up from the black

'up from the black' video link

The video is based on movements and idea of Zeibekiko dance, traditional Greek protest dance improvised by one male, who is expressing their own or social struggles and reaching for hope. It was banned by authorities for couple of times and it’s still spontaneously performed by contemporary Greeks.

I moved Zeibekiko on the street of Athens. On poor, dirty, dark street. I wore jeans and black hoodie. I was a non gender no one. Dancing their sorrow out, trying to stop floating, hit the rock bottom with my feet and direct my sight towards hope.

Fourth day in Athens

Our last day had an inspiring kick-off when we met Maria Lalou, a Greek artist/ researcher and Skafte Aymo-Boot, a Danish architect on the rooftop overlooking Athens; looking from above, observing urban landscape. The sky was grey and slowing dropping tears. Horizon revels layered clash of different architectural elements.

Together the Amsterdam based lovely duo run a transdisciplinary project called Un-finished(http://un-finished.org/[UN]_introduction.htm). It is a study on the architectural archetype of the unfinished concrete building found everywhere in the Athens cityscape, turned to a performed archive. In other words, the project aims at mapping and registering the unfinished buildings in Athens. At the moment there are approximately 200 objects as they call the buildings in the archive. The words they use when speaking about the project were very poetic and romantic: to collect buildings, concrete skeleton, anti monument, contemporary ruin parallel to ancient ruin,  contemporary archeology, owner holding a dream  and void of the city. Object of interest revolts only around concrete buildings. It’s its liquidity that becomes solid and timeless strength.

From the rooftop the fact that there is no architectural planning in Athens can be easily observed. Each building is by one person. This serves the project very well. Maria and Safte are interested in personal stories: emotional, comic, tragic behind the image of the building, trying to get behind the history of the city. Private and public are closely intertwined. Rough constructions with emotional baggage. The unfinished buildings describe the city socially and politically. Stories of the past and the future. Investigating history of unfinished ones it´s not an easy task. It´s a challenge that requires good people-relation skills, to get to the core of the building.

Concrete skeleton gets an organic quality. Ruinporn dystopia charm.

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Our second meeting of the day was a walk-and-talk style discussion with Orestis Doulos. He is a member of the Greek section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), also known as the Communist Tendency. It started to rain when we were standing on the hill and having a look over Athens. A political stroll.

We talked about Athens as a city, politicization of universities, the crisis and its cause and consequences, its positive and negative sides, future visions and alternative scenarios. According to Orestis there is no solution under capitalism. It’s a matter of the deep crisis of capitalism itself.  The crisis is destroying the petit bourgeois making them feel closer to working class. Social activities are getting more and more common when people are trying to fill the gap caused by government instead of putting pressure on the government. Things are getting worse day by day.  

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In the end of the day we had a cup of coffee with Christos Chryssopoulos www.chrissopoulosvivlia.blogspot.com), writer and Anastasia Douka (https://anastasiadouka.wordpress.com/), visual artist. Raindrops kept on dancing. As Christos is devoted to writing and literature theory the topics were alike: the explorative nature of a writing process and its aims, the idea of intersubjectivity and literature as a medium to open up a space for discourse.

Christos underlined the act of misreading: texts can be appropriated politically by extreme right or extreme left. It is about allowing different use. This all leads to a question if literature can be dangerous. The writing does not have to be political or economic to open up a space for discourse. It can be poetic or aesthetic as well. Another interesting thing raised up was the strategy of unfamiliarization: what is unfamiliar in familiar?

Short Video Shot in Athens

25th of February

Kostis Stafylakis is an art theorist and artist. He graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts. He holds an MA in Modern Art and Theory from the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex and an MA in Continental Philosophy from the Department of Philosophy at the same University. He holds a Doctorate from the Department of Political Science and History, Panteion University (Athens). He has been a post-doc researcher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2011-2012). He taught “Research-based art and the art field” as adjunct at the Unit of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He currently lectures on “Art and Visual Communication” at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras. He is the one half of KavecS artist duet (www.kavecs.com).

We met Kostis at 13:00 in a cafe to hear his perspective on the patriotism and nationalism withing the current greek art scene, heavily affected by both documenta 14 and the current political/economical situation in the country. 

He argued that many of the forms of art initiated both under documenta and against it, use tactics such as restistance (fx. resisting neoliberalism, capitalism ...), reclaiming (fx. territory for art practice) and solidarity (with the opressed), which share similarities with patriotic and nationalistic discourse. 

"Thinkers, artists, activists lamented over technocratic capitalism’s urge to destroy self-sufficiency, national community and locality. In this framework of mourning and ‘new-melancholy’, sovereignty was primarily understood as self-sovereignty. Even criticisers of the nation-state agreed that national self-sovereignty is a necessary step to a more internationalist terrain of emancipation: the struggle to ‘reclaim’ the local ‘resources’ was seen as the first priority in every possible agenda of struggles – the principal struggle, the one that fashions all others. A wide range of ideological spaces, from the greater part of the anarchist/antiauthoritarian space and the libertarian left to the new patriotic movements and anti-memorandum parliamentary parties, consented to this mantra."

from Kostis's post on the nationalisation of art and activisim:

http://littlegrapeguy.tumblr.com/post/146210789654/six-years-the-nationalisation-of-art-and

Considering: the aesthetics of politics - a discussion on how we communicate within the field of politics and how it affects opinion making and action.

So what is the poetics of politics?

Greece. Athens a great opportunity has been created for us students from KuVa we are in Athens in a course with an intercultural collaborative program that has been created between KuVa and Nikos Doulos and his associates/contacts in Athens.

I am writing this consideration on politics and the importance and nature of opinion making and validity within the field of art and politics, due to a meeting we had with the political art group “Depression era”.

We were meeting at a café in  the area of Psvri behind the Omonia square. This area  is the arabic -chinese immigrant neighborhood, with it’s own ethnic markets and interesting object-shops. This area is yet-not-gentrified- and the cafe we went to, stuck out as a camel in a Wolfpack. 

The group we were set out to meet, is an artistic political group by the name “Depression Era”. They meet every week and discuss the crisis and it’s outcome and translate this into mainly photographic artworks and practices.

Already when trying to define the nature or purpose of the group I will go short of words sligth lost in translation when trying to discuss what is art/political production/purpose.

The discussion became for me a slight blur of quotes and statements, so many words Juxtapositioning between semiotics and meaning. 

English is a poor language for describing, or trying to explain something that lies close to our nature or heart. 

We met with three people from the group, and the first issue of discussion was:  

Can you be part of a community (like “The Depression Era”) if you are also part of a political party (a prominent photographer had left the group due to another members joining SYRIZA). 

For the people from “The Depression Era” these two activities are not compatible, whereas from the students (read. Our) point of view these two things should not be excluding each other - ( or as a fact If you cannot be a part of a political party, or in other way show your political point of view can you then make political art?) 

For Depression era it was maybe more the question of:  “Can we create an alternative political voice within a group, if people in some form are tied to a political program that has already been defined?” The conversation became heated and circulated around the subjects of history and the position of photography in Greece (which is beyond of our field of knowledge). 

The community structure in KuVa, and maybe more in general amongst the student body of the art school, and dare I say students in general in Finland, has a very different mindset or preconditions. The several groups or unions which are a big part of society, is run based on the specific theme in question rather than the individual character of the members. 

  

The role of politics in our society and whether politics is part of everyday life and culture is what should be also taken in consideration.It can be described as the sphere between discussing politics as the political practice versus actively practicing opinions through everyday actions. Politics is for me not as much the matter of discussing it, but the things we do.  

(From my grandparents I was taught that being political, is when you pick up your  trash, when you recycle, when you do an active initiative to change or maintain your society. Politics is not the piece of paper you put into a voting box, it is the way you talk to your neighbour, it is the way you make everybody your neighbor. Value is not the piece of paper called money. It is the value and the care with which you provide the service or the commodity in subject of exchange.) 

From the different meetings we have had these two days, this is what I felt was the fundamental difference. On thursday we heard and saw the activists from Greenpark, who through activism, cultural squatting and artistic engagement change the lives of the communities within their geopolitical sphere. They produce result and change, with volunteer activistic work outside of their personal careers or practices. Artist activism is something of an utopian art form but nevertheless existing.

When the collectives focus more on the individuals of the group or a profile / identity which is being defined through it’s members and their personal beliefs, I think the group loses its purpose or active force. 

In the evening after this interesting and slightly confusing meeting, I was thinking about “what is political art and how does it sound or look (smell or feel)?” What is the aesthetics of politics and how does this affect us? 

We went to see the Turkey of the talk : a political performance commenting on the hot potato of politics at the moment (høhø): Donald Trump. The performance was a comment on Trump. Two artist were at each end of the space producing interesting soundscapes while a old 35 mm camera was projecting on the wall. On the wall was A0 poster with the faces of famous politicians and cultural figures such as Kim Kardashian(?) and Milo Yiannopoulos. During the performance a woman read quotes from the book “ Make America great again”, while tearing out the pages .An example:  “let me tell you something, when I want to learn something, I make sure that I learn it” , this ridiculous or rather abstract nature of Trumps statement, has lead the group to create also funny and absurd anagrams of “Make America great again” - ex: “ I am a Karate American egg”, which was also the name of the performance.  The woman tore out the pages of the Trump book and wrapped gold painted stones in the pages and gave them to the audience. Then two of the performers  started to cut out the eyes of the portraits of the political leaders and hung the eyes on the walls, or on the faces (which look absurd and amusing.) the audience were hence given a mask of the political figures from the wall, and were lead to a room with chairs and here they were seated for a photoshoot. 

The performances was a travel in this absurd world of medias and contexts. 

Behind one of the sound performers, a movie made by Eva Braun was screened in weird a mezcla of Trump cutouts. The performance aroused also controversy within our group. Is this political art, or is it populist sensational use of a popular topic to create coherence within a abstract mix of expression forms? 

What is the importance of the political statement if the content is not serious ? 

Is this art that makes the aesthetics of politics affect us on a subdominant level, by connotations and cultural triggers, we cannot as Scandinavians detect?

Time will tell maybe, after processing of memory.

THE SECOND DAY IN ATHENS

Depression Era

For the first meeting of the day we met the Depression Era collective members Zoe Hatziyannaki, Angela Svoronou, Yorgos Prinos in the former Romantso Magazine (Romanzo Periodiko) head quarter transformed into a bar and a cultural space. We were entoured by cigarette smoke, rhythmic music and enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice and cappuccino freddo.

Drawing by Justin Tyler Tate

The Depression Era Project inhabits the urban and social landscapes of the crisis. It begins as a collective experiment, picturing the Greek city and its outer regions, the private lives of outcasts, the collapse of Public systems, the emergence of the Commons and snapshots of the everyday often under the radar, in order to understand the social, economical and historical transformation currently taking place in Greece. It seeks to do so with as clear a gaze as possible. It understands, in its double meaning, that entropy, disaster, uncertainty and insolvency are also states of mind, ushering us to an era where the notion of progress, the idea of growth and the reflex of looking forward to a future are no longer dominant modes of perceiving and creating in the world.

After a deep and intense discussion we picked some of the key notions and words from the meeting:

- starting point: 'everybody' was alone, need to work collectively, political approach, photography

- context: time of crises, no alternative options existed, need to produce different images than media is giving, reflections of the medium 

- try to present situation different than in the media

- ambition: dialogue with photographers and writers, creating the discourse  

- political discourse, political questions, everyday politics, political parties

- “Everything has a political dimension”

- “To not to choose is also a choice”
- DIY attitude

- challenge: need to focus on ongoing discourses, not arguing

- positive sides of collective working:1+1=3, support group, sharing

”I Am A Karate American Egg (Make America Great Again)”

In the evening we attended a performance called ”I Am A Karate American Egg (Make America Great Again)” by visual artists Maria Glyka, Vassilis Vlastaras and Jim Hobbs in the Beton7 Gallery.

About the performance:  False news produced intentionally for advertising purposes, seeking profit or appearing by mistake - informed citizens on social media living in a hyperlinked world where speed of information exceeds the speed of truth and it remains a reference point even though it is proved untrue. Thirty years after the fall of the Wall, international debates are being held for the "cost" of constructing a new one. Is the Greenhouse Effect a hoax? Did the Simpsons predict the election of the new US president? Is just playing golf the answer?

“…The posturing is not entirely surprising. Mr. Trump’s proposals to wall off the United States from a variety of foreign influences fit the promises he made to his base of working-class white voters, resentful of how trade and immigration have changed the country they claim as their own…
…Then there is the fact that Mr. Trump’s macroeconomic strategy, which looks set to marry increased government spending with high interest rates, is in some tension with his objectives on trade: By strengthening the value of the dollar, it will make the trade deficit bigger.
Finally, the problems that the president has resolved to tackle have largely petered out on their own. More Mexican immigrants are leaving the United States than coming in. And Chinese exports to the United States are actually declining…”
New York Times, Eduardo Porter, 31/1/2017

Feelings, notions: 

Clever anagrams, populism, deep irritation, anger...

"To be an artist is a political choice"

How to be political?

What is the relationship between the artist and the audience in the case of political art?

Is all art political?

Who is the audience and why?

Can you be political without a defined audience? 

Is creating your own institution creating your own reality?

Who's reality do you represent?

How dirty is the the dirty money?

How to avoid cock fights?

He was asked to tell about one of the internal struggles the group had to deal with.

He told that one of the group members decided to join a political party, which made other members leave.

They saw it as an issue that the individual now associated with the party and their values, and they did not want their organization to be subjected to that association. 

This seemed counterintuative, as their reason for the groups forming was bringing together the photographers and other artists, which were in need of sharing their knowledge and closing the distance between the individual artists. One of the members also described the group as a small reflection of society.

By these accounts the group had a shifting and fluid role, with the members influencing the group into different directions.

For me it became very difficult to understand how you can form a group on the incentive of bringing people together, but eventually excluding some because of their political opinion. In my mind the image of the group formed more towards a supportive structure, not necessarily investigating the situation of others, but rather bringing together people with common interests, generating a quite homogeneous group where individuals would comfort each others in their similar struggles.

I think we have quite many of these kind of groups, or groups taking this shape temporarily, in our academy. With multiple seminars becoming supportive, rather than critical sessions, courses, which rather than challenge, just encourage the working method of the students.

I think it is very important not to call these group reflections of society. 

They are distorted and polished.

And often forget to teach us how to talk about subjects appropriately to the environment.

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Crisis of genre

Would you like to join a political party?

Greek flag

Facade

The students told us that there was active political activity in the universities. The art academy was the most easygoing, most of the students squabbling about leftists approaches and interpreting Marx.

In others universities youth organisations of different political parties recruit students, sometimes even offering them easy passes in certain classes where the parrent party controls the professor. 

How do we practice for the political discourse in comparison?

It must be quite an empowering feeling to have a social group as strong as a youth organisation supporting you, especially when in the age of young adults. I guess it would require an extensive stability of personal affairs to be able to differentiate the political issues of society vs the issues of your own. 

Parthenon

There is peculiar zone when political dialogue is both an educational form and a manifestation of power at the same time. Is it forgiving enough for educational forms to have such a definite impact on you later life?

THE FIRST DAY IN ATHENS

TWIXTlab

Meeting with the collectives members Elpida Rikou, Giorgos Stamantas, Sofia Grigoriadiou, Fotini Gouseti, Dimitra Kondylatou

Twixt: shortened version of betwixt, which means in between or neither the one, nor the other. The social anthropologist Victor Turner used the phrase betwixt and between in order to characterize the intermediate out of three stages of the rite of passage as ultimate transitional, subversive and creative moment of societies’ lifetime.

The TWIXTlab collective, which can also be considered an activist initiative, is situated between contemporary art and anthropology and it. They started as a lose association and now are a legal entity in order to get funding and be sustainable although all members maintain jobs to fund the space as well as their projects. They organise seminars, workshop, walks and other project that combine art and anthropology for example the “Learning form Documenta” program that is the counter to Documenta 14’s theme “Learning from Athens”.

Athens School of Fine Arts / Circuits & Currents (project space)

Meeting with the coordinator Nikos Arvanitis and recent graduates Lefteris Chrysalis & Kasiani Goulakou.

For 3 years the students have run the project space that worked as a tool for them to curate their own events program. The focus has been on building a collaborative educational program and not so much on making exhibitions. The funding for the program came for DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) initiating cooperation with the Munich School of Fine Arts. At the moment the challenge is the find funding because the existing grant ended in the Dec 2016.

Green Park

Meeting with the members Gigi Argyropoulou and Kostas Tzimoulis

The group started in 2011 with the occupation of a theatre space in Athens during which the group created a program lasting for 10 days and included interventions from more than 100 artists. Interventions were organized in the here and now, reflecting on moments of togetherness. The group is not just looking to occupy spaces but also looking to question the function of the existing space. The group creates a diverse program of performances and events in order to better utilize and thus occupy the space.

The group currently occupies a building which was the first nightclub in Athens and has gradually extended their occupation into the park. The Green Park can  also be seen as a space in the hart of the crisis.

PARIS LEGAKIS' MANIFESTO: CLAIM YOUR ANGER, ON POLITICS & POLITICAL ART

[CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW THE MANIFESTO]

Paris Legakis is a multidisciplinary artist, activist and theorist, born in 1981, Athens. 

In his work, Paris researches how art can be beneficial for the society and influential to politics.

Paris has written the manifesto ‘Claim your Anger, on politics and political art‘ and he has created his own methodology ‘Irregular Temporary Interactions‘ (I.T.I) to implement his performances-actions. 

SLAVOJ ZIZEK - AGAINST THE DOUBLE BLACKMAIL

[CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW THE DOCUMENT]

Today, hundreds of thousands of people, desperate to escape war, violence and poverty, are crossing the Mediterranean to seek refuge in Europe. Our response from our protected European standpoint, argues Slavoj Zizek, offers two versions of ideological blackmail: either we open our doors as widely as possible; or we try to pull up the drawbridge. Both solutions are bad, states Zizek. They merely prolong the problem, rather than tackling it. 
The refugee crisis also presents an opportunity, a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself: but, if we are to do so, we have to start raising unpleasant and difficult questions. We must also acknowledge that large migrations are our future: only then can we commit to a carefully prepared process of change, one founded not on a community that see the excluded as a threat, but one that takes as its basis the shared substance of our social being. 
The only way, in other words, to get to the heart of one of the greatest issues confronting Europe today is to insist on the global solidarity of the exploited and oppressed. Maybe such solidarity is a utopia. But, warns Zizek, if we don't engage in it, then we are really lost. And we will deserve to be lost.