Creative Time Symposium in Athens

Creative Time and Fast Forward Festival will come 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 brings 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 have 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.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Tania Bruguera
Patrick D. Flores

PANELISTS INCLUDE
Katia Arfara from the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece, with Michael Afolayan (ANASA Cultural Center), Anna Apostolidou (Project Press, Hellenic Open University), Nadina Christopoulou (Melissa Network), Angela Dimitrakaki (University of Edinburgh), Iliana Fokianaki (State of Concept), Yunus 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)

Pooja Sood and 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
Athens today is 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, the Greek state is experiencing a resurgence of neoliberalism following an unsuccessful campaign to leave the eurozone. Globally, these events have found terrifying handmaidens in the rise of xenophobia, reactive populism, and waning support for internationalism. The art world, too, undeniably profits from a global neoliberal class. However, as articulations of nationalisms, identity, and economy shift, so do radical socio-political and aesthetic responses to these transformations. At this critical conjuncture, Creative Time and the Fast Forward Festival organize a Symposium to discuss the challenges facing progressive artists and activist communities today.

Taking its cue from the Fast Forward Festival’s thematic interest in transcending borderlines, the symposium brings together seven representatives from cultural organizations across the globe, who have each invited artists and activists from the same geography, to share critical, practice-based perspectives on art and politics in this moment as experienced in their specific regions. These situated perspectives will address shared concerns around the im/mobilities of migrants, labor, capital and culture; the workings of power; and the constructedness of borders. International participants will be joined by seven Greece-based artists and activists who will provide local perspectives to these global challenges.
LUNCH
Special lunches will be 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.

RSVP Free entrance, on a first come first served basis. Reservation is required. To reserve your seat, email infotickets@sgt.gr or call +30 213 017 8036.

www.creativetime.org