Vital Space NewsLetter #2 May 2013
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: Activism, Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »
| Vital Space is founded on the belief in the power of art to change the world. At a time of major confluence of economic and environmental crises,Vital Space deploys the artist’s perspective so as to dissolve the polarisation typifying the current dialogue on our relationship with Nature and with one another. Vital Space is dedicated to the initiation of art projects designed to reach and influence a wide and diverse audience. It strives to demonstrate in the most practical manner that art has its finger on the planet’s pulse and can mediate human deliberation on the course of our future. |
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| Vital Space invites all artists to participate in the first of a series of open call competitions in the context of our ‘Raising Awareness‘ theme. For our first competition we invite short, one-minute video submissions under the broad title EAST | WEST – NORTH | SOUTH : Imperiled Viatl Spaces. |
DEADLINE:MIDNIGHT (EST) 7th September 2013
THE THEME
EAST | WEST – NORTH | SOUTH: Imperiled Vital Spaces
ABOUT THE 60″ VIDEO COMPETITION
| Participants are requested to submit an original sixty-second (one minute) video that reflects the theme’s spirit and helps raise awareness on our common predicament in this time of global crisis. Indeed, submissions from all over the world are encouraged, with our theme acting only as a general guide to the idea of a ‘local collapse’ following a global crisis.
Participants are asked to complete and to submit this electronic Registration Form (including a link to their video on YouTube, Vimeo or any other video hosting service website). The deadline expires at midnight (EST), 1th September 2013
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PRIZES, AWARDS & EXHIBITIONS: THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
| ROUND 1 – Videos go live: Vital Space will upload the approved videos on vitalspace.org by15th September 2013. The videos will remain on our site for two months.
ROUND 2 – Viewers’ Prize: The general public will then be invited to vote amongst the contenders for the Vital Space 60’’ Video Competition Viewers’ Prize for 2013. The vote will be completed by, and the winner will be announced on, the 16th of November 2013. ROUND 3 – Panel Prize: On 1st October 2013, a five-member panel of jurists (drawn from Vital Space’s Board of Advisors) will announce the winner of the Vital Space 60’’ Video Competition Panel Prize for 2013, as well as two runners-up. These three videos (including the winner of the Viewers’ Prize) will then be added to the permanent collection of Vital Space’s Art Projects. ROUND 4 – EXHIBITION: The winners of both prizes in all competitions, and possibly the runners up will be exhibited, during 2014. Athens will be the starting point of an exhibition series in Greece and abroad. Vital Space will announce details about the exhibition as soon as all competition results are announced. |
VITAL SPACE’s PREVIOUS 60″ ‘RAISING AWARENESS’ VIDEOS
| The idea of one minute, 60’’, videos for the purposes of raising awareness was first introduced to Vital Space by its founder, Danae Stratou, who posted two such videos as part of the ‘inauguration’ of vitalspace.org. These two videos focused on public awareness regarding Climate Change and Urbanisation equivalently. The material shown is original, taken from Danae Stratou’s archive from shootings in hundreds of strategically chosen areas worldwide. |
| Raising Awareness in 60” (1) | Addressing Urbanisation |
| Raising Awareness in 60” (2) | Addressing Climate Change |
FUTURE COMPETITIONS
| Vital Space is pleased to announce that this one-minute video competition is the first in a series of three annual competitions. The other two will involve photographic stills, with suitable captions, and short 100–word texts. For more, watch this space. You will soon receive our next Photographic Competition Announcement: Raising Awareness with One Image. |
Terms and Conditions
| Submitted videos must be one minute in length.
Any spoken words heard in the submitted video that are not in English must be accompanied by the relevant subtitles in English. The video must not contain gratuitous violence, profanity, or defamatory statements (including racism or sexism) on individuals or organizations. Any entries deemed gratuitously offensive will be immediately disqualified. Videos submitted must be original works – no copyrighted music, video, sounds or images may be used without prior, full permission from the author(s)/owners of said copyrighted music, video, sounds or images that you wish to include. Submitted videos must not infringe on any third party rights. Submitted videos that are the result of a group effort need to have a nominated representative. |
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The City at a Time of Crisis: research project on Athens
Posted: May 9, 2013 Filed under: Activism, Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »Posted at Roarmag.org 08 May 2013
A collective of researchers, photographers and filmmakers comes together to launch a powerful new multimedia research project on the crisis in Athens.
A collective of researchers, photographers and filmmakers comes together to launch a powerful new multimedia research project on the crisis in Athens.
In recent years, Antonis Vradis of Occupied London has brought us invaluable reports from the front-line of the popular uprising(s) in Greece, while Ross Domoney, a member of the documentary photography and film collective Aletheia Photos, has produced some of the most paradigmatic short docs and video reports on the crisis and revolt currently under way in Athens. Now, the two join a team of researchers who have just launched the website for a very exciting new multimedia project.
In an emailed announcement, the research collective describes their initiative as follows:
Crisis-scape is the website of the “The City at a Time of Crisis”, a collective, cross-disciplinary ESRC-funded research project that traces the transformations of public spaces in Athens. By focusing on urban public spaces, we aim to study the rapid, wider social and political transformations that are under way in the crisis-ridden Greek society today.
The website so far features metronome, the first in a series of short films corresponding to each of the project’s research strands; a full interactive time-line of the crisis in Greece since 2008; a documentary explaining the ongoing social meltdown taking place in the country; an interview with Professor Stavros Stavrides of the NTUA; two blog-post series (état de siege: public space user manual and metronome) and much, much more.
Crisis-scape is updated every Monday with first-hand ethnographic accounts, theoretical interventions, digital interactive material, videos and photographs from the ground here in Athens.
We rely on your help to spread the word!
The www.crisis-scape.net team
Jaya Klara Brekke, Ross Domoney, Christos FiIippidis, Antonis Vradis and Dimitris Dalakoglou
Metronome. from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.
OUT OF THE BOX INTERMEDIA BOOTH @ ART ATHINA 2013
Posted: May 8, 2013 Filed under: Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »
The Capital of Accumulation DisOrient
2010
May 16-19, 2013
ART-ATHINA INTERNATIONAL FAIR
Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi and Shuddhabrata Sengupta) are artists based in New Delhi, India working with a diverse repertoire of practices and curiosities. They make installations, films, curate, edit books, produce networks & situations and have a special interest in the history of twentieth century cities.
OUT OF THE BOX INTERMEDIA Booth also presents a variety of past projects (Locus Solus, London 2009, Byzantine Museum 2009, Benaki Museum 2010, Eleventh Plateau Hydra 2011, UN/INHABITED Delos 2012,Metabolism of Forms London 2012 ) that the company has produced, curated by Dr. Sozita Goudouna.Dimitra Stamatiou’s work “Closer,” sculptures by Eva Marathaki and Leontios Toumpouris, the research projects Thanos Koutsianas & Stella Pantelia and Terezas Papamichali with Irini Efstathiou, Panos Kouros, Kaja Pawełek, Mary Zygouri and Nora Demjaha’s, Athina Kokla and Elena Chronopoulou from the project UN/INHABITED. Also, part of Danae Stratou’s work “It’s Time to Open The Black Boxes” and works by Mat Chivers, Marenka Gabeler and Costas Alivizatos’ model of the architectural installation for Locus Solus.
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Raqs Media Collective at OUT OF THE BOX INTERMEDIA BOOTH
Raqs Media Collective
“The Capital of Accumulation”
16-19 May 2013
Opening Reception: May 15, 7:30pm
Η Μη Κερδοσκοπική Εταιρία OUT OF THE BOX INTERMEDIA παρουσιάζει για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα, στην ετήσια έκθεση ART-ATHINA την καινοτόμο καλλιτεχνική ομάδα RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE και τα έργα “The Capital of Accumulation” (Το Κεφάλαιο της Συσώρευσης) και το disOrient(αποΠροσανατολισμός) σε επιμέλεια Δρ. Σωζήτας Γκουντούνα. Το έργο αντιστρέφει τον τίτλο του πιο σημαντικού βιβλίου της Ρόζας Λούξεμπουργκ “Η Συσώρευση του Κεφαλαίου” (1913). Η αντιστροφή του τίτλου σηματοδοτεί μια ιδιαίτερη ανάγνωση και ερμηνεία της κληρονομιάς, της σορού και του πνεύματος της Λούξεμπουργκ. Στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο η συγγραφέας εξέθεσε τις αδυναμίες της θεωρείας του Μάρξ για τη διαδικασία της αναπαραγωγής του κεφαλαίου.
Το έργο των RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE έχει γυριστεί σε τρείς διαφορετικές πόλεις – Βαρσοβία, Βομβάη και Βερολίνο – και είναι μία φιλόδοξη βίντεο-εγκατάσταση (δίπτυχο) που αφηγείται την ιστορία της σχέσης των μητροπόλεων και του κόσμου με φόντο την ιδιαίτερη κριτική της παγκόσμιας πολιτικής οικονομίας της Λούξεμπουργκ. Η βιντεοεγκατάσταση μετεωρίζει μεταξύ ενός στοιχειωμένου, ονειρικού τοπίου που είναι εν μέρει φυσική ιστορία, εν μέρει ημερολόγιο μυστηρίου, εν μέρει ρητορική ανάλυση, εν μέρει κοσμοπολίτικη αστική έρευνα και εν μέρει φιλοσοφικός διάλογος. Στόχος του έργου είναι να προσφέρει ένα προσωπικό στοχασμό για τις δυνατότητες ριζοσπαστικής ανανέωσης στους καιρούς μας.
Οι Raqs Media Collective αρέσκονται στο να παίζουν ποικιλομορφους ρόλους, συχνά εμφανιζόμενοι ως καλλιτέχνες, κάποιες φορές ως επιμελητές και αραιότερα ως φιλόσοφοι “agent provocateurs.” Δημιουργούν σύγχρονη τέχνη, κάνουν φίλμ, επιμελούνται εκθέσεις, εκδίδουν βιβλία, “στήνουν” δράσεις, συνεργάζονται με αρχιτέκτονες, προγραμματιστές, συγγραφείς και σκηνοθέτες θεάτρου και έχουν καθιερώσει διαδικασίες που έχουν καθορίσει τη σύγχρονη πολιτιστική παραγωγή στην Ινδία. Η λέξη Raqs υποδηλώνει “κινούμενους στοχασμούς” παράγοντας φαινόμενα που είναι αεικίνητα σε σχέση με τις φόρμες και τις μεθόδους που εφαρμόζει ενώ παράλληλα καταφέρνει να συνέπεια στοχασμού. Οι Raqs Media Collective ιδρύθηκε το 1992 απο τους Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Η ομάδα έχει συνιδύσει το πρόγραμμα Sarai στο κέντρο Μελέτης για Αναπτυσσόμενες Κοινωνίες το 2000. http://www.raqsmediacollective.net
Παράλληλα, θα παρουσιάστει σε βιντεοπροβολή και άλλα μέσα το σύνολο των πρότζεκτ (Locus Solus, Λονδίνο 2009, Βυζαντινό Μουσείο 2009, Μουσείο Μπενάκη 2010, Eleventh Plateau Ύδρα 2011,UN/INHABITED Δήλος 2012, Metabolism of Forms Λονδίνο 2012 ) που έχει διοργανώσει η εταιρία σε επιμέλεια Δρ. Σωζήτας Γκουντούνα στο Λονδίνο και την Ελλάδα. Θα εκτεθεί το έργο της Δήμητρα Σταματίου “Closer,” σε επαυξημένη πραγματικότητα, τα γλυπτά της Έυας Μαραθάκη και του Λεόντιου Τουμπούρη, τα ερευνητικά πρότζεκτ του Θάνου Κουτσιανά & Στέλλας Παντελιά, της Τερέζας Παπαμιχάλη με τους Μαίρη Ζυγούρη, Ειρήνη Ευσταθίου, Πάνος Κούρος, Kaja Pawełek και των Nora Demjaha, Αθηνά Κόκλα και Έλενας Χρονοπούλου απο το πρότζεκτ UN/INHABITED στη Δήλο 2012. Επίσης, θα εκτεθεί μέρος του έργου της Δανάης Στράτου “Είναι Ώρα να Ανοίξουμε τα Μαύρα Κουτιά,” έργα των Mat Chivers Marenka Gabeler και η μακέτα απο την αρχιτεκτονική εγκατάσταση για το Locus Solusτου Κώστα Αλιβιζάτου.
The Greek transgender activist on blowing up sexual taboos in the name of art
Posted: May 7, 2013 Filed under: Activism, Aesthetics, Art & Politics | Tags: Biopolitics Leave a comment »PAOLA REVENIOTI
- Text by Hannah Lack posted at Dazed Digital
During the 80s, transgender Greek artist and prostitute Paola Revenioti published the trans-anarchist fanzine Kraximo. Funded by her own prostitution, the zine pioneered the fight for gay and trans rights, combining interviews with Greek poets and intellectuals alongside Athens street hustlers and her own photography, since compared to the work of Larry Clark and Walter Pfeiffer. Today she continues to work as an artist and activist, making Athens-based documentaries with her “Paola Projects”. This interview is taken from the May issue of Dazed & Confused:
“I was born in 1959 on the Greek coast in Piraeus, a historic place. There were old captains and merchants from the Aegean islands gathered around the big port in neoclassical houses, while on the other side of town was the Trouba neighbourhood with its old brothels, cabarets and cinemas that played erotic movies after sunset. The American navy was moored off the coast. My father was a factory worker, my mother a hairdresser.
If you remember the character Tadzio, from the movie Death in Venice, that’s how I looked then, with my long blond hair. Boys there were nothing like the self-indulgent Athenian boys. They knew how to seduce you. I remember my grandmother showing me a piece of land one summer and saying, ‘This will be yours’ – a small yard, but a forest in my eyes. But for my father’s family it was a legacy I didn’t deserve; I was a ‘faggot’, shameful to them. I wanted to be independent and escape that family environment, so I joined the navy. I never had the opportunity of a proper education. In life I met extraordinary people and educated myself.
I was in my 20s when I moved to Exarchia in Athens. It was an oasis of painters, poets, musicians and intellectuals. A revolutionary neighbourhood. Most of the friends I made back then became famous for something. We wanted to change the world. I got officially involved with politics – as the first transvestite to run as a candidate for the Alternative Party of Ecologists. My beliefs were closer to anti authoritarianism and anarchism. We occupied universities, held demonstrations.
I began running my own pirate radio in Exarchia with money from prostitution. I’d go to work around nine in the evening and by 11pm I’d had about 25 customers, so I was making enough to run the station from midnight till 5am. I always played hard with the police. I was arrested twice for the station – the first time I hid the equipment with communists living next door. The whole of Athens was listening to ‘crazy Paola’. I’d receive live calls, start philosophical conversations on air, even arrange blind dates. I was evicted from my flat because every night dozens of boys would hang out on my doorstep, making too much noise. Read the rest of this entry »
Alternative Community Peliti Greece
Posted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: Activism, Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »originally published at Artivist.gr
The Peliti Community was founded thanks to the personal need of Mr. Panagiotis Sainatoudis and has been embraced by many people throughout Greece and beyond. It is a non-profit organization which is engaged in the collection, preservation and dissemination of local varieties.
Pelit in Pontic Greek language (a dialect originally spoken in the Pontus area) means oak. The name of the Community, Peliti, is inspired by this tree and its trademark illustrates an oak with its roots, surrounded by dancing men and women holding hands. The logo of Peliti could not therefore express in a better way the dream of the main organizer of the community, Mr. Saitanoudis in 1995. The trademark expresses the collective effort of Mr. Saitanoudis and his team over the last 15 years for the collection, preservation and dissemination of local varieties. An effort that is particularly significant since the introduction of the massive industrialization and globalization of agricultural production puts in danger varieties that are grown in Greece for centuries. These varieties perform better in the Greek territory with its particular characteristics and the prevailing local climate and they represent the Greek culture and Greek identity. The collection, preservation and dissemination of the seeds among the local farmers constitutes the most effective effort towards the conservation of Greek biodiversity, which is attacked by increasing imports of foreign varieties that are supposedly more resistant.
The work of Peliti is holistic; this means that the community is trying to achieve its objectives in a spherical manner by organizing a large spectrum of activities and events. Since 1995, Peliti has been organizing expeditions to the mainland and the islands of Greece to collect and gather as many varieties of seeds as possible and has supplied more than 80,000 (!) amateur and professional farmers with seeds or plants. The community of Peliti gives also the opportunity to farmers to purchase small quantities of free unimproved varieties. Since March 1999 the community has been organizing the “National Festival of Exchanging Local Varieties”. The aims of the festival are the dissemination of traditional varieties to as many growers as possible, the share of knowledge and experiences, as well as the realization of the true concept of exchange, which is the exchange without the intermediation of money! Already since 2002, well before the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 and the collapse of the intangible financial system, Peliti started the “Nationwide Network of Exchange of Goods and Services without Money” to bring together people and enhance their cooperation without the use of money.
The work of Peliti community is of great importance and scale. It is enough to mention the effort made by the community to record the wide network of farmers of traditional varieties found throughout Greece, the “local farms”. It is also important to mention that the effort of the community is embraced by people throughout the Greek territory. These people have created local Peliti groups in different parts of the country, which aim to organize activities and events locally. Moreover, the Peliti community has issued a series of publications containing information and news on its actions such as the “manual for the collection and preservation of local varieties”, the yearly magazine on “local farms” and the booklet “from hand to hand and heart to heart” that describes the actions of the community for an inclusive economic activity.*
Nikos Kazantzakis in “Saviors of God” urges us: “Love responsibility. Say: “It is my duty, and mine alone, to save the earth. If it is not saved, then I alone am to blame”. People who volunteer in Peliti, the organizers, the amateurs, the professional growers of traditional varieties and all those people and local communities that have embraced the community’s effort practice their responsibility towards themselves and the generations to come. You?
*The information on the above article was drawn from the well informed and comprehensive website of Peliti community. For more information visitwww.peliti.gr
Zoi Volioti – Artivist Team
zoi@artivist.gr
SARCHA meeting
Posted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: Activism, Aesthetics, Art & Politics | Tags: sarcha Leave a comment »
It would be a pleasure to see you at the SARCHA meeting tomorrow
Thursday 25 April 2013, 18.00-20.00
at the new Acropolis Museum café
(note: entrance to the café is open – no need to pay for a ticket)
Meeting topics
- SARCHA’s participation at the London Festival of Architecture LFA2013 following invitation by the British Council in London
- A Partisan Peripateia: a new Athens itinerary to be planned in collaboration with www.maydayrooms.org
- Update on recent activities: the submission of the “Urbanism in an Age of Austerity” proposal http://www.sarcha-architecture.blogspot.gr/2013/02/urbanism-in-age-of-austerity-proposal.html and SARCHA’s hosting of the visiting Architecture school from the University of Western Australia(UWA) http://www.sarcha-architecture.blogspot.gr/2013/02/university-of-western-australia-uwa.html
Shadow In Greece
Posted: April 16, 2013 Filed under: Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »By Enri Canaj http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2013/04/enri-canaj-in-athens/
The centre of Athens, as I first remember it, was full of life.
During the period before the Olympic Games, there was great development. New hotels appeared in order to host the visitors, shops, restaurants and cafes kept sprouting out, it was full of people everywhere. All this happened within a few years. It was as if the city put on new clothes. During the days of the Olympics, the city was clean and well-guarded. You would not see street- merchants, drug-addicts or immigrants, just tourists and people who came in order to have a good time. In my eyes, it looked like another place.
As time passed, the city started deteriorating and gradually recovered its previous character: the everyday life that we all knew, with the junkies, the street-merchants, the the immigrants and the prostitutes.
Time passes fast. The city is now fading. Some people abandon it due to the crisis. Many shops and hotels have shut down, the centre is now almost deserted. People fear they will get ripped-off, they hear that this happens all the time. They no longer feel like going out and wandering about like before. They even fear seeing all the poverty and destitution, they drug-users who will rip you off for their shot, the women prostituting themselves.
But for me, those people were always there. I found them all there when I first arrived as a 9-year old child. They were always there when I was growing up. They are somehow trapped in their lives, subsisting in terrible circumstances, in squalid houses with insufficient hygiene.
The immigrants live in small rooms that they rent, many of them together, without much hope. The women prostitute themselves even in the streets for 5€. You don’t want to run into them in the street. Yet, hanging around with them has been my daily routine. This way, it was easier to approach them. They are sensitive people with a lot of problems, with ruined families behind them. Sometimes they give the impression that no one has cared for them. As if they want someone to talk to, as if they want to get out of the misery they are in. For some of them I had the sense that they were almost looking for someone to open up to and take it all out. Like confessing. What made an impression on me was that they often opened up and talked as if they knew me. Sometimes they talked about difficult things, about what they were experiencing, as if they were talking about someone else. Almost as if they felt better this way.
I would only shoot when I sensed that they were more comfortable, after some time had passed. Sometimes, unexpected things happened, and made me change the plan I had in mind. Other times, things just happened spontaneously, and I was just following along. The images I have selected are stronger for me, because I know the story behind them.
I have been working on this project since 2011. My work is still in progress. When others looks at those pictures I want them to feel respect and dignity for the subjects. Like I do.
Bio:
Enri Canaj was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1980. He spent his early childhood there and moved with his family to Greece in 1991, immediately after the opening of the borders. He is based in Athens and covers stories in Greece and the Balkans.
He studied photography at the Leica Academy in Athens. In 2007 he took part in a British Council project on migration, attending a year-long workshop with Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos.
Since 2008, he has been a freelance photographer for major publications such as Time Magazine Lightbox, Newsweek, Le monde Diplomatique (German edition),TO VIMA, TA NEA, Tachydromos and VIMAGAZINO. A sample of his work has been exhibited at the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece in Athens and Salonica, at the Bilgi Santral in Istanbul, the European Parliament in Brussels and the Athens Photo Festival.
He has been working in the Balkans, mainly Kosovo and Albania, as well as Greece, focusing on migration and the recent crisis.
Petition Athens Cultural Centres
Posted: March 28, 2013 Filed under: Aesthetics, Art & Politics Leave a comment »The Municipality of Athens decided to close down 35 venues because they do not have legal permission to exist.
The problem is that the Greek law that defines what a theatre venue is,was created back in 1937 and refers only to venues of 200 seats and over.
Kinitiras is closing down on the 8th of April and this is only the beginning.
Lets think positively and believe that this is the chance to change the law and create the environment for culture to keep on going in such difficult times.
Please sign our petition to the MINISTRY OF JUSTICE in which we claim a parole to the decision in order to create new legal frame .
Please take 5 secs of your time and sign here: http://www.change.org/petitions/υπουργείο-δικαιοσύνης-ελλάδας-να-δωθεί-αναστολή-στις-εντολές-σφράγισης-των-θεάτρων#share
Beyond the Crisis: Athens as a Case Study. A Seminar with Platon Issaias.
Posted: February 20, 2013 Filed under: Aesthetics, Art & Politics | Tags: Athens, Crisis Leave a comment »http://thecityasaproject.org/2013/02/beyond-the-crisis-athens-as-a-case-study-a-seminar-with-platon-issaias/
The Berlage, hosted by TU Delft.
Second year graduation studio
Housing Contemporary Forms of Life: A Project for Tehran
Thursday, February 21st.
TU Delft-BK, Room P, 14.00-17.00
Seminar with Platon Issaias
Beyond the Crisis: Athens as a Case Study
The presentation attempts to theorize the ‘informal’ urbanization that characterizes the contemporary Greek cities, classifying this as an immediate derivative of a complex political project. For our point of view, this was mainly displayed by architectural and urban typologies and protocols. As a case-study, the Greek cities and particularly Athens, offer a valid critique on this recent conceptions regarding the distinction between ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ urbanism. In the Greek case, what appears to be a spontaneous and un-planned urban typology is the result of a precise institutional and regulatory apparatus.
The discussion will follow the structure of Platon’s PhD research on Athens, particularly focusing on an alternative medium–cinema–and the way the city’s urban condition was presented in two feature films of the last decade, Matchbox (2003) and Dogtooth(2009). What makes these two projects significant in the discipline of architecture is the way the artists relate all of the above with the collapse of the domestic archetypes of the city: the typical apartment of the generic Athenian block, and the self-built suburban villa of rural Attica. In both cases, space is of fundamental importance, primarily because the plot is developing only within interior and introverted settings, with barely any reference on the surrounding city and landscape. By being ordinary and typical of their kind, they manage to further estrange the reality of the protagonists.
The presentation aims to explore the relation of these two significant films with the city’s contemporary condition. This will allow elaborating on and arguing the bond of the profound economic and political collapse of Greece with a particular spatial crisis that preceded it. In the last part, a series of projects for Athens will be discussed, among which the research studio contacted in Berlage Institute in 2011 by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Elia Zenghelis, Maria Giudici and Platon Issaias.
