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...

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Generally when I wanna dance I do it in a club or somewhere with my friends, never dancing with strangers. Before Kostantinos Mihos´ contact improvisation class I was little nervous: Do I have to touch strangers? Do others notice that I can´t move gracefully? The class was actually very interesting and mind-broadening experience. Through various exercises I started gradually breaking the barriers in me. After two hours it felt natural touching and reacting to someone else’s body.

Enjoy a dance with Whitney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3giaIzONA

1.

Plants and objects. Writings on the walls. 

Ceilings, floors. 

It can be hard to describe meetings with people using photographs, in a city like Athens, in the middle of a myth, when he drops laughter in plants grown through pavements. And that smile, black hair. The struggle the glory, irony, bitter, real, alive, 

And a faint taste of blood in the mouth, like when you lick a zink coated metal found in the cheese pie.

Sweat and moist.

People meet  every day and become part of a narrative common or intertwined like veins in a pumping muscle.

A muscle of collective memory - 

Art as a muscular memory   

Art allow the magicz

// the spherical real

which is curios and strange.  When people laugh, sing, eat and wonder, for example,

When they occupy theaters 

When they transform old 50’ties clubs 

Into performance biennales 

When we work bar jobs /call centers 

In order to pay for the gaffe tape

Needed for rigging the cable for the soundsystem

At a free space volunteer based festival.

and invite refugees into the home.

hi. how are you doing there, on the other side?
i'm sitting here in a fancy cafe, drinking coke after a long night with friends. sun and delicate wind embrace my body. warm voices and laughs of our group comfort my inner quivering.
it's so easy. no fight for survival at the moment. i'm privileged in here. being really uncomfortable about it.

i came here to think what collaboration could be for me, to meet  examples of togetherness.

i'm looking for contact.
in our group, with artists and theoreticians that we meet, people on the streets, in the shops, cafes, restaurants, with people working in our cozy hotel, city animals, plants, soil, buildings, trash, objects.
also with you.

what are the possibilities of contact? what are the ways it could be built and finally, how to work together? taking the path of mutual thought, idea or including the difference? how to proceed with the work itself? are there some patterns in those everyday contacts that we could use to build the collaboration? maybe it already began during our walks, with enjoyment of the sun and delicate wind on our faces, all shades of green around, the beauty and the roughness, discomfort of being privileged, being exotic in immigrant districts, adjusting to them, having fun moments together, being tired, needy, just being together.

i wait for you.

"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?

Athens diary

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.

🐓🐔🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓🐔🐓🍌