Rika Krithara

Through a number of discussions and suggestions that had been laid to the table concerning an heroic exit from the hideout, the idea for a joint exhibition-activity won the bet. Discussions started again about the realization of this particular proposal, as many artists as possible were informed, the date of the opening of the joint exhibition was set, those who had responded composed smaller groups which would present their work every week, invitations were printed, and the attempt called "Due to a Lawsuit- Zaimi str 54" was brought to completion after a month and a half. Few days after this closing of this attempt on Zaimi street, in which 50 artists had taken an active part, we realized the resonance that was created. Thus, a feeling surged up within us, that something so open to participation and organizing should be kept on.

As a chance for further discussions about the possibilities of our interventions as a team, as well as our limitations as individuals, as a chance to receive constructive criticism and to express our views on various issues, at the same time, so as to abandon the indoor-usually protective- place of the workshop and discover the reason which would lead us to deal with ideas and everything else that surrounds us according not only to our thesis, but as well as in connection to.

Around spring of 1998, the first ideas were presented. An excursion and an overnight meeting in Athens, as away to experience an urban mechanism in a different manner.
In this way, after a lot of talks and conversations upon similar ideas about the space and time of the city, autumn came. At that time, the need for a more frequent contact with each other led us to settle on a place for our meetings, loosely and spontaneously in the beginning, conciously and regularly on a weekly base in the end.

The place was a café at the corner of Zaimi and Tositsa streets, where we started to meet every Tuesday night. In these meetings- which have been taking place continuously and without breaks- many ideas were suggested and percolated, ways to bridge opposing views were found, constructive criticism as well as strong dissents and disagreements between the participants were preserved, enriching with all possible ways inner potential of each one of us. In addition, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the need to materialize as many ideas as possible, which had been presented and discussed in our meetings until then, became more intense. Finally the the time and place was given in order for our plans to be put in practice.

Thus, we are set at the present Route 49, with the number implying the number of participants. The Route begun on Saturday the 22nd of May 99 and finished on Saturday the 6th of June 99.

Route 49 is not the total of the people participating Tuesday meetings -these people were more than 150-but a series of situations which have reached, until the day that chronicle was written, a completed shape.
Route 49 is not a team with an official identity or stature. It is a dynamic collective disposition which does not serve a specific guideline, but a common intention to support openly -whatever that may mean- in his/her own way, the relation opposite this human construct, the CITY.