March at TWIXTlab: Revisiting Athens Image Making
coordination: Sofia Grigoriadou

Ιs “Athens the new Berlin” or is it “the new Montmartre”? Is it the “birthplace of democracy” or “a city of crisis”? Or is it maybe a “big art residency” and “a laboratory of creative ideas”? In any case, “welcome and enjoy the ruins”! In March at TWIXTlab we will approach and (re)produce images and discourses about the city of Athens through two days of presentations/discussions and a closed workshop. We will address questions such as: how has Athens and the ways it is being discussed and portrayed changed during the latest years? How does art and culture participate in, comment on, and respond to these changes? Where does art and cultural tourism meet?

Presentation/discussion #1: Images of the city through art projects and artworks

Participants: Blue Owl Travels (Nikos Arvanitis, Alexis Dallas, Kyriaki Goni, Panos Sklavenitis, Kostis Stafylakis), OPA (Slobodanka Stevceska and Denis Saraginovski), Eva Giannakopoulou. Coordination: Sofia Grigoriadou.

Except for Athens, the first meeting's discussion will involve the city of Skopje too, as art has played a key role in the city's latest regeneration (Skopje 2014). At the same time, artists and architects have been commenting on the state's plans through interventions in the city. Starting with certain artworks and projects that took place during the latest years in Athens and in Skopje, we will examine how artists and curators respond to changes in both cities in a discussion extending to public interventions, tours, city branding, and exoticisation.