Location: Koumoundourou Square.
The issues that interested us during the workshop that preceded the action concerned the public sphere with emphasis on immigration, borders, displacement, common resources, and social ecology. The workshop focused on human condition. The ways of interaction, and the exchange of cultures and ideas, are the ones that need to be studied on the opposite side of spatial segregation and xenophobia.
The action NO VIOLENZA Filoxenia took place after several visits by us to Ipatia during the hunger strike. It was a gesture against the climate of violence and Greek police sweep operations, which were intense at that time in the center of Athens and created an ephemeral welcoming space and time in the inhospitable center of the city. The action, which was held on the grass and in the tiers of the small theater, included the food that we cooked, vegetable couscous, which we all ate together in the square with its temporary residents, immigrants within a moving process. We told stories about journeys made and to be made on a map, listened to music from immigrants’ countries of origin. Many had attempted to make the journey many times and they returned to the square after they had failed to complete it. There were ready to leave again the next day.
Participants: Louiza Anagnostou, architect – Nikos Kazeros, architect – Thaleia Niniou, architect – Katerina Rozakou, anthropologist – Fani Sofologi, visual artist specialized in public art – Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Dr. Architect community artist – Stefanos Handelis, painter – we thank Nikos Milonas and Christina Katsari.
Consultants: Heath Cabot anthropologist – Monica Fagioli PhD student – Natalia Roumelioti architect – Matthias Neumann architect – Jilly Traganou architect
The material from the project was presented at the exhibition AAO (Against All Odds Project at Benaki Museum)
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