IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES! #opentheblackboxes

OPEN CALL: Participate with one word 

Send us the One word that best expresses that which currently:

• Frightens or threatens you the most
• You believe is in urgent need of protection

Participate: Here

More about the project:

The project IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES! is a participatory art project initiated by artist Danae Stratou. Living in Europe in this time of multiple crises, it is ever so easy to fall into a state of fear-induced paralysis. This art project is a reaction to such a prospect. Danae Stratou, invites you to actively participate in the project by contributing one word. By joining our “voices”, the project aims at activating a dialogue constituting, in itself, a collective response to our multifaceted predicament. By opening the ‘Black Boxes’ we symbolically bring to light the words that reflect what threatens us the most, or that which we are desperately eager to preserve

During the 19th GLOBART ACADEMY ​the Greek artist Danae Stratou will present her multimedia installation “IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES!“ in museumkrems​.

Greece, Austria, Europe – the world is in a multiple crisis – economically, socially, politically. IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES!

This art project was a reaction to such a prospect. Distanced from traditional commercial practices, the art project aspired to undercut its own costs, to give voice to and to assist materially as many as people possible, to help attain a deeper understanding of our collective predicament, to empower a joint response to the paralysis that is causing us to ‘freeze up’. The project activated a dialogue constituting, in itself, a collective response to our multi­faceted predicament. By opening the ‘Black Boxes’ we symbolically bring to light the words that reflect what threatens us the most, or that which we are desperately eager to preserve.

The installation comprises 100 black boxes geometrically positioned on the floor. The boxes were custom made out of thick black aluminium sheet metal. They are positioned on the floor equidistant from another, so as to form a rectangular grid covering an area of 100m2 situated at the centre of the gallery. The boxes’ lids are open at an angle. Inside each box a black screen is positioned at a 450 degree angle in relation to the floor. The boxes are surfaced with translucent mirrors, thus creating the illusion that they are filled to the rim with a liquid substance and that the screens within them are submerged in polluted water akin to an oil slick.

Upon entering the exhibition space the viewer is confronted by a mixture of sounds such as beeps, heart beats, explosions and flat­lines. As one approaches and walks through the installation it becomes apparent that the screens inside the boxes are displaying words and numbers. Each word appears for a few seconds before being replaced by either a countdown or a count­up (depending on the word). As the numbers race (down toward zero or up to a specially chosen limit), their pace, style and accompanying sounds resemble a ticking bomb. When the countdown, or count­up, reaches its climax, each box emits the sound of either an explosion or a flat­line. These sounds are designed so as to intensify the sensation of tension, crisis, and alarm.

After the first presentation in Greece Danae Stratou is starting her global art project in an exhibition in museumkrems organized bz GLOBART.

The artist visualizes termini such as Family, Democracy, Immigration, Human Dignity, TTIP, Water, Respect and Populism, that were determined by GLOBART through an Austria wide survey. These answers represent the values that the Austrian population wants to conserve and what it is most afraid of.

Danae Stratou is an installation artist in Athens. Stratou represented her homeland in many Biennales in form of art comprised of digital, audiovisual and architectural components. Her work has already been shown in exhibitions in Venice, Valencia, Sevilla, Istanbul, Gyumri and Adelaide, among others. In 2010 she founded the NGO Vital Space, a global, interdisciplinary art plattform that tackles current global problems. Through her marriage with the former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis she offers an artistic as well as a political perspective on the current crisis. Together the couple aims to connect these worlds and dismantle the borders between politics and art.

GLOBART is a vivid alliance between art, science and economy. this year’s GLOBART ACADEMY – a thinking studio for issues of the future is taking place under the title „Realities?” from the 22nd to the 25th of September 2016 in Kloster UND in Krems.