% 100
menu
+
Menu
Instagram Facebook

Athens
HubKypseli Hub

Topics
Community development / Gender & sexuality / Freedom of expression / Migration / Environment / Creative economy / Identity and representation / Political engagement / Sustainability
Disciplines
Visual arts / Community arts / Design / Education / Performing arts / Theater / Dance / Research / Literature / Film & cinema / Music

Phase 1

We proposed to start a project interrogating what is the identity and the challenge posed to independent culture, locally and internationally, through podcasts and roundtables. Faced with increasing government control over mass media and decreasing funding, in Greece as elsewhere the independent arts sector is shrinking and has less and less opportunities to be heard and make its mark. Such lack of visibility in turn results in artists being considered non-essential to society as the recent, inadequate Covid-related policies demonstrated. Our project aimed to overturn the situation and create a platform of expression for independent artists and organisations that could later be expanded to include more hubs, more cities and parallel events in their spaces. The content of podcasts was curated by a different organisation each time based on our areas of expertise (books, performing arts, visual arts) and involved independent artists/organisations, journalists, activists etc. With the initial VAHA grant, we organised a community workshop on creating podcasts and roundtable sessions with journalists and artists to identify the needs of the sector; and we created seven pilot podcasts to determine the long term format of the project, our target audiences and how best to reach them.

Athens
Noucmas
NOUCMAS is a non-profit art organisation in Kypseli, Athens. It offers working spaces and a multi-purpose venue for exhibitions and events.
+
Athens
Noucmas
www.facebook.com/noucmas
NOUCMAS is a non-profit art organisation in Kypseli, Athens. It offers working spaces and a multi-purpose venue for exhibitions and events. Its three cofounders (Olga Souri, Katerina Charou and Vincent Meyrignac), coming from international and local cultural backgrounds, aim to collaborate with young artists from Greece and abroad while remaining in a dialogue with their neighbourhood.

Since April 2019, the space regularly opens exhibitions, hosting artists from Greece, Europe and Latin America. In addition, NOUCMAS has operated as a residency and as a concert venue. From December 2019, along with another non-profit association, it hosts weekly workshops for children.
Athens
O Meteoritis
O Meteoritis is a local bookshop in the district of Kypseli in Athens. It offers a wide selection of new and second-hand books.
+
Athens
O Meteoritis
www.facebook.com/ometeoritis/
O Meteoritis is a local bookshop that opened in January 2019 in the district of Kypseli in Athens. It offers a wide selection of new and second-hand books, children’s books, Greek and foreign literature, arts, fanzines, history, philosophy... It gets a small selection of books in English and French too. It was built to be a cultural tool for the neighborhood. It has run since its opening a wide cultural program, book’s presentation, readings, screenings, small concerts, children’s readings, workshops, seminars... It continues to unfold its multiple identities…
Athens
Between the Seas: Mediterranean Performance Lab*
Between the Seas aims to nurture contemporary Mediterranean performing arts.

*Participated only in Phase 1
+
Athens
Between the Seas: Mediterranean Performance Lab*
betweentheseas.org
Between the Seas: Mediterranean Performance Lab was founded in 2011 in New York and registered in 2017 in Greece. Its mission is to nurture contemporary Mediterranean performing arts and promote cultural dialogue between the Mediterranean and the rest of the world. To that end it has undertaken the following activities: a festival of contemporary Mediterranean performing arts in New York (2011-2019); a residency for Mediterranean performing artists in Monemvasia, Southern Greece (2017-2020); the opening of 1927 art space in Athens (October 2019), a space dedicated to laboratory work, international exchange and linking research and artistic practice.

*Participated only in Phase 1

Phase 2

Concrete Contract

in collaboration with Diyarbakır I and Tirana hubs


Connecting three different cities, Diyarbakır, Athens and Tirana, the project “Concrete Contract” uses fiction as a tool to explore contexts, map new territories, and produces content through collaborations, exchanges and productions. This fiction fits and travels into the interstices of a concrete megalopolis spreading over Turkey and the Balkans. Concrete Contract faced local realities, different audiences and environments, but it also exposed what we believe to have in common: a territory linked by geography and history, intertwined practices, yearnings for a different future and the absolute necessity to meet and produce together.

The project expanded over eight different activities that punctuate and structure the fiction. There were activity phases of discussions, data-mining and brainstorming and activities of wide openings, collaborations and production. Storytelling, virtual and physical encounters, participation of artists, travels, workshops, diary of the journey, exhibitions, local events, interactions and publications are amongst the tools that were used for this purpose. The desired goal was to make this fiction tangible and craft a topography for all to see and explore.

Library

arrow