Graceland Paradox: Navigating Uncertainty

In “The Graceland Paradox,” artists Fani Boudouroglou, Rania Emmanouilidou and Lia Psoma address the intertwined crises of climate collapse, displacement, and techno-social alienation as symptoms of late capitalism. Their hybrid figures and landscapes move between ruin and reconstruction, recalling both the aftermath of disaster and the possibility of a fairer and more inclusive future. Made from bioplastics, clay, crystallized paper, and rhizomes, their works question the binaries between human and nonhuman, nature and machine, resistance and control. Artist Bilal Yilmaz is a guest, extending this exploration through the prism of political action and observation, inviting viewers to resist the influx of manipulated media and embrace images and practices that inspire real change. At the center of the exhibition is the “Lab,” which opens up the artists’ creative process—an active space for imagining new forms, new materials, and alternative futures. Here, experimentation becomes a form of resistance, and the artwork itself becomes a living engine of transformation.

The Western scientific paradigm may have allowed us to understand the world as a system of specialized fields of knowledge in a way that has allowed for rationalization, specialization, and growth; at the same time, however, it has also led us to neglect the interconnectedness of people, societies, and ecosystems.

In contrast, Fani Boudourouglu, Ranja Emanouilidou, and Lia Psoma do not emphasize and separate, nor prioritize one symptom over another. The human, non-human and hybrid figures in their works inhabit undefined conditions – perhaps in a context in which the consequences of a catastrophe are visible, or in a context in which the possibility of a speculative, more balanced future looms – encouraging viewers to reflect on causes, consequences and possibilities. The process of identifying these conditions becomes, at the same time, a process of reflection and realization about the capitalist dead end, while the exhibition as a whole becomes an exercise in the imagination of possible – dystopian or utopian – futures. This speculative dimension is further complemented and expanded by the artist Bilal Yilmaz, invited to join the exhibition in Skopje. His work draws on acute mobilizations around the world, including those in North Macedonia, where people took to the streets to protest.

After the guided tour of the exhibition, follows a short discussion with the artists, accompanied by Vladimir Janchevski (curator, MoCA – Skopje), Anna Mykoniati (curator, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens) and Thouli Misirloglou (Artistic Director, MoMus), moderated by curator Lydia Chatziiakovou.

The festival entitled Metamorphosis KRIK 2025 is part of the Re-Imagining Europe: New Perspectives for Action. The project is part of the Creative Europe program for 2021-2027.