Immaginare la Grecia oggi, fra stereotipi e contro-narrazioni (street art e flânerie urbana)

Abstract

“Greece doesn’t exist” was the provocative title of Michel Grodent’s essay (2000), suggesting the need to overcome all prejudices and stereotypes around the image of Greece. Is this perspective of de-construction possible today? This paper focuses on some specific cultural attempts, following this direction. After a brief overview of the different positions, from enthusiasm to disappointment (idealization, touristic image, the myth of Zorba, financial crisis), it explores two examples of counter-narratives: street art, as an alternative response to hegemonic discourse, and urban flâneries. In particular Christos Chryssòpoulos’ interesting works (Flashlight between Teeth, 2012 and The Flâneur Consciousness, 2015), where text and photography form a dialectic pair and show the present of Athens through its material objects. In both cases, wall-writing and literary photobooks suggest a new gaze – an “apocalyptic” one, according to the etymological root of the word – which reveals throbs, details, microcosms and new perspectives capable of destroying certainties and preconceptions.