The thematic contemporary art exhibition ‘Rebetiko’ is all about love, escape, ‘joyful mourning’, and all the thoughts, memories, and symbols associated with this ‘major occurrence in modern Greek culture’, as the composer Nikos Mamangakis has fittingly described it. It aims to represent rebetiko and its mythology through a contemporary visual outlook. How can a contemporary visual artist engage emotionally with and translate into image rebetiko music – ‘the songs of the wounded, the simple, pure, sensitive souls of Greece’, according to Elias Petropoulos?
As the subject refers to a multifaceted issue with multiple and deep cultural implications, it was deemed appropriate to avoid obvious iconographic solutions and to compose a narrative superior to the specific. Thus, the approach focuses more on the question of what constitutes the legacy of rebetiko today than on its answer, something that is also consistent with the purpose of the exhibition itself. Using clean typography whose focus varies from word to word we are given a sense of blur and fleetingness, with visual references to smoke, shadow, or spray paint (as a connection to graffiti, being a transgressive, urban form of expression of today). At the same time the combination of serif and sans serif fonts develops a dialogue between the local and the international — one of the core characteristics of rebetiko music — showcase its essence in a way that feels both timeless and contemporary. In the brochure, one of the main printed applications, photographic material (which is part of the exhibition) was also added, with the curator noting that it ‘converses with an aspect of rebetiko that is associated with delinquency, marginalisation, reaction against authority […] it has the directness and honesty that we also find in rebetiko.’ Making a reference to the subject’s musical side, the brochure spread has the dimensions of a vinyl sleeve, a connection that is further communicated graphically.
