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ON HOMELANDS AND THE STATELESS AS THE WORLD TILTS RIGHT
MAY 13-14, 2017
UPPER STAGE
THE ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTRE
ATHENS, GREECE
ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM
Creative Time and Fast Forward Festival came together in Athens to co-present On Homelands and the Stateless as the World Tilts Right, an international symposium investigating the challenges facing artists and activist communities under our prevailing economic and political conditions.
The symposium brought together representatives from cultural organizations across the globe and working locally (North America, South-East Asia, Middle East, Latin America, Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, Greece), who each invited artists, activists, social workers, and scholars from the same geography, to share critical, practice-based perspectives on art and politics as experienced from their specific regions.
SCHEDULE
Click here to see the full schedule.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Tania Bruguera
Patrick D. Flores
PANELISTS
Katia Arfara from the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece, with Michael Afolayan (ANASA Cultural Center), Anna Apostolidou & Inaam Alibrahim (Project Press, Hellenic Open University), Nadina Christopoulou (Melissa Network), Angela Dimitrakaki (University of Edinburgh), iLiana Fokianaki (State of Concept), Yonous Muhammadi (Greek Forum of Refugees), artist and filmmaker Theo Prodromidis, Nikos Agapakis (Piraeus Open School of Immigrants) and UNHCR Greece.
Nato Thompson from Creative Time in New York City, US, with artist Simone Leigh (US) and legal activist and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle (US)
Brigitta Isabella from the KUNCI Cultural Studies Center in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with singer and cultural geographer Anjeline de Dios (Philippines) and artist Tintin Wulia (Australia)
Beth Stryker from the Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research (CLUSTER) in Cairo, Egypt, with artist Nida Sinnokrot (Palestine) and researcher Shela Sheikh (London)
Miguel A. López from TEOR/éTica in San Jose, Costa Rica, with Maya K’iche’ sociologist and Amaq’ Institute researcher Gladys Tzul Tzul (Guatemala) and multimedia artist Benvenuto Chavajay (Guatemala)
Defne Ayas and Adam Kleinman from Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with author and pundit Natalia Antonova (Russia/Ukraine/USA) and curator and researcher Antonia Majaca (Croatia/Germany)
Radha Mahendru from Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, India with theatre director Zuleikha Chaudhari (India) and environmental lawyer Norma Alvares (India)
Athi Mongezeleli Joja from Gugulective in Cape Town, South Africa, with activist and journalist Zimasa Mpemnyama (South Africa) and researcher and activist Ziyana Lategan (South Africa)
CO-CURATED BY
Katia Arfara, Onassis Cultural Centre
Nato Thompson, Creative Time
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Taking its cue from the Fast Forward Festival’s thematic interest in transcending borderlines, the symposium brought together seven international and two Greek panels of artists, curators, cultural administrators, and organizers to provide geographically diverse, transdisciplinary, on-the ground accounts of political and aesthetic tactics to effectively mobilize in the face of statelessness, virulent nationalisms, and increasingly precarious livelihoods.
In 2017, Athens was witness to two of the world’s most urgent, and lived, issues. The destruction wrought by the Syrian war has caused thousands to flee to Greece’s shores. At the same time, a strict austerity regime and the resurgence of neoliberalism caused a multifaceted social crisis. Globally, these events found terrifying handmaidens in the rise of xenophobia, reactive populism, and waning support for internationalism. At a critical conjuncture, the “On Homelands and the Stateless as the World Tilts Right” symposium addressed the challenges facing progressive artists and activist communities under prevailing economic and political conditions.
LUNCH
Special lunches were created by Options FoodLab, a community of locals and newcomers to Athens who use food and cooking as a catalyst for intercultural exchange, personal growth, and integration.
ABOUT CREATIVE TIME SUMMIT DISPATCH
The symposium was the first iteration of Creative Time’s newest initiative, Creative Time Summit Dispatch. Inspired by the global communities that have grown around the Summit over the past eight years, this nomadic series of convenings will be presented in partnership with arts organizations and institutions in various cities around the world and will address urgent issues at the intersection of art and politics in inventive and flexible formats.
ABOUT THE ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTRE & THE FAST FORWARD FESTIVAL
Onassis Cultural Centre — Athens is a performing and visual arts center, a creative hub for artists, audiences and ideas. A home for innovation in contemporary culture, engaging both Greek and global communities. Since 2014, Onassis Cultural Centre organizes the annual Fast Forward Festival in public and private spaces in Athens and Piraeus. It investigates current sociopolitical debates through site-specific public works which incorporate an expanded field of art practices. The festival takes place at the intersection of performance, dance, film and visual arts exploring alternative geopolitical narratives and cultural strategies which dialectically combine documentary with fiction, participation with observation, critical analysis with artistic imagination.
On Homelands and the Stateless as the World Tilts Right was made possible with the support of the Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens
Major Creative Time programming support for 2017 has been provided by:
