For twenty years, Yael Bartana has developed an artistic practice that mainly utilizes video and moving image in order to examine lesser-known aspects of history as well as incidents that have influenced the formation of collective identities and consciousnesses. Historical political speeches, demonstrations, activist actions and other events of the present or recent past are recorded, re-enacted or adapted for the purpose of critical review.

With the same goal and alongside her characteristic audio-visual practice, Yael Bartana creates installations with neon where phrases, statements, slogans acquire a sculptural presence while at the same time they are symbols of an as yet unrealized political vision. What if Women Ruled the World (2016) was adapted as a large-scale installation, in two languages, Greek and English, on the north and south facades of the Fix building, now posing the archetypal question to passers-by of Syngrou Avenue.

In connection with EMST's series of exhibitions, the video Two Minutes To Midnight, 2021, is presented, a work based on the two-hour performance of 2017 entitled What if Women Ruled the World?

Inside a space that is a replica of the setting of Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, 1964, we watch the scenario of a possible nuclear conflict unfold. But unlike the film, the council of the threatened country consists only of women. Recognized experts in fields such as defense, peace activism, philanthropy and politics examine ways to de-escalate international crises, question whether it is better to die in an act of peace than survive acts of violence and analyze, among other things, the bunch dimension of belligerent, aggressive and possessive behavior. In this profoundly anti-war work, serious issues are tackled with humor while highlighting practical ways of dealing with a global threat in a way that is alternative and radically different from that of the patriarchal and dominant model of power. The title of the work refers to the Apocalypse Clock, the clock invented by a group of scientists to simulate, symbolically, how close we are to the end of the world. When Yael Bartana performed the work, the apocalypse clock was two minutes to midnight. Today, the estimate is that we are just 90 seconds from the end.

Coordination: Stamatis Schizakis
Venue: Screening Room-Mezzanine

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