Greece in USA is pleased to co-host “Interpreting Difference: A Conversation on Empire, Religion, and Difference” at The Opening Gallery, presented with the Stavros Niarchos Public Humanities Initiative
Interpreting Difference: A Conversation on Empire, Religion, and Difference
As part of the exhibition GENERATIVE ALTERITIES at the non-profit Art Initiative Opening Gallery, Greece in USA and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI ) host a conversation among Georgios Giannakopoulos (City St George’s, University of London), Dimitris Antoniou (Columbia University), and Katherine E. Fleming (CEO, J. Paul Getty Trust and NYU)
The discussion will center on Giannakopoulos’ The Interpreters: British Internationalism and Empire in Southeastern Europe and Antoniou’s Why Not Build The Mosque: Islam, Political Cost, and the Practice of Democracy in Greece, new books that examine how states and societies respond to the unfamiliar—through the management of imperial diversity and the politics of religious space.
Focus on Publications:
The interpreters: British internationalism and empire in southeastern Europe, 1870-1930
Georgios Giannakopoulos
Why Not Build the Mosque? Islam, Political Cost, and the Practice of Democracy in Greece
Dimitris Antoniou
Opening Art Initiative and Exhibition Space is a project by the non-profit Greece in USA under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture and Ekkomed
Please register for free at Eventbrite
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Generative Alterities
Dates: November 14 – December 8
The Opening Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition “Generative Alterities” Installed across the 41 Division st Storefront, the exhibition inaugurates The Opening Gallery’s program of projects at 41 Division ST, Lower East Manhattan, 10002, NYC
In an era of hardened borders and algorithmic feeds, this group exhibition asks: Can difference be our most powerful tool for regeneration? The future is generative. The future is alterity.
Confronting the rise of “tech feudalism,” the exhibition creates a charged space for dialogue between artists from the Global South & Global North. It’s a generative collocation of perspectives on power, and the social narratives that shape our world. Experience performances, installations, and powerful critiques that challenge passive consumption.
In the shadow of a resurgent market-oriented politics in the United States—a moment defined by hardened borders, cultural parochialism, and the aggressive consolidation of power—the question of technology’s role in society has reached a critical juncture. Artificial Intelligence, often heralded as a neutral, progressive force, is rapidly being subsumed by a new “tech feudalism,” where a handful of corporate sovereigns command our data, our attention, and increasingly, the very narratives that shape our reality. This is not merely a business model; it is a cultural and political project that thrives on polarization and the erosion of shared, complex truths. The group exhibition Generative Alterities confronts this reality by proposing a radical methodology: the strategic and critical juxtaposition of voices from the Global South and the Global North. In a climate that weaponizes difference, this exhibition insists that difference itself—when placed in a careful, curated dialogue—is the most potent source of intellectual, aesthetic, and political regeneration. It is a space of friction and fusion where the politics of identity, particularly the representation and embodiment of gender and femininity, are rigorously explored. It is not about a harmonious fusion, but about creating a charged field where distinct historical experiences and critical perspectives can interact, conflict, and ultimately generate new ways of seeing and thinking beyond the simplistic binaries that dominate our discourse. Curated by Sozita Goudouna, PhD this exhibition expands on the tradition of situating art within urgent geopolitical frames. The included artists, from diverse origins, employ strategies of liveness and theatricality to implicate the viewer, challenging the passive consumption encouraged by both algorithmic feeds and authoritarian posturing.
CRITIQUING THE GRAND NARRATIVES
Annu Yadav (India) works in the spaces between polarities, where things do not fully resolve. She draws from Indian vernacular and feminine mythologies to explore sexual suppression, ritual, and the emotional weight of the gaze. She is drawn to what happens in between… the places where contradiction lives. Gender and human division, west and east, left, and right, tenderness beside violence. Meaning begins for me in these unsettled edges.
Jamie Martinez (Colombia) materializes the brutal continuity from colonial plunder to capitalist supply chains. His pieces, built from post-consumer waste, are performative acts of communal making that stand as a powerful rebuttal to the anonymity of globalized production and consumption, often built on the exploited labor of women in the Global South.
Lloyd Foster (Ghana) stages a powerful act of self-representation. He creates a social ritual that documents the African diaspora on its own terms, directly challenging the exoticized and often objectified depictions of Black and African women in the Western canon.
Nan Goldin (US) the artist’s seminal, intimate photographs have defined the representation of gender, sexuality, and subcultural life for decades. Her work is a raw, unflinching chronicle of friendship, love, addiction, and loss, centering the lives of those on the margins. In the context of this show, her oeuvre stands as a monumental testament to the power of self-representation and the female gaze, a direct challenge to patriarchal and heteronormative modes of seeing.
Max Blagg (UK/US), the renowned poet, contributes his singular voice to the exhibition. Through live readings and textual installations, his work—wry, observational, and deeply human—explores the undercurrents of desire, the American landscape, and the fragility of the self. His presence adds a crucial literary and performative layer, anchoring the visual and conceptual explorations in the rhythm and potency of the spoken word.
Aphrodite Desiree Navab (Iran/US) investigates the complex layers of cultural identity, mythology, and history, often re-imagining ancient Persian iconography through a contemporary feminist lens.
INTERNAL CRITIQUES AND FRAGMENTED SUBJECTS
Anna Sofie Jespersen (Denmark) turns a critical, feminist eye on patriarchal archives. Her subversive “docent” performances within the exhibition space use theatricality to expose how institutional authority is performed, often silencing female narratives, and controlling the representation of the feminine body throughout history.
Alina Yakirevitch (Russia) performs the trauma of state-mandated identity, with a specific focus on the female subject under imperial and Soviet control. Her live readings of redacted state texts, delivered from a bureaucratic desk, make palpable the violence of a patriarchal state scripting the identities and destinies of women, offering a powerful critique from within a Northern power structure.
Mia Enell (Sweden/US) creates meticulously rendered, surreal paintings that explore the psyche of the modern female subject. Her work delves into states of psychological dislocation, vulnerability, and ethereal strength, offering a counter-narrative to the myth of the stable, rational (and often male) Western self that underpins both colonial and techno-utopian thinking.
Victoria Bartlett (UK/US) works at the intersection of fashion, sculpture, and performance. Through her project she constructs unified corporeal forms from disparate materials, creating a “second skin.” Her work, often activated by performers, explores the relationship between the individual and the collective, the organic and the synthetic, questioning how feminine identity is constructed, constrained, and performed within the hyper-stylized cultures of the North.
Mark Borden aka Egospeed (US) offers a razor-sharp, media-literate critique from within the belly of the beast. Using the aesthetics of design and branding, his photographs dissect acceleration, masculinity, and power.
James Hyde (US) investigates the materiality of painting through sculptural installations that challenge conventional boundaries between object and image.
Hans Weigand (Austria) creates complex collage works that merge painterly traditions with contemporary visual culture, exploring themes of consumption and media saturation.
Anne Deleporte (France/US) works with photographic appropriation and installation, examining how images circulate and accumulate meaning in contemporary visual culture.
Brenda Zlamany (US) is renowned for her penetrating portraits that explore identity and representation across diverse cultural contexts.
Alina Bliumis & Jeff Bliumis (Belarus/US) collaborate on projects that examine socio-political systems, bureaucracy, and national identity through conceptual approaches.
Anna Samara (Greece) explores themes of memory and identity through mixed media works that combine personal archives with collective histories.
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg (US) investigates digital culture and queer identity through photography and installation, examining how online spaces shape contemporary subjectivities.
Joan Bankemper (US) creates horticultural interventions that explore community engagement and ecological systems through her distinctive “potted” installations.
Clintel Steed (US) paints immersive, psychologically charged pieces that explore themes of memory, displacement, and the uncanny.
Ellen Frances (US) employs a unique visual language of abstraction and gesture that explores themes of the body, transformation, and mystical symbolism.
Irina Movmyga (Russia) creates intricate works that explore mythology and personal narrative through a contemporary lens, blending traditional techniques with modern concerns.
F-Twins (Anna and Valeria Lyshchenko) (Ukrainian) are Ukrainian-born artists and founders of the art movement Primarealism. Working under the name F-Twins (female twins), they create art that bridges emotional depth, science, and philosophy to challenge our understanding of reality. “Primarealism is an art movement that visualizes the greater potential of physical reality than we can perceive due to the limitations of technology and sensory capabilities. …The movement reinterprets the fear of time and pain of existence. Primarealism simultaneously fosters empathy within the individual and compels reflection on your role in this world.” – Manifesto of Primarealism*
Artemis Kotioni (Greece) explores cross-cultural identity and the structure of spaces through works that bridge personal narrative with broader aesthetic concerns.
Matthias van Arkel (Sweden) has become known for his unique expression of merging painting and sculpture in his works made of silicone. His practice has emerged out of a conceptual approach. In his three-dimensional works meaning is achieved through density, sensuality, and energy.
Marita Pappa (Greece) creates works that examine social structures and personal identity through a combination of installation and performance, questioning established norms and traditions.
Eleni Paridi (Greece) explores the intersection of technology, nature, and human perception through immersive installations that challenge conventional boundaries between physical and digital realms.
Radoslav Maglov (Bulgaria) challenges established conventions regarding the human body, scrutinising its relationship with ethical constructs and societal biases. To convey his thought-provoking message, Maglov employs a rich array of media, spanning the domains of video, installations, sculptures, and paintings.
GENERATIVE ALTERITIES
By placing Lloyd Foster’s affirming portraiture in dialogue with Nan Goldin’s intimate chronicles and Mia Enell’s characters, we see a spectrum of vulnerability, resilience, and self-determination. Jamie Martinez’s materialist critique of extraction finds a strange echo in Mark Borden’s photographs. Annu Yadav’s sacred, feminine narratives challenge the desacralized, corporate-driven tech that Victoria Bartlett interrogates through the synthetic body, while Anna Sofie Jespersen and Alina Yakirevitch deconstruct the institutional and state mechanisms that have historically controlled these narratives.
Generative Alterities argues that the path beyond our current impasse—beyond tech feudalism and resurgent nationalism—is not found in a retreat to isolation, but in the courageous fostering of critical, transnational dialogues. In a market-oriented world that seeks to build walls, this exhibition builds bridges of complex, challenging thought. It demonstrates that the most vital technology we possess is not an algorithm, but the collective, diverse, and irreducibly human capacity—across all genders and geographies—to generate alterity as a source of hope and a blueprint for a different future.
In a world dominated by simplistic binaries, this exhibition builds bridges of complex thought to generate new thinking.
FEATURING ARTISTS:
James Hyde • Nan Goldin • Max Blagg • Annu Yadav • Jamie Martinez • Lloyd Foster • Anna Sofie Jespersen • Alina Yakirevitch • Mia Enell • Oliver Halsman Rosenberg • F-Twins • Irina Movmyga • Anne Deleporte • Mark Borden (Egospeed) • Undisclosed Recipients: Victoria Bartlett & Zack Joslow • Artemis Kotioni • Brenda Zlamany • Alina Bliumis • Jeff Bliumis • Anna Samara • Aphrodite Desiree Navab • Soterio Bezio • Marita Pappa • Eleni Paridi • Hans Weigand • Joan Bankemper • Clintel Steed • Matthias Van Arkel • Radoslav Maglov • Ellen Frances
Curation: Sozita Goudouna, PhD
The Opening Gallery 41 Division ST, 10002, New York http://theopeninggallery.com
About The Opening Art InitiativeThe Opening Gallery at 41 Division st, LES, is a nonprofit cultural venue and initiative established in 2022 at 42 Walker in Tribeca, New York, showcasing global and local artists, practice-based research, as well as performance, live events, and educational programs. Exhibited artists are included in US and international museum permanent collections. Exhibitions include visual and performing arts and music events, with monthly public programs spanning a wide range of topics. The Opening Gallery has presented international and US based artists including Andres Serrano, Charles Gaines, Jimmie Durham, ORLAN, Leslie Hewitt, Jimmy Raskin, Agnieszka Kurant, Olu Oguibe, Martha Rosler, Allen Ruppersberg, Sagarika Sundaram, Victoria Bartlett, Michele Zalopany, Kenneth Goldsmith, John Zorn, The Shoplifter, Luciano Chessa, Daniel Firman, Hans Weigand, Raúl Cordero, Jessica Mitrani, United Nations artist-observer Yann Toma, Warren Neidich, Coleman Collins, Constance DeJong, Chrysanne Stathacos, Leah Singer, Ronan Day-Lewis, Orit Ben Shitrit, Undisclosed Recipients, Mia Enell, Brenda Zlamany, Regina Scully, Mark Borden: Egospeed and Bill Hayward. In spring 2024 the gallery presented a selection of Watermill Center former artists-in-residence including Eileen O’ Kane Kornreich, Christopher Knowles with Sylvia Netzer, D. Graham Burnett and “The Order of the Third Bird,” and Brian Block. The Opening has hosted the New York Arab Festival and events organized by MoMA curators and collaborates with Sorbonne Art Gallery in Paris. The nonprofit cultural venue and initiative supports a heteroclite art ecosystem that attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models in Tribeca. The Opening was founded by Sozita Goudouna, PhD and in 2023 partnered with the London-based publisher Eris to present exhibitions related to publications by Kenneth Goldsmith, Andres Serrano, ORLAN, and Lucas Samaras among other acclaimed contributors and artists. The publishing art program has hosted readings of Edward Said’s poems by Simon Critchley, Stathis Gourgouris, and Udi Aloni, as well as readings of Gabriele Tinti by Vincent Piazza.
https://www.theopeninggallery.com