Perfect Set, Terrible Play: Yannis Tsarouchis and his Athenian Ruins, Maria Thalia / Point Supreme

Lecture, locus athens, a nomadic non-profit arts organization, was originally formed in 2004 by Maria-Thalia Carras and Sophia Tournikiotis, with the aim of exploring the juncture between public space in Athens and contemporary art. Commissioning artists to produce new works based on in situ research, locus athens curated exhibitions, talks and screenings in various locations of the city as well as organizing educational programs and publishing a series of award winning children’s art books. In 2012 the team was joined by Olga Hatzidaki, starting with a first collaboration which continued into a long-term partnership. Gradually also Sofia withdrew from active involvement from locus athens. Olga and Maria-Thalia developed projects in and about the public spaces of Athens, building on former experience and injecting locus athens’ program with new energy. They explored different curatorial models with projects that shifted in scale and size, collaborating with a wide range of institutions, reaching out to different communities and thinking further about the necessity of tackling contested issues. In 2019, Maria-Thalia and Olga decided on a shift in their approach, thinking of the ‘public’ less as architectural space but more as content and communities. They envisioned TAVROS, a mid-sized space in the eponymous area of Athens, as a new home for their arts projects, with a varied program of exhibitions, talks and community projects geared to responding to the social and political circumstances around us, giving voices to marginalized communities, and exploring notions of democracy, equality and ecology through dialogue listening and learning.