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
in the center.
It is a Mediterranean city where the rivers were covered over,
where the memories of wars and colonialism were not discussed,
where the civil war marked her as it started in the central square,
where the leftist government disappointed her and managed to
limit the movements that developed after 2008 and many of the
commons.
Contemporary art in Athens developed through movements and
demonstrations about the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos,
the movement of the squares, along with the Commons through
actions in the city center, in neighborhoods, in places like the
Lyric Opera, and the open self-run theater Embros, and then
spread to many other places in the center and in the districts
through various different expressions such as performances,
installations, happenings, exhibitions in unexpected places,
most often without a relationship to money.
The Documenta festival, even though it sought through public
actions to develop a political dialogue by inviting theoreticians
and activists such as Franco Berardi Bifo, did not escape from
operating as a rough, particularly-introverted institution of the
North within the fluid landscape of Athens, thereby violating
the “Learning from Athens”.
The policy of Germans through Documenta has the sole aim
through this vocabulary to influence those who are considered
leading leaders of Greek society and public opinion and to
appease them by preventing their possible radicalization.
They are “imperial” politics and are not interested in a better
understanding of the Greek reality, but this has been shown
by the fact that they have been closed all this time to artistic
groups, collectives, artistic practices that have been
developed, in general, the artistic movement Athens.
They worked in the old traditional way with specific
curators who are not related to this place. Exoticism for
the neighborhoods, squares, streets and urban gaps of
Athens is highly developed and a potential gentrification
around its urban gaps.
The North-South relationship in Europe seems difficult
and irreconcilable in life and in art, and Athens the cauldron
boiling soul-deep. The bodies vulnerable, bowed, full of
dust and sun, bodies of the South, often ready to rebel.
H Nomadic / Topos / Silent Walking in Athens, was born
in the heart of the city through reflections and thoughts
over the political art of nowadays traced in the financial
capitalism postcolonial situation of the “left government”,
and through reflections on the Documenta 14 and the rigid
relationship with Athens and its artists.
The Nomadic / Topos / Athens comes to contact with the
ground of Athens through the silent walking and comes to
dwell in these uncertain landscapes and places associated
with strong memories of the past and the present, where
communities and the commons are created, and Athenian
artists express themselves, paving a path in the city which
draws a connection between significant historical sites.
Intending to create with these vulnerable rebellious bodies
of Athens through this silent walk and the actions to be
carried out by different groups of artists on sites:
Route :Meeting at May 14 at 15.00
We start the journey from the Plato’s Academy
Archaeological Park. The meeting will take place in
the Self-Managed Cafe at 11.30 in the morning. The first
action will take place at the archaeological site-Gymnasium,
from where we will walk to Philopapos hill. The archaeological
park of the Academy of Platon and the self-run Cafe and the
Association of local residents.
Performance “Slowness”
Angela Delichatsios, Artemis – Isabella Manousopoulou,
Vasiliki Nomidou
Public reading form Platos Symposium Peri Erotos,
the abandoned kiosk Dimitris Pikionis and at diamorphosis
at the hill of Philopappou
Public reading from Gaias Atimosis sentimental topiografy,
by Dimitri Pikionis.
the traces of the ancient river Eridanus (ancient site Kerameikou-
Monastiraki Square)
Performance:Vacuum-talking with water
(an event by the water) Natasa Dailiani
Necropolis Vassia Paspali
Following he traces of Iridanos river to Monastiraki square
Performance traces Katerina Katsifaraki
DEH in Aristeidou an expression of the crisis of the
“queues” starting from 5 in the morning and the crowds
that daily gather to pay their bills)
Collective event
in Syntagma Square as a memory place of bloody December
1944 from where the civil war –and the unattained revolution
begun and the movements of the squares,
Iperformance: “There Is No Alternative”Vasiliki Nomidou
Angela Delichatsios.
Site -specific:That blood, Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Law School
Performance Athens Topos///a ritual during the entire walk journey
Kristalinou Magdalini
Mesolongiοu Street in Exarcheia where Alexandro’s
Grigoropoulos was killed and started the movement in 2008
“Decleration of Love”
Giannos Ntanakos Maria Zacharogianni
Valentina Rossi prints- traces
Squats where refugees live, like City Plaza and Notaras
Chiara S. Mosciatti
sofia karouba ‘a wish is a hope
Green Park, occupy- self-managed space where a meeting
is proposed about the commons and the transformation of
the city of Athens. Room for a cup of tea and a discussion
will follow about the experience of the journey and the
transformation of the city.
Gerasimos Avlamis “Φέρων” event throughout the entire
walk – journey
In the above places and during the course, actions -performances
will take place from the participants. For those who are
involved, it is necessary to keep silence, keep cell phones
closed and non-photographing throughout the duration
of the entire journey so that we can communicate with
the ground and the atmosphere of the city.
Nomadic / Place / Athens
Concept Idea Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Curating communication Maria Zacharogianni
Contact www.nomadikiarxitektoniki.net
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