Art-fair fatigue 2: Athens Biennale
On my way back from Basel to Naxos to continue my holidays, I had a day to while away in Athens before the ferry. As it happened, it was the opening day of this year's Athens Biennale, so I went along to take a look. This year is the Biennale's seventh 'edition', called Eclipse and co-curated by Omsk Social Club and Larry Ossei-Mensah, under the artistic direction of Poka-Yio. It's centred on three disused locations, all in the heart of Athens, between Omonia and Syntagma. The main space is a former department store, Fokas, that shut down as a result of the economic crisis in 2013. The installations continue across the street in a totally different building, Athens' first post-independence courthouse, dating from the 1830s. From the looks of it inside, the building must have been practically a ruin. But it's been renovated, with the rough stone walls left bare and new, cement staircases with contemporary steel handrails. The Biennale is the first event to t...