The exhibition Statues that don’t move, don’t speak, don’t laugh presents seven new works in public space in the area of Amerikis Square and Kato Patissia.

The exhibition title refers to the popular children’s game, common in many countries under different names: ‘Statues’, ‘Red Light, Green Light’, ‘Grandmother’s footsteps’, ‘Statues that don’t move, don’t speak, don’t laugh’ in Greek: the children who play have to remain still, like statues, when the ‘Curator’ (or ‘It’, ‘Granny’ etc.) turns around and looks at them.

The exhibition focuses on the element of play, explores the relationship between objects, bodies and spaces, their motion and stillness, while it approaches movement and contemplation as both active and reflective processes. It is based on a random encounter with the artworks, on an impromptu that engages not only the gaze but the whole body, like the children-statues ‘freeze’ on the posture that the look of the ‘Curator’ catches them.

Anastasia Douka dresses the benches of Kalliga Square. Dora Economou forms a space by the big tree at the backside of the basketball field on the corner of Samara and Kambouroglou streets. The living statue/mime by Chrysanthi Koumianaki speaks the language of the walls around the basketball field at Samara and Kambouroglou streets. Rallou Panagiotou leaves personal notes for public services at Pavlou Bakoyianni Square. Aliki Panagiotopoulou’s work is a burial, scattering, burst and dispersal of wildflower seeds on soil, sidewalks, sewers that surround and connect the three spaces. Kostas Roussakis hands out a feuille volante to the passersby in Kalliga Square. Kostas Tzimoulis interposes sculptural drawings in the fence of the basketball field on the corner of Samara and Kambouroglou streets.

The three exhibition spaces are independent but compose an itinerary parallel to Patission Avenue. Every space has its own character and all together look like secret gardens in a neglected part of Athens. They are oases and holes in the urban grid, they balance between openness, inaccessibility and abandonment unfolding the potential and problems of public space.

Statues that don’t move, don’t speak, don’t laugh is supported by NEON Organization.