On June 29, 2002, a failed bombing attempt at the port of Piraeus led Greek authorities to the arrest of Savvas Xiros, a member of the November 17 terrorist group. His arrest, the first ever of a member of the group that is also known as 17N, led to the discovery of two hideouts and the arrest of further suspects. The two hideouts, a ground-level apartment in Athens’s Kato Patissia district and a two-room flat in the Pagrati area, were chock full of all the material 17N used in its attacks: stolen license plates, many keys, a computer, proclamations, forging materials, explosives, guns and bomb-making materials.

Objects to relate to a trial (Nov 17) is the third in a series of projects that examine important political trials from the recent past. It involves extensive research on the two November 17 hideouts and on an emblematic Athenian hotel and its famous residents in 1999.

The November 17 Revolutionary Organization was established in 1975 in the aftermath of the Greek dictatorship (1967-1974). The group, the most durable of the militant Leftist revolutionary groups to emerge from the European radical milieu of the 1970s, assassinated 23 people in 103 attacks on US, British, Turkish and Greek targets over a period of 27 years. In June 2002, a failed bombing attempt marked the beginning of the end for the group. The 17N trial opened in Athens on 3 March 2003, and lasted nine months. It was one of the most publicly followed trials in the history of Greece.

Vangelis Vlahos was born in 1971 in Athens, Greece where he lives and works. His projects have been included in: Antidoron, The EMST collection (part of Documenta 14), Fridericianum, Kassel (2017); The Kids Want Communism (Notes on Division), Museum of Fine Arts (MoBY), Tel Aviv (2017); On to what end?, Camera Austria, Graz (2015); On the moment of change there is always a new threshold of imagination, Artspace, Auckland (2014); Gesture, Kunstverein Stuttgart (2014); Current Pasts, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2012); The End of Money, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011); To the Arts, Citizens!, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2010); 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009); ISLANDS+GHETTOS, NGBK & Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (2009); Monument to transformation, City Gallery Prague, Prague (2009); A Number of Worlds Resembling Our Own, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (2007); 27th Sao Paulo Biennale (2006); Behind Closed Doors, Dundee Centre for Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2005); Manifesta 5, San Sebastian (2004), and the 3rd Berlin Biennial (2004).

With the support of Outset Greece.