In 2016, FYTA were contacted by New York’s New Museum to participate in an exhibition showcasing up-and-coming artists of the athenian scene, coorganised with the DESTE foundation and Benaki Museum. To celebrate the 33 years of the DESTE foundation of art, 33 artists would be selected for the exhibition. We don’t normally work in such contexts, but somehow decided to proceed with the contact. Naive as we were, we thought that as major institutions were involved, we could at least get some cash out of this deal, which we could use for other DIY projects. Little did we know of what was to follow.
So, we met with the organisers, they seemed pleased with our work, despite the fact that we weren’t sure they got it. Nevertheless, it all seemed like it was going ahead. They would let us know soon.
We then received an email that ok we could participate (as in: be one of the 33 artists), but not with any kind of work we wanted. Things started looking iffy.
We thought oh dear we can’t even do much of what we would want, this whole thing sounds like it sucks, let’s see what’s the deal with the money at least. So we sent an email asking about travel expenses, costs, fee. We got an email that more or less stated that we will get nothing. Excerpt follows. Explanatory annotations have been added for this website.
We were stunned. At that early point of our treacherous path in the art world we did not know that as long as someone claims to be super transparent about something, they can then follow this with whatever statement regardless of what institution they represent. Little FYTA had their artworld reality check / emancipation moment.
