Projects | George Stamatakis

FREEDOM

Polish- Greek artistic workshops FREEDOM !

what the past tells the future? – reflection on the contemporary meaning of the term Freedom in reference to history and the present approach covering many levels. Organizer – Art Academy in Athens, Polish Embassy in Athens patronage Conducting – Pedagogues of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź Participants- ASFA and ASP Łódź Students //Historical context: Both countries – Poland and Greece will celebrate the anniversary of regaining of their independence. In 2018 Poland will celebrate the 100th anniversary of regaining of its sovereignty and Greece is approaching the celebrations of the 200th anniversary in 2021.

Coordinated By George Stamatakis
Curated by Odette Kouzou

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For both countries these events are very important and build their own history and identity. Nowadays, in European countries, the concept of freedom expands its meaning. Young people living in the 21st century understand the meaning of freedom differently – they are born in free countries, they are part of a united Europe, they have access to free media, ease of communication and mobility, the possibility of creative expression and are constantly active on social platforms. Can the young people appreciate the concept of freedom? Are we really free in the age of advanced technology? This questions will be asked to the participants of the workshops – students of both universities. From literally understood freedom, we move to the reflection of freedom in other aspects of the life of a prosperous society, thus in fine arts and design. Together, we want to reflect on the freedom of the artist or a designer in the times of consumerism and corruption with various conditions from political to religious. What risks do the celebration of freedom in the spirit of unbalanced, fast design bring to the future? Can an artist have an impact on the Freedom of future generations? //PURPOSE OF WORKSHOPS: / Presentation of artistic achievements and many years of design traditions of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. / Exchange of artistic experiences of both universities, mutual learning of working methods, establishing relationships between Polish and Greek students. / Artistic work and interpretation of the assumed topic. Presentation of the work carried out during the workshops.

Athens School of Fine Arts (basement) Peiraios 256, 18233 Athens

ARTISTS : Anna Nikolaidi – George Chatzivasilis – Yukari Sakata – Antonis Vasilakis – Pola Zart – Artemis Orfanidou – Karolina Zlocka – Dimitrios Antoniou
Celia Rancelot – Marilia Kolibiri – Diocles Laime – Kyriakos Mitropoulos – Dimitrios Claudio Badourakis

Teacher : Maria Wiatrowska / Teacher Izabela Walczak / Professor : Małgorzata Czudak

Nobody´s Place/Nowhere´s Map. Athens And Tokyo

Nobody´s Place/Nowhere´s Map is a collaborative art project that seeks to explore situated –or site-specific– questions of crisis, resistance and becoming, through the creation of a political fiction that takes the shape of a multi-layered map in-the-making. Each strata of the map has its own materiality and texture, yet they all –text, graphic and video– emerge and develop through the interaction with each other, that is, through a mutual feeding that enables the actual growth of the map.

The text above and the city of Athens are the initial sites from which the map emerges. The two are sites to explore, to interrogate and to reconfigure collectively. Each creator is asked to choose a word from the text and then a place in the city that gives a situated meaning to the former. Embodied encounters and conversations among creators across those places are the lived mediums that activate the process of co-construction of the map. Connections and resonances as well as tensions and antagonisms arise. Nobody´s Place/Nowhere´s Map becomes the attempt to translate them all onto a tangible artefact from/through which to discuss collectively the political potential of this fiction as well as to challenge its very desirability.

This exhibition presents the outcome of this process, which has taken place in Athens in June 2018. However, Nobody´s Place/Nowhere´s Map is by no means a closed project. Its ultimate aim is to serve as an open-source device of construction of collective imaginaries and representations of counter-power. That is to say, a tool to be shared and re-appropriated so as to defy hegemonic narratives and regain agency amidst all-pervading crisis. Thus, alongside the exhibition, we would like to kindly invite you to an open discussion about the project that will take place at the opening event on 20^th June at 12.00pm. at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

Idea: Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez, Jorge Martin Garcia, Yukari Sakata

Yukari Sakata (theatre director and visual artist) and Jorge Martín García (architect and artist) have worked in collaboration for three years. They are the authors of “Dear Gullivers”, which is being shown in the Spanish Pavilion at the XBI Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018). The project, which was developed through a series of chapters in different sites in Japan and the UK, explores “place” as a network of interconnected narratives coming from different contexts and in permanent change. Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez (architect and anthropologist), who is researching self-organised spaces of provision of care and welfare in Athens, has joined them in this new project in the Greek capital.

Coordinator: George Stamatakis

Creators:

Takako Abe

Spuridoula Ashmakh

Ara Bogosian

Rafika Chawishe

Konstantina Economou

Thomas Galatos

Stelios Kapetanakis

Maria Karakitsou

Konstantinos Kotsis

Odette Kouzou

Galini Lazani

Isabella Margara

Tatiana May Kallergi

Louiza Papangelou

Katerina Papazissi

Christina Sgouromiti

Marianna Stefanitsi

Eleni Tsamadia

Antonis Vasilakis

Valia Papastamou