Welcome – The European Hospitality and Its Borders

The theme of the exhibition “Welcome – The European Hospitality and its Borders” is timely and sensitive. Art historian and exhibition curator, Megakles Rogakos, selects, documents and presents 33 artists with an equal number of works on the central theme of hospitality and immigration in Europe.
 
The majority of works are created especially for the exhibition, and each artist uses her/his special vocabulary to respond to the idea of hosting and immigration, covering the topic from different angles. The works are inspired in response to the special tradition of hospitality in Greece, and express sensitively and critically the human distress of immigration.
 
Art Historian Dr. Megaklis Rogakos notes: “The moral obligation of archetypal hospitality was to offer generously to every passer-by, regardless of his social position, financial situation or political point of view. All guests were treated with the same respect. The material obligations that followed were for the host to receive the stranger and take care of him, offering him food, bath and sleep. At the end of the stay the host said goodbye with wishes and gifts. Thus the host and the stranger were connected by bonds of friendship that were inherited to their descendants. Today the famous archetypal hospitality has been poorly preserved in limited places that in defiance of change have remained faithful to ancient customs and traditions. “More and more, the foreigner is no longer perceived as a fertile carrier of new information and ideas, but as a barren immigrant who represents a financial burden and causes distrust.”
 
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with extensive documentation texts of the curators, comments on the participating projects and an introduction entitled “Hospitality – Boundaries, Challenges and Endurance of an Ancient Greek Concept in Modern Europe” by the Historian and Art Critic Dr. Konstantinos V. Proimos. The catalog fully illustrates all the exhibits.
 
The exhibition “Welcome – European Hospitality and its Borders” is part of the art program “HANIaRT 2019” of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chania – Olive Mill and participates in its production the Region of Crete, the Regional Unit of Chania and the Municipality of Platanias.

The 33 artists of the “Welcome – The European Hospitality and its Borders” exhibition are:

Hariton Bekiaris, Lamprini Boviatsou, Konstantin Fisher, Dionisis Fragias, Cris Gianakos, Nikos Giavropoulos, Elli Griva, Lydia Dambassina, John Dialinos, Lena Dimova, Antigone Kavvatha, Michalis Kalaitzakis, Nikos Kryonidis, Alexandros Manganiotis, Yannis P. Markantonakis, Dimitris Merantzas, Alkistis Michaelidou, Maria Michelogianni, Nicholas Moore, Eleni Mylonas, Barbara Knight, Antonia Papatzanaki, K.N. Patsios, Eleni Pavlopoulou, Marina Provatidou, Natassa Poulantza, Miranda Skylouraki, Rena Stollenverk, George Tserionis, Sofia Vlazaki, Alexander Voutsas, Petros Xenakis, and Mariva Zacharof