I worked with a group of 18 young practitioners - mainly but not exclusively fine arts and architecture students. The Perceiving Academy curriculum included walks led by experts on various knowledge fields, centered around the way in which we see and perceive the city as space, as well as on how we co-develop structures and relations within it. As a reaction to their walks, the participants designed, constructed and publicly presented a series of temporary sculptures-interventions-structures that functioned as a point of convergence within public space, a place for meetings and debates, a starting point for renegotiating the interpretation and use of urban landscape. These constructions were presented on Thursday, July 14 and were put together on location with the assistance of the public. This initial phase of the Perceiving Academy is an introduction to a long-term program that the artist is currently developing in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and the Municipality of Thessaloniki, in the context of the project LABattoir for the Old Slaughterhouse - where the Academy was based for the duration of the residency. As perceivers in the academy, we co-created a constitution of actions as words. Public spaces in the city served as our classroom, our studio, our office, and our laboratory.
The Academy was a platform for learning how to learn, as well as a sustainable community practice run by participants who inherited the institute platform after the residency ended. Lawyers helped participants formalize the equivalent of a non-profit art collective. The directors of Artecitya were able to use the work produced from this Perceiving Academy as proof-of-concept to generate a 500,000 Euro grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
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Thessaloniki, Greece
Interdisciplinary; Action research; Art and design pedagogy; Social engaging
(RS) Experimentation; Action research; Projective design; Classification; Discourse Analysis (M) Close observation; Deconstruction; Creative Intervention; Reflection; Interviews and focus groups
Creative Director; residency; participant
Mayor and Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece; Goethe-Institut, Thessaloniki; Thessaloniki International Fair – Helexpo SA; ArtBOX (creative arts management)
Production Coordination: Maria Lazaridou Production Assistant: Giannis Fourkiotis Photographer: Giorgos Kogias Cinematographer: Giorgos Manos - Cre8ive Studios Technical Advisor: Giorgos Kosmidis - Diapason Technical Advisor - Constructions: Giannis Katranitsas Technical Support: Diapason
Foteini Baxevanou (Trainer of Mobility, Orientation - National Association for the Blind) Leon Kapetas (Water Resources Management, Ph.D., Consultant of Urban Resilience) Giorgos Lagoudakis (Lawyer) Theofanis Oikonomou (Engineer - Thessaloniki Water Supply & Sewerage Co)
Chrysoula Athanasiou, Vasilis Alexandrou, Dimitra Bairaktari, Maria Chatzikalia, Eleni Chatzineofytou, Dimitris Chatzinikolis, Georgia Damianou, Eleftheria Gavriilidou, Giorgos Gkiouzepas, Odysseas Glykas, Spyros Kazantzis, Chrysa Kotoula, Konstantinos Kotoulas, Anna Lioka, Fenia Nevrokopli, Konstantina Nouskali, Sofia Papadopoulou, Elvira Paschali, Christos Polymeris, Maria Ritou, Stergios Seretis, Katerina Sideri, Yorgos Toyias, Rodi Tsitouridou, Despoina Vatti, Katerina Voulgaridou
Multiple funders; see project website
GAM Graz Architecture Magazine 13__Spatial Expeditions; English/German; Guest editors: Irmgard Frank / Claudia Gerhäusser / Franziska Hederer. (2017) Public introductory recruiting lecture; Mayor and Mayor’s office in attendance