Instructions for Happiness at Lekka 23 – 25 & Perikleous 34 / Athens

Instructions for Happiness  / Curated by Severin Dünser, Olympia Tzortzi   

Featuring works by: Anna Sophie Berger, Liudvikas Buklys, Heinrich Dunst, Simon
Dybbroe Møller, Christian Falsnaes, Benjamin Hirte, Barbara Kapusta, Stelios Karamanolis,
Alexandra Kostakis, Adriana Lara, Lara Nasser, Rallou Panagiotou, Natasha Papadopoulou,
Angelo Plessas, Maruša Sagadin, Hans Schabus, Björn Segschneider, Socratis Socratous,
Misha Stroj, Stefania Strouza, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis, Salvatore Viviano

21.12. – 30.12.2016

Lekka 23 – 25 & Perikleous 34, Athens

Liudvikas Buklys

Alexandra Kostakis

Heinrich Dunst

Christian Falsnaes

Socratis Socratous

Courtesy The Breeder, Athens

Rallou Panagiotou

Barbara Kapusta

Barbara Kapusta

 Anna Sophie Berger

Misha Stroj

Simon Dybbroe Møller

 Adriana Lara

Maruša Sagadin

Kostis Velonis

Kostis Velonis

Kostis Velonis

Stelios Karamanolis

Lara Nasser

Benjamin Hirte

Jannis Varelas

Natasha Papadopoulou

Stefania Strouza

Björn Segschneider

Angelo Plessas

Courtesy The Breeder, Athens

Hans Schabus

Salvatore Viviano

Happiness can be understood as a basic human need. And the exhibition is all about the

personal pursuit for happiness. But instructions for happiness? As happiness is quite an

individual matter, instructions for happiness are of course a pretty absurd promise.

Regardless of whether happiness is sought after in the interpersonal, the immediate or the

everyday respectively the beauty of the small things in life – the exhibition tries to question

the notions of happiness.

Selected artists were invited to contribute a work, that also includes a manual: A work that –

based on an instruction – invites to do something, for instance use an object, react to a

situation, interact with others under certain rules, perform something for others or oneself or

simply initiates a thought process. The form of the work (as well as the instruction) could take

any possible shape – resulting in artworks that are as diverse and formally divergent as the

technical possibilities. But the seemingly chaotic diversity also reflects a plurality of

perspectives on happiness that the artist (as well as society) share.  

Aside from the question of happiness in the context of today’s Athens, the exhibition also

tries to reflect upon art’s possibilities of immediate effects on society. Thus the boarders of

the power of the aesthetic field can be questioned in the show on one side, while tracing the

notions of happiness on the other side through experiencing the works in order to maybe

also find answers for oneself.