Silent walking 14 Mai 2017 /15 .00 Plato’s Academy

Athens is a city of southern Europe where urban planning
is unclear, where there are many unemployed and homeless
people as well as many empty apartments and closed shops,
where the city is often very reminiscent of an installation and
magic is often hidden beneath the cement.

It is a city that refugees and immigrants come to in order to leave
for the North as soon as possible, but many do not succeed as
they are blocked by the closed borders and often they end up
residing here, where squats/hospitality spaces for refugees are
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A visit to the place. Life must change.
On Revolution.

On the afternoon of September 12th, 2015 a group of women, men and two children (14 people in total) headed to the mountain village Kallikratis, situated on a plateau, mainly inhabited during the summer, with trees, sheep and goats, towards the location Sideroporti, on the Mountain. At the place where, on April 18, 1949, as it seems from the press of that period, at 3.30 in the afternoon during a conflict , partisan Nitsa-Eleni Papayiannakis, called Electra, was killed along with Athena Chandapakis and the rebels: Giorgos Manouselis (group leader originated from Kallikratis village), Andreas Kourkoumelis, Sotiris Psarrakis, Georgis Christou, Vasilis Vlassis (Lycurgus). Giorgos Miaoulis, although survived the conflict, he was later killed. Continue reading

Route: Free Self-managed Theatre Embros –Aristophanous –Evripidou -Athinas -Panepistimiou- Syntagma square – National Garden.

The action was part of the ten-day Body and Politics event.

It was a silent route- wandering through fragments-traces that concern the lost memory of the city, experiences – narrative poetry from its present – narratives of uprisings. The narratives were about the Theatrou Square and the Boukoura theater, the Municipal Theatre of Athens and its habitation by refugees from Asia Minor disaster, the occupation of the refugees’ quarters and the current residents, the events of December 2008 and the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos along with Memories from the Paris Commune, the Chiapas, the crosstalk at the police station with Electra Apostolou, the events of December ‘44 in Athens, ending up at the National Garden. There were poetry excerpts from Giorgos Ioannou, Mansour, Katerina Gogou, Pie Paolo Pasolini, live narratives about Panepistimiou Street by Nikos Kazeros, Constantina Theodorou, about REX Cinema, by Diana Sabri and Vasilis Spiropoulos about the route.

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Route: Kotzia Square-Omonia Square – Splanzia Square, Chania-Hackney Wick in London

An event is created through a video named “Crossing the borders. Routes in the historic center of Athens.”  The video is displayed simultaneously for two hours, at both squares, after the sunset.

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The park as a common good for Athens.

Route: from the entrance across the cafe following the paths of the park, up to the high school.

The action was part of two-day actions-interventions organized by the Residents Committee of Plato’s Academy “we fight-claim-demand”. Archaeological Park: Open -Free Culture area. Fight for the quality of life. We defend the common. We create communities of active solidarity”

To keep the park open -free and non-tradable, an alternative destination for Athens.

It was a unique experience through the spring landscape initially with the children who had come with small crafts they created with Ioanna and placed them on the trees at the park entrance and afterwards walking together in a unique landscape with olive trees, Judas trees, plane trees, Daphne plants, and other plants.

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Route: Athinas Street-Central Market- Kotzia Square.

The action “the shopping cart“, action about the human condition, was part of the happening-conversation “Athens in Trans-IT-ion! Athens: A city in transition? ” Organized by the theorist of art and culture Eva Kekou in the CAMP (Contemporary Art Meeting Point) which is located at the square.

Memory. Kotzia Square or Loudovikos Square or National Resistance Square is a historic square in Athens, with important urban buildings such as the Mela building standing on the corner of Aeolus and Kratinos Street, where it used to be the Municipal Theatre designed by Ziller, which had hosted 150 families of refugees, and was demolished in 1933 by the Mayor Kotzia, while the trees of the square were a key element of its aesthetics.

Urban Void. Today it is just an Urban Void as there is only a gray pavement without trees, benches, or any interventions. Today’s square was formed in 2004, too hastily, without an architectural competition or study, and its architecture does not make the stay in the square pleasant. It is mainly a meeting point of immigrants, drug users and passers-by headed to the near-by shops. On Saturday, at the side of Aeolus Street a jewelry bazaar is held. Interesting and timeless elements of the square are the two cafes.

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Route: Piazza Sannini-via dei Piceni-via dei Volsci in the area of ​​San Lorenzo.

It is about walking and the mapping of a route in Rome at San Lorenzo through songs, texts and poems. Small actions took place in public spaces. Actions took place at the occupied ex –Cinema Palazzo, at the alternative music place KeNako, at the craft workshop Rota-lab, at the Onde Rosse radio station, at the studio of Gianni Piacentini, and the poetess Eugenia Serafini. Radio presentations made by Luisella Carlei, Gianni Piacentini, Eleni Tzirtzilaki (Pier Paolo Pasolini), Eugenia Serafini. The video shown was made  by Gianni Lauricella. The route was part of the Urban Transcripts 2011. Rome, the accidental city.

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Walking on the path to Agios Mamas

Route: Plakes Vlychou- path-Ag. Mamas to Hydra with the sunrise.

We set off at 6 am, Eleni, Stephanos, Thalia, Evemar, from the house in Ano Hydra. We got cheese pies from the bakery, next to the Pirate, which was just closing and we got coffee from another cafe on the beach that had just opened. Stavros was waiting for us with the water taxi. By dawn we could see the sunrise over the sea.

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Route: Walking along Kifissos river. Sailing. Travelling along Faliron coast and Psyttalia Island.

In this action the teams Urban Void, Nomadic Architecture Network, Flux factory and CUP walked with the participants along Kifissos river, in Faliro Bay, and at the mouth of Kifissos river and sailed through Faliro Bay towards the island of Psyttalia.

The area of ​​Faliro Bay remains inaccessible from the city, starting from the Peace and Friendship Stadium (S.E.F) up to the Olympic facilities. An entire part of the coast, the Faliro Delta, remains a kind of a non-place, a cut-off piece, because the sports facilities are abandoned and the beach is a desertland. The mouths of Kifissos and Ilissos rivers are located there.

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Route: Koulouri square in Gkazochori- Polycarpou Street in Elaionas – Markoni. Suggestive actions at stop points.

The area of ​​Elaionas, known from ancient times with the same place-name, that took it from the ancient olive grove of Athens, occupies the central part of ​​the residential area of the capital (3 km from Omonia square). It connects the eastern with the western districts of Athens and this is the region with the longest industrial history. The area consists of Byzantine churches, factories, houses, olive trees and vineyards, archaeological findings and vacant spaces with no use. All these make up an un-built area, and can be characterized as the un-built zone of ​​Athens. Because of its industrial characteristics (pollution, noise, etc.) it was not considered until now an area worthy of exploitation and as a result large parts of the area have been left un-built. This was soon reversed, because large parts of land at very low prices were attractive to the real estate industry, which will leave nothing un-built. Many Roma families were already kicked out of the area where the action took place. At that time it was announced that the new stadium of Panathinaikos as well as shopping malls etc. would be built in the area.

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