▶ ART OF CRISIS. CRISIS OF ARTISTS?

CRISIS IS A GREEK WORD IN THE END

am 19.Juni ab 19.00 Uhr

19:00-19:15

Eva Kekou  // intoductory talk/moderator

Philosophizing the situation in Greece …to connect with crisis in a Greek mode

19:15-19:25

Anna Mykoniati // State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki

Unnecessary Research: Art Science Collaboration in the UK - and beyond!

19:25-19:35

Hara Vlahou // Animasyros International Animation Festival

The impact of Greek crisis in a festival with free screenings!

19:45-19:55

Eleftheria Gerofoka // Greek actress living in Sweden

To be or not to be abroad

19:55-20:05

Dr. Steriani Tzintziloni // Dance theorist

Dancing between the tangible and the intangible

20:05-20:15

Dimitris Michalaros  // kodra festival municipality of kalamaria

crisis is a greek word after all

20:15-20:25

Manthos Santorineos and Nefeli Dimitriadi // Athens School of Fine Arts

Media Lab Perspectives

20:25-20:35

Achilleas Kentonis // Artos Foundation, Cyprus

and then they all went to the beach...

20:35-21:00

Panel

21:00

Simon Whetham „Field recordings + Soundscapes_Live Mix“

Using sonic material and methods of presentation Simon Whetham has been developing at Villa Waldberta, Feldafing, as well as found objects, Simon Whetham will perform a new and unique sound piece at signalraum.'

Eva Kekou // intoductory talk/moderator, art historian and curator

Philosophizing the situation in Greece …to connect with crisis in a Greek mode

Kekou’s talk is about crisis as a stimulus for change and creativity and a way to deal with crisis not only in Greece but also globally. She will report about her experience in Greece as she is based there only for the past three years and also brief us about the idea of organizing a symposium right now in Germany. Crisis can be seen as a way for transition and a challenge if it is perceived so and if people see culture and economy linked together.

Eva Kekou is an art historian and curator specialized in new media and public art. She grew up in Athens and lived in Austria, Luxembourg, U.K. and United States. She has a multidisciplinary academic background (art history, cultural studies, political theory) and she has a number of talks as an invited speaker worldwide (Canada, us) as well as publications and presentations at big international conferences (sea, subtle technologies, media art histories). She has curated a number of exhibitions in Greece and organized the symposium urban digital narratives in Athens in 2009.

Hara Vlahou // Animasyros International Animation Festival

The impact of Greek crisis in a festival with free screenings!

Animasyros is being held every year since 2008 during September on the Island of Syros, Greece promoting animated films from around the world and attracting the vivid interest of animators worldwide. Policy of the festival has always been the free screenings. But how this could be affected and changed in the Greece of crisis and what alternative choices could be taken in order to preserve the festival’s character? Let’s investigate the case of Animasyros!

Hara Vlahou Born in 1987 in Patras. She has studied Audiovisual Arts at the Ionian University in Corfu and pursued postgraduate studies in Film, Exhibition and Curatorship in University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research field is related to alternative film exhibition modes and ways on attracting new audiences.

She works as a freelance film editor and curator. She was a part of the ‘making of’ video team in Be There Corfu Animation Festival and Animasyros 3.0 Animation Festival and Forum and she has worked at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Africa in Motion Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Audiovisual Arts Festival in Corfu. During her master course she curated a series of alternative film events such as ‘Weimarvellous’, ‘Short Stop’ and ‘Under Light and Shadow’. Since 2012 works as a production coordinator in Animasyros Animation Festival and Forum.. She has participated in conferences and seminars related with arts, new media and film festivals while is accepted to represent Animasyros 6.0  in Motovun Film Festival in Croatia this July.

Eleftheria Gerofoka // greek actress living in Sweden

To be or not to be abroad

… this is the question. I am going to talk through my personal experience for how difficult or not it is for an artist to start living abroad. Not only living but at the same time starting a new career. How the background of greece in crisis is valuable. How crisis can make you more open and flexible to make decisions. How can we start building bridges between greece and abroad.

Eleftheria Gerofoka was born in greece. She graduated from the theater department in the National Conservatoire of Athens with honors. She began her acting career at the age of 21, playing in a lot of performances in modern and classical theater, as well as in Greek TV. Eleftheria has participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus, and in Sarajevo Talent Campus in 2009. In the same year, she was awarded as Best Lead Actress at the Drama International Shorts Film Festival, Greece, for her role in the film “When Fish Fly” by Vilka Tzouras. The last 2 years, Eleftheria works at Angered Teater in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dr. Steriani Tzintziloni // Dance theorist

Dancing between the tangible and the intangible

What can be said about dance and dancing in the context of the Greek crisis? How can we approach issues of production, reception meaning-making and socio-political ramifications of dance? How choreographers, dancers and dance theorists act and react? This presentation is sketching out some points of interest regarding the situation of dance in Greece at this moment. It highlights the efforts for openness, the aspiration for a socially sensitive intervention of dance, and the attempts to bridge the distance between theory and practice. However, these processes are not without tensions. They bring to the fore problems of trust, social responsibility as marketable practice, historical consciousness as a personal and social problem.

Dr. Steriani Tsintziloni is a dance history scholar and dance researcher. Her PHer teaching activities included the University of Patras, Department of Theatre Studies (2004-2006), Professional Dance Schools (the National Opera Ballet School among them), and public lectures for the Kalamata International Dance Festival and Centre and the National Opera. Member of the Advisory Committee for Dance Funding at the National Centre for Theatre and Dance (2008-2010) and co-author of the dance material, published by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education for the “Melina” Project. Her research interests include dance history with a special focus on Greece and transnational flows, dance and politics, especially in relation to issues of European integration, cultural policies and politics and artistic practices. She is currently member of ‘Kollektiva Omonia’, an open group of theorists and artists from different fields.

Dimitris Michalaros  // kodra festival municipality of kalamaria

crisis is a greek word after all

In the time of financial recession and socio-political depression, it is hard to speak about art and culture and even harder to organize cultural events. Nevertheless, on the occasion of the celebration of the 150 years since C. P. Cavafy's birth, the contemporary art festival “Action Field Kodra“ draws its inspiration of   one of Cavafy’s poems, titled “Walls”.

This year’s participating curators and artists will try to investigate the conceptual aspects of the poem’s title and verses.  The society changes, and our artists are invited to try to reflect the restructuring of the society into their projects; For the past 13 years, the festival has been organized under the auspices of the City of Kalamaria and the “Para-thin-alos” festival; it takes place in the ex-military camp, where Action Field Kodra has established itself as a leading non-museum institution for contemporary art.

Action Field Kodra, being among the most important cultural institutions in Greece, always tries to invent new mechanisms to safeguard the high quality of its content, and increase it.  Within this framework, we focus on the role of our volunteers, as essential sponsors of culture, encouraging young people to actively participate in art events and to enhance their creative potential.

Dimitris Michalaros was born in 1981 in Megara, Greece. He currently lives and works in Thessaloniki and Megara, Greece. He graduated with a Master in Fine Arts from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, with emphasis in Art and Technological Studies, in 2008. He obtained a Bachelor and Master in Painting from the School of Visual and Applied Arts, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He acquired a certificate in European Animation Masterclass, from International Academy of Media and Arts Halle, Germany. During the period 2011- 2012, he was the cu-Curator of the Visual Art Festival "Action Field Kodra" in Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece. Since 2012 is the Chief Director of Action Field Kodra.

Manthos Santorineos and Nefeli Dimitriadi // Athens School of Fine Arts

Media Lab Perspectives

The digital civilization and the networks in modern culture and education, at this historic moment, is indispensable because it disposes a basic characteristic: “it acts like a medium of composition and not of unification”. A bank, an army, a company, can be “unified”, a person, everyday life and art need to be “composed”.

By this way maybe the problem of the systems economical survivor is resolved, but its normal evolution cannot be assured because there is a lack of “small reparative movements”.

Eventually, as much as the cultural development was judged to be unnecessary, and priority was given to the economy, the technological research etc., the examination of the results of this evolution shows that cultural development is needed.

Without this normal evolution society has a problem, it loses the elements of defense, becomes more and more vulnerable, the link between the activities disappears, democracy is reduced because the individual doesn’t have the possibility of a correct choice, even the sentimental relationships between people are inactivated. The University, highly influenced by new technologies, creates new circumstances towards the establishment of an international network for circulating ideas, for challenging dialogue and for developing creative collaborations.

Especially in the discipline of Arts and Humanities – despite the lack of conspicuous support – the underlying dynamics may generate chances for the production of new proposals

  

Nefeli-Maria Dimitriadi  is a multimedia-hypermedia artist and researcher, member of INREV laboratory of University of Paris 8 and of Athens School of Fine Arts, Media lab. She is entitled with a PhD in Art and Technology (University of Paris 8, 2008), a Master Degree in Visual Arts (University of Paris 8, 2003) and a Diploma in Fine Arts (School of Fine Arts, University of Aristotle of Thessaloniki, Greece, 2002). She has been the Coordinator of several trans-university Programs, focused on multimedia-hypermedia and she has worked on various research Programs. She also worked as an audiovisual producer in USA (2008 – 2012).

Achilleas Kentonis // Artos Foundation, Cyprus

and then they all went to the beach...

A titled inspired by the film "never on Sunday" where Melina Mercuri was refusing to accept a tragic end in any theatre play so she would add the happy end she always wanted which was ... and then they all went to the beach...

A 10 min condensed presentation of our actions as Binary Art Group which includes crisis resistance, a description of the Bank of Commons (a bank created two years ago [based on human values] and its evolution today), hacking corporate strategies with innovation, our participation in Venice biennale this year  and a return back to basics approach for living.

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