By decontextualising verses, words, images and sounds we create new contents. We generate conceptual contexts which appear —arbitrarily— as authentic and representative of the original context. Meaning is constructed through the fragment and its transposition, citation or juxtaposition. In what way do the syntheses and clashes produce this meaning? How does the fragmentary give meaning to the constructed whole?
Here the “entirety” of History is critically approached. Using the exhibition facilities of iset, the exhibition “Massage the History” plays with the element of memory, of personal record, in relation to the major narratives. It explores the ways in which the historical narrative constructs the mainstream perception of reality while seeking ways to undermine it.
The artists explore new methods of perceiving and narrating History. They are called upon to revisit the context in which we perceive the fait accompli, the historical event and its record. They demonstrate the contingency, the multiplicity, the voids, the space between events, the experience of the historical moment, the subjectivity of perception and the process of recording as a process within History. The space of the Institute’s archive is turned into a space for the presentation of alternative archives, personal records as well as of abstracted information as part of a quest for new models of existence.
Participating artists: Rania Bellou, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Antonis Pittas and Allyson Vieira. 
massage1
 
Back