The word “economy” is etymologically derived from the Greek word for home (oikos), a concept that in ancient Greece had little to do with domesticity, family, or comfort, and everything to do with economic management (nomos), more precisely one carried out by women. Seen from this perspective, the artworks presented in the group show reveal the subtle ideological constructions embedded in the home, a process reinforced by the context of an art gallery hosted inside a domestic space. Oikonomia also aims to reveal the power structures at play within domesticity and their implications on a geopolitical scale. The home has long been a microcosm of broader societal hierarchies, where notions of control, authority, and dependency are established. The home, too, must be regarded as a node within a network of planetary systems of exchange: although shut off from the exterior through archaic systems of delimitation (walls, windows, and doors), contemporary domestic space is traversed by and dependent on material and immaterial flows (energy, water, fiber, etc.) within which worldwide power struggles are invisibly interlaced. By scrutinizing these intersections, the exhibition prompts viewers to consider how the micro-level structures of domesticity not only shape individual lives but also resonate on a global stage.
