State of Concept invites you to the opening of the group exhibition "Murderesses" on Wednesday, September 25th at 17:00 curated by Konstantina Melachrinou and iLiana Fokianaki with the participation of Eleni Karakou, Markella Ksilogiannopoulou, Miammy, Malvina Panagiotidi, Eva Papamargariti, with new and older commissions. 

The exhibition opens with a performance-monologue by Johnna Sachpazis at 20:30, in a very first performance with intensely emotional 'trans thoughts' as she calls them about her body, her transformation, her journey, her discomfort and her euphoria, as a response she could not say to her mother's abusive words. 

The exhibition explores the archetype of the dangerous woman - femininity that threatens patriarchy, imitating its violent means and tools in the effort of self-determination, salvation and emancipation. 

The title of the exhibition refers to Alexandros Papadiamantis' landmark book "The Murderess" of 1903, one of the most important psychographics of Greek literature. A dynamic woman on the island of Skiathos, the widow Hadoula, describes her life and how she decides to take the fate of young girls into her own hands. Papadiamantis' heroine responds to the violence of men with violence, a violence that passes from patriarchy to Hadoula and from Hadoula to the girls, even though she sees it as protection. A portrait of a woman of the time who lives to serve and the only saving solution she can think of for the new generation of women is death. 

The five artists participating in the exhibition use oral narratives of violence, spells, sexual practices, caustic campaigns, medical trolley tables, and hybrid creatures that make us rethink the gender stereotypes that are reproduced not only in society but also in science. The narratives through their works strive to exorcise patriarchy and provide solutions through it, as it is experienced daily 121 years after Papadiamantis' novel. Each work transforms violence and seeks to shed light on the darkness of the past for a brighter future where gender violence no longer exists.

The exhibition tries to underline a dark phenomenon that has intensified in recent years in Greece and elsewhere: the retrograde resistance from part of society  against all of us who are calling for the legal recognition of the term 'femicide' and for a change in the legal framework to deal with the murders of women in Greece, precisely because they are women. This resistance is expressed either in public discourse by journalists, in social media, or by groups of young and not-so-young men who claim new terms for parenthood and feel threatened by possible legislation that would toughen penalties for abusers. Reactions are not only to the term 'femicide' but also to the action of feminist initiatives, trying to damage the collective effort to create frameworks for protection, and smearing it as women's demands by 'aggressive (or even 'feminazi') women's groups.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme which will be announced in October.