AN OPENING TO SOCIETY WITH THE OLIVE TREE AS THE EMBLEM

The initiative of the TEI and the Network of Cultural Associations of Crete for the salvation of the ancient olive trees, which live on the island, is to be classified as an activist movement, which is directed toward the society, in order for the sacred tree to survive.

The civilization of principles of the third millennium is placed within a supermarket of principles of profit, of consumption, of the structure of power, in a violent world where only a few values survive. In such a framework of fear, the ripping out of the ancient olive groves, in favour of the new more productive olive tree varieties and their virgin fruit, threatens the tradition both of place and of nature.

The ecological catastrophe in Crete does not concern only the pollution and over-valuing of the built envi-ronment, but also the activities which define as useless whatever does not bring profit.

The effort of a wake up call, even if it does not bring a tangible result, at least offers hope, working in a framework of many and varied activities, among them an art exhibition.

The invitation of the Cultural Associations of Crete to every interested artist, to support by  their participation in the exhibition for the salvation for the ancient olive grove of Crete, is taking the dimension of movement, since the response from 300 or so artists from Greece and abroad, is now a fact.

Ant strongly connected with society as a whole, often forges the way ahead and works prophetically, defin-ing he intellectual and emotional pioneers which create breakthroughs, taking matters forward. We should all remember, that the ecological question, has been a fact in art from 60s, and 70s, from the demands of Land Art and the intervention of its artist then pioneers in art reaching a peak in the 80s.

Artists and theoreticians were activated and wrote their manifesto of the Amazon, years before television gave information about the coming catastrophe, artists and intellectuals took the responsibility many times for the salvation of nature, moving the narration in the framework of therapy.

Our existence, closely connected with the eye of nature which follows us, both in the petrol spills in the sea and in the crowded refugee camps in the city centres, demands salvation. And this is usually testified first by the artists.

This exhibition is a call-cry-complaint.

And this is how we perceive it.

Included are artists who work in all the expressions of art, but also express the right of participation, both amateurs and professionals, all together.

Experience is the necessary preliminary step before knowledge, that part which will supports the basis for invention and proof, as Aristotle taught us.

This experience, we hope, will be recorded, as well as the nostalgia for an innocence which draws us back, to our original past, reacting to the repulsive vision of a synthetic sarcophagus.

The exhibition and the manifestos which accompany it, both stimulate and demand.

At the same time they also show the most beautiful sculpture, the body of an ancient olive tree.

June 2010

Maria Marangou

Art Critic, Curator, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Crete.