent Community, are collectors and presenters of stories that often go untold, beneath the surface of public consciousness. Their latest project, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) at Columbia University and MOHA Research Center, centers on Avato – a term mainly used in a religious context to describe a space that is off limits to women or the uninitiated – a village in Xanthi that is home to a community that outsiders consider Black.
Initially, Sotiris and Ionian wanted to shed light on the extensive but often-overlooked story of Black presence in Greece and were curious to explore how the people of Avato understand their history and identity. Some in the area claim that the community is the living remnant of Mohammed Ali’s (or his son’s Ibrahim’s) slave trade, while others, without evidence, connect its presence to First World War soldiers from French colonies. As often happens, the initial plan didn’t quite work out. The Black Avatans, largely Turkish-speaking agricultural laborers, showed little interest in inquiries into their past or reflections on their place in Greece today. And for good reason—they don’t owe anyone an explanation. Moreover, they know to be suspicious of people who show up with microphones, cameras, and translators asking questions as well as how risky it can be to be placed under any identity, whether “Greek”, “Black”, “Turkish” or “Muslim”.
After several visits, it became apparent that in addition to interviews and archival research, walking in silence with locals along their daily routes through cornfields and grazelands, beyond the established transportation networks, and recording soundscapes could become a means for Latent Community to access a reservoir of memory and history secreted in gestures, rituals, and relations with the animal world. The irony of resorting to walking around in a place whose name is a prohibition to entry did not escape them. In this exhibition, one can trace an undertone of irony targeted at the assumptions that they brought from outside and were so quickly undone in Avato.
The official opening of the exhibition will take place on Saturday, June 14th at 19:30 at the Mohammed Ali’s Museum. The exhibition will be on display until July 24th.
The action is implemented with the cooperation of the MOHA Research Center, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) and the Latent Community.
