I conceived and curated this exhibition for the N.G.O. EDRA (mental health organisation) I am working for, in 2012. This tactile exhibition focused on touch and encouraged visitors to feel the works and relate to the events staged by making the most of all their senses. While being a contemporary art event for the typical art-loving public, the exhibition was also keen to provide innovative cultural perspectives among diverse audiences and attract people with sight defects or other impairments to the tactile beauty on the works.

 

The theme selection highlights the need for art accessibility and points out the fact that, maintaining physical contact with the world around us directly afects a person’s mental health. The festival challenges the prevalence of image in modern society and celebrates a return to the physical presence and tactile qualities of the works of art. Visitors are free to touch and feel the exhibits.

The festival included exhibition of pop-up books, paper cuts, tactile notebooks, soft sculptures, assemblage, ready-mades, workshops, tactile performances, puppet shows, doll exhibition, narration, concerts. The festival took place under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Health, the Greek Ministry of Culture and with the support of the Panhellenic Association of the Blind
and the Greek Lifhthouse for the Blind, for the Braille version of the program catalogue.