Visual Anthropology Review – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 13:33:09 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 “The Metaphysics of the Greek Crisis”: Visual Art and Anthropology at the Crossroads https://toarcheio.org/items/the-metaphysics-of-the-greek-crisis-visual-art-and-anthropology-at-the-crossroads/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:46 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-metaphysics-of-the-greek-crisis-visual-art-and-anthropology-at-the-crossroads/ Continued]]> During times of uncertainty and ‘crisis’, the religious and the metaphysical may acquire particular resonance and be employed to explain experiences of deprivation and insecurity which cannot be accounted for in rational terms. Using a montage of YouTube videos, the author together with a visual artist have drawn attention to “the metaphysics of the Greek crisis” and the power of its visual cultures. This article gives an account of the history of the montage’s making and of some of the issues that arise from a work such as this that stands at the crossroads of anthropology and contemporary art.

]]> Introduction—Uncertain Visions: Crisis, Ambiguity, and Visual Culture in Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/introduction-uncertain-visions-crisis-ambiguity-and-visual-culture-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:41 +0000 http://arc.local/items/introduction-uncertain-visions-crisis-ambiguity-and-visual-culture-in-greece/ Proxy Brigands and Tourists: Visualizing the Greek-German Front in the Debt Crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/proxy-brigands-and-tourists-visualizing-the-greek-german-front-in-the-debt-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:41 +0000 http://arc.local/items/proxy-brigands-and-tourists-visualizing-the-greek-german-front-in-the-debt-crisis/ Continued]]> This article explores Greek social imagination and daily experiences during the debt crisis particularly in relation to Germany, which is increasingly the object of public suspicion with reference to its role in Greece’s bailout program. The essay investigates the prevailing Greek fantasy of nativism and the role of the visual in its constitution and conception during a period characterized by anxiety over national sovereignty. Furthermore, the article explores Greek‐German social relations in western highland Crete, which lies at the intersection of cultural investments, as an archetype of the native. The essay especially focuses on photography and other material practices in unraveling the complexities, circularities, and ambivalences in the relationship between Cretans and German tourists and between Greek national imagination and German cultural representations.

]]> The ‘Greek Crisis’ through the Cinematic and Photographic Lens: From ‘Weirdness’ and Decay to Social Protest and Civic Responsibility https://toarcheio.org/items/the-greek-crisis-through-the-cinematic-and-photographic-lens-from-weirdness-and-decay-to-social-protest-and-civic-responsibility/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:39 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-greek-crisis-through-the-cinematic-and-photographic-lens-from-weirdness-and-decay-to-social-protest-and-civic-responsibility/ Continued]]> The article explores cinematic and photographic images of the ‘Greek crisis’ in order to show how the visual can render the crisis both visible and invisible, clear and opaque, normalized and contested. Greek new wave cinema, iconic repetitive images of suffering in the center of Athens, and the group of visual artists Depression Era are discussed in this context. I argue that the images in focus articulate the crisis and render it visible. At the same time, however, they challenge one’s expectations of what the crisis is and how normalized it has become. I argue that these images can encourage civic responsibility and a dialogue about freedom and democracy in the current predicament.

]]>