Entry
Absent — Street Satire in Crisis-Era Greece
For his immediate comments and analysis of current affairs, Absent heads for the canvas that he finds ‘on the route from indebted homes to unfulfilling jobs and back’. Between cartoon and street-art, his paintings always carry humour and irony. Covering the period of state troubling finance crisis, Absent’s political satire posters are by now a part of the permanent collection of the Benaki Museum in Athens. His work demonstrates how humour and irony, deployed in public space during moments of extreme social pressure, can create breathing room for critical reflection — transforming the streets of Athens into a gallery of popular discontent.